I don't know what possessed me to write this. It's been years. So thanks to that Guest who commented and brought this up. This isn't a promise of more chapters or anything, and I don't know where this is going. Or if anyone other than our friendly guest is still reading TP fanfiction, but here you go. Here's to you, Guest.

None of the team was very good at "making a shelter". It wasn't as though they had taken any wilderness training camp. And they were exhausted, emotionally and physically. But Gabe looked up at the sky and could see the grey clouds forming through the leaves. He sighed, and wished yet again that there had been a simple solution. That at some point in his life someone would offer him a simple solution.

Ian broke branches from sapling trees, CJ helped carry them to the group. It was then up to Gabe and Suki to arrange them how they were supposed to go. However that was. In the end, they just tried to lean them against a large rock to form a wall and lean-to. CJ and Ian left to gather something to put over-top, leaves or grass or something.

In fact, Gabe had been hoping to be left alone, or alone with a pensive Suki Sato, which was almost the same thing. His eyes glanced on her yellow bracelet, which brought back painful memories of the yellow elevator. Which somehow lead back to an even more unwelcome thought: The group that followed Cornelius Tower? Where had they gone… they had lived in the woods alone too. They too had tried to strike a balance between living in a place they couldn't escape, and escaping.

Suki sighed next to him, which brought him back to earth. He looked over,

"I just don't really know how to feel, Gabe, I don't want to go back," She shook her head for emphasis, "I don't know if I could take going back."

Gabe nodded, "I know, it's more than just disliking the place, it's like, mentally, we could be free, but we're placing ourselves back in hell. And I know, intellectually, that it might be better that way, and yet…"

"And yet, Gabe. And yet."

"And I'm sorry, but I can't trust CJ anymore, I just can't. Ian and his feelings don't cut it for me here."

"Yeah," Suki looked away, tears in her eyes.

"I know she was your best friend Suks, but-" "No, Gabe," she interrupted, "She was part of the only family I had left. I don't think you know how that feels, and I don't think you can fix it."

Gabe was silent for a long time. Then, "If you could go anywhere now Suki, anywhere at all, and live the life you want to live now, free of tower prep and all it's horror, where would you go?"

She leaned on his shoulder, which both surprised and pleased him. "I don't think I could do any of the things that I wanted to do before Tower, I wanted to live in New York City, see the sights, the people, become wildly successful at something and travel."

"You never wanted to be a part of Sato Systems?"

"I didn't want to leave my family, but I didn't want to be their slave either, now I don't really have a choice do I?"

"What do you want now?"

She looked through the matrix of sticks into the leaves, and beyond that, into the grey swirling mass of clouds. Sure to rain now, sure that their lean-to wasn't really going to cut it, and tonight would be miserable, "I want to be free. I want to be independent and self-sufficient and able to live without being bothered or tracked by anyone."

Gabe nodded, but he was disappointed, and angry that Tower had the nerve to take that dream away from her.

"I wanted to be a teacher," Suki looked up and smiled, "a kids teacher, in my hometown, or somewhere like it."

"Never wanted to be famous?" She mocked,

He laughed, "I mean, kinda, but what would I be famous for? Making people do whatever I tell them?"

She said in his voice, "do you like your skill?" he shook his head. "Neither do I. I'd be happy never to really use it again." He put his arm around her shoulders. A friendly, supportive arm, he told himself.

"We have no identities. No Social Security, nothing. If we use our real identities, Tower will find us in no time. If we become successful, they find us, if we go to college, they find us. Who's gonna hire a teacher with no...what do you call-" "Credentials," Suki supplied.

"I just don't see how there's a life I want to live, anywhere anymore." Suki shook her head and nestled it into his chest. No, she couldn't either, but if they tried to make her go back...there was nothing left there.

It was taking CJ and Ian a long time to find the things they needed. Perhaps they were dragging it out. Perhaps, they were trying to understand each other. Perhaps, Ian just couldn't understand CJ at all.

Because he got the whole mom thing, and he understood how she would feel powerless, but he didn't understand why she wanted to escape in the first place. How could she have known that there was a place to escape to, or that it would be better than where she had left? And why hadn't Headmaster just let her go, if he was indeed a double agent.

This whole double agent thing also didn't make any sense, who else was in control? There were so many unanswered questions. Too many, for someone like Ian. His vision flashed red and he turned around just before CJ put his hand on his shoulder. She smiled at him, holding up some leaves she had brought and adding them gently to the pile at their feet. Her smile fell as she read his eyes. And, if we're being honest, the tenseness in his muscles, the quirk of his nostrils and the relaxing of his mouth. But mostly his eyes.

"You could leave, but you don't want to."

"I was sure I did," Ian shrugged,

"So was I, Ian." He smiled at her, "There's nothing for you out there, there's nothing for me either. There never was really."

CJ smiled and moved her hair from her eyes, "Even for a big strong wise-ass like you?"

"That's the thing, Tower still was, was the best, and the worst, do you understand? It still had everything I ever needed, it was still the most at home I'd ever felt. I know that it was evil, but I have to believe that it could be great. Or that it could be good at least."

CJ shook her head in that way that said she really agreed, but she was amused by him, "I know it can too. I know it's supposed to be."

"So if we go back, we can try to make it…"

"What it's supposed to be" CJ smiled again and put her head on his shoulder, her hand on his chest. Out in the woods, away from Tower and Cal and the drama of high school, it was a lot easier to see how they felt about each other, how they were meant to be. He kissed her forehead. It wasn't that he trusted her completely, which may have been the ideal, but he trusted her enough. And things were changing, but they were staying enough the same, he turned his head and leaned in when his vision flashed red,

"We gotta hide, now!" He snatched her away from their pile and behind a tree, they pressed against each other and listened, they heard the sound of cars, and a friendly shout from someone who sounded like he was holding something in his mouth.

"Hey, is the chute clear?" And the sound of tumbling things. Ian and CJ looked at each other, and then couldn't quite stop. But they weren't so foolish not to keep listening.

"Alright, we gotta reverse boys, pack it up!"

"But we haven't finished sir!" Came back a high, young voice.

"Theo, there's no use now, after two it's useless. They won't take it. They don't want it."

Ian breathed into CJ's ear, "Where is the road?" She barely moved a hair with her whisper, "I can see it, I can see part of it and part of a truck. Supplies, Ian." A path out, if they wanted to take it.