A/N: Hello! Welcome to this, another tale.

Dedication: To Mina. The bunny was hers. She gifted it to me. Baby, you are a treasure in this fandom. I heart you, and I hope you enjoy this story.

Special thanks: To Sassafrass Mage. Thank you for the fodder. You unwittingly solved a problem I was having with this story. It needed a vehicle, and you gave me a spark.

They met at a crossroads in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere.

Edward loved the open road. There wasn't much appealing about Texas, but the long stretches of deserted freeways were a definite highlight. The oppressive heat of the day rolled away along with most of the people.

His girlfriend had asked him once why he was so enamored with the fact his car could reach obnoxiously high rates of speed. As though he was ever going to get above ninety under any circumstance in normal traffic. Well, that was why God made desert flats and pavement. With only truckers on the road with him, he was free to fly at unwise and illegal speeds.

There were places, though, where freeway turned into highway, and darkness overwhelmed the landscape. The outline of the land at night made the scene outside his car window spooky and surreal. The cornfields encroached on either side. Edward had to laugh at himself and his sudden bout of nerves. This was straight out of a horror film or at least The X-Files.

He took a deep breath to dispel the irrational fear and turned his sound system up higher. He sang along.

The tall corn turned into flatter fields, and here and there, a road intersected the highway. That was where he saw her.

It took him a minute to figure out what he was seeing. It was unfathomable to him that anyone could possibly be out in this darkness, so his mind didn't automatically understand. She stood at the crossroads - a lone figure on foot, duffel over one shoulder and her hood obscuring her face. Not that it mattered in the dead of night like this. She hunched inward as he drove past, her eyes following his car.

He slammed on the brakes before he made a conscious decision and then pulled off the road. He got out of the car in time to see the girl was walking away from him as quickly as she could, throwing furtive glances over her shoulder as she did.

"Hey, hold on. Wait a second," he called. Idiot, he admonished himself. She had to be worried for the exact same reason he was scared for her. Out here in the middle of the night, he could have been anyone. He could grab her, toss her in his trunk, and no one would ever know.

He tamped down the urge to run after her and tried again. "Look, I'm staying right here. Hands on the car." He put his hands on the roof of his car. "Just wait a second."

She paused mid-step but didn't turn around right away. Edward saw her tilt her head to the left and right. She knew as well as he did, if he was after something nefarious, it wasn't as though she could hide. He had a car, and she was on foot. Her gaze seemed to be concentrated on the field, her stance twitchy. He wondered if she was thinking about bolting.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," he said, feeling foolish and out of his depth. He'd taken so many road trips as a child. Whenever they passed a hitchhiker, his mother had always fretted about that person, wondering what led them to do such a dangerous thing. But this woman wasn't hitchhiking. Still... "I just thought maybe you'd like a ride."

Her huff was audible in the still night despite the distance between them. She turned around, readjusting her duffel on her shoulder. "I'll pass. Thanks," she said.

He'd expected her voice to shake. It was clear and strong. Her posture was hunched-defensive-but there was strength there too. If she was a damsel in distress, she wasn't going to wilt under the pressure.

"It's just that it's a lot of miles to anything resembling civilization, and there are a lot of crazy people out there," he said.

She laughed and tilted her head, fixing him with a sardonic expression. "Yeah. Some of them might even be trying to lure women into their cars under the context of being a good Samaritan." She clucked her tongue. "Can't trust anyone these days."

He had to smile. On a whim, he tossed his keys so they landed at her feet. "You can drive."

Her eyes popped wide. "That car? I don't know much about cars, but that's a fancy car."

"Drives like a dream."

"You don't even know if I have a license."

"Do you?"

"Well, yeah, but you don't know me from Eve. What if I'm a murderer?"

"You weren't hitchhiking. You weren't trying to get a ride, so I'm pretty sure you're not trying to kill me."

At that, she snickered. "Haven't you ever seen any crime show serials? Serial killers don't always plan their murders. Sometimes they just take the opportunity when it comes along."

He shrugged. "I'll take my chances."

She shouldered the duffel again, looking around, doubt written all over her features. She grunted and looked at him, as though irritated his offer was tempting. "Where are you going?"

"Nowhere in particular. I'm just driving."

"Oh, sure. That's convenient. Just out for a midnight drive in the middle of nowhere."

"It's a roadtrip."

"To nowhere?"

"Sure." He shrugged again. "You know. It's one of those meandering, find yourself kind of things."

Her lips quirked, and she sighed. She tapped her foot, looking off to the side. Slowly, she leaned down to pick up the keys. "You can drive," she said, tossing them back. "And if it's really no trouble, yeah, a ride would be great."

~0~

There was a reason so many stories started the same way. It was a tale as old as the world. He was a spoiled boy whose life had become too predictable. She would have given anything for steadiness and security. They were from different sides of the tracks, opposite walks of life. Name the cliché, and they fit it.

It didn't take much to figure out she was running from something. Someone, Edward would have wagered, judging by the bruises he glimpsed on her arms and the faded marks around her neck. He wanted to protect her. But she was a conundrum. She exuded an air that suggested she was used to saving herself, yet there were times when her fear and vulnerability shone through. Edward was hopelessly intrigued.

From the minute Marie Higginbotham got in his car, Edward never stood a chance.

They had one full day together-and that, an adventure from start to finish. Around midnight the next day, Edward finally pulled into a rest area. He fell asleep with her sweet kiss on his lips. When dawn broke, he was alone. She had disappeared, and the cash contents of his wallet had gone with her. She'd left behind only one scrap of evidence she'd ever been there at all. Two words scrawled on the back of a receipt, tucked into his billfold where his money had been.

I'm sorry.

A/N: Thanks, as always, to the lovely ladies who make my writing better. Packy 2.0, songster, MoH, barburella.

On a personal note, my book, Finding Purgatory, is free for the next five days. Today is my birthday! So a new story, plus a promotion is my present to me. If you're interested, please consider reading and reviewing my original work. :) Links to all my books are in my profile.

See you all soon. Mwah!