She woke up to a horrible throbbing pain in her head. Immediately, instinctively, she reached to the spot that the pain radiated from, but she regretted it, wincing at the touch. After another minute, she opened her eyes. Upon seeing her surroundings she remembered all the horrible things that had taken place the day before. After they had left the school, they got into his station wagon he had likely stolen from his dad. He had revealed to her that he was planning on running after blowing up the school anyways, so he had plenty of necessities they would need, at least for a little while. He just started driving and she didn't ask any questions; she was exhausted and had fallen asleep not even 20 minutes after they left.

She was half under a blanket in the passenger seat of the station wagon, her head on his lap. He was reclined a bit, his eyes closed and his breathing slow. It smelled vaguely like cigarettes and the fake leather interior. She had thought he was asleep at first, but as soon as she lifted her head to get a look at where they were, his eyes opened to look at her, grinning.

"Well, hey, sleepyhead," he murmured, running a hand gently through her hair. "You alright? You slept all night and most of yesterday, too."

She ignored his question. "Where are we?" she yawned.

"Ah," he paused. "Somewhere a little bit outside of Fort Wayne. I wasn't really sure where to go except for away from Shithole, Ohio." He shrugged and rubbed his eyes.

"What are we doing, J.D..?" She shook her head, at a loss for words. After a long pause, she added, "Let's just go home."

That elicited an immediate reaction from him. "Are you fucking kidding? You're just going to give up on me like that?" He was furious. "You always do this, Veronica. Finish what you started! I knew you were full of shit, I knew I shouldn't have trusted you…"

Instantly she felt guilty for even suggesting it. She just wanted him to stop. "Okay, okay!" she interrupted. "I'm sorry. I'm just scared and I don't know what we're going to do, and I miss my parents, and my friends, and—"

He grabbed her by her chin and cut her off, pressing his lips to hers firmly. After kissing her for a few long, warm, moments, he drew back. "Hey. It'll be okay." And just as suddenly as he angered, he was calm again. "We'll figure everything out. As long as we're together it'll be okay."

Although she was not entirely reassured, she took it for an answer for the moment. She mostly just wanted to avoid setting him off again. She put her head back down in his lap and willed her headache to go away.

…

After a quick fast-food lunch the two settled back into his car. "So," she treaded lightly with her words, "What exactly is the plan here?"

"Well," he started, "The way I see it, we have two options." At this, Veronica raised an eyebrow, encouraging him to clarify. He continued. "About a year ago, I was living with my dad in Colorado. We were there long enough that I was able to meet some guys who could help us out now. Since, you know, we can't be using our legal identities anymore. At least not for a while." He glanced over at her. She was a little bit stunned at this realization. She knew leaving everything behind was going to be difficult, but she hadn't even thought about things like legal names and paper trails. "Or," he added, "You and I can go on the most romantic road trip of the century until we get sick of it, and then maybe we can think about settling down." He grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it, grinning at her.

Though she tried to hide it from J.D, she felt awful. She was only reminded of everything she left behind. She bit her lip and tried not to think about her parents and how worried they must be…

"What do you think, baby?" He interrupted her thoughts. "We'll do whatever you want. I'm happy as long as I'm with you." And as long as no one gets in our way, he thought to himself.

"I've always wanted to see new places, I guess," she shrugged and returned his grin. As conflicted as she felt, the idea of a little vacation with him was too good to pass up. Thinking of their escapade as a vacation made her feel better about it.

He was beaming at this point. "Fantastic! We'll travel the country, just you and I, for as long as we like, and no one will tell us what to do! We're the romance of a lifetime, my darling!" He was nearly smothering her in kisses, but it made her laugh. She let her love for him distract her, her worries nearly forgotten. With that, they set on the road again, deciding to head west and see whatever caught their eye on the way.