12.

~ Someday, when all of this was over, Dylan could sleep over and not have to feel like a hidden stray dog being shooed out of a house where he wasn't wanted.

"Be quite." Emma hissed. She listened nervously for her father downstairs but didn't hear anything.

"Can't I just stay the night?" Dylan whispered pulling her close again. He was tired from searching for Norman all day and frustrated his time with Emma was cut so short.

"Norma realizes you stayed out all night, who's the first person she's going to call?" Emma reminded him again.

He rolled his eyes.

Will Decody never allowed Dylan past the front door. The young man was only allowed to run errands and deliver groceries. In Will's mind, Emma hadn't had any human contact in almost a year. Her father thinking he'd done a decent job of quarantining her off complexity from the virus. Her isolation so strict, because of her condition, she rarely left her bedroom or the third floor. Dylan knew it was suffocating for her here. She could only read so many books and watch so much TV before serious depression started to settle in. It was why Dylan had to see her every night. Everything was becoming too much for her and she'd been talking of running away.

Will didn't know how often Dylan snuck into her room late at night. As soon as curfew set in and the streets were quite, it was Dylan's time to scale up the back ally fire escape from three apartments down and walk to the Decody's home on the rooftops. Will never came up to the third floor landing and never suspected anyone would scale the roof to break quarantine, just to see his daughter.

Dylan knew it was dangerous. He could easily expose her to the virus and during the winter, he'd limited their time together, but he could hardly stand to be away from her anymore. She was all he looked forward to. The only good thing in his life right now. But it had to be more than just a couple of stolen hours a few times a week.

"We could talk to Will." Dylan said again.

She put her finger over her lips and pointed to her window overlooking the ally where no one would see him sneak out.

"He would never let you come over here again." she told him. The same conversation rolling around over and over, night after night.

She waved at the nasal tubing under her nose. A thing that hardly prevented them from being together. Dylan quick to learn that she did take it out when kissing and wouldn't die of lack of oxygen.

"Fine." Dylan whispered and quickly kissed her cheek before vanishing out her window.

~ The police never pulled Dylan over these days. Even after seriously breaking curfew and creeping home well after midnight. He suspected it was because everyone knew that Romero was staying at Norma's motel and that they'd become close. Where news of the outside world was so terrible, no one judged anyone for finding comfort where they could.

Norma might have broken curfew herself and gone down to the motel to see Romero, so it shouldn't be too difficult to sneak in. He noticed the campers and increase of cars in the parking lot. The family had long ago made the decision to park behind the big house to avoid contact with the quarantined population at the motel.

"Shit." Dylan spat when he saw Romero's Sheriff's SUV was neatly parked next to Norma's Mercedes. The two vehicles looking as though they belonged together in an odd sort of way.

"Shit." he muttered again when he saw the kitchen light was still on. No one in the family went through the front door anymore after the quartile went up. It was best if no one knew who was home and when.

"Where were you?" came Romero's voice as soon as Dylan walked into the kitchen.

Dylan was a little surprised to see Romero at the kitchen table. Normally, he was long gone before Dylan or Norman came home. Safely back in his motel room like nothing had happened.

"Out looking for Norman." Dylan said lamely.

"Till 2am?" Romero asked skeptically. Dylan knew he wasn't in any trouble. He was a grown man and Romero wasn't his father. Still though, it would have been hard to get away with anything if he'd grown up with a step father like Alex Romero. A man who could smell a lie a mile away.

"What are you doing here? Why aren't you in your motel room?" Dylan asked instead.

Romero waved at an empty chair next to him.

"The motel is officially booked up with people needing to take shelter in White Pine Bay." he grumbled. "And your brother's mattress is too hard."

"You're sleeping in Norman's room?" Dylan had to laugh but quickly stopped when Romero gave him a biting glare. "I mean, why not just stay with Norma?"

"Your mother's a little mad at me." Romero said. "For not looking for your brother. Any idea where he went off to?"

Dylan shook his head.

"So these break ins that keep happening. Vacation homes that were left empty during the winter, you don't know anything about that?" Romero asked.

Dylan told the truth.

"Norman never goes into detail about where he goes." he said.

"But he goes somewhere." Romero said. "He meets up with some friends. They talk him into doing this kind of stuff?"

Dylan shrugged.

"I don't know. He's been a mystery all year. Won't talk to me. I honestly have no idea where he went." he said.

"That cookout you boys were having." Romero questioned. "Did you get the meat like you said? Or did Norman find it somewhere?"

"Norman found it." Dylan said.

"You know those people are there in the motel. Quarantined until they can go to their property where they think they'll be safe. What do I tell them when they get there and find out some kids have been breaking in and robbing the place?" Romero asked.

Dylan shook his head.

"You're gonna have to take that up with Norman when comes back." he said and started to stand up.

"Sit back down." Romero said harshly and winced with pain from moving in his own chair.

Dylan slowly sank back down.

"We're not done here. Your mother told me how you served a year at some juvenile detention in Arizona? A horse ranch?" Romero asked.

"Yeah?" Dylan asked. Typical of Norma to tell Romero everything about him to make herself look like she was the victim of a horrid rebellious teenage son.

"So you know how to ride a horse?" Romero asked.

Dylan cocked his head worriedly.
"Yeah." he said.

"Do you know how to ride well?" Romero asked seriously.

"Yeah, it was the only thing I liked about that place. Why?" Dylan asked feeling defensive.

"I'm deputizing you." Romero said pulling out something from his back pocket. A Sheriff's Deputy's badge. Just like the one Shelby had.

"Umm." Dylan said worriedly.

"We're short of trusted men and I need your help." Romero said. "As soon as the sun is up, you need to be at the camp sight strait off the bypass. A man parked his camper in the woods there a few days ago and now we can't find him. He could be lost, hurt or dead. Most importantly, he broke quarantine. So you'll listen to what the horse leader says and go by horseback through the woods looking for him. You'll bring a body bag if needed. Understand?"

Dylan took the badge from Romero and looked it over. Ran his thumb over the shiny shop ridges of it.

"I understand." he said. Suddenly feeling calmer and more secure. As though he had a real purpose in life and Romero had given him that.

"Good, because I already texted the guy you number so expect a call if you're late." Romero said standing up and wincing in pain. "So don't be late."

"Okay." Dylan said calmly. He could happily take orders from Romero as his boss, but not just some guy who was sleeping with his mother.

~ Norma felt her side of the mattress sag with Alex's weight. She had heard him stomping down the stairs and back up them an hour later. Heard him try not to make much noise as he came into her room.

"I'm still mad at you." she said spitefully as he sighed and sank deeply into the empty side of her bed.

"That's fine." he said stretching out more comfortably. "Norman's mattress is too hard. It was hurting my back."

"Well, I'm still mad at you." she said rolling over and stealing her covers from him.

"Dylan's home. I think he was out seeing some girl." Alex said before he started to snore a little.

"Figures." Norma said. "Did he say if he found Norman?"

Alex made a noise as if roused from a half sleep.
"No." he said. "I'm sure Norman will come home when he's hungry and needs clean clothes. I did."

Norma felt the urge to snap at him, but realized he was already snoring a little again.

~ Norman was hungry and missed his mother's cooking. He also missed being in a place that was warm and smelled good. Julian's loft apartment, in the quite and creepy warehouse district, was cold, messy and smelled faintly of fish from it's days as a cannery.

Still, it nice not to have to keep a weather eye out for Romero anymore. Those worries were in the past and what Mother did now was all on her own head. She would have to deal with the consequences and Norman wouldn't be there to help her anymore.

Julian had welcomed him with open arms and told him the couch was free. They'd feasted on a dinner of microwaved burritos and chips. Jillian quick to down sugary drinks and alcohol and call it nutrition. Norman wondered if the young man had ever eaten a vegetable or cleaned up after himself in his entire life. The dirty dishes in the sink seemed to have congealed there and the rotted food was solid from sitting there so long.

Julian had adapted well to not needing plates or forks. He ate finger foods mostly. Things that required no instructions and who's preparation took minutes and not hours. Mother would have hated him.

"I stocked up on pizza rolls, pizza pockets, burritos and frozen everything." Julian said proudly displaying a large freezer packed full of junk food.
"I even got some chicken fingers in here." he said digging into the bottom. "I didn't even know chickens could grow fingers."

He found his little joke funny and handed Norman some frozen delicacies that he'd gotten at the store that day. His friend only preparing for life one week at a time and didn't think far enough ahead for weeks or months without food coming in or power to cook anything on, much less keep his freezer working.

"More Pizza, TV dinners, ice cream and chicken pot pie." Julian said shoving everything recklessly into the freezer.

Norma only got a brief glance at the chicken potpie for one Julian had gotten. Mother always made him the best potpie. Everything from scratch including the crust. It was an intensive enterprise that would often take her all day; but during the winter he could always count on her signature dish cooking in the oven. The whole house becoming fragrant with the smell of cooking chicken, vegetables and baking in general.

Norman remembered there were never any left overs during the winter and even though Mother was feeding them all well enough, the lack of meat had meant everyone had lost weight.

"Norman?" Julian asked and Norman felt himself snap out of the memory and back to reality.

"I'm fine." he said.

"Well, just raid the freezer if you want anything. Wanna play video games?" Julian asked.

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