What Goes Around...

Part Thirty One

Chapter Thirty One

"Where is this place?" Freya asked for the umpteenth time of the trip. Coop was regretting this more than anything else he'd ever done. As soon as the police explained about Simon still being missing he was nervous. They were in a quandary, sitting ducks, all those clichés, and he needed to get out. His cabin on the lake was a hell of a drive, but it was safer to drive than to fly there. He wanted them to stay off the radar. That involved a five hour drive. They'd skirted Lake Ontario earlier in the day, and now three hours in they were on the outskirts of Toronto heading north. Freya had pleaded to stay at Niagara to see the falls, but he wouldn't consider it; they needed to be free of the man. Not that Simon was some global threat...he was a middle aged man with just desperation on his side, but Coop know he himself wasn't up to it. He was feeling crap, his head still hurt, and he wasn't as alert and awake as he wanted to be.

So they were driving. But his head hurt with the concentration...then there was her conversation. Inane at best, a sign of her anxiety. He smiled at her.

"About an hour. I know it's a long drive, but it'll be worth it to be safe." He'd been scrutinising the traffic behind them, around them all the while feeling like some cheap TV detective, making sure they weren't being followed.

She nodded biting her lip in that endearing way, "I'm sorry about this, disrupting everything...and your poor face."

He sighed, "that wasn't your fault. I keep telling you that. Now pass me a bottle of water from the bag, I'm SO thirsty."

Silence prevailed as he drove through the increasingly winding roads from the highways of the city in the direction of the quiet, serene lake. He had bought the cabin years earlier and had spent almost every summer there. Months of mountain biking, canoeing, hiking. It had been very basic when he'd bought it, a four room wooden building with no electricity and few facilities. But over the years he'd got it hooked up to the electricity grid, better sanitation, and of course the luxurious interior that made it a holiday home. The summed before Milo was born he'd had a hit tub sunk into the veranda, and had spent many a night watching the sunset from the warm bubbling water. He hadn't been there since the time he'd hidden out there after Milo had died.

The closer they got, the more he doubted his decision to come there. It was a sacred place to him and a place he'd avoided for two years...but then in the face of danger he couldn't think of anywhere else that he could regain his strength and feel that they were safe.

He glanced at Freya, she'd fallen asleep forty minutes earlier, and he was left with just the radio for company. Better that way.

"We're here Freya."

Mitchell Cooper's voice penetrated the depth of her sleep, and she HAD been deeply asleep. That wasn't like her. Struggling to open her eyes, she finally met his smiling face. He looked nervous despite that, and it made her feel uneasy.

"Are you ok?"

He nodded, "of course, just a while since I was back here. Places are memories, you know?"

She knew exactly what he meant, she wasn't sure she could ever spend a night in the rooms she'd lived in the last six months.

"Not good memories?"

He shrugged, "I've been in dark places in the past."

She smiled, "but this is different, yes?"

"Freya Wicker, I can honestly say I didn't expect to be back here with you and two kittens. That's a given."

He opened his door and stretched his legs, then came around to open her door.