GUNPOINT | 2

3.| Back To Square One

"Sequoia sit!"

And with that said she slowly sat down while Keith clips her leash to her collar. All was calm until captain began to try pushing his way out the door past Sequoia and Keith.

"Alex!", he yells in hopes that she heard him, but gave a sigh of relief when she came running through the kitchen worried and confused, "Put Captain on the leash too and hold them down while I get their cages."

Captain slips through past Sequoia and Keith and jumps on his hind legs as attempts to give Alex his famous kisses. Keith throws Captain's leash which Alex successfully catches and latches it onto his leash.

"Keith, someones got to stay with the twins.", Alex says as she follows Keith into the garage and gets handed Sequoia's leash.

"Yea, I know.", he whispers while taking down two large dog cages.

𐊜

Fifteen minutes later the Miller's cabin was up in flames while Alex, Keith, the twins and the dogs were on their way down the road, all very unhappy.

"Alex shut those twins up!", Keith orders over his shoulder as he tries concentrating on driving.

"Look Genius, I've been trying to for the past two minutes. So stop yelling at me. Get your ass over here and play your guitar!", Alex yells back annoyed.

"I am NOT playing the guitar!...You can't play the guitar in a car anyway.", Keith argues back.

Alex stares at him dumbfounded.

"Fine, you win!", he states pissed as he slows down, slams the break, puts it in park and storms out of the truck.

"Boys.", Alex says with an eye roll as she slides into the driver's seat, "Hope Leo doesn't turn out like you!"

She yells just before Keith opens the passenger door with his small travel guitar in hand and slides from the passenger seat to the middle back seat between the tow wailing twins. Alex pushes on the gas pedal causing the truck to peel out as it touched the heated gravel.

"Whoa, whoa Miss Show-Off; we've got a pair of babies back here.", he lectures as he finds a chord and finger picks the strings, calming everyone in their own chaos.

The twins begin to slowly calm down as they study Keith's shifting fingers. He looks over at Leonardo who was glaring at him in shock causing Keith to chuckle and shake his head with a small smile now playing at his lips. Leonora alternates her gaze to her fingers which intertwined.

Alex silently drifted her train of thought from driving to Keith's humming. The rest of the way was mostly only awkward silence as they all attempted to occupy themselves with something else to think about.

𐊜

The black Ford Raptor pulls to a stop in front of a small hotel just to the side of the highway as Alex sighs in relief and allows her body to lean back against the chair. The past few months mostly consisted of sleepless nights, unless she was at the Miller's cabin with Keith.

Dr. Shacks was always lecturing her about not sleeping but the nightmares and the fact that Keith wasn't by her side made sleeping impossible. Viraling out wasn't as bad as it looked like, but the side effect of not being able to sleep for very long became very weary.

Her right arm should have been cut off but Shacks obviously found a way around it and tried an ongoing experiment on her; which obviously was working...very slowly...and of course, at a cost.

"Mary Sue?", Keith calls from the backseat as he makes his way to the passenger seat.

"Huh?", Alex says sleepily as she attempts to open her eyes but fails.

"I'm sorry about this morning. I should've been more patient...Alex? Alex, are you even listening?"

"Yea, yea...apology...accepted.", Alex states, her head dropping.

Keith leans over, lifts her head and gives her a soft kiss on the lips, slowly waking her up. Before they could get any further into the kiss they both pull away.

"I love you.", he says, giving her a small peck on the lips and jumping out of the truck.

"Love you too.", Alex says softly as she leans back into the chair and seals her eyes.

𐊜

After approximately thirty minutes, everyone; including the dogs, were safely in a hotel room getting ready to sleep.

Keith was in the bathroom brushing his teeth while Alex; also in the bathroom, was leaning over the bathtub trying to dry her hair. The twins had begun wailing exactly three minutes ago but were now, once again sleeping soundly. The water at the sink stops just as Alex flips her hair over her head and stares at Keith who was occupying himself with fixing his hair.

"Now what?", he questions with a small smile.

"Why didn't we pack a hair drier again?"

"Maybe cause we were in a hurry to get out of the murder scene."

Alex sighs as she turns back around and flips her hair back to drying position.

"Hey Genius...", Keith calls with a grin as a hair drier burrs to life.

Alex freezes, flips her hair over her head and stares at the hair drier laying on the counter as Keith walks towards the bed. She was very tempted to tackle Keith to the bed and angrily yell at him for being a jerk again, but decided that there was enough drama for one day.

"Jerk...thought you changed from being corrupt.", she whispers after him earning a chuckle and shake of head from him.

After she dried most of her hair, Alex walked over to the only bed in the room where Keith was in, staring at his phone intensely. He seemed very distracted and frustrated.

"What's up?", Alex asks as she pulls the covers, climbs in, puts her hands under her head and closes her eyes.

He shines the phone portraying an image of the Armstrong family at her. Alex sighs and closes her eyes again. Keith closes the app and shuts his phone before sliding it over on the night stand and pulling out his pistol.

He unloads the pistol and slides it under his pillow with the bullet next to it.

"Unloading?", Alex says with her eyes closed.

"Don't need it going off in the middle of the night again.", he states before surprising Alex by pulling her into his arms; which she obviously accepted.

He wraps his arms around her shoulders as she clenches his arms with a wide smile, happy that he was finally there. With sleep finally on her side, she began to drift asleep.

"How many more hours until we get to our destination?", Keith asks as his eyes close.

"Five. Waking up at 8", Alex states before departing from reality into the world of sleep.