Road Trip

IX

Day 35

Five weeks living out in the woods didn't sound as long as it felt. All Jensen and I have to do now is make it through the rest of the day and we'd be picked up just before sunset. 

 The clearing wasn't a bad place to spend the day. We'd been able to relax through the entire day and were even lucky enough to watch a couple deer walk around and graze for a few minutes. 

 We were watching as the sun reached the later half of high noon, laying in the grass. "If you had to choose one thing as your favourite moment or big take away from this experience, what would it be?" Jensen questioned, turning his head to face me. 

 I took a moment to think. I rolled my head over to look at Jensen before speaking. 

 "I knew what I wanted to come of this going into it but what I wanted and what actually happened didn't end up being the same thing," I simply stated, rolled my gaze back to the bright fluffy clouds above me. 

 "Explain." 

 I hummed as I thought about how to word my current thought process. "Okay, so I wanted to do this to push myself to the limit which I would say I'd accomplished," I paused, thinking about my answer, "but I guess I just wished it had gone smoother."

 I could tell Jensen was processing my words judging by his momentary silence. 

 He opened his mouth as if he were about to say something then closed it again, just before actually speaking. "So what if it didn't go as smooth as you thought it would. Not everyone is willing to jump on the chance to leave everything for five weeks to survive out here and we made it through. I think that's reason enough to celebrate tomorrow." 

 He was right and I knew it. It all definitely could've gone worse. 

 I rolled onto my stomach and then faced Jensen before asking him the same question. "Okay then, what about you? What is your big take away for this thingy? And yes, that's my very technical term." 

He laughed at my choice of words for a moment.

 It was like he had his answer before I'd even asked. Without hesitation, he answered, "The escape. No bills, no excessive amount of people crammed into a small city like sardines in a can, no cars or busy streets, and so on. It was just nice to get away from it all, you know?" 

 I nodded in responce. 

_

 I've only been in a helicopter once in my life and that was to get dropped off out here. It was a terrible experience that I'm certain I could live without, but... now I have to do it again. 

 I began to doze off around what I think was 8:30pm, but got nudged back awake because Jensen could hear the helicopter coming which meant we had about ninety seconds to throw the rest of our supplies back into our bags and get ready to leave. 

 Dread started to set in as the helicopter landed briefly for us to climb in. I hated helicopters. 

 After struggling to get in on his own, Jensen grabbed ahold of my hand and helped me into the flying death trap. We settled in as best we could with our large bags placed between our legs, strapped ourselves in and put on the bulky headsets. 

 I wouldn't be able to explain what they were doing with the controls before we got liftoff due to the fact none of it makes sense to me but I was glad to be on my way home, almost. 

 The ride was bumpy and uneven and trust me, skydiving was easier than riding in this thing. As cheesy as it sounds, holding Jensens hand made things a bit better but I think it helped because every bump I felt on the ride, I squeezed his hand crushingly tight. 

 Later, after I was lucky enough to have fallen back asleep. 

_

 We'd landed back on firm ground and I was beyond thankful for that. 

 Seeing the city lights in the dark night sky was something I never knew I'd miss. I kicked my oversized bag straight out the door of the helicopter before climbing out and before I knew it, Jensen tossed his bag right over my head as he made his way out. 

 Following our hurdle out of the metal death trap, we went straight out to the car waiting for us that drove straight to the hotel we'd pre-booked before the trip. 

 We got handed our keycard at the hotel and I couldn't wait to get up to our room to have a shower, which I totally called dibs on first. 

_

 "I never knew I could smell so good!" Jensen came out of the bathroom, a cloud of steam following in his wake. I laughed at him as he made his way to the kitchen to make yet another coffee. "I also never knew coffee could taste so heavenly!" 

 It was like everything amazing was amped up a few notches to Jensen. A six out of ten rating was like a sixteen out of ten to him now. 

 "If you make anymore coffee tonight, you're never going to sleep," I warned. He shrugged his shoulders while pouring another muggiest full, "If I don't sleep, so be it, this coffee right here," motioning to the pot of coffee, "is completely worth it." 

 I shook my head with a little laugh and pulled the puffy covers up to my neck. I spent the rest of the night curled up, wrapped in blankets, watching movie after movie until I fell asleep to the sound of Jensen making another coffee.  

 It was safe to say I fell asleep way before Jensen did that night but I did wake up as he tried to slide his way into the bed, as stealthily as possible. 

 "Goodnight." He whispered.