Beaux was known to take long drives through Neverland when she couldn’t sleep. Even when they all lived in the cinema, it wasn’t uncommon to see her slipping out of her room in the middle of the night, keys jiggling from her fingertips. It was even harder to sleep now in that damned church.
The radio play but the volume was low, she liked to hear the low rumble of the engine, it brought her an odd comfort. It reminded her of waiting on idle while Reese was in a bank or corner store, or falling asleep with her head against the window while he drove.
Streetlights were flicking in the morning light when she turned the corner, spotting a figure walking down the streets ahead. Her brows furrowed, though something dropped in her stomach. Don’t be stupid, she told herself, anyone could look like him from behind…But could they?
Beaux swallowed hard, slowing the car as she approached the figure, before finally pulling over behind him, fingers white knuckled on the wheel. Please, turn around.
Noise was something Reese fast learned he had to familiarise himself with again, the bustle of the train station, the loud boom of the horn and the sound of tires behind him. He didn’t flinch at the latter, his traipse across London reminding him that life went on as his was put on pause.
Everything felt more open and airier, but he chalked that up to how many times he was reprimanded with a twenty three hour lock up in his cell.
He stopped dead in his tracks once the car approaching did. Traffic didn’t just pass through Neverland, there was a purpose to it be it an alcohol delivery, a town car with a mermaid or a fairy in the back alongside whatever rich fucker decided to pay for a day and on occasion a patrol car when the pigs were inclined to make themselves known.
This didn’t feel like either of those. Reese turned slowly, cautiously, his eyes locked on Beaux’s through the windscreen with the kind of intensity a dying man in the desert stared down a mirage. It had been three years since he had seen her face, every day that crawled by made bearable only by the thought of this moment alone.
