[eight]

Elijah knew his father was after him.

Usually, their interactions were non-existent except from the occasionally happy birthday card posted to him. Always delivered a few days after his birthday, in a handwriting that he wasn't too familiar with. Elijah didn't mind it when he was a kid but when he was first admitted into hospital, all he wanted was a comforting hand. Instead he was left with a number that automatically went to voicemail after one ring. Elijah called about ten times before he gave up.

It was as if all responsibility as a father was eradicated the day, he forced Elijah into a hospital.

At first, he resented his father but as the years went on, resentment morphed into a fiery temper that was built like an elastic band. The longer he was forced to stay, the more the band stretched until it finally snapped the day he escaped with Indiana.

Elijah knew that his father would find out. He knew the likelihood of getting caught was extremely high because his father's contacts stretched across the ocean to the most rural of places but he just needed a bit more time. Just a few more days to go explore, he had yet to go see the Eiffel tower or eat a single macaroon. He'd admit that it wasn't the most pressing issue, that there was a tiny bit of guilt weighing down on his heart because of what happened to Adri but it wasn't enough for him to go back, not yet.

Leaning against a wall in the lounged, he suppressed a tired sigh and shoved his hands in his trouser pockets but was surprised when his finger was pricked by a loose wire of Indiana's broken phone.

Elijah never intended to break her phone.

Well, not at first.

After he ran away from the hotel, he stumbled at the pub where a kind drunken tourist lent him a power bank. It took only took a few minutes for it to boot up but the second it did, there was a flood of notifications, ranging from missed calls to text messages. Out of pure curiosity, he read through some of the messages with the temptation to give her aunt a call, as Indiana asked but when he noticed his name in the recent texts. It squished any hope of texting back let alone calling.

From there the phone was accidently thrown across the pub.

It slit into two pieces when it hit the all but the final blow was when it fell into some poor man's beer.

"What's that?" Celeste asked from the sofa, briefly looking at Elijah before going back to pouring alcohol onto Coren's cuts

"My phone," Indiana replied for him, not looking away from inspecting Adri's neck, it had turned to a horrible shade of blue.

"Yeah," Elijah scratched the back of neck and smiled sheepishly, "I dropped it."

"Off a building?" Adri joked with laugh that turned into a strangled choke. Indiana quickly poured her a glass of water and offered it to her.

"Something like that," Elijah muttered but was instantly hit with a pang of guilt which he hushed with the internal promise to replace it when they got home.

"Let me have a look," Celeste raised her hand and Elijah threw it one piece at a time, she caught both pieces with ease, "you really did a number on this."

"It was an accident," Elijah lightly defended and shoved his hands back into his pockets, ignoring Indiana's raised eyebrow from the dining table.

Celeste fished out a mini flashlight in one of the draws on the coffee table and turned it on to the broken pieces while Coren, seeming too exhausted to care, laid back comfortably on the sofa. Elijah watched with hints of amusement as the young girl fiddled with the wires. He knew it was impossible for the phone to be repaired, he made sure of it.

"Can you fix it?" Indiana asked, now applying some sort of soothing cream on Adri's neck.

"Well," she turned the pieces around and supressed a wince when she noticed how damp it still was, "did you dump it in water?"

"Beer," Elijah corrected with a cough but when his gaze caught Indiana's he quickly added, "by accident."

"I don't think I can fix it," Celeste muttered, Elijah let out a little sigh of relief, "but I might be able to recover the data into a memory card."

"Really?" Indiana gave Adri a questioning look, nodding to Celeste.

"She's good with the tech stuff," Adri explained with a shrug, wincing slightly at the forgotten bruise on her shoulder.

"Do you think you could recover a number?"

Indiana didn't find the broken phone a problem, it was the fact her aunt's number was saved on it.

Maggie had always nagged her to memorise it but she never saw the point, thinking that her phone would be reliable in keeping it. Ever since her aunt had gifted her with it, she had kept a screen protector that barely had a scratch and a shock proof case, there wasn't the slightest bit of doubt that the phone would break. Until she ended up in France with no money to get home, running from the police, befriended fellow outlaws and trusted Elijah with it.

Now all she felt was regret.

"Let's just buy a new phone," Elijah suggested with a nervous laugh.

"I am not sure," Celeste replied, completely ignoring him, "what number do you want back?"

"My aunts," Indiana sighed, she was beginning to miss her.

"Do you have another number?"

"No," Indiana felt slightly reassured when Adri squeezed her hand, she sent her a small quick smile.

Maggie had opted out from having a landline with the reasoning of it be a waste of money since they paid a fortune for their phones so a landline would be useless. Indiana doubted she would even bother to remember it, if they did have one. The only alternative was to call the UK emergency ambulance line, asking for her but that didn't seem like the best idea.

"Give me a few days," the young girl turned around and sent Indiana a smile. It was just a fleeting awkward smile but yet Indiana was taken back by the warmth.

"Great," Elijah walked over to Celeste and patted her back, completely ruining the moment, "take your time."

Indiana bit back the urge to make a sarcastic comment. She knew it wouldn't help but watching him, mess around with the pieces of the phone, her phone, bothered her. The fact that he had broken her phone in the first place, annoyed her. How he was so goddamn happy all the time was close to irritating her to death.

"Ouch," Adri winced.

Indiana stared between her hand and Adri's shoulder, she had managed to dig her nails into her skin causing parts of her neck to bloom red with finger imprints. Her thoughts had been wrapped in frustration for Elijah that she hadn't realised her hands turned from gently rubbing in the cream to aggressively scrubbing her neck. Grabbing a few tissues from the box at the centre of the dining table, she wiped the cream off her while mumbling a string of apologies.

"Coren?" Elijah sat on the armrest of the sofa and hesitantly poked his forehead, no response, "let's get you to bed big guy."

Elijah poked him again but this time on his cheek, all it did was tilt Coren's head to the side, further into the sofa. Celeste set the pieces of the phone on the table and started to tug at his arms. She was trying to shake him awake but instead she felt how warm he was. Usually Coren was like a snowstorm, always feeling cold and found it hard to heat himself up but now his skin felt like he had just been out in a laying in the sun and was battling from heatstroke.

"Indie," Elijah called for her over his shoulder but she was already up with Adri and rushing over.

He quickly jumped out of his seat and carefully watched Indiana lean over to check Coren's forehead while Adri loomed over them.

"I need a bag of ice, painkillers and cold water," Indiana calmly muttered while trying to think of what Maggie would do in this situation. She could faintly remember how from first aid training that the first thing to do was to check for a pulse, so she went to go grab for his wrist but stopped when she noticed that no one was moving. Looking up, she raised an eyebrow and looked around the room before adding demandingly, "I need it now."

Celeste was the first to move.

She gave her a single nod before running out the room and Adri grabbed the glass from the dining table and started fill it with water. Indiana felt slight relief when she found his pulse, it was faint but she could see feel it. Gently, she tilted his head to the side to check for any bleeding but all she saw was a few cuts that Celeste had been attending to. When they got back, Indiana had made sure to check Adri and Coren for any symptoms for internal bleedings. All she found was a view nasty cuts and bruises but nothing that screamed out to her as major. There was a slight concern how warm he was but Indiana had assumed it was just because he had carried Adri all the way here.

Now she was starting to think back to when he was lying out in the cold after getting beat up by the thugs.

How long had he exactly been left lying there?

When she asked him before, he had brushed it off saying that it wasn't too long and that the cold never bothered him. Stupidly, she replied with a shrug and a nod, not bothering to ask anymore. Maggie would have followed up, she would have known exactly what was happening and what to do. Indiana pushed back her feelings and grabbed the glass of water that Adri offered and started to flick it at his face.

Even when the water hit his eyelids, there wasn't the slightest twitch.

Adri hit his face lightly but just before it got harsher, Indiana held back her wrist and shook her. He was in a deep coma like sleep, slapping and flicking water wasn't going to magically get him to wake up.

"Help me get him up," Indiana hooked her hands under his arm and Adri did the same to his other one, they tried to pull him upright but it was as if they were trying to lift a damn lorry loaded with another lorry. Sighing, Indiana turned around with the intentions of asking Elijah to help but all that came out was a strangled choke.

"What are you doing?" Adri asked incredulously.

Elijah had kicked off both of his shoes and was now using one hand to balance himself on the sofa while the other tugged off his socks.

"Use this," he threw his socks at Indiana, both landed on her head.

"What?" Indiana used the tip of her finger and thumb to pick the socks off her, she bit back the urge to gag. They smelt like horse manure that had be found marinating in sewage water.

"Adam's character used his socks," he excitedly pointed at his socks, "to wave it at this other guy's face."

"Do you want to die?"

"And the guy woke up," Elijah carried on, ignoring Indiana's threats, "it was a pretty awesome."

"You're an idiot."

Just as Indiana was about to shove his socks down his throat, Adri quickly snatched it from her and hovered it over Coren's nose. Indiana sat paralysed, with her mouth slightly open and watched as Adri waved the socks from side to side. She started questioning as to whether this is what her life had amounted, that this moment was her self defining chapter.

For a few shaky heartbeats, they were just silently watching Adri.

Elijah leaned in and stared with childlike excitement over Indiana's shoulder, the familiar tinkle of his breathe on brushing over her neck was unnerving. There was a strong temptation for her to just a grab bunch of tissues and have it eternally wrapped around her neck, just so she wouldn't feel his breath. She turned, intending to tell him to back off but she was caught by surprised at how close he was.

Indiana couldn't help but notice faint freckles on his nose.

"Were you close with your her?"

They both laid comfortably on the silk red duvet admiring the ceiling.

Occasionally, Indiana would reach out, thinking she was close to touch it but was disappointed when all she grabbed onto was air. Elijah smiled watching her but his hands twitched to hold hers so he moved one behind his head and the other held the empty wine bottle tighter.

"Close to who?" She asked, reaching out for the ceiling again, it was starting to look like stars.

"Your mum."

"Not really," she tried to ignore the pang of regret and focused harder on catching the stars, "I was closer to my dad."

"Oh," there was a brief pause before he added quietly, "I wish I was."

"You aren't close with him?"

He set the bottle down, not caring as it rolled to the floor and grabbed one of her hands. Her gaze slowly made its way down to his and was caught of guard with how it was filled with unshed tears.

"No," he tried to blink way the tears but it only made them roll down his cheek.

"Why?"

She felt an odd ache to wipe away the tears but instead she rolled onto her side and tucked their hands under her chin. Elijah mimicked her roll but inched a fraction closer to her with a smile that didn't quite have the enthusiasm as it usually did.

"No sure," another tear came rolling down.

"It's okay," she murmured, exhaustion was creeping its way in.

"Really?" He asked but it was masked with humour, as if he was trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah," she let out a yawn and moved closer to him, trying to get comfortable. He welcomed her by wrapping his other hand around her waist while the other still held onto hers.

"Indie," he called out after a few stuttering heartbeats.

"Eli," she replied and lazily stared up at him.

Being so close, she noticed the four faint little freckles on the tip of his nose.

"What are you doing?"

Celeste stood at the doorway with a bag of unopen frozen pears in one hand the other had a bunch of painkillers. Her mouth was slightly ajar as she stared at Adri, who was violently waving Elijah's dirty socks at Coren's nose

"Give me the ice," Indiana ignored the slight blush tinting her cheeks and grabbed the bang of peas, "Adri stop."

Adri sighed but sat back in her seat with the socks tightly held onto her chest.

"We need to cool him down," Indiana lightly put the ice on his forehead and moves down to his neck, "do you have a fan?"

Celeste ran to the dinning table and grabbed a dusty fan from underneath it, she quickly plugged it in before setting it down on the table. Making sure it was facing Coren, she turned it on to full power.

"I really think the sock idea will work," Elijah mumbled, and went to the other side, lightly tugging the sock out of Adri's grip.

"Seriously?" Celeste shook head at Elijah growing annoyed at his jokes and handed Indiana the painkillers, "do you think this will be okay?"

"I'm not sure," she wasn't entirely keen on giving him anything while he was unconscious.

"I saw it in a movie," Elijah persisted beginning to wave the sock back onto Coren's nose, "it really worked."

"This isn't a movie," Celeste argued running a frustrated hand through her loosely braided brown hair.

"But it works," Elijah lowered the sock further onto his nose, "trust me."

"You seriously are such an idiot," Indiana went to snatch the sock from him but he quickly lifted it out her reach.

"Guys," Adri sighed feeling hot tears prick at the rim of her eyes, "he isn't waking up."

"We need to cool him down," Indiana explained lightly, shaking the bag of ice and putting it back onto his neck.

"No," Elijah lowered his sock to his nose again, "we need to do this."

"No, we need to cool him down," Indiana raised her voice slightly, her hands started to curl into a fist.

"No," Elijah mocked her tone, "he needs to smell my sock."

They both glared at each other, neither one of them backed down until they both got startled by Adri's gasp. Their fell from Adri to Coren, who lightly pushed Elijah's sock out the way and blinked up at them with a mixture of dazed amusement and confusion.

"Why are the lovers fighting?"

[i hope you're happy by micah]

footnote 180819:

this was harder to write than usual. i hit writer block a few times on this one but  it's technically still sunday (in the uk) so i did meet the update deadline....okay i am sorry it took so long, it's just i got busy and i had to hunt for inspiration

anyway, how is everyone doing? what do you think of this chappie?

feedback is always welcome and appreciated