Page 46 of Sanctuary
Sorry, it said, and he addressed it to Martin. There really wasn't anything else to tell the human, but some day Ori hoped he could send the man a message to explain how much he'd helped. Though, given some of the off-hand comments the man had made, it probably wouldn't be well-received.
He set it in the middle of the table that they ate breakfast at every day and turned to go.
C H A P T E R F O R T Y - O N E
I t wasn't good traveling when they left the shelter, but Patton had been expecting that. He made sure their first stop was to get a good pair of boots for Ori and a couple of pairs of mittens, because he'd learned early on that mittens got wet and then they got cold. As soon as he had Ori kitted out to his satisfaction. He'd taken them east, or as close to east as he could figure, following the sun and the roads.
A week after they left, a storm moved in and they ended up spending a couple of days huddled in a hollow made of a fallen tree and as many branches as Patton had been able to rip off the surrounding growth. Ori built them a nest out of their human clothing when they realized they'd be stuck there for a while and they'd changed to their wolf forms for the extra insulation of their winter coats. It had been cold, but workable, even though they didn't have much in the way of food with them. But after that, they got good at finding abandoned buildings or ones where the locks could be broken, sheds in back yards and unsecured garages, grabbing sleep where they could. Finding the railroad tracks turned into a bonanza of shelter and relatively easy walking, though Patton had to spend more time hunting than he'd hoped for. Luckily, winter had been nearly over when they abandoned the shelter and traveling grew easier each day, as did the supply of food. They still had some money left from Patton's plumbing work in Denver and between that and winter-lean prey, Patton kept them fed.
Even so, Patton watched Ori closely, worried about his mate. It wasn’t long before Ori was too big to go out in public and the effort of carrying the extra weight took its toll. By the time they made it to Arkansas late in April, the bones of Ori's face stood out under his skin and when they huddled together at night, the points of his shoulders felt sharper to Patton's exploring fingers. He did his best, making sure that Ori got the bigger portion of their food and, occasionally, he managed to skip a meal to make sure that Ori had more to eat. It didn't always work and Ori threw awful, un-Ori-like tantrums when he caught Patton doing it, but that didn't stop him. Ori's continued weight loss worried him, and he could tell by scent and by the near-constant frown on Ori's face that it worried Ori too.
Patton first noticed that something was wrong with Ori when they were just outside Jonesboro in Arkansas. At first he thought it was just being tired--Ori wasn't sleeping well, what with the baby seemingly growing bigger each day--but now that they were on the last stretch before Mercy Hills, he didn't want to stop for anything. It made Patton wonder what Ori knew, either about Mercy Hills or--who did the baby belong to when it was born? If he was going to be in Mercy Hills when he had the baby, would it belong to Mercy Hills? Could he and Ori use that to help keep the two of them there, to keep Perseguir from claiming Ori and the baby?
But as the day wore on, he realized with a sick certainty that it wasn't just being tired that was the problem. "Ori?"
"Yeah?" Ori replied in a sharp tone. The line between his brows had grown deeper since this morning and his lips were pressed together in a tight line.
Cautiously, Patton softened his voice and asked, "Is the baby coming?"
Ori stopped dead, one hand on the bulge of his belly. "Why?" His voice was high, fearful, and his scent was sharp with anxiety.
"Because I want to look for someplace to stop if he is." He moved close and gingerly pulled Ori into a hug. "You can't have him by the side of the road."
"It's too early," Ori whispered, his voice breaking. He tucked his head in underneath Patton's chin and clung to him as if his life depended on it. "He should stay in for another three weeks. I should have let you take me away earlier."
"Hey, it'll be all right," Patton whispered, and hoped Ori couldn't smell his fear over the acrid bite of his own. "We'll find someplace dry and settle in for the night. We have plenty of food and water. It'll be okay." They didn't have plenty of food and water, but Patton could walk in to Jonesboro and get some--the signs said they weren't too far away.
"You don't understand," Ori said. "Babies who are born too early die." He lifted his head and gazed into Patton's eyes. "I don't want him to die. He's yours, and mine, and I want him." His voice was both fierce and tender and in that moment, Patton understood that Ori would stand between their baby and anyone, even death, no matter what the cost was to himself.
"Then let's give him the best chance he can have," Patton said, coaxing Ori farther from the road. He knew people screamed having babies--they needed to be somewhere kind of far away from humans. If someone came across Ori giving birth, their disguises, poor as they were, would be gone. "There must be an abandoned barn or a cottage or something out here somewhere that we can break into."
"We still have time," Ori said stubbornly. "They can take days to come out." But his voice didn’t sound as sure as his words.
"I hope it's not that long," Patton told him. "Ma always had help around the house the last couple of days before she had a baby, so she wouldn't be tired out. I'm your help."
This time Ori came, at that same lumbering pace, only occasionally broken by short pauses where Ori's eyes grew unfocused and his entire being looked like it was focusing on his belly.
By nightfall, they still hadn't found anyplace suitable and finally Patton sat Ori down in a relatively dry hollow formed by what looked like an old wash out or something. "I'll be back in a while, I'm going to go scout for a place. You're okay here for a bit?"
Ori nodded, but he was wearing that funny expression again. "Don't be long," he said breathlessly, then lay down with his head on his pack and his eyes closed.
"I won't." Awkwardly, Patton stroked Ori's arm, then stripped out of his clothes to change his shape and jogged off down the road. He'd probably have better luck going either directly south or north of the main road—never before had he regretted the loss of the phone as much as he did right now. What he wouldn't give for a touchscreen and a little data, so he could figure out where the roads were.
The area was all farmland, and he switched his goal from finding an empty house to finding an empty barn. Or storage shed. Anything, really, far enough away from everyone that Ori could have the baby in peace. All the places he found, though, smelled so strongly of human he shied away long before he came near the buildings. Maybe he should have been looking to make a nice den somewhere. Could Ori give birth in wolf form? He'd never heard, but omega biology was a mystery to him. At least, he'd never heard of anyone giving birth in wolf form.
Lysoon, Ori's having the baby. Was the racing of his heart because he was jogging or because he was terrified of the consequences of the day he'd decided to help Ori escape? Because that was where this had all come from.
Not that he regretted it. He just wished it had turned out better, that they hadn't had to skip the bus, that they'd gotten to Mercy Hills before Ori grew so big he couldn't go out in human society anymore.
That he knew what to do right now.
The place he found was farther away than he liked, a small bungalow with old furniture, the doors and windows all locked. He peered in through all the openings looking for anything that might have been an alarm, but it seemed that out here in the country, they were relying on physical locks to keep the place safe. Well, he could deal with that. Quick as blinking he turned and ran back to Ori, hoping that things hadn't progressed so far his mate couldn't walk anymore. How long did it take to have a baby, anyway? He didn't remember much of the births of his little brothers and sisters, just his Ma not doing as much around the trailer one day, and then all the pups being herded off to a sleepover with one of their relatives. And the next day, there'd be a new baby brother or sister, like magic.
Put like that, he knew shit, and he better hope Ori was going to save both their asses. Again.
He got sorta lost on the way back to Ori. Not entirely lost--he could smell him--but it took him an extra ten minutes or so to pinpoint where Ori had hidden himself after Patton left. "Damn, you're good," he told him when he finally unearthed Ori from the nest of shrubbery he'd crawled into. "Come on, I found a house that looks abandoned. Or at least closed up for the winter. Can you walk?"
Ori nodded, but Patton wasn't so sure Ori was telling the truth. He practically twitched with every noise around them, and put nearly his entire weight on Patton's arm when Patton reached out to help him up. "Don't worry," Patton told him. "I've got you."
