It took three days before it seemed that Creed could function again and stand on his own feet without Jamie having to support him.

Over the past few days, their roles had switched, and while Creed lay in bed or sat under the stream of water, Jamie was the one outside, hidden by his hood pulled low over his face and his lowered head, getting food. He could have left at any time and abandoned him, but for some reason it seemed the stranger had decided to trust him.

So, the hero continued taking care of him while he himself finished the last of the medicine that remained in the box. He had no idea where Creed had even gotten it, but he knew how he usually answered his questions, so he didn’t ask. Besides, now he was looking for the answer to a more important question — where to get a phone.

“How are you feeling?” he asked as he stepped through the door and placed a plastic bag with instant soup on the cabinet. Creed hadn't left him much money, so he bought what he recognized and what he knew would keep them both full.

“Fine,” the stranger replied, though he remained sitting on the bed. 

“Soup?” Jamie showed him the cup, which only needed boiling water from the kettle. 

Creed nodded.

Jamie wasn’t sure whether he would be able to eat something warm, but in the end he decided he could still let the soup cool and eat it later. Besides, it would fill them more than puddings and yogurts.

The hero began preparing it in the silence of the room, broken only by the electric kettle.

“We have to leave,” the dark-haired man spoke after a while, and after his words, the atmosphere in the small room thickened.

“I know,” Jamie assured him.

Creed looked relieved after his answer, as if he had expected they would have to argue again. But he still didn’t know that although Jamie agreed with leaving, he had a different destination in mind than he did.

“But my way,” he added.

The stranger’s expression changed immediately, and he even tried to stand up quickly, though it still didn’t go as easily as he wanted.

“You don't want Legion—” Jamie continued with his limited sentence structure, as he still hadn't discovered his daily word limit and didn't intend to cross it. He had to think twice about every sentence before speaking, but so far, the other man had no trouble understanding him. “—but I want my team.”

Creed was still frowning, though a little less now, and he didn’t answer right away, which meant he was thinking about the hero’s words.

“Answers or my way,” Jamie added after a few seconds.

“Fine,” Creed agreed surprisingly. “We’re two hours from Krasport. How do you want to get there?”

Jamie had a plan. His earlier walk to get food had taken a bit longer because he had stopped at the bus stop he had already been to before. Back then he had been too busy with the poster with his name on it and hadn’t managed to notice where the buses were going or when.

“Bus to Jonestown,” he revealed the first part of the plan. 

“Jonestown?” 

Jamie nodded and then revealed the second part. “I need a phone.” 

“Why?”

The hero didn’t answer and just kept looking at him to make it clear that he wouldn’t answer. This was his version of “It’s complicated.”

The dark-haired man returned his gaze just as intensely until he gave up. “Fine. I’ll go to a gas station and buy a burner phone. Just don’t do anything stupid.”

“I won’t.”

Jamie considered it settled and focused back on the soup. He took one of the cups along with a plastic spoon and handed it to Creed. Then he took his own portion and moved with it to the armchair in the corner.

They ate in silence, and while Creed kept his gaze fixed on the bed in front of him, signaling that he was lost in his own thoughts, the hero’s green eyes were locked on him.

He had worked on the Sunshine Boy case long enough to have several questions he needed answers to. He still didn’t know why Creed couldn’t control his abilities, nor why they were the same as those of the late hero who had died long ago. So far, the only thing the hero had figured out was the answer to why the other man had broken into the pharmacy.

But what bothered him the most was simple math. Eclipse had died about 22 years ago. Creed looked like he could be around that age, so if the late hero had been his father, he must have had him shortly before he was kidnapped.

Could it have been a coincidence?

“I’ll go buy the phone.”

Creed’s voice pulled him back to reality.

“And a map,” Jamie responded quickly.

Creed seemed surprised by the additional request, but he nodded. “The sooner we leave, the better,” he said then and stood up.

Jamie nodded, since he agreed with that. Besides, he had memorized the departures of the buses to Jonestown, and so he believed they could manage to carry out his plan today, even if it was last minute.

“Be careful,” Jamie gave him his last words before the dark-haired man threw his cup and spoon into the trash and moved toward the door.

“I’ll be quick,” Creed promised in return and left.

The hero was saving his strength, since he knew he would need it for the move, so he finished his soup, threw away his trash, and decided to go through the whole room one last time to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything before sitting back down in the armchair.

Just as the younger man had promised, he was quick, and a few minutes later the door opened again and Jamie automatically caught the phone that was thrown into his lap along with the other item he had promised him.

“Nothing stupid,” Creed repeated to him in a strict tone.

“I have an idea,” Jamie told him. “A coded message.”

The stranger looked surprised, but nodded, and it seemed to calm him at least a little.

Before the hero focused on the phone, however, he picked up the map. He needed to find out where they would get off the bus and where the nearest supermarket was. Fortunately, reading maps wasn’t a problem for him, since he had been trained for it, and so he quickly found what he was looking for.

Now only the second half of the plan was left.

There were several numbers the hero remembered by heart. Some because he wanted to, others because he had to. But there was only one person he texted when he was in trouble and needed backup. They had one hundred percent trust between them, and also a system for asking the other for help without having to explain anything.

“Malibu tonight?” was the first thing he sent.

“Walmart Supercenter, 1125 State Route 9, Jonestown. Around 7?” was the second message, and then he turned the phone off before a reply could arrive. It was enough that he saw his message had been delivered.

Malibu was a code that meant Move At Location — Issue Being Urgent. The message was meant to look, at first glance, like friends making plans to go drinking together but needing to buy alcohol beforehand. That was why they always used the abbreviation together with a store where they were supposed to meet.

Only two people knew about this code, and one of them was Jamie. It was the safest way to let someone know he was alive and to hope he could get home without having to travel to Krasport alone.

“Done?” 

“Done,” Jamie nodded. “The bus leaves in 20 minutes.”

“Then let's go.”

Although the bus stop was only ten minutes from the motel, neither of them was fully okay yet, so it was better if they left earlier to make sure they got there on time and unnoticed.

Jamie was still wearing Creed’s spare hoodie, so both of them hid their identities by keeping their hoods up and their heads lowered so their faces wouldn’t be visible. The biggest risk right now was that the bus driver might recognize the hero, since every day he stopped at bus stops where his photos were posted. But more than a year had passed since his disappearance, so in this one case the hero hoped he had already been forgotten.

“Are you okay?”

Creed stepped closer to him and looked at him with worried eyes, even though it had been his skin that had almost been burning just recently.

“Fine,” he assured him and stood up.

Fortunately, the dark-haired man didn’t ask anything more, and together they headed for the bus stop. Creed didn’t bother checking them out of the motel, he simply left the keys outside the door so the staff could get into the empty room. 

Jamie only hoped he had paid in advance and that they weren’t committing a crime. They had stayed there for more than a month and no one had come knocking on their door, so he doubted it.

This time the hero didn’t look again at the poster that had his name on it. Once had been enough. Especially when he remembered well the helplessness that had flooded him during his reaction, and he didn’t want to experience it again. Not when he was this close to returning home.

As it turned out, not many people from Hazen traveled at this time to Jonestown or the other destinations this bus line served. Although a few people got off, Jamie and Creed were the only ones who got on, and the younger man took care of buying the tickets so the hero wouldn’t have to interact with the driver.

It worked, and they didn’t raise the slightest suspicion as they sat down in the back of the bus and hunched so their faces wouldn’t be visible. The hero, however, stayed alert, while Creed used the opportunity to rest his head on his shoulder, and after a while his breathing evened out, showing that he had fallen asleep.

Jamie realized two things — not only had Creed been pretending over the past hours that he felt better, even though he hadn’t fully recovered yet, but at the same time this act of his was a sign of how much he trusted the hero. It made the hero realize that he too had built a certain level of trust toward him over the past month, otherwise he wouldn’t be sitting beside him now, and not only because he wanted to bring Sunshine Boy to Legion.