Page 13 of Bear With Me

Another silence. “You can’t control your shift…and you think the solution is to drive cross-country? When you could shift at any moment?”

Fuck. Fuck. He hadn’t thought of that. “But I need to get to her,” he said weakly. Maybe he could fly? If he informed the airline ahead of time and bought a first-class ticket so he could have a bigger seat?

Dennis appeared in his peripheral vision, fully dressed but looking…was he concerned? What’s wrong? his mate mouthed, gesturing to the phone.

Bjorn could only shake his head, unable to spare the brain cells to explain. “Alpha,” he said to Escalus. “I need to get to her. How can I get to her? Will they let me fly?” His voice was plaintive, but he couldn’t hide his emotions at this point.

Dennis was studying him with a furrowed brow, then he nodded firmly to himself and held out a hand. “Give me the phone.”

Bjorn stared at him. Blinked. “What?”

“You sound like you need to go somewhere, fast. Give me the phone. I’ll talk to whoever it is while you get your stuff together. We’ll figure out a plan.”

Pure relief. All the breath whooshed out of Bjorn. Dennis would coordinate things. He could focus on his grandmother. He nodded and handed over the phone without further question.

“Hello?” he heard Dennis say as Bjorn started gathering his dirty clothes. “Yes, I’m a friend of Bjorn’s. What’s going on?” A pause. “Oh, shit.”

Bjorn, a pair of dirty underwear in his hands, could only stand there with his head hanging for a long moment, trying to breathe. He could do this. He had to do this.

“No,” Dennis agreed with whatever Escalus had said, “that definitely won’t work. Even if he fit in the seat, people would lose their shit. Okay.” Pause. “Will he fit there, even?” Pause. “Don’t tell me I’m asking stupid fucking questions; I have no idea what the fuck is going on here and I don’t hang out with shifters at home. I’m trying to fucking help.”

Oof. You didn’t talk to Escalus like that. Bjorn braced himself for the sound of shouting from the other end of the phone, but when there was nothing after a moment, he resumed gathering his belongings and stuffing them into his suitcase.

“At least a couple days, I think,” Dennis said. “I can look it up once we hang up. Oh, ok, go ahead while we’re on, then.” Pause. “Yeah, Pennsylvania."

“He drives a tiny little sedan, yeah. But I’ve got a truck. He might fit better. Okay, thank you.” He checked his watch. “Yeah we can probably make it by late Wednesday if we drive hard.”

Bjorn zipped his case and dragged it back toward Dennis. “I can’t get on the highway like this,” he hissed to Dennis, gesturing down his still-nude body.

Dennis raised an eyebrow at him and covered the mouthpiece of the phone. “Yeah, you’d better throw on some clothes. We’re taking my truck and I told this guy we can be there in two days, so we gotta move.” He directed his attention back to the phone.

Bjorn, at a loss over this entire situation, wordlessly pulled a pair of jeans and a t-shirt out of his bag and shrugged into them. Who knew how long they’d last before his next involuntary shift, but he was trying.

“Ok,” Dennis was saying when Bjorn finished pulling his shirt over his head. “That’s good. How far is your…den?...from the highway? Are there, like, dirt roads?” Pause. “Oh, good. Okay, yeah, if someone meets us that’s probably the easiest way, with me driving.”

It would probably be his parents meeting them, after which they would berate him for all manner of things, Bjorn reflected, but at this point he’d tolerate that to get to Gran.

“Ok. Around dinner time then, yeah. Great. We’ll see you then. Is there anything else you need me to tell Bjorn?” Pause. “I’m not fucking saying that. Tell him yourself when we get there. Fine. Good. Bye.” And he stabbed the disconnect button and handed the phone back to a gaping Bjorn. “What?”

“You…” Bjorn stammered. “You don’t cuss at Escalus.”

Dennis rolled his eyes. “I’ll cuss my ass off at him if he cusses at me. Which he did. Now, let me just grab my stuff and we’ll head out.”

Bjorn’s brain stuttered to a halt. Wait, we? He mentally ran back through the conversation he’d just half-listened to and yep, Dennis had been saying “we” the whole time. Was he…coming with Bjorn? “You said ‘we’,” he managed.

“Hm?” Dennis, who had already walked away toward his pile of dirty clothes, glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah, I’m driving.”

“What?”

Dennis snorted. “My friend, you can’t fly and you can’t drive while you can’t control your shift. The only way you’re getting anywhere is if I drive you. And your bear isn’t going to fit into the passenger seat of that dinky thing you drive. So we’re taking my truck.”

Bjorn was speechless for a few seconds before he managed to say, “You don’t even like me.”

Shoving clothes into the outer pocket of his suitcase, Dennis shrugged. “I mean, I don’t hate you, either, and according to the guy I talked to, this is an emergency. I’d do this for anyone in that situation.”

Ouch. I don’t hate you. Talk about damning him with faint praise.

“Hurry up,” Dennis said insistently, coming toward him dragging his suitcase. “We need to get going if we’re going to make it in two days.”