Rebecca looked up at the first folds of the Appalachian mountains to their left as she drove. They'd been in distant sight for a while now, but now the road they were on was edging ever closer as it skirted intermittent foothills. Soon they'd be practically hugging the edge of the first proper ridge and the eastern boundary of Shenandoah National Park.

Once when she shifted and leaned back in her seat, she saw Sam looking at her appraisingly again. When Sam saw her notice, she smiled. "Getting nervous, sugar?"

"Yeah, probably. Tired of being on the road, too. I could be most of the way home in ye olden days by now." Rebecca sighed and glanced at the nearing slopes again. "Yeah. Definitely nervous."

"This might sound familiar, love, but whatever happens, we're still with you. And, if your mother is there... it's not your fault. You don't get to blame yourself for my mom being gone."

"Oh, Sam..." Rebecca sighed and was quiet for a moment, then eased off the gas slightly and wiped at her eyes one at a time. "You can't do that to me when I'm driving."

"Sorry. But it had to be said before we got there."

Rebecca heard Sam's voice tighten and nearly crack, and reached out a hand to her. "Hey." Her hand found Sam's, and they rested them on the the doublewide armrest between them.

"Hi." Sam mirrored the way Rebecca was caressing Sam's hand with her thumb. "I mean it though. I'm not going to blame you, and I don't want you worrying about that, having it hang over your head."

"Okay." Rebecca sniffed, and pulled her hand back briefly to wipe her right eye again. "I can't promise I won't tell you I'm sorry, but... it'll be the other kind, not the one you yell at me for all the time, 'kay?"

"That's acceptable. And, thank you. I know there's a ton of other shit that we went through since my house, but I want you to know that you have been making it easier."

"Good, I'm glad. Thanks for telling me. Yay, communication!"

"Woohoo!" Sam grinned at her and looked forward again, and something in the distance must have drawn her attention. "Oh, shit... look."

The sight that concerned Sam was blocked by trees for Rebecca at first, but she saw it soon enough. "Oh god."

As they cleared a rise and turn, a longer view opened up and for miles along the ridge and ahead of them, the ground was like dark chalk and mockeries of trees jutted up from it, conjuring images of charred skeletal hands protruding from the ash. Closer to the road, scattered rubble piled where buildings used to be.

"Oh, god," Rebecca repeated as she slowed their pace even further. "Sam..."

"I know honey. Hey, we don't know how far this goes, right? Don't jump to conclusions and panic yet."

Rebecca groaned, almost desperately. "How can I not, Sam? There's nobody to fight wildfires anymore, no National Guard helicopters to drop water... and look, that car's wheels and engine block fucking melted into puddles of aluminum. We don't know..."

"Hey!" Sam firmly squeezed Rebecca's hand that she was holding onto and leaned forward in her seat to make firm eye contact. "Don't. Spiral. We still have ten or twenty miles to go, and at least back home the wind usually blew vaguely west-ish. We're still angling a bit northeast. Stop thinking of worst case scenarios, and breathe. Literally, breathe."

Rebecca realized her respiration was getting fast and shallow, and started intentionally controlling it. In over four seconds, hold two three four, out... over... four. Stay in control, you're driving a fucking car.

She was surprised that the radio didn't make her jump when it popped and Christine's voice came on. "Hey ladies..." At least it wasn't some other asshole this time.

Sam kept ahold of Rebecca's hand and reached for the radio with her right. "Hey, Chris. We see it too."

"Everybody okay up there?"

Everybody. Right. Rebecca knew who she was talking about.

"We're a little shocked," Sam replied into the handset. "Just catching our breath— " She squeezed Rebecca's hand again— "... and recovering from the surprise."

"Epstein says he worked a firefighting mutual aid thing a few years ago. Based on the amount of regrowth, and how old some of the ash flow mudslide things look, he thinks this was several months ago — maybe even over a year. Also, the burn patterns show it jumping the road in patches, blown embers, but the way things burned down to the ground means it wasn't very fast moving. Here, hang on..."

Epstein's voice came over the radio next, oddly distant sounding since the radio cord probably didn't reach the back set. Chrissie was probably holding it up over her shoulder for him. "A fast moving fire would spread in parallel streaks, blown rapidly in one direction, with gaps of burnt and unburnt areas looking almost entirely random until you got a good view from far away. The way this is all one big swath means it spread slowly and evenly. Once it hit the ridges, if the wind wasn't shoving it in one direction or another very strongly, it would have probably just crept uphill."

Sam gave Rebecca a pointed look while she waited for him to finish, then replied. "Thanks, Doug. That's actually really helpful to know."

She set the handheld mic down and spoke to Rebecca over Epstein's acknowledgement. "There. That's more data, right? Takes some of the ambiguity away, at least a little? It's scary, and might mean bad things, but it doesn't automatically."

Rebecca let out a long slow exhale and started to accelerate them back up to cruising speed again. "Yeah. Thank you, Rosie."

"Of course, babe. Like I said, we're with you. Bet you're glad you made a move on me in that shower back in the day, huh?"

"Hey now." Rebecca laughed weakly. "I admit, it worked out nicely, but are you trying to distract me with fun memories?"

Sam let go of her hand just to draw slow teasing circles across the back of it with her fingertip. "Maybe. Whatever works, you know? You like it when I fight dirty."

"Okay, now I know you're doing it, and the worst part is I don't even mind."

Rebecca had the passing thought that Sam might regret using the word 'fight', but fortunately playing along seemed to keep her from dwelling on it, because she chuckled with just a touch of evil mixed into the sound.

"It's fun having you wrapped around my finger."

"You're so bad." Rebecca shook her head and sighed again, looking back at the devastation around them, but somewhat inured against the sight of it by Sam's antics. She brushed the back of her fingers against Sam's hand, then took hers back for an upcoming curve. "But you're right, as usual, and it's good to see you feeling smug about it again like you're supposed to."

"Wow." Sam laughed. "Psychoanalyzing me while I'm trying to be saucy is a guaranteed way to dampen the mood, babe."

"But see, now I'm self-sabotaging and creating things for myself to apologize for. We're moving back towards our familiar routines and engaging in comforting banter."

"God, you're as bad as I am, just a different flavor of it. I guess that's why we make a good pair, even as dysfunctional and demented as we are. We really do deserve each other." She took a swig from a water bottle and offered it over, before capping it again when Rebecca declined with a small wave.

The unnerving scenery continued for several miles, making Rebecca compare it silently to a war zone, wondering what kind of destruction Ronnie, Epstein, and Landry must have seen. She'd never seen a widespread burn zone like this before, and wondered if this is what everything would look like if the pyromaniac crazies Ronnie told her about up north had their way. That made her think back to her determination to provide a safe corner of the world for Allie and her child — and now Jack too, she supposed. Remembering that feeling steeled her nerves even farther, such that she gave Sam a reassuring smile that she hoped was pretty convincing (for both of them).

Eventually she realized that there was no cover for some kind ambusher to lay in wait and pushed herself to focus on the road ahead, ignore the distressing view and just watch the lines and curves of the road.

After a few minutes, she laughed and Sam looked over at her, curious. "What's so entertaining, sugar?"

Rebecca grinned at her with a quick glance. "I just realized... all this time, and I've still been staying on the right side of the road. Yeah, I got lazy when there were multiple lanes going the same direction but jeez, that double-yellow really gets ingrained."

"Heh. Old habits, I guess?"

"Yeah. It was nerve wracking enough the time my mom and I flew to London and took a train up into Scotland. I actually got in the wrong side of the rental car twice. I wonder if things like that will change as we rebuild."

"Maybe we'll all go metric, too? Sure, I'm used to thinking in miles and pounds, but it sure would be nice to just be able to add and remove decimal places."

"Communist."

"Oh, like we have a sustainable currency to support capitalism either."

Rebecca chuckled and they were quiet for a bit, until Sam leaned forward and pointed off to their left. "Look! There's spots that aren't burnt."

Rebecca glanced up towards the hills and felt goosebumps run down her arms. Sam was right, one of the small valley winding back into the ridge wasn't as badly scorched on the right side — the north wall of the canyon. And then... the one after was similar, but even greener. She felt a weight lift at the same time she was overcome with a wave of impatience to see the next, and the next. Three in a row were like that, and then there was one completely untouched, and she looked ahead on the road and could see the wavy edge of the burn zone in front of them.

"Oh thank god... or the wind, or whatever." She glanced over at Sam to see her supportive smile — to her credit, the teasing smugness that might have accompanied it was on hold. As they cleared the border into normal verdancy again, she slowed and pulled towards the side of the road — again, a vestigial habit that wasn't really needed anymore. "I need a minute."

"Sure." Sam picked up the radio and spoke into it. "Hey gang, just pulling over for a second, I need to check the maps real quick." Then, she set it down and turned to Rebecca, half-extending an arm. "Would a hug help?"

"Almost always." Rebecca smiled at her and leaned into it, sighing. Her voice was muffled by Sam's shoulder. "I know, you told me so."

She felt Sam's hand brush over the back of her head twice. "But you were scared, Remy. I get it." Sam held her silently for nearly a minute before she spoke again. "So, one scary thing checked off the list. But still keep your hopes cautious, okay? I don't want you to come crashing back down, if..."

"Yeah." Rebecca didn't need her to finish — her of all people. She squeezed Sam tightly for a moment and sat back, accepting her offer of the water bottle this time.

Sam watched her patiently, a hint of her usual playful twinkle entering her eyes. "So... did I find what I needed to on the maps? Or do I need to compare it to the GPS and aerial printouts and made wait for dark and get a plot from the stars or something?"

Rebecca's mouth quirked as she finished drinking and recapped the bottle. "I wouldn't want to impugn your navigational abilities. We gotta make you look good. Not that it's hard."

"Now who's being flirty, huh?"

Rebecca didn't dignify that with a verbal answer, but gave Sam an ambiguous smirk while putting the SUV in back in gear.