Running on Empty [rp for lapseddaint]

Charlotte never wanted to spend another minute in a hospital. She'd had the good sense to bring a book when she took John to his battery of tests in Harlem, but even during those few times she was alone, she did no more than stare at the title page. The cards they brought got more use, including a three handed game of rummy with one of the nurses. By the end of the day John had been scanned, probed and poked.

Rather than taking him upstairs, Charlotte left him sleeping in the car while she went to the apartment to pack. Not that she told him that, she only told him to wait, that they would get dinner out and that she wouldn't be long. He was half asleep, anyway. Upstairs she got two bags packed, then chucked the kittens into a third. Before they figured out what was up, she warded the bag so they couldn't get out.

Only when she had everything secure in the car and the car on the road did she tell him where they were going. She told him it was to be safely way while they waited for the test results, but there was more to it. When he was rested she'd explain how much more there was to it, what she hoped to find, but for the drive he might as well sleep. He wasn't going to like it anyway.