The man on the floor moaned again.
Danny blinked first.
Danny drew his leg back to kick him in the head when Michelle screamed, "Don't! You're going to give him a concussion."
His leg paused in mid-air. "Michelle," he started, patiently. "He was going to shoot you. I don't think we should be worrying about giving him a concussion."
Michelle set her chin. "Just because he's .... well, you know, that doesn't mean we should be going around doing that sort of thing."
Danny sighed. She was just as upstanding as he remembered, too. "We don't have time to tie him up. They could be after us."
"How about locking him in the closet?"
"Fine."
With a bit more enthusiasm that Michelle would have otherwise endorsed, Danny unceremoniously tossed the unconscious man into the closet and propped a chair under the knob, Michelle all the while trailing behind.
"Okay? Let's go. We don't have much time." Danny started dragging Michelle out the back way, as quickly as he could.
"Time for wha-" The words trailed off as Danny, finally giving up, tossed her over his shoulder. "Danny!"
"We have to go! NOW!" He was already out the door. Michelle craned her head around to see where they were going, and all she could see was the most ancient Volkswagen she had ever seen.
Despite herself, she began to giggle.
Danny looked up at her in disbelief. "What?"
"No-haha-thing, haha," she tried to stifle her chuckles. "Nothing at all."
"Fine."
He deposited her on the passenger side of the car.
Stifling a new set of chuckles, she wordlessly held up her right hand. Still connected to his left.
Swearing under his breath, he picked her up again, moved her over to the other side of the car, and opened the door. "MOVE OVER," he bellowed.
Obediently, she did as instructed.
The moment he settled in the driver's seat, with a screech they were gone.
******************************************************************************
On the highway:
Her giggles having subsided a while ago, Michelle finally turned from the window, sighing, "Danny, quit looking behind us. If there was anyone after us, we lost them three country roads ago."
Compulsively, he looked back again. She was right; there was no one there.
Settling in, he took a deep breath. "Okay, how did you know it was me?"
She leaned her head on the window, and studied him. "Well, you do look like yourself, you know."
Despite himself, he grinned.
"And there were a dozen little things." She closed her eyes. "The way you tug your collar when you're nervous,-when I first woke up, you tugged it a good three or four times in the first few minutes- you still take your tea straight, no milk or sugar. That's pretty tough with English tea...," She smiled.
"... when you listed off the languages, French, German, Latin, Greek, no Spanish for some reason... for some reason the omission struck me... you burned the turkey again, maybe you forgot, but you did it the Thanksgiving before... well, you've done it before."
She paused. "When I hugged you,... you smelled like Danny.
"But also you went stiff, like you were afraid you'd do something you shouldn't."
She opened her eyes and locked eyes with him in the rearview mirror.
"Danny, where are we going?"