Juliet takes Matt's hand and - moves on to Erica, shaking her head. "Maybe after the full moon? We could make a celebration out of it."

"I can howl at the moon with the best of them.

She glances back at the car.

"Is he always like that? Quiet as a mouse on the ride over."

"He's been through a lot lately. He just needs time."

'Through a lot' is belittling it. She calms her breathing and packs the last of the things in the truck.

"Think that's it."

"'There is no world within Beacon Hills but purgatory, torture, hell itself.' We'll be out of here soon, all of us."

"Beacon Hills didn't do this, Matt. Damon did this. Isaac's dad did this. I did this. Leaving is the right thing to do. We're too easy targets here. This place might be where everything happened, but it's not the cause. The cause is still out there. It's not going to just go away because we leave town. We need to get stronger still. Grow as a pack. This is just the first step."

-nod.

"You're right. I'm sorry."

Into the truck they go.

Erica can vamp with the best of them. She offers the hottest gossip on BHHS: who's hooking up with who (Jackson Whittemore and Lydia Martin have apparently sealed the deal), who's not coming back (Natalie Paulson is going to a Catholic school- lucky for the other girls), and who's going to get fired (Mr. Harris, she opines, because it's only a matter of time before he fondles the wrong student).

Juliet has no idea who half those people are, but it's helpful listening to her talk about nothing of consequence. Distracts her. She needs the distraction.

The cabin is up north, across state lines. It'll take them the majority of the day.

It's about an hour in that Isaac announces: "I'm bored. Who wants to play the license plate game?"

Matt, who until now has kept fairly quiet, pipes up.

"I'm game. Juliet?"

"Leave the girl alone, she's driving. If she wants to play, she'll play."

"I have no idea what the license plate game is. I was very sheltered, remember?"

"Your dad sounds like he sucked, no offense. Basically, you want to find license plates from different states. We can call out states and try to be the first to find one from there. So I could say 'Idaho', and we'd all have to waste the next hour looking for Idaho plates in Southern California. You score points just for finding one, as long as someone can corroborate your story. People can get points if they find the plate and can find another plate with the same state. If you find a plate and you get the state wrong, you go into fugitive mode. Every time someone points out a plate, you have to read off the whole thing before it passes, pretty much until you do that and someone else checks your work."

Juliet ignores the jibe about her dad. He's wrong, so completely wrong, but her rebuttal isn't worth it. He's dead and she killed his dad, so.

"Got it," she looks up at the car in front of them and, "Nevada, then. Hopefully, that's not too difficult."

Erica's the first to spot another 'Nevada', and looks inordinately pleased with herself.

"I call one out now, right?"

She flutters her eyelashes at Isaac.

"I'm not the fun police."

Sigh.

"Maryland, land of crabs and- more crabs."

So the game continues for a while. Everyone scores a few points. Eventually, there's a lull when Erica manages to scandalize Isaac into complete silence with a suggestive use of the word 'panhandle'.

"Hey. I'm sorry if I said something wrong, earlier. I know the ground feels shaky right now, but we're going to figure this out."

- she lets out a small sigh and shakes her head, though keeps her eyes on the road. Would she look at him if she could?

"No, you didn't. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped. I think I just got overwhelmed with. Everything." She drums her fingers on the steering wheel. "I have all this nervous energy and what I really want to do is run. The full moon is so close I can feel it coming. Feel like I'm going to vibrate out of my skin."

"Could you? That would be something to see."

"-if you want to run, Juliet, I wouldn't dream of stopping you. I can keep Isaac and Erica company."

Juliet smiles at him. He's everything that she should want. (Should want? Wants.) She pushes that to the side and shakes her head.

"The sooner we get up to the cabin, the safer it is. And I think it'll be different. Running with a pack. Better."