Work Text:
“We’re gonna be late!” Lorraine sighed, glancing over at her husband, who was peering at the road from around a ginormous paper map. “We are NOT going to be late,” he told her, sighing in frustration as he swatted the map aside when he was unable to fold it up. They were due at the community center in a town a few hours away from their own, and the place was so small, Ed couldn’t seem to find it. If they didn’t show up within the hour to give their presentation, then they’d lose their spot for the next two days and maybe even their hotel room.
It didn’t help that it was late afternoon, and they might be stuck driving through the middle of nowhere in the pitch dark. “Ed, we were supposed to be there, like, an hour ago,” Lorraine grinned. She wasn’t accusing him (God knew he would lose his mind if he thought she was), but even she knew he must’ve missed the turn a few miles back, or something.
“So we took a slight detour? We still have time!” He defended. Lorraine rolled her eyes and began folding up the big map that Ed continued to try and get off of him, since it lay in a crumpled heap halfway on his lap. “Okay, okay, I believe you,” she laughed. It was her job to believe him, or at least to say she did, but that didn’t make this whole thing any less funny.
“Just tell me if you spot any signs of human civilization.” Ed sighed at her comment, giving her a dirty look that she smiled back at, trying not to be too smug. When it came to driving, Ed absolutely did not know how to except help. She offered to drive; he laughed her off. She told him a minimum of fifteen times where the turn was, and he still missed it, and then refused to loop around and go back, insisting that he did it on purpose because there was a “quicker way.”
“Ha ha, very funny, Lorraine. But I’m tellin you now, I’ll be the one laughing when we get there
on time.”
Lorraine glanced up at the sky, noticing the watercolor sunset that had overtaken the cloudless blues. “It’s getting dark out,” she told Ed, who was even angrier than before and somehow had gotten himself tangled in that map again. “I can see that,” Ed snapped. “You know, snapping at me won’t make us any less lost,” Lorraine told Ed with a shake of her head. He gritted his teeth. “We aren’t lost! I know exactly where we are!”
She sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to admit it until he was forced to. “Well good! Because we’re almost out of gas.” His eyes widened for a second and he glanced down at the gauge frantically, before clearing his throat.
“Doesn’t matter. We’ll be there in a few minutes anyways.” She raised an eyebrow. Boy, he was devoted to this whole charade. “If you say so,” she sighed.
By now, the sun was completely down, and they were pulled over on a dirt road who knew where. Ed now had the map spread out on the hood of the car, looking for the nearest gas station, while Lorraine wandered aimlessly along their little stretch of road. There were fields on either side, each with grass and weeds that hiked up to their knees, and Lorraine was trying to see if there were any houses nearby so they could ask for help, directions, anything.
After a while she gave up, trekking back towards the dirt path, and taking a break to lean against a tree. She was still amused about the fact that they were lost; missing a presentation in front of a crowd of stuffy skeptics was no huge loss to her, but she felt bad about how frustrated Ed was getting.
He was acting like they would be permanently stuck out there. Of course, she didn’t blame him. As supportive as Ed was (she couldn’t ask for anyone better, and there wasn’t anyone that was, anyways), he was still a man, which meant that him admitting they’d gotten lost in the middle of nowhere? Not likely, sorry.
Ed grabbed the map angrily. This was the third time he’d had to chase it down after the wind had taken it. Still completely unable to get it to fold like his wife could, he tossed it through the window of their car instead and left it in a ball on the seat.
And that left only one thing. He had to admit that they were lost. Of course, he knew that Lorraine knew, but he figured it was time to give up on his denying that he’d gotten them in this situation. Mostly, he just hadn’t wanted to admit it, because it was awfully embarrassing that the one time they needed to be somewhere on time, Ed decided to take them down the scenic route.
But he was also worried that it would freak her out to hear him admit it, because then she’d know he had given up and they were out of hope. “Lorraine.” He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. No response. He looked up, glancing around. “Lorraine?”
Ed hadn’t even been paying attention.......how far had she wandered off? Or worse: what if she had a bad vision and she was all alone, with no one to help bring her back? Even a whole year after Maurice’s exorcism and the Perron Family Case, she still wouldn’t tell him about the one that had her hiding out for 8 days. He worried about that a lot, what she’d seen, if she had had it more than once and just didn’t tell him.
And now he couldn’t even find her..... ”Lorraine!” He moved towards the field on the right, forging through the tall grass and weeds that were up to his chest. “Ed?” She peered out from around a tree, looking confused and a little concerned. He sighed in relief, practically deflating. “Don’t scare me like that! I didn’t know where you were!”
Lorraine came over to him, wiping dirt off her skirt. “Sorry. So did you find a gas station on the map?” He sighed, squeezing her hand. “Yeah, but it’s about two miles away, and one of us would have to stay with the car, and I’m definitely not leaving you by yourself-“
She snorted. “Ed, I can handle myself.”
“What if you have a vision?”
“Then I’ll deal with it! We need gas, and we need directions.” Ed sighed again. She was right, per usual, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. “So you’re all right with me leaving you here for a little while?”
Lorraine put her hands on either side of his face. “I’ll be fine. Now go save the day.” She pulled him down into a kiss, before hiking back over to the car. Ed insisted she get inside and lock the doors before he left. And then, once he was out of sight and she could stop waving goodbye, she leaned back in her seat, deciding to get some sleep while she waited.
The night was at its darkest by now. Ed was one his way back from the gas station with an oil can and directions in one hand and the other pressed to the scratch on his forehead. Out alone on these dark country roads, he wasn’t very easy to see by car until they were right on top of him, and he’d had to roll out of the way across the pavement to avoid becoming roadkill.
Now, walking the last half mile, his feet felt like they were going to fall off, and the only motivation he had was Lorraine. So he trekked on.
Lorraine woke up around midnight, sitting up in her seat as she heard the doors unlock. She’d just had a very unsettling dream, and it took her a few seconds to remember where she was. Glancing out the windshield, she noticed that it was only Ed, filling up the car. After a minute, he hopped in the front seat, setting a scrap of paper with directions on the dashboard.
“What happened to your head?” She asked, gently wiping away the smudge of red on his skin. He seemed at a loss for words for a second. “Doesn’t matter,” he said after a minute, deciding not to worry her.
“Now come on. Let’s just go check into this damn hotel.” She laughed as they finally started off in the right direction.