Great Lakes
There's still nothing on the news on either HYDRA, Whateley, or his clinic, as he drives towards his next target, which is in Michigan. He hopes, since the authorities apparently have decided to keep this affair under the radar, that they at least had the decency to give the other infants a proper burial. It also tells him that they might well be looking for him now. It had been a risk to call the thing in, giving them a clue to his whereabouts, his identity, but he'd figured it was the least he could do. it wasn't like he didn't know how to drop off the grid after all. He's only used cash since making those initial big purchases, wary of anyone being able to find him and the baby by tracking the credit card transactions, but those had been necessary. He hadn't wanted to deplete his cash resources too much, not knowing for how long they might have to last, even if Whateley had all of fifteen grand in a bag in the trunk of the car. If anyone, HYDRA or law enforcement or even the Captain, is following him then they will have a damn hard time retracing his steps. Of course, the baby makes him infinitely more recognizable, but leaving her behind is not an option. He's been doing what he could to seem inconspicuous in the meantime, laying out red herrings any way he knew how. The few people he'd had to interact with he'd told wildly varying accounts of who they are and where they're headed; even if any pursuers were clever and thorough enough to figure out that the young man and his baby were the same people each time, they still would hardly be able to catch up. He is leagues ahead.
Technically he stole evidence, he thinks, glancing over at the baby dozing in her car seat next to him. She's looking out the window at the blurry landscape rushing by with drooping eyes and clutching the little stuffed bunny he got her with a handful of other toys, along with a cot and a high chair and many other things. There are a couple of other stuffed animals, a penguin and a puppy, but the bunny is her favorite with its long, soft floppy ears. He searches for a radio station that plays jazz or classical music, since those will almost unfailingly put Maggie to sleep. True to Laurie's prediction, she had started teething the week after he found her, and hadn't been able to sleep properly for the fourth night in a row now, so he was glad she was getting some rest on the drive.
The teething ring lay discarded on the dashboard. He'd read that you were supposed to cool it to numb the pain in the gums from the teeth breaking through, but he'd learned the hard way that Maggie absolutely despised having cold things put in her mouth. It made him wonder what HYDRA had done to her to cause such a strong reaction. Whateley's files didn't give any clues to that particular conundrum. What he had read there, however, was horrifying enough. When the original purpose of the experiment didn't yield the desired results, HYDRA had re-purposed and planned to raise them as their loyal puppets, employing the brainwashing methods they'd used on him, only from earliest childhood onward. When he'd read that he had thrown up, then had a panic attack. Good thing Maggie had been soundly asleep at that point. He still shudders at the thought of a small army of highly trained and brainwashed killers who had no way of breaking through their programming because they would have known nothing else. He reaches across to Maggie, lightly tickling her side until she grips his finger and finally falls asleep properly.
By the time they've reached their destination Maggie is well rested and thankfully un-grumped because of it. She doesn't seem to be in pain from her teeth at the moment and even gives him a big smile. He quickly gathers what he needs from the car, grabs the carrier part of the car seat and checks into a room in a small motel just outside a small town near the shores of Lake Huron. The landscape is actually rather nice, and for a moment he thinks he might just take a day or so off and take a nice walk with Maggie there. They didn't have a stroller as he'd thought them too ungainly, but he had one of those baby slings where you could strap your child to your chest or back, which he liked because it left his hands free and Maggie could look around herself. She would like the flowers growing there; maybe they'd even see a few wild animals. Or other people out on walks, perhaps with dogs. Maggie liked dogs.
No. HYDRA was the top priority and other people could be used to identify them. It wasn't safe.
He quickly went to their room and got to work preparing their respective dinners. After that he'd have to do some laundry and since Maggie had just slept in the car she wouldn't be tired enough again for a few hours. He used the time for the small indulgence of playing with her. She could sit remarkably well for her age already, and was now happily sitting on the wide bed, trying to find new ways to fit the pieces of her stacking toy together, tossing them away when they don't turn out to be the specific one she wanted at that moment and taking them from his hands again when he picks the pieces back up and passes them back to her. She does this with a focus and concentration that seems almost uncanny for an infant until the result is a tower that looks positively gravity-defying. Yet it stands and he feels a surge of pride well up inside. Maggie clapped her hands excitedly and resumed her babbling, which had ceased during the final stages of construction, as if to explain her design to him. James smiled and gently smoothed her fine hair back.
"Woo-woo." she said very earnestly after picking up her stuffed puppy and showing it to him.
"Close enough." he decrees, then checks the clock on the opposite wall. Their first batch of laundry should be done by now, so he scoops Maggie up while she's still enraptured by the toy and makes his way down to the laundry room of the motel.