Gone Away by Elizabeth Noble

his determination.
    During their time apart, Riece had grown. He had a maturity about him now Mason found very attractive. Instead of his personality quirks being a crutch and holding him back, Riece seemed to have come to accept himself more readily, and he exerted himself to deal with the fact his mind worked slightly differently than most people’s. The Riece Mason had first met had often been held back by his thought processes.
    Today was cool, and sunshine filtered through the multicolored leaves of the trees on either side of the road as they drove. Riece balanced a tablet on his knees, flicking through some of the photos he’d already taken. He had propped the map Mason had marked against the dash. Every few minutes Riece would put one finger on the map and make a note on his tablet.
    Finally Riece looked over at Mason. “How long will we be out there?”
    “It’ll take about a day before we reach that farthest site. I thought we could cut west and hit the second two on the way back. Depending on how long your part takes and how fast we walk, we should be back to our starting point by evening the third day.”
    Riece nodded, reached behind his seat, and pulled his camera bag onto his lap. “I’d better make sure I have everything I need.”
    “Stop.” Mason let go of the steering wheel long enough to take hold of Riece’s arm and squeeze. “You’ve checked that and reorganized it four times since we left the station. Look at the scenery. Or talk to me.”
    “You’re right, I’m—”
    Mason let go of Riece’s arm and held up his hand. “Don’t you dare say you’re sorry.”
    “Sor—I won’t.” Riece looked at him and grinned. “So we’ll have to spend a few nights camping?”
    “Yeah. You okay with that? I know you’re not big on that sort of stuff.”
    Riece shrugged. “It’s part of the job, and I’ll be with you, so yes, I’m okay with it.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a tube. “I brought this. Since we’ll be sleeping together in the same place.”
    Mason glanced over and laughed. “Confession time. I brought some lube as well.”
    “Does that mean we’ll have sex? I did pay for half the food we’re bringing.”
    Mason snickered again. “I think that means there’ll be an excellent chance one of us will open our bottle of lube.” He guided the Jeep onto a side road. “This road runs alongside one of the areas we’ll be hiking through. There’s a gas station and small general store up ahead. We’ll leave my Jeep and hike in from there.”
    Despite Mason’s attempts to distract him, Riece went back to reorganizing his camera equipment. Mason silently congratulated himself for putting the rest of their supplies in the very back of the Jeep, where Riece couldn’t get to them while they drove. Otherwise he’d be unpacking and repacking everything, which would in turn cause Mason to possibly navigate his Jeep off a cliff. Fortunately this road didn’t run along any cliffs.
    By the time they’d reached their destination, Riece had reorganized the bag three times, and all the items stored within were back to the way they’d been arranged in the beginning. Mason parked the Jeep to the side with a few other vehicles left while their owners were hiking, hunting, and camping.
    Mason grabbed his uniform hat from the backseat and put it on as he climbed down from the Jeep. He waited for Riece, resisting the urge to take the camera bag from him. Instead he stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground while Riece and the camera bag battled it out. The bag nearly won.
    As they crossed to the front of the store, Mason spotted the latest model of his Jeep. Snagging Riece’s sleeve and steering him away from a garbage can he was about to walk into while he dug in his bag, Mason guided Riece to the Jeep.
    “Give up on that thing,” Mason said and pushed the bag flush against Riece’s body. “Check this baby out.” He pointed to the Jeep and at the same time