Randall grunted as she shoved the silvered weapon against his chest. He took it without a word, wiping the fresh blood that coated the blade on his jeans as she berated him for his actions. He couldn't get a word in edgewise though, for her question that came afterwards hit him hard. Her father's death was one of the few that weighed heavily on him, and not just because Randy had lost his most trusted partner. No, it was Leah being made an orphan that had hurt him the most. He had wanted to stay with her after Will's passing, but he knew that a hunter was not the type of person that could be a suitable role model for a budding youth such as her. That was why he had glossed over the finer points of her father's death, and implored her to not seek out her own answers. A lot of good that had done though, judging from their current situation.<br/><br/>He had almost forgotten the incident in the bar when he heard the entrance slam open revealing a pair of yellow-eyed men with anger visibly etched across their features. "We'll talk on the road, now is not the time for stories!" He opened the passenger door of his pickup and pushed her inside, ignoring any sort of protest that issued forth. Closing the vehicle's door with more force than was necessary he popped off two quick rounds from the revolver in the pursuers' direction. He didn't take the time to see if he had struck either of them though. Instead, he made his way around to the other side of the truck and quickly climbed in and revved the engine. The sound of a bottle shattering against the tailgate made him flinch as he drove away, squealing tires as they left. "I swear, if those bastards scratched my paint I'm going to kill them all."<br/><br/>The road was a long swatch of darkness, as was often the case with more rural locations due to any light sources apart from the beams of the truck's halogen bulbs. Randall couldn't even begin to account for the number of times he had been along these country thoroughfares in his life as a hunter, and now was not the time to start. He glanced over at his new companion for a moment taking in the few details he could about her in the shadows of the cab before returning his eyes to the road. "Let's get a few things straight Leah. First off, I had no intention of going<i>Rambo</i>as you put it. I was just there to have a drink before moving on to my next case. If the other hunters in the area wanted to take down the filth in that bar more power to them, it's not my business. I was saving you from a fucking werewolf that wanted to have you for a late night snack! "As for your father," he paused to contemplate her earlier question, deciding on just how to answer it, "well that's a longer story than I'd like to tell you. I do suppose you deserve an actual answer though." The dotted lines of the country road seemed to blur together as he started to reminisce on that horrific night.<br/><br/>"Your dad and I, we were one hell of a team. There wasn't a demon, bloodsucker, or filthy wolf that didn't know our names, and for good reason considering we had the city of Chicago on lock-down. We spent virtually every night hunting the creeps that tormented normal folk, and most evenings were pretty cut and dry. Go into whatever location they were holed up in, eliminate the threat, and celebrate with a few beers afterwards. Truth was though, we got too cocky for our own good sweetheart." It had been so long since he had even thought about the night Will was killed that the mere mention of it was starting to bring unwanted tears to his eyes. Wiping the back of his hand across his face he continued on with the tale though. "There was a nest of vampires said to be residing in an abandoned warehouse, and Will wanted to go in there and burn the fuckers out. I was right alongside him, feeling damn near invincible considering some of the other shit storms we'd made it out of before that. So, we snuck our way in during the day, figuring that they'd be vulnerable, but we were wrong. They had blacked out the windows of the warehouse to keep the sun from streaming in, a detail we overlooked in our stupidity. What we walked into was an ambush, because within a couple of minutes they were all over us. I can tell you this Leah, your dad fought like a wild man. He beheaded six of those lousy fuckers before one got the jump on him, and it was my fault that they got him."<br/><br/>Randall reached down and flicked the switch for the cab's interior light, wincing slightly at the sudden brightness. It was apparent that the retelling had caused him more than his own share of grief from the track his tears had made down his cheeks. Lifting his shirt with one hand to reveal a jagged scar that ran down his right side he started to speak once more. "We got separated in the fight and while we were both holding our own I was hurt pretty bad when one of the vamps got his claws into me. I guess when I cried out from the pain it caught Will off guard and he looked to check on me, and that was when it happened. One minute he was fighting, the next his throat was torn out by a vampire's teeth. Thankfully we had taken out most of them when your dad went down and I was able to finish the rest off despite my wounds, but the damage was done and Will was dead. I left your father's body there and set the place on fire, that's why the papers claimed he was an accident victim, but the truth is I got him killed because I wasn't smart enough to see what might happen."<br/><br/>He drove in silence for the remainder of the ride, pulling into a seedy looking motel about twenty minutes later. Shutting off the engine he looked over to the girl and sighed. "Look, I know I've been kind of a shithead to you, both tonight and since your dad passed away. I wasn't there for you like I should have been, and for that I'm sorry, but this isn't the life you want Leah. Sleeping in shitty motel rooms, and eating whatever will fit into a microwave. That's not what your father would have wanted, and it's not what I want for you either. Stay with me tonight, I'll take the recliner you take the bed, but tomorrow I want you to go back home and try to have a normal life." Randall climbed out of the pickup and made his way to the room's door, unlocking it and holding it open for her to enter.