"Just remember that being in the driver's seat does not give you pre-set station changing privileges." he said without looking up.

She glanced sympathetically at the collection of crumpled papers in his lap - a map, the music store flyer, a slightly different map, the license and registration information that had fallen in a heap out of the glove compartment. "You still have that 20 questions thing under all that?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah, right here. I don't appreciate the doodles by the way."

"So give me one. Give me whatever one we were up to."

"Sure, let me just..." he folded some of the cluttered documents and looked at the next question. Oy. He cleared his throat. "Have you... have you ever been in love?"

"Yes," she said, without hesitating a millisecond.

Alex rushed into the next question. "Do you have any enemies?" He looked up to see Tess looking back at him, one eyebrow arched. "What?"

She looked out to the highway and the edge of a smirk appeared in the corner of her mouth. "Enemies. Right. Let me ask you something, sweetie. Does the word Skins mean a damn thing to you?"

"Oh yeah, my mistake. Forgot about all that... stuff... for a minute."

"And, you know, not just that. We've got duplicates and crystals and pretty much the entire United States government-"

"Right, right, sorry, moving on..."

"Hey wait just a minute, Al. You didn't answer the love one, did you?"

"Oh, I didn't?"

"No."

"Oh."

"Well?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well, I'm assuming you haven't done a whole lot of dating, no offense. So other than Princess Leia or whoever you have your special male dreams about, we've got Isabel. Were you in love with her?"

Alex's mouth formed an O arguably larger than his head itself. "I don't- I- I don't know where you get your information from, but I promise you I have never ever had a special male anything for Princess Leia."

"And...?"

"And, okay, Isabel - was I in love with Isabel? I'm not sure. What's love, you know? What is love? There's, like, wanting to protect someone and take care of them and stuff - I had that. There's wanting to hang out with them and be around them all the time - I had that too. There's just, you know, lust and wanting to..." He trailed off and cleared throat again. "So I had that.... In a lot of ways I guess I kinda did love her... I mean, I guess I kinda still..." He stopped himself before he could finish that sentence. "Oh great! Look at that, one stupid road trip with you just completely erases four very theraputic weeks of distance. Man!" Tess stifled a giggle while he knocked his head into the dashboard. "Noooo! No! Bad Alex!"

"Mm, poor kid. You might need just a little more theraputic treatment than that."

Alex groaned, took a deep breath, picked his head up again. "Okay, I'm okay. What are we on now? What's your greatest strength?"

"I'm guessing yours isn't your sense of direction."

"What does that mean?"

"Come on, Alex. Stop trying to pretend you know where this store is. You haven't given me any directions in ten minutes, Mr. Navigator."

"No, I- I know you're going the right way. Maybe... I just thought we would have passed it by now."

"Yeah? Well, I'm turning around. You must've missed a turn or something, we're lost now."

He fumbled with the papers in front of him. "We are not lost. I can see this road on the map."

"The one you're holding wrong-side up?"

His jaw dropped. "Well... wait-"

She giggled. "Gotcha. I'm turning around, you're telling me your greatest strength."

"I listen. I'm nice. I think I'm a pretty decent human being-" He could kick himself. "Or, you know, person, whatever. So, uh, what's your greatest strength? Not counting powers and stuff."

"Oh, other than that. I guess... I don't know. I'm not nice."

"You're not not nice, you're just a little... you're something. I don't know."

"Maybe that is a strength in a way, you know? Not being obligated to always be a so-called decent person all the time. Don't you get sick of that?"

He frowned at her. "That's your strength? That's what's going on this paper?" She nodded. "Alright, fine. Greatest weakness?"

"Yours first."

"What, physically? No, I guess... I dunno. As I said, I've been trying to focus on the more positive aspects of my personality, and the things I can change for the better."

"God, you are just a fortune cookie full of wisdom today, or something. Full of something."

"Oh ha. Ha ha. Answer."

She made a few clicking noises with her mouth, and suddenly she had a calm, even look on her face. "I guess, sometimes, lately, I act too much like... well, you. Not you you, I mean I act - now don't get offended by this - human."

"And the problem with that exactly?"

"Just irritating. Like I know I'm not supposed to. It's contagious or something. I get all... happy or, like, upset over stupid things. I always did a little, but I was learning to control it or hide it, and now I'm just-"

"Yeah, that's just awful. Really."

"You don't understand."

"Of course I don't. I mean, getting happy and upset - I wouldn't wish that on anybody. How do you even live with yourself?"

"Here's the thing, okay? I forget stuff. I'll be hanging around doing some retarded activity and, you know, actually having fun. And all these things I spent my whole life knowing - really knowing, being one hundred percent sure of - I can feel them slipping away from me. And then- then other times it all just floods back and I start thinking about all this crap and I can't even function and that- that- that just doesn't happen to me, you know? It's not part of who I am."

"But it does happen." Alex said slowly, wondering if that was the right cue for him to jump into the spontaneous spazzy fit that was, frankly, scaring him a little.

He watched Tess freeze and saw her eyes bulge as if she suddenly became aware of everything she had just said out loud. And aware of him still sitting there, listening, nodding, looking honestly concerned. She composed herself and forced a shuddery laugh. "Uh, so what was the question again?"

"I think we're okay for that one. Next question is - oh, these keep getting better and better - Do you envy anyone?"

Tess relaxed a bit and rolled her eyes. "Uh, yeah. Shut up, don't even - It doesn't ask who, it just asks if you do, right? So write yeah."

"I can't think of anyone specifically. I mean for me."

"Good. Next question."

"Who do you identify with? I was gonna go with Job. Nice, Biblical guy, had a little trouble with God, like, punishing him for absolutely no reason but overall..."

"You're kidding."

"Yes, I am. I am kidding. So who are you picking?"

She thought for a minute. "Amneris."

"And she is...?"

"Okay, Amneris was an opera character. She was an ancient Egyptian princess, and her love - her future husband, that's Ramades - was a soldier. And a great man. And he's supposed to be Pharoah one day."

"I'm seeing the connection."

"So she cares so much about him and they're on this perfect route to have a wonderful life together. Then he goes and falls in love with a slave from another country. The whole story's really about the two of them - Ramades and the slave - and their big star-crossed romance that destroys them. They die eventually, together. But Amneris, at the end, she's... she's alive and she's all alone." She stopped and waited for Alex to say something but he just stared. She gritted her teeth. "You know, this is- where is this damn store?"

"You got me."

"I am just so tired of driving and taking this stupid survey and... ugh!"

"Don't worry, here come the easy ones... Number 13 - Do you have a sense of adventure? Do you like to take risks?"

She sighed. Alex wondered for a minute if she had been doing that the whole time in the car, and he had just stopped noticing. "That's a weird question." she said. "I guess I am. More than you."

"What are you talking about? I've taken many risks. Several risks. A few. A couple - occasionally."

That got a smile out of her. Or at least a piece of one. "I don't look at you and think Daredevil."

"Well you, my friend, do not know the new Alex Charles Whitman. See, if you had met him, you would call him a huge risk taker. I'm totally getting the hang of it."

"So what's it like?"

"It only sucks when you apply it to gambling."