Desmond honestly did not expect her to have run at all, let alone this far. He thought he could catch up to her easier once he left Ashley, and he was getting more concerned with every distance he had to catch up on. He wasn't even fully aware about the skills he was using to follow her path; she hadn't tried to hide it, and he understood why. Her emotions blinded her to being pragmatic. He might have left her alone, if she had run right toward the bigger group, but she was separating herself instead. It wasn't safe. Who knew what the hell was out here? Fuck. He should have sent Ashley instead. Fuck fuck fuck.

It was very easy for him to follow her though, and since he was fast and determined, and not blindly running out of emotion, it didn't take long before he was gaining on her. Jesus, what was she thinking? It was getting dark and they were farther away than they should be. He felt guilty, of course, by the time he saw her up ahead, he felt that same punch in his stomach of guilt and grief and also anger too. There was no small amount of anger left in him. For all the ground they tried to cover, for all the time they tried to find ground together, there was this hanging over all of it. They might not ever be able to fix it.

He was slightly out of breath when he finally managed to catch up, his own constant work out and jogging keeping him in shape just out of boredom and lack of plans, and he was sweating under his coat. Goddamnit they were going to have to set up camp. "For fuck's sake, Lucy," he said, approaching her. "Couldn't you have run in the other direction?" It was stupid to gripe about that, stupid to act like they could just talk about shit and not face the fact that she saw him kill her and they were right back where they started.