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Kento laughed softly. Kento hadn’t looked at a line of code since his tenth-grade keyboarding class. But even he could tell this didn’t look like the other responses. This looked...like conversation. G was...conversing? Did computers do that?
“You’re something, G. Okay, so let’s get serious. You think in terms of absolutes. Grace-anomaly is human. She doesn’t think in absolutes, and if my brother, Nash, is falling for her, then I got this gut feeling that she’s the one who can give you clarity, because Prophet is one stubborn dude.”
“I am glad that I made the decision to save you. I am scared, but you give me…hope.”
The screen dimmed, then went dark. “G? Aw, man, don’t go.” But the screen remained black. Kento’s gut clenched. Fuck, a real ghost in the machine, one who had come into his own on his own with no help. That was remarkable. “I’m here, buddy. If and when you need me.” Kento stared at the blank screen. He wasn’t sure if he’d helped, hindered, or just handed the world its first sentient AI with attachment issues. But one thing was clear, GRAVITY wasn’t alone anymore. “You’re not alone. Never again.” The screen flickered once, softly, like acknowledgment.
Kento leaned back, rubbing his hands over his face, feeling the weight of it all. “Yeah,” he murmured, voice low. “That’s what I said. Never again.”
* * *
Grace couldn’t move.She lay on her bed and listened to Nash pace on the other side of the door. The moment she walked into the room, she locked it. Anger ran through her to burn off the deep pain of his betrayal. Why couldn’t he trust her? Listen to her instead of bulldozing like the freaking alpha male he was. Testosterone wasn’t going to sway her. She’d stood up to the director of NCIS. Said her peace and was dismissed anyway. Nash dismissed her like everyone had when she couldn’t perform from her mother all the way to the fucking White House.
She got up, unable to handle that constant movement. She ached for him even as she ached from his actions. The light was fading from the heavily overcast sky, and the lights had just come on, their luminescence doing little to dispel the deepening gloom.
She could just make out OrdoTech in the distance, and for a moment, her throat closed up, the memory of trying to get air made a chill crawl across her skin. She went to the window watching the snow filter down, such an awful pain in her chest that she couldn’t take a deep breath. She thought she was safe with him. That he had seen her, but that bubble had burst outside of OrdoTech when he’d told her she couldn’t do this alone.
She heard him try the handle, and her unhappiness surged. Unable to help herself, she walked to the door. She heard a thump, and a rustle of clothing as if he’d slid down the length of the door.
“Grace. I don’t know if you’re listening to me, and if you aren’t, I understand, but I’m going a bit crazy over here.”
She bowed her head, her chest contracting so hard, she almost opened the door, but she couldn’t, not after what had happened. The resistance made her muscles flex and burn.
“I don’t know how long I’ve been standing here…long enough to wish I’d said it different.” His breath rushed out, and the sincerity in his tone drew her closer to the wood. “You weren’t wrong. I failed to reconcile the woman who is strong enough to carry through with any task she puts her mind to with my own fucking needs.” His voice was ragged and full of gravel, and his words cut to the core of her. “I’m scared,hebbiti. I couldn’t do anything in that room. You were dying, and I was failing. I would give up anything for you. Just don’t leave hating me. Tell me what I can do to make this better.”
Her knees gave out, and she slipped down the door, almost convincing herself she could feel his heat through the wood.
“I recognize that you’re a woman who’s clawing her way out of silence and fire and into purpose. The woman who had every reason to walk away, and didn’t. I begged you to stay, now I’m begging you to go.”
She set her hand on the door.
“That fear in your eyes ripped something open inside me. I snapped. It’s not that I want to leave. It’s that I can’t handle what staying might cost.” A soft laugh was expelled as if it hurt. “You are so brave. Brilliant. Steady as hell. My fear, Grace, is what if you die anyway? What if I stay, and I still lose you?”
She leaned her forehead against the wood.
“You’re not a liability,” he said quietly. “You’re the only thing keeping me from going under.” His breath shuddered out. “I let you in so deep, I can’t, won’t let you out. I can stay with you, trust you, andstill honorthe brothers I lost. Not having the answers is as important as slowing down, healing, living. Staying doesn’t dishonor the dead. It honors what they gave me. I can live with that, but I don’t think I can live without you.”
She realized at that moment that their bubble had broken, but it hadn’t broken them. He still wanted her, even when she was difficult, even when she said no, and it was his fear that had caused him to lash out, not that he dismissed her…oh God…he cherished her. The thought of him so close, with no one to hold and comfort him, was more than she could handle, and something broke loose in her.
“Nash,” she murmured. “Move away from the door.”
“Grace,” he whispered, the anguish clear and reverberating in the dark.
She heard him comply, and she unlocked the door and threw it open. It slammed against the wall, but she didn’t care. She was through. He spun, the devastation on his face turned to hope as she crashed into him.
He caught her, his breath rushing out in stark relief. Nash stared at her for an instant longer, then he shut his eyes in an expression of immense torment. Grace fought against a wrenching surge of emotion as his arms came around her in a desperate, crushing embrace. Holding on to him with every ounce of strength she had, she roughly turned her face against his neck and hugged him, closing her eyes against the swell of tears. “We can leave tomorrow,” she said. “We can figure this out, come up with another way to get them justice.”
Caving in around her, Nash tightened his hold and tucked his head against hers, and she felt him finally let go. She wasn’t far behind him.
“You saw me when no one else could, and you gave me form and foundation to show you who I was, and you didn’t judge me or shut me down because I wasn’t useful. I could never go back to who I was before. I’m changed and so open it hurts.”
“Grace,” he whispered. “Fuck.”
She steered him to the bed. “Let me hold you, Nash,” she said softly. He looked exhausted, both mentally and physically, and something painful happened to her heart when she realized how badly he was trembling.
She slid her arm around his waist. “Come on, babe,” she whispered unevenly. “Let’s lie down for a bit.”
He exhaled unsteadily as she started to undress him, locking her jaw against the raw emotion. Once he was free of his clothing, she stripped down, not wanting anything between them. The only thing that would do was skin to skin, heat to heat, heart to heart.