PART NINE

 

--WEST--

Dust clouded the entire loft when I pulled the sheet down from the window.  Brilliant sunlight spilled through, illuminating the dusty floor.

We weren’t far from the hospital.  Really, no one had moved far yet.  I think in a way that meant we were all still slightly afraid, still not quite ready to accept the fact that the Bane were dead.  We all felt we had to still be within running distance of the place that had kept us safe for all this time.  So we had only gone seven blocks from the hospital.

Vee wandered the loft, observing things in the way that she did.  The loft was large, old.  There was something comforting about the combination.  The entire space was open except for the bathroom.  Wooden posts supported the roof.  The loft was located on the top level of this eleven story building.

The floors were rough wood, polished to a somewhat smooth surface.  A simple kitchen lined one far wall.  The bathroom was large and done up in an interesting combination of brick and white surfaces.

There was something about this space that just said home to me.

The girl who studied the extensive library on the opposite far wall helped in that.

She read the titles on the spines of books, not in any kind of hurry.  She was absorbing.  That was what Vee did.  She absorbed it and it never left her.

Much like me.

We had yet to leave one another’s side for more than a few minutes at a time since we learned Eve’s fate.  Neither of us had anyone else to cling to, so it just felt natural.  We fell back into our patterns of protective comradery.

There was something else behind it as well.  I couldn’t say it was romantic feelings, at least not yet.  I knew that it might come, later on down the road when we both finally figured out who we were again in this reclaimed, heavily changed world.  But for now, we needed each other in a way that just was.

“Do you like it?” I asked.  My voice echoed off the walls.  Other than the books, the loft was completely empty.

She turned to me and I was pleased to see a smile on her lips.  “I think I will like living here.”

“I think so too.”

 

We came and went all day long.  I’d been assigned a truck and told I could use it as long as it would still run.  Considering how corrosive all gas was becoming, it wouldn’t be long.  But Vee and I climbed in and out, loading furniture, carrying it up to the loft.

Bird constantly circled us from above.  He was never far from wherever Vee was.

She seemed lost each time we went into the long abandoned furniture store.  She didn’t care about colors or patterns or any of that other stuff women so often used to put up a fuss about.  So I did all the picking.  And then she helped with the carrying.

By the time the sun started setting in the evening horizon, we had a small table with two chairs.  We had a couch and an overstuffed lounge chair.  There was a bed for me and a bed for her, set up four feet apart from each other.

It was going to take us a while to gather all the supplies we’d need to establish an actual house, but for now, we had a small bit of food and some candles to see by.

Vee had just lit one of them when there was a knock on the door.

Her eyes darted to it and I saw her bend her knees slightly, as if preparing to run or fight.

“It’s okay,” I reassured her.  Honestly I couldn’t really know that, but considering the greatest threat to mankind had just been eliminated, I knew we could survive anything else that came to our door.

I opened it to find Royce standing there, who was about the last person I expected.

“Everything okay?” I asked, looking out into the short hallway behind him.

“Yeah,” he said.  I noticed the way his eyes darted about just a little too fast and the way his fingers seemed to be flicking inside his pockets.

I didn’t think I’d ever seen Royce look nervous.

“What’s going on?” I asked warily.

“Can I talk to Vee for a while?” he said, finally looking me solidly in the eye.  “You’re welcome to listen in too.”

“Um,” I stuttered.  “I guess.  Come on in.”

He crossed the threshold and I closed the door behind him.

“Royce,” Vee greeted him.

“Hey, Vee,” he said, standing in front of one of the many windows that faced west.  “I…I wanted to talk to you about something, if you don’t mind.”

“Okay,” she said, still eyeing him with caution.

Royce was acting very weird.

He finally stood still and crossed his arms over his chest.  His eyes didn’t meet anyone’s when he started talking.  “Apparently Dr. Evans gave Eve a box of your mothers belongings when you all were back at NovaTor.  There were some journals inside, and some pictures.  Eve read the journals.  In one of them, it talked about your father.  She talked quite a bit about how he worked for the government.”

Royce shifted from one foot to the other.  He reached a hand into his pocket and drew something out.  I thought it was a piece of paper at first, but then realized it was a photograph.

“In your mother’s journal she mentioned how your father’s family had a tradition of working for the government,” Royce’s eyes finally rose to meet Vee’s.  She stood ten feet from him, her arms resting limply by her side.

She had no idea what this was leading up to.

But suddenly everything started clicking into place in my head.

“My brother, Rider, worked for the department of defense.  We both did.  So did our father, so did our grandfather.”

“Rider,” Vee said, her brows drawing together slightly.  “Eve asked about that name when we were driving back here.

Royce nodded, his eyes serious and sad.  He held up the picture in his hand and extended it out to Vee.  She took it gently.

“That is my brother Rider, just before he graduated college,” Royce said.  “And that was his girlfriend, Emma.  Your mother.”

Vee’s eyes studied the picture for a long time and she didn’t say anything.  I knew how smart Vee was, how things just seemed to click for her.

But this was a matter of family and emotion.  And those things were far from her.

“Vee,” I said.  Her eyes darted to me.  “That means Royce is your uncle.  You’re family.  Blood family.”

Again, her brows drew slightly closer together and she held my gaze for a moment.

Royce took one hesitant step toward Vee.  I looked over to him to see a single tear clinging to his eyelashes.

“Vee,” he said, his voice hoarse.  “This means you are my niece.”

He tentatively crossed the space between them and even more carefully pulled Vee into a hug.

She didn’t hug him back, not right away.  She stood there stiff and awkward for a long moment. 

But then her fingers curled tightly around the picture and she drew her arms up and behind Royce’s back.

Her eyes slid closed and they stood like that for a long time.

Well how about that?  Eve had had family all along.