“I thought you were an atheist,” he said.
“I am. I just thought you would appreciate the imagery.” She pursed her lips. “I also spent quite a lot of time choosing just the right shades of yellow and pink and red, just so you know.”
“Oh, it looks plenty tasty, all right.” He picked it up. Dusted it off on his shirt. “Is it what I think it is?”
She nodded. “I wanted a way to make the change to your failsafe that wouldn’t mean remaking you entirely. I’m sorry it took so long.” Her vision swam. She wiped her eyes hastily. “I mean, I’m really sorry, Javier. If I hadn’t been so selfish, if I hadn’t waited so long, Powell would never have hurt you. He couldn’t have.”
Javier moved to the window. “You know about that, huh?”
“I saw it happen. Later. I went through some records.”
Javier nodded. "Right.”
She joined him. Outside, dawn was just turning the city a pale lilac. Only a few stars were still visible. “I was going to tell you, that day, that I had researched him. Or, we researched him. The island and I. It was on the tip of my tongue."
Javier's shoulders sank in the approximation of a sigh. "Of course you did."
"So I knew who he was, when you…”
“When I poisoned you,” Javier said. “When I killed you.”
She reached for his hand. She squeezed it. “I’m still here. See?”
He squeezed back. “You forgive me?”
She blinked. “For what? I’m the one who should be ashamed. Why do you think I stayed away for so long? He raped you because I didn’t do what you asked me to do – I didn’t hack you, even when you begged me to. That’s my fault, not yours.” She broke their grasp, and moved for the bed. She sat down and hugged her knees. “I knew you couldn't possibly forgive me for that, so I left you alone. Well, mostly alone. I watched you.”
A smile pricked at the corners of his mouth and slowly unfurled across his face. His voice was quiet. "The crossroads? In Macondo?"
She smiled back. It was strange to be so shy with him, like this, but there was really no way around it. The only way out was through. "Yes. I was with you at the crossroads. And the elevator. And the balcony. And any other time you were visible to surveillance technology. Which was a lot. "She hugged her knees a little harder. "Thank you for rescuing my dad."
Javier scrubbed at one eye with the heel of his right hand. "What? Oh. Well. I'm surprised he didn't, you know, hit me or something. I could tell he kind of wanted to. Me being the one who got out alive and all."
Amy frowned. "But you weren't the only one. Everyone is safe. I built an escape plan into the island."
"Well, I know that now, but you could have just told me that, so I didn't have to carry that weight..."
"I wasn't sure you'd want to know," Amy said. "I didn't tell the others about each other, either. Not right away. I woke up their pods at different points, as I found safe places for them to go, and–"
"Of course I wanted to know." He looked genuinely angry, now. Angry, and more than a little frustrated. "Jesus. I love my boys." He blinked. "I'm not sure I've ever said that out loud. I love my boys. And my girl. My girls. I love..."Javier trailed off. He weighed the apple in his hand. He started at it, and then her. With his gaze meeting hers, he took a furious bite from the apple. “Sweet.” He threw it behind him, pulled off his shirt. “Come here.”
Amy beamed. She stood up, smoothed her dress, and walked over to him, measuring her steps carefully so that she didn't appear to be running. He took her wrists first, and used them to circle her arms around him. Then he held her face in his hands. "You wanted to give me a choice," he said.
She nodded. "Yes."
"That's why you left me alone. You wanted me choose for myself."
Amy looked away, but he drew her face back gently so she'd have to look him in the eye. "I messed things up so badly," she said. "I wanted to let you leave, if you wanted to leave, and–"
His mouth closed over hers. It was an instant confirmation of her decision: hosting herself on a variety of spaces was interesting, but living here, in this skin, was much more fun. Especially when he was sucking on her lower lip like that, and running the tip of his tongue over it.
"Don't you know I always choose you?" He leaned their foreheads together. "Take off that dress. I feel like exercising my shiny new free will."
She pulled at the fabric, got caught in it, and waited as he did the rest. He was warmer than she remembered, fingertips to lips to chest, all warm as the sunlight stored in his skin. He was also bigger than she remembered. Softer.
“You’re iterating ?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Couldn’t be helped.”
“I’m glad,” Amy said, and rolled on top of him. “The first time I saw you, you were pregnant. So I have good memories of it.”