Dear Reader,
Although this story is "complete" by FFnet standards, I'm planning on a followup to address the issues raised by multiple crossovers with other teams somewhere in the middle there. Just in case you read all the way to the end and you're like, "Um, what just happened?" I don't know either, but I'm planning to write until I figure it out :)
Love, *Andrea
what I owe you
by starhawk
Holy shit.
For years, he would remember that this was his first reaction to seeing Dr. K. He could break that girl over his knee. Seriously, she'd probably fall down if he walked up to her and flicked a finger against her forehead.
And he fucking wanted to. She'd given him enough grief that he could have cheerfully punched her in the face. He hadn't felt naturally homicidal at any point during the last year, but there were only so many times even the calmest person could be shot into a wall before they broke. He wanted to fire one of those damn cannons at her, right now, and see how she liked it.
His second reaction was, Hah. Scott could never let it go, the fact that he hadn't been able to stop calling Dr. K "she." He tried, he made the effort, he'd even managed to fake the habit, but invariably he would slip up and Scott would be listening. He couldn't help it; machines were "she" to him.
Dr. K had long seemed, in his mind at least, more like a machine than he was.
"Lemme get this straight," Ziggy blurted out. "You're Dr. K? Like, creepy Doc K computer screen Dr. K?"
"You designed the operator series." Scott's disbelief was flat and withdrawn.
The tiny girl in an oversize lab coat and obnoxious headset only raised her eyebrows at him. So the attitude wasn't just a product of virtual interaction. Good. He wouldn't feel so bad about socking her.
It was funny, though. When he heard their questions, his only reaction was: obviously. For the first time since they'd met, no doubt had crossed his mind when that synthesized voice spoke.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Summer asked. Tell them what, he had no idea... that she was human? That she'd been on the base the whole time? That she looked like a pixie?
Flynn wanted to know, "Why now? Dillon acts a bit crotchety--which, if I might add, nothing new there--and suddenly that's it, mystery solved?"
"I assure you," she said coolly, "the erratic temperament of Ranger Operator Series Black had nothing to do with my decision."
She caught his eye when he shifted, and he demanded, "Can you pass all those tests you put us through?"
She didn't bat an eye. "I'm the standard against which your test results are measured."
What was even stranger was that he almost believed her.
