Title: Finite Infinity

Author: Stormhawk

Rating: PG

Disclaimer:

Matrix universe and associated characters: Wachowski brothers.

Agents universe: co-owned by me and Mordax.

Stef, Darth, Stevie: Me

Greer: Mordax

The Smurf (Cray): Me

Rest of Exodus crew: Me

The Smurfs: Not me

The Wee Free Men: Terry Pratchett

Word Count: 7655

Summary: The only summary I could give would spoil it, just read it. I hope you won't be disappointed.

Notes: This is the fourth version of this story I have written, enjoy.  

Please read and Review.

Stef walked by the gym on the way to Smith's office, but as she passed something made her stop and stare.

Greer and his katana.

The thin Asian blade was standing with just the very point of it touching the floor. This might not have been so unusual had someone been holding it, but he was balancing on it. Greer had his palm outstretched on the bottom of the hilt; the rest of his body was suspended in mid-air. The few other recruits that had been in the gym had stopped moving, daring not to breathe in case they broke his concentration.

He stayed like that for an indeterminate amount of time, his intent concentration sucking away all ties to the outside world. Slowly, he began to move, slowly as if drawn up by an invisible force his legs rose slowly, as more of his body was drawn up into the air, his hand moved to keep himself balanced, until he was totally vertical. Then he moved a little more, his palm-down hand slowly rising as well, until he was only balanced by his index finger.

A few loose strands from his ponytail fell forward into his face. Sneezing, everyone else who was watching jumped, thinking he had lost his concentration and was going to be hurt.

He was still in complete control. Spreading out his arms, suspended by nothing, he shook his head and got the annoying strands out of his face. Slowly flipping until he was right way up, he grabbed his sword with his feet and flicked it high into the air. Somersaulting, he stood and caught the katana as it fell.

The other recruits cheered; even if he was cold toward them it was nonetheless a very impressive display. He looked around and became aware of just how many people had been watching him.

Smirking, she continued on her way. Walking the rest of the way down the hall she walked into Smith's office.

"I thought you weren't coming," he said nodding at her. "So I started without you."

"Blame the recruits."

"You can't blame the recruits all the time Stef."

"But this time it was actually their fault, I swear."

"Get a file and start reading," he said indicating to the pile on his desk.

***

"Done with that file yet?"

"No, are you done with yours?"

"No."

"Then why did you ask?"

"You know me Smith," Stef said as she lazily flipped to the next page of Cray's file. "I ask a lot of nonsensical questions."

"You could say that again – but don't," he said as he looked over at her. "Who's file are you reading?"

"Smurf's."

"Why do you call him that?"

"Because he looks like a Smurf."

"No he doesn't," Smith said holding his right hand a little above his desk. "Smurfs are about this tall, with blue skin not blue hair."

Stef suppressed a giggle, "who taught you about Smurfs?"

Smith looked slightly embarrassed then smiled, "Stevie watched it during the first stage of the experiment. I can only deduce that the creators had mental problems."

"It's a cartoon Smith."

"Even so. Small blue people?"

"The Wee Free Men," Stef said with a smirk.

"What?"

"Don't worry, just another reference you wouldn't get."

"I am getting better at recognizing them."

"You are learning." She agreed.

"Such as when you called Agent Jones, Indiana last week behind his back."

"Dr Jones, well he had just finished repairing some of your code…" Stef trailed off and went back to reading the file.

"Stef?"

"What?" she asked a little harshly.

"What's wrong?"

"If you don't know I don't want to talk to you."

"Is it because of what I did?"

"You tried to kill yourself Smith, you can't expect me to forget something like that."

"I had a reason."

"Yeah…Stevie. I know." She got up from the chair she was sitting and headed for the door. "I'll talk to you later."

"Wait," he said as the door disappeared. "We need to talk about this."

"Ok," she said as she slipped her sunglasses from her head back down to her nose. She sat back down and stared across at him. "Let's talk."

"I never said I was sorry," he started reasonably enough.

"Sorry?" she spat back at him. "You were trying to kill yourself and you expect 'sorry' to make it better? You were going to leave me all alone and you expect that to make up for it?"

"I didn't…"

"No, of course you didn't. I just wish you got it."

"Got what?"

"That you are the only family I have. I don't have anyone else. I didn't have anything before I came here and when I saw you like that I thought I was going to have nothing again."

"I do get that, and some part of me knew you would pull me back before I went over the brink."

"Please don't do it again."

"I promise I won't."

She slipped her sunglasses back up onto her head and looked at the file in front of her. "Well I'm sick of reading about pseudo-Smurf-boy, want to switch?"

He smiled, nodded and handed the other file over to her. She smiled as she realized it was Darth's file. She willed herself to look away from his photo, but he was cute. "Why are we doing this again?" she asked before she blurted out something stupid in front of Smith.

"We have to read up on collaborators, just in case there is anything of significance in their history."

"Ok. Are there a lot of collaborators?"

"Usually they are killed before the deal is completed, we've never had an entire ship defect to us before though. Especially one with a Zion-born operator."

"I think Galli would follow Ryder anywhere, at least that's what Darth told me."

"You seem to be getting on well with the programmer."

Pretty well Smith, considering I think I have a crush on him, she thought but didn't say. "Yeah – he's cool. Smurf is still afraid of us, Niq doesn't really like agents, Brooke is pretty nice." She ended with a smirk.

"Why did you choose the name Brooke?"

"It's a world away from 'Stevie' and I like the name," she lied – Jonas had chosen the name and faked the file.

"It's nice enough."

"She's adjusting to getting called two different names."

"I still can't believe you sent her back to school – that's pure evil Smith."

"Evil laughter would be appropriate right now, but I won't indulge."

"Oh come on, please?"

"No."

"I want to see you go, 'Mwhahahahaahaha!' I think it would look creepy."

"Please?"

"No Stef, I refuse to," he paused and rolled his eyes, "very well."

 "Mwhahahahaahaha!" He laughed then tilted his head to the side, "done."

Stef rubbed her suited arms, "I feel so cold. That was creepy, don't ever do that again. And you have officially just made my week."

"Happy to help."

She looked up at the clock, "I have to go."

"Why?"

"I promised Stevie I'd go shopping with her this afternoon."

"Didn't you go on Wednesday?"

"Yes, but its Friday today. She's sixteen and has all the money she could ever want, therefore she shops. It's actually a dangerous combination."

"Go have fun."

"Want me to bring you a present?"

"No." 

Shrugging, Stef shifted away. Standing in front of the school, she waited for Stevie to show up. Looking around to see no one else was looking she required a different outfit. A couple of seconds later she was in long black pants and a long sleeved black shirt with silver spider webbing up the sleeves and a silhouetted spider on the front and the rest of the web on the back.

It was actually a copy of a shirt she owned, but hadn't worn in ages.

"Guess what I got? Guess what I got?" Stevie asked as she bounded up to her. Stevie and too much sugar could also be a dangerous combination.

"A sugar high?"

"Besides that," she said rolling her eyes.

"A small Smurf following you?"

"I'm as tall as you are," Cray pointed out. "We both are and you're an agent."

"What did you get?"

"I got an email address."

"That's cool. What is it?"

"System_offspring." Stevie said with a smirk.

"Stevie, that fits you perfectly."

"Cray helped me pick it."

"Good job, are you coming shopping with us??"

"No, but I figured that if you teleported me home it would be quicker than getting the bus."

"It's called shifting, and ok. Let's go," she said as she shifted all three of them away. They dropped off Cray first but continued without stopping.

Literally dropped.

He shifted back into the Matrix five feet above his bed and fell before he knew what was going on. "Very funny," he said to no one in particular. Dumping his school bag he switched on his PS2 and wandered down to the kitchen for a snack while the game loaded.

"Don't tell me you just got up now," he said to Darth as he walked into the kitchen and saw the Programmer sitting behind the bench with a far off look in his eye.

"No," Darth said as he shook out of it. "I've been up for hours, got up this morning, I was just a million miles away."

"The agent place is only like five miles Darth," Cray said with a smirk then ducked behind the fridge door as a muffin flew through the air at him.

"Shut up Cray."

"It's you, not me."

"I never said anything."

"An illiterate could read between your lines Darth."

"Cray, I don't…"

"Don't want?" Cray asked as he picked up the muffin and threw it into the trash.

"Don't have to talk to you about this," Darth said as he shook his head and stormed back up to his room. He locked his door so Cray couldn't barge in and further stick his nose into something that didn't concern him.

"Be rational Darth," he ordered himself as he flopped down onto his unmade bed. "She's an agent." Yes, but since they had become collaborators he had lost the whole 'agents are the spawn of Satan' mindset. He knew that some agents, or maybe most agents would ever hate and destroy rebels. But agents, like any group of people, had to be judged individually.

Agent Smith, the worst agent of them all. The utter scourge of the rebellion, the most feared program in history, was a nice guy.

Well, to a chosen few he was nice. Darth wasn't sure he was among that few yet.  And he was a dad?

And he was a true agent; Stef on the other hand had been a human. He would love to know the details of that story.

He would also love to tell her how he felt.

How the hell did he feel?

He loved her.

He was in love with a program. Just being around her made him smile, she was smart and funny. If she were human he would have been able to tell her this, with little to no trouble. He was a little shy around girls as a rule, feeling more at home in front of a screen.

And he was hesitating because she was a program, but he wasn't going to let her go without at least telling her how he felt.

Now he just had to work up the courage.

*****

"Great," Stef said as they walked into the CD store. "Sappy love music."

"The song will change in a minute," Stevie said as she headed over to the posters.

Stef wanted to shoot the speakers; she hated this type of music. She had always hated it. Even though her opinion of relationships had changed somewhat in the last couple of weeks she still hated this drippy music.

She was in love with a damn human. That couldn't be good.

She wasn't even sure why she liked him, it had just started off as a not wanting to shoot him feeling, but it had quickly grown. He could make her laugh or smile so easily.

He was the kind of guy she would have liked to have known when she was human.

But she wasn't human anymore and that was one of the problems. She was an agent and agents weren't allowed to love.

She'd just have to let it pass. No matter how much it hurt her.

But could she really let him go?

The Next Day.

"Anyone home?" a voice asked from outside Darth's door.

"It's open Stef," he said, turning in his chair to see her.

"Hey," she said as she walked over and required a chair beside him. She wasn't wearing a suit today, as she did sometimes when she came to the mansion she had opted for 'regular' clothes instead of agent-issued. Today, she had chosen to require a pair of dark navy pants and a tee shirt with a blue camouflage pattern on it.

"How are you?" he asked as he pressed a button on his keyboard and sent his computer to sleep.

She smiled, "just fine."

"Everyone else is out so I assume you came to see me?" he asked with a note of hope in his voice.

"Of course I came to see you."

That comment made him feel really good, and gave him the confidence to say what he had wanted to say for a long time. He looked up at her as she smiled, he hadn't though he would have had the courage to say this so soon. He had expected to chicken out before this.

There was also the fact that as an agent she could literally rip his head off his shoulders if she chose to. He leant closer and opened his mouth; this wasn't going to be easy.

"There's something I've been wanting to say."

He caught a glimpse of hope in her eyes, or maybe it was his own reflected in them. "Yes?" she asked, waiting for him to say more.

"It's…" he started, then stopped – words couldn't say what he felt. He leant over and kissed her.

She didn't break away, or tear his head from his shoulders, she relaxed and responded to the kiss. Leaning further in, he wrapped his arms around her, drawing her in, just to feel her close to him. The kiss ended, and he brushed his lips over her soft cheek before opening his eyes. When he did, she was smiling at him.

Now words could say what he felt, and apparently the feelings weren't completely one-sided. "Stef I…" he started as she smirked.

"Time to wake up," she said almost cruelly, reaching over and giving him a gently nudge…

"Love you," he finished as he sat up in his bed. Looking around, his eyes fixed onto the ever-glowing numbers of his alarm clock. The electronic digits informed him it was 6.40 am; it was only five hours since he had gone to sleep.

"Shit!" he cursed quietly, punching a pillow and throwing it over the end of the bed. It had only been a dream. It hadn't been real, just a dream. And it would be always just a dream, real life wasn't like that. Even if they were in the dream world.

He got up about half an hour later, after tossing and turning and trying to get back to sleep, just on the off chance he could get back to that dream. He dragged himself down to the kitchen and made a coffee, almost on autopilot. He was awake, he just wasn't concentrating.

He could still feel the unreal kiss.

He was glad no one else in the house was awake yet, except on school mornings when Cray and Stevie had to be up, none of them got up before they wanted to. Niq didn't get up before nine or ten in the morning unless she had things to do, Cray rose when he was hungry or bored, Stevie was the only one with the habit of getting up at a decent hour.

When they had first found her, she had been an injured unknown brought aboard their ship. They hadn't known what to expect. It had been a revelation to learn that she was Smith's daughter, but the Exodus crew, adjusting quickly, had accepted the fact. She had been cold initially, being used to being around people who disliked her. Learning they hated Neo as much as she did she, had opened up more quickly.

She had loved Ryder's parody of the hope of humanity.

And now, being home back in the Matrix, free from the war, she was rarely without a smile on her face.

Except when she didn't get her daily doses of sugar, in those cases she was cranky like every other sixteen year old. This rule also applied to caffeine.

Yes, she was sixteen now, she had been fifteen when they had been plugged back in. Her birthday had been a couple of weeks ago, two days before Christmas. Those two holidays were the first ones the crew had been able to celebrate properly in a long time.

A pair of feet running down the stairs told him she was up. "Aren't you cold?" was the first thing she said as she ran over to the kitchen heater and slammed it on. She stood directly in front of until she had thawed and felt toasty warm.

"No," Darth was able to say truthfully. "I don't feel the cold much, living on a ship for years kind of desensitizes you to the cold."

"I was on a ship for a whole year and I still feel the cold." Her eyes darted to his cup, "is that coffee?"

"Yeah…" he said before she snatched it.

"Good," she said as she downed most of the remaining liquid before taking a breath.

"That was mine," he said with a pout for his departed coffee.

Stevie smirked, "finders keepers."

Darth shook his head, "keep away from Cray, he's teaching you bad habits."

"The only person I take orders from is my dad and he will shoot you if you piss me off." Darth shook his head again and poured himself another cup of coffee as Stevie finished off the other one. The now caffeine-high teenager bounced into the living room with a box of Fruit Loops.

Picking up his cup he trudged back upstairs and got changed out of his pajamas. Well, the clothes he had slept in anyway. He'd been too busy to change last night so he had slept in his normal clothes. He checked his email again, deleted some Spam and grabbed his wallet from his bookcase.

"If anyone asks," he said to Stevie who was still half-asleep lazily watching cartoons from the couch, "I'm going out today."

"Where you going?" Stevie asked with bleary interest.

"Just out," Darth said as he walked toward the door.

"Are you ok?" she asked with concern, she could tell something was wrong.

He gave her a half-smile, "I'm fine. Just dreams that's all."

"Bad dreams? Are you having nightmares?"

"They're torture," he admitted and left before she could ask anything else. To him, they were torture of the worst kind.

Darth wandered around for hours without anywhere specific in mind. His aimless walking landed him on the stairs to one of his old haunts, an Internet café where he had spent a great deal of time in the months before he was freed. He shrugged to himself; at least it would be somewhere to hide from reality. He walked down the creaky wooden stairs to what had been a home away from home to him.

Darth smiled as he looked around Stonehenge. It was the perfect hideaway for geeks, nerds and computer addicts. It had originally been a comic book store, now what little was left of that was the few comics on the rack of the bar and a lounge full of them where patrons could read them while munching on something to eat.

Now it was officially a net café, about twenty computers were spread out over the whole place. A small center bar served food and light alcohol, its biggest sellers were sodas and crisps. Though if Morse was on he would cook almost anything – he wanted to be a chef when he was older. Two brothers, Morse, the younger brother and Eric who was senior by five years, ran Stonehenge.

Eric had a head for business unlike his younger brother and a passion for science fiction; it had been his comic shop. The walls of the underground establishment were adorned with pictures of the fandoms he loved. A Marvel montage, a silhouetted Jedi battle, the original Enterprise and its crew, a solitary Nazgul on the hunt, various anime characters, the greats like the mummies and vampires, Frankenstein's monster. All of these were painted in amazing details on the huge wall panels. Elsewhere there were framed posters or daybills for other greats were covering every other spare inch of the place. Under the glass of the tables, on the doors.

The computer Darth selected had a ten by eight framed picture of Gort and Klatuu from 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' above it, the one next to him had the fantastic mothership from Close Encounters. Above him the lights were rigged into a model that resembled one of the huge ships from Independence Day. Outsiders wouldn't have understood this place; some that stepped into to check their email or get a drink would often look around and call it lame.

Darth shook his head, logged onto the Internet and sipped his soda.

He froze as he remembered one of the last times he had been in there, it had been a little over three years ago. An anonymous message had appeared in his inbox the instant he logged on and had told him to go home and wait for contact.

This had been back when he been searching for the truth so he had followed the instruction without question. After all it might have been Morpheus or Trinity or another of the infamous names that floated around in hacker communities.

After getting home he had received his instructions for the first meeting, it had been Pandora. The rest was history. Ancient history as far as he was concerned, he was where he wanted to be.

Deciding it was in his best interest and the interest of the crew he had stopped logging onto his old email account as surely some of the better resistance hackers would be watching it – maybe even the agents as well just to make sure he wasn't a traitor – so he had signed up for a new one. 

He knew perfectly well he could use the Internet at home, his computer was top of the range and all the computers in the mansion had broadband access. But he didn't want to be there at the moment, he needed to alone, if only to organize his thoughts. And maybe when he got home later Cray wouldn't be there. He loved the boy like a brother but damn he could be annoying sometimes.

He was down there for hours, lost as always in the infinity of the web. The Internet was strange, it could go on forever and ever and no one would ever know. His entire world was his screen for the moment, lost in the wash of web pages, that's why he jumped when he heard a voice.

"Lord Vader, what are you doing down here?" Stef asked as she sat down beside him.

He shrugged, trying to remain casual, and still trying to forget the dream – even if didn't want to. He pointed to the screen, "surfing the web."

"You do have the net at home, and your computer is better than this one."

"I like Stonehenge, I always have." He paused and then thought of something. "And I think there may be something wrong with my computer at home."

"Unlikely unless you picked up a virus from somewhere."

"I couldn't find any, I probably picked it up off the net. Could you have a look at it for me?"

She nodded, "all you have to do was ask."

Darth smirked, "does that off apply to everything?" There would be a few things he would ask for.

"Of course, I'm here to help."

He smiled, "thank you."

"Welcome, now don't be a thief and pay for your time then I'll shift us back."

As he walked over to the counter and saw her patient reflection in the glass he made his decision. He was going to tell her something, even if it got him killed. He should have made out his will before falling in love. No time for it now, now or never and he wasn't about to let it become never.

They walked up the stairs and when no one was looking she shifted them back to the mansion. "Hey Stevie," Stef said as they walked through the living room.

"Hey," she replied with her eyes glued to the screen.

Stef followed Darth up the two flights of stairs to the attic that he had claimed as his room. It wasn't like there weren't any spare bedrooms; he had just wanted the attic instead. The big windows that ran from about three feet off the floor up to the ceiling let plenty of light in. It illuminated the suitably messy room; there were remnants of the last few days, a couple of empty soda cans, a dinner plate and a cup full of cold coffee. The bed had a perpetually unmade look but the bookcase was relatively organized, the only truly tidy area in the whole room was around the computer.

He turned on the computer and pushed the chair over to her, "you can have it." She shook her head at him, and a second later another one appeared.

"Thank you," he said as the desktop appeared.

"Where's the problem Darth? It seems fine to me."

There was no problem present because there was no problem, he felt himself wanting to chicken out again. "Something weird came up when I ran the diagnostic," he lied, "run it and see for yourself."

She nodded and pulled up the diagnostic tool, and as it started to scan the computer she stared intently at the screen. Inside, she grew a little sad as she realized this was the only reason he had asked her up there. A problem with a computer, just something to do with technology. Programs were good with technology, and she was a program. Nothing but a program, just an agent. She'd never be anything more to him than a program. She bit back on her emotions, not displaying anything on her face, because she didn't want to have to explain to him what was wrong if he suspected something.

Dropping her left hand down beside her chair she clenched it, she damned herself for having feelings for a human. And somewhere at the back of her mind she was even cursing herself for being a program, if she were a normal girl maybe he could care about her. Maybe he could have loved her if she were human. But she wasn't.

Mentally she told herself that she would have to stop visiting when he was around, that or meet with Stevie somewhere else. She was just hurting herself by playing this game of pretend, it was just a delusion. She focused on the screen when the computer beeped, signifying that it had finished its work.

She turned to him and smiled, "there's nothing wrong with it now. Looks like the problem fixed itself, they do that sometimes."

Darth nodded, his mind racing overtime. He looked at her, her expression wasn't saying anything. It didn't allude to their being anything under the surface. He suspected he looked much the same but unlike her, he was anything but calm beyond his expression.

She stood away and looked down at him, giving him a half smile. "I'd better go," she said lightly, if not a little quietly. Emotions had never been her strong point; in the past they had been something that had weighed her down, she was careful who she had friendships with, who she allowed herself to care for. This was different, so different from anything she had ever felt before. She just wanted to cry; maybe it would help the hurt to go away.

"Thanks Stef," he said, standing as well. She was going to leave, he realized, just like she always did. His mind was made up he couldn't just let her go this time. There was something he needed to say first, something he'd wanted to say out loud for so long, too long. Now was the time.

She went to take a step away, but he gently caught her wrist as she moved. She turned back to look at him, then down at his hand. As he held her wrist, doubt grew in him; this well might have been the worst idea he had ever had. "What's wrong Darth?" she asked, this was odd behavior for him.

The programmer looked at the program, he knew what she was capable of, it was exactly what the other agents were capable of. She could easily kill him if his feelings were unwanted or unreturned.

And he didn't give one damn.

He let her wrist go, took another step closer and cupped the left side of her face with his hand.

"What are you…?" she started to ask him as he gently tilted it upward.

"Shh…" he whispered.

Then he kissed her.

Stef closed her eyes as they made contact; it was her first real kiss. And it was all she could do to keep her knees from giving out, she leaned gently into his hand, it was holding her. It was deft, warm, loving and perfect.

Darth didn't want to let go, whatever happened after this perfect moment would effect every moment after this. He had passed the point of no return; he didn't care if this moment never ended.

The kiss broke a moment later; Stef's unreal heart was racing in her chest. She couldn't even think straight, this was totally new to her. Luckily, Darth was a little more coherent.

He wrapped his arms around her and held her in a tight embrace. Staring her straight in the eyes, he said four words. "I love you Stef."

She stopped breathing as she took in those words. He loved her? No, this couldn't be real. It had to be some kind of perfect glitch or something, perfect glitch was an oxymoron but it was the only possible explanation, it was far too good to be real. Maybe he was confused by the fact that she looked human.

"I'm not human, I'm just code. I need you to tell me you understand that."

He shook his head, "I know that, I understand that. That doesn't take away who you are. I love you for you – not what you are made of."

Her eyes shone brightly, "you mean that?"

"Of course I do. I wouldn't have said it otherwise. I had no idea how you were going to react. I thought you may have seriously injured me, or something."

"I could never hurt you."

"Glad to hear that, now that that is out of the way – can I say it again?"

"Please," she whispered as she wrapped her arms around him, lacing her fingers behind his back. She could feel it, it was real. "Please say it again."

"I love you."

Brushing a stray lock of hair from her face, he kissed her again. As he tucked it behind her ear her fingers held some of his shirt, just to keep herself standing.

It was real.

And it was perfect.

She moved them up, wrapping them around his neck to hold herself up. Darth's arms on the other hand slid into her open jacket and wrapped around her. Holding her tightly against him, she could feel his beating heart. With each kiss the moment seemed to expand forever, and both hoped that the outside world would simply cease to exist, leaving them in a state of euphoria forever.

She let his neck go, and shaking her arms, her jacket slid to the ground, and it landed with a soft thud. Next, she reached for her tie but he held her hands and slipped it off himself. He let it float softly to the ground before reaching over to his radio. He clicked it on and soft, incoherent music played. He took her left hand and entwined it with his right, and wrapped his other arm around her waist. As they swung in slow circles, there was nothing more to the world than their embrace.

*****

"Do you know this show causes people to lose IQ points?" was the first thing Stevie heard as her dad shifted into the mansion. Stevie sat up and looked over the back of the lounge to where he was standing several feet away.

"Hey dad," she said turning away from The Simpsons marathon, "I didn't expect to see you until tonight."

He looked slightly guilty, "I was actually looking for Stef. Where is she?"

"Up in Darth's room I think. They went upstairs when they got back."

"How long ago was that?"

She thought for a moment, "and episode and a half ago."

"Stevie…"

"I have been without TV for a year," she whined before he could say anything.  He shook his head, gave her a pat on the head and walked up the stairs.

***

Resting his head on his shoulder as one song ended and another started, she had never realized dancing could be like this. She took another step and tripped on her jacket. Overbalancing, she fell onto the bed and Darth crashed down on top of her. "Clumsy," he said with a smile and made a move to get off. He never got a chance as the door opened.

Smith walked in and his expression turned to that of mild shock when he saw. He hadn't seen the need to knock but now saw that as a serious error in his judgment. As naïve as he could be about some things human, this spoke clearly and plainly for itself. Stef was in a bed with a human, he wasn't stupid and knew exactly what that meant.

She looked up at him; neither had considered someone barging in on them. "Smith?"

"Excuse me," he said quickly before making an exit down the stairs in a hurry.

Darth hurriedly got up and offered a hand down to her. Accepting it and standing, she looked toward the door. "Go," he said gently, "just promise you'll come back."

Leaning over, they kissed once more. "I'll try," she said with a smile as she walked out the door and down the stairs.

"I love you," Darth whispered as she disappeared from sight.

Bounding down both sets of stairs, she saw Stevie standing and looking at the open door. She turned back and looked at Stef, "did you just piss my dad off?"

Stef nodded, "yeah Steves, I think I did."

"Well, can you make him un-pissed, he can be scary when he's angry."

"I'll do my best," Stef promised as she ran out onto the street. Looking both ways, she saw that he was long gone. She slipped her earpiece back in and required his location. The location didn't surprise her in the least and she shifted to his office. She shook her head as he was sitting behind his desk and trying to busy himself with non-existent work on his computer.

"Hello?"

Without even looking up at her, he asked, "yes? What is it?"

"Are you mad at me Smith?"

He shook his head once, and typed something. "Why should I be mad at you? Part of you is human, thus you are doing human things."

She sat down in her chair and looked across at him, "stop talking at me and start talking to me."

He still didn't look at her, "I don't think there's anything that needs to be said. I saw it for myself."

"You saw what exactly Smith?"

"You know what I saw," he stated simply.

"Well I might but you don't. We tripped."

He stopped pretending that he was doing work and looked at her, maybe he had overreacted about nothing. "Oh?" he asked, "so nothing happened?"

She wasn't going to lie to him, "well not quite nothing, but not what you're thinking." To that comment, he raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side, slight confusion and slight suspicion. "Damn, if you are this protective of me, I hate to think what happens when starts dating."

"I care about you as much as I do Stevie. I just don't want to see you get hurt because of this."

"He couldn't hurt me, I would beat the living hell out of him if he tried."

"Come on Stef, you know I didn't mean it like that."

She had known that, "he will also die if he breaks my heart."

"I don't want yours getting broken. Can you understand I am just looking out for you?" he paused for a moment then continued, "you do know this is the kind of behavior that warrants an agent's deletion?"

She nodded, knowing that would appear somewhere in this conversation. "Yeah, I kind of guessed that."

"Is he worth that?"

"I've never been in love Smith, no one has ever been in love with me so I have no way of knowing that. What I do know is that this is one of the best afternoons I have ever had and I don't hurt anymore cause now I know he feels the same way about me as I do him."

"I am happy for you. You do realize that he's human don't you?"

She put a look of faked pain on her face, "please, for the love of the mainframe don't give me the Elrond to Arwen humans and immortals speech/lecture thing. I know he's human."

"That is an interesting parallel isn't it?" he knew what she was talking about because in a fit of boredom one night she had shifted to his office with a TV and DVD player and had made him watch both movies with her.

Stef shrugged, "I guess. Darth is cuter than Aragorn though and neither of us have pointy ears…I could require them though…"

"Don't even think about it," he said with a smile knowing she was joking.

"You're not going to shoot him are you?"

"Of course not."

"Do I have to be home before midnight?"

"You can't ignore your assignments or rebel attacks. But I am going to set a curfew."

Her mouth dropped open at that statement. "Curfew?"

"Six fifteen in the morning," he said with a smile. "So you can be back for the recruit's exercise regime at six thirty."

"I think I can accept that. Thanks ada."

Another look of confusion crossed his face, "Ada? What language are you speaking?"

"Elvish, but don't worry about it. It's nothing important."

He went to say something else when their earpieces crackled on their collars. "Rebels," he said with a sigh as they both shifted away.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the only rebel attack of the day or night, with multiple crews trying to accomplish different objectives or free minds. They finally gave up just after midnight. Smith reminded her once more about the pre-breakfast training before letting her go. She shifted to the mansion, outside his bedroom door as to not wake anyone else, though noise from the floor below told her that Cray was still awake.

"Come in," Darth said, "it's not locked." Taking a deep, somewhat uncertain breath she twisted the knob and pushed it open. He smiled as she walked in and closed the door behind her, unsure of what was going to happen. "You came back," he said confirming it for himself. He propped himself up on his pillow and smiled.

"I did promise."

"Is everything ok?"

"Everything is fine."

"Then come here," he said patting the bed beside him.

"Why?" she asked him, immediately suspicious of his intentions. "Are you just trying to get me into bed?" If this had just been some grand scheme to seduce her, he was going to die. Painfully.

"Not in the way you might be thinking. It is after midnight and I'm actually tired. I just want to fall asleep next to the woman I love."

"Really?"

"Yes really," he said, "Well? Can you stay?"

"As long as I'm back by six fifteen in the morning. I've got to be there for the recruit training. Brown's on this new kick about making them work out before breakfast."

"That's fine. I'm tired, how about you?" he asked as he yawned.

"I thought you knew," she said with a shrug, "agents don't sleep."

"Oh…will you stay anyway?" Relaxing, she nodded and required some pajamas. She smirked as his jaw dropped, even though she had done it him a few times he still wasn't used to it. "Cool," he whispered.

"Thanks," she said as she walked toward the bed. He lifted the quilt that was over him and slid in next to him. Resting her head on the spare pillow he moved in close, so that her back was touching his chest. He kissed her cheek as he slid one arm between her and the mattress and the other one over her, held them around her middle and hugged her tight.

She could feel the rise and fall of his chest and his breath caressed the back of her neck. Was this a perfect moment?

Yes. It was.

She had never been this close to anyone like this before. And she loved it; she loved the way he was holding her. She never wanted to leave. "Goodnight," he whispered.

"Goodnight," she whispered back to him.

"Stef, if this is just a dream. I never want to wake up. If this is a dream, keep me here with you."

"It's not a dream," she assured him. There were a few more things said, but twenty minutes later he was asleep. Now the last one awake in the house, she settled in more, snuggling in closer. Resting against him, she closed her eyes and just absorbed the sounds of the night and the rhythm of his breathing. Night passed quickly enough.

Neither of them had moved much during the night, just after six she sat up and gently slipped out his arms. He looked so peaceful that she didn't want to wake him; she leant over and kissed him before requiring back her suit and shifting away.

The kiss woke him up in time for him to see a ghostly shadow of her as she disappeared. Looking around, there was nothing to say that it all hadn't been a dream. "Damn!" he cursed, throwing a pillow toward the end of the bed. Shaking his head, he collapsed back and wished that he hadn't woken up.

"It wasn't a dream," a voice said. Opening his eyes, he saw Stef sitting on the edge of the bed beside him.

He wasn't going to be fooled again. "How do I know it isn't?" She smiled and took his hand in hers…

…And pinched it.

"Ow!" he yelped as he pulled his hand away.

"Oh poor baby," she said with a grin. "Let me kiss it better," she said, leaning over to pick up his hand. Grabbing her shoulder, he pulled her off balance; she landed softly on her back beside him. Leaning down, he kissed her.

"Thanks for coming back."

"No problem," she said as she shifted away. Darth flopped happily back against his pillows and smiled.

Shifting into the gym she walked over to the wall and watched the line of bleary-eyed recruits file in. Most of them were still half asleep, a few had managed to un-mess their hair, and a few had something with caffeine in it. Smith walked in after them, herding up the stragglers. Brown appeared a moment later in front of the group and started to take them through some warm up exercises.

Smith nodded his head indicating for her to follow him out. He was waiting back in the hall by the time she got there. "Was I reasonable?" he asked as they started walking.

"Yeah," Stef answered unsure of where this was going.

"It's just, I thought I was being generous, but that's the problem with young people. You give them an inch and they take a mile."

"What did I do wrong?"

He smirked to himself, then stopped and looked down at her. "You're one minute late." Then there was a moment of silence. Then he chuckled, "I was joking." Then she slapped him in the arm.

The End.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: 'ada' is elvish for father/dad