A/N: After watching 'Hallelujah', the video from S&H'sD, I got really good and sad and wanted to write a mushy, melodramatic Bob'n'Dot fic. The only part that doesn't make sense is that Megabyte doesn't star in it more than being mentioned in passing, which is odd considering we left our favorite characters hopeless and losing. Bear with me. This is a conversation between Bob & Dot concerning the little troubles they've been having. It's been done before, it shall be done again in the years to come, but if they can do it, I can do it. And here I go.
EXTRA Note: Rewrote it so Bob was less heartless, also changed a word or phrase here and there that has nothing to do with Bob. Proofread like I have never proofread before. I like it better now, hopefully so will anyone who reads it. :)
Dot sat in her office, typing fervently at a keypad. Working made her uneasy thoughts simmer down to a manageable level, and so she worked diligently, waking early and staying up late to keep fretful dreams to a minimum as well. However, though it had seemed like no amount of work she could do would put so much as a dent in the amount that had to be done, she had finally gotten important things out of the way and been forced to do mindless tasks. Mindless tasks did not keep her occupied.
I have to talk to Bob someday, she thought, and instantly she wished she had caught it and filtered it out before it had come to her conscious mind. Thinking about Bob made her stomach tense up and her heart start to ache in her chest. Her mind turned away from what she was typing, and she felt like crying again. It was a daily ritual now, and she was usually careful enough to hide it from her friends and workers. This wouldn't do.
She wiped her eyes just as a knock came on the door. "Come in." she said, trying to make her voice sound acceptable. The door opened and her visitor came in. Oh, no..."Bob, hello. Uh, please, have a seat." She gestured towards the chair opposite her own. Bob sat down. She looked up, his eyes were coldly serious, no trace of a smile on his face. She felt a sinking sensation in her stomach.
"Any new developments?" she asked, desperate to break the silence.
"No," he said. "Megabyte hasn't pulled anything new yet, since we got him out of the P.O., and with any luck he'll give us time to regroup a bit."
It was a pathetic conversation. Both sprites knew it was. Dot abandoned it and looked down at her desk again. There was another silence.
Finally, Bob spoke up. "You look a little sickly. Are you alright? I hear you've been working pretty hard lately." Dot winced, the remark sounded caring. She shook her head to clear her thoughts of the emotions starting to well up.
"I'm fine. Allergies or something, I guess." She leaned her face into her hands, feeling worse by the nano. Bob's face flashed a new expression, but it was gone too quick for her to catch.
"Dot, I have to talk to you." he said suddenly, and Dot knew she wasn't going to like the following conversation.
"No, no you don't." she said flatly, not raising her head.
"Yes, I do. We both do." She didn't move or reply, and he said in a near exasperated tone, "Look, if we don't at least start to resolve this, we'll never be able to sit in the same room comfortably again. I know why you look sickly, Dot, and it's not allergies."
Dot still didn't reply, she couldn't think of a single thing to say that wasn't shallow or easily dismissed even in her own mind. Not that that bothered me before, she thought sourly. Bob was getting a little angry.
"If you won't talk, fine. I will. One of us has to be an adult about this." The remark stung. "Dot, it hurt. When Matrix sided with him to play in the game. When I saw you drifting towards him..." He paused to recollect himself. "User, Dot, when you took his arm in the wedding hall..."
He stopped again, shading his eyes with one hand. Dot felt her breath coming faster as she tried not to cry outright, her eyes getting warm as tears welled up in the bottom. Her throat ached with surpressed sobs, and she felt that she should say something. She swallowed.
"I didn't want to hurt you, I just-"
"Just didn't want me at all." Bob said, an edge of sarcasm in his voice. Dot's eyes grew wider and she stared at him, the pain clear in her eyes. He glanced up at her and sighed. "I'm sorry. I won't do that again. But can you even understand how I feel, Dot? It was the most horrible thing I've ever felt in my life. I don't know if you can even comprehend it, with the way you seemed to feel about the entire thing."
Dot let the tears fall. She didn't even care anymore. She looked up at him. "I'm so sorry. I was too quick in judgement, how else could I have done that? Besides sheer ignorance. I've always thought I was an intelligent enough sprite. I just made an awful mistake."
"Everybody makes mistakes. Most of them are just a little lower key than this."
Dot closed her eyes again, her bottom lip protruding a little. "He had an explanation. 'He's the copy', he said, and I believed him. When you threw yourself into the portal to separate from Glitch, I thought you were crazy. Nobody explained to me what you were trying to do, why you were trying to do it. And then you were locked in that crystal case, and I was sure you would die..."
Bob sat forward suddenly. "And that made it okay to marry someone you barely knew?!"
"I thought I knew him! I though he was you!" she cried, her nails digging into the desk and leaving light scratch marks in the wood. "He was so comforting to me, and seemed so worried in your health. Almost as much as I was. When he proposed to me, I...I didn't know what to think! I was happy, but..." She trailed off, hanging her head. Bob looked a little angry.
"Dot, even when we were younger, and we never said anything, I had this stupid little idea that I believed in. I always thought, 'Dot Matrix loves me, and one day we'll get married and be happy together,' Along comes some new guy, and you threw me aside." He looked pained. "I thought you loved me."
"I do!" she sobbed miserably. "Bob, I do love you! Please don't make me feel like this!" She searched his eyes desperately for some sign of hope. He looked down and said quietly,
"I'm not willing to go through this again."
Dot's eyes grew wide at what she thought he meant, and she sobbed again, laying her head on her arms. Bob watched her cry for a few minutes, still angry at her but upset at himself for causing, in a way, her despairing sounds. Finally he spoke again. "Dot? Can you promise me you won't do anything else like this? Don't answer right away, I want you to think."
"I don't have to think," she said, sitting up a bit and feeling a little hope come back to her. "I know now that I won't."
"Now isn't good enough. I want you to think about it. Consider all options. I'm sure that a few months ago, you would have said the same thing, but you didn't expect another me to come through a portal, did you?"
Dot bit her lip and shook her head. "But who would?" she asked finally, raising a valid point. Bob shook his head.
"Nobody. I'm just asking you to try and think of everything. Even things nobody in their right minds would think of!"
She fought against asking one last question, but in the end it won out. "Do you forgive me?" she whispered, looking up hopefully.
Bob looked her straight in the eyes. "No. Not yet. What you did was awful, Dot, and I'm not just going to forgive and forget that easily. One day, though. I still love you."
And he got up and left, leaving Dot feeling worse than before. As he closed the door, she lay down her head in her arms again and cried harder than she had cried in a long time.
Thing will never be the same, thing will never be the same...