Relations
by Hyarrowen
Pairing: Elijah/Daneel
Disclaimer: Not mine, the good doctor's. Money? Ha! Haven't got any, not making any from this.
Notes: I take the view that there was a misprint in Robots and Empire and they hadn't seen each other for only three, or maybe thirteen years before Baley's death: not thirty-one. So they have some extra time together. They are still star-crossed enough not to degenerate into any old cop pair.
Baley's older sisters are mention in "The Caves of Steel".
Rating:T
"She likes you, you know."
"Hmmm?"
Baley was pleasantly tipsy; the party marking a year since the colony's founding had been convivial and looked like lasting a while yet. Though he had his own reasons for celebrating, he had left early to get some sleep before going off-world the next day to the negotiations for the next release of Settler planets. His eldest sister, Becca, had left with him, to make sure that he reached his bed in one piece.
"Emilia Orochen. You were talking to her tonight. Remember?"
Once away from the community hall, the settlement was more or less deserted. She steered him towards their dormitory in one of the outlying domes. Decentralisation had been part of the plan for the township right from the start. They skirted a stack of plasteel panels and turned down a connecting tunnel which was still in a half-constructed state. Metal grids had been laid on the roadbed and infrequent lights were strung overhead, giving somewhat unhelpful illumination: hence Becca's concern.
"And she likes you."
Big sisters, Baley reflected, could be annoyingly persistent. Becca, as team leader of the colony's midwives, was a person of some standing and determination and would not be put off.
He focussed.
"Emmeline…"
"Lije!"
"Sorry. Emilia. Yes. Runs the crèche at City Hall. Well, I liked her too!"
He beamed at Becca, and lurched when the grid shifted under their feet; a pile of shuttered window units saved his balance.
Becca sighed. "I mean, she likes you."
They were moving into worrying territory. "And?"
Now Becca sounded exasperated. "Lije, it's been three years since you and Jessie split up. She's remarried. Why don't you start looking for someone else? You don't have to live like a hermit. You could have more children" -
Baley experienced a brief flashback to Bentley's adolescence and suppressed a shudder –
"they'd have a real future in front of them now!"
Bale frowned, considering his options muzzily. He was just relaxed enough to tell Becca the truth without embarrassment, and the conversation was already heading in a suitable direction. She would have ten days while he was off-world to assimilate the idea. He realized that there would never be a better time to tell her; and she would have to know at some point.
"Don't live like a hermit!" he announced, with some satisfaction. "I've got someone special, just like you, and Jessie, and Bentley…" he ticked the names off on his fingers while he negotiated a tricky turn into the smaller dome.
"You do?" Now he'd surprised her. He didn't manage that very often.
"Mmm. Happy, too."
She looked at him wonderingly. "You are, aren't you. But you've kept it very quiet. Come on, who is she? I haven't seen you with anyone in the colony. And why didn't you tell me?"
"Not in the colony. Off-world!" This, with a touch of triumph.
"Someone on the negotiating team then…Oh no, Lije. Not Lavinia Demachek?"
"Jehoshaphat, no", said Baley hastilty "wouldn't dare." He was scared of the ambitious Vice-Secretary. On the other hand, so were the Spacers.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that. But there's no other woman on the Earth team." She paused… "That woman you met on Solaria – Gladia – is she on the Spacer team?"
Trust Becca, thought Baley. She was getting there quite fast.
"No. Gladia's married now anyway. She's happy, too. I arranged that" he said, rather innaccurately, but with no little pride.
"But there's no-one else on the Spacer team that you talk about…" She stopped dead, her jaw dropping unbecomingly.
"Can see you're a detective's sister!" crowed Baley.
She groped for a guard rail and clung on to it, speechless.
"You look a bit shocky. My room's just along here. Come on!" And Baley took her arm solicitously, and hurried her into the dormitory, ushering her into his room with some ceremony. He looked around vaguely. "D'you want some tea? Very good for shock, or so they say."
"No, I don't want tea. I want a drink!" snapped Becca, but sank into the room's only chair. Baley handed her the glass, poured a shot for himself, and propped himself up on the desk. He had a feeling he would need the psychological advantage of height. He eyed his sister warily over his drink.
"Lije, do you realize that right now you're probably the most famous person in the galaxy?" Baley blinked. "Yes. My irritating little brother. Any Earthwoman would be interested. Probably half the Spacer women, too, if they'd only admit it. So why, out of all those billions, a robot, a male robot?"
Well, why? Was it Daneel's utter uniqueness, his great strength and gentle courtesy, his constant challenge to Baley to think, his looks…He lost himself momentarily in contemplation of steady blue eyes and a not-quite smile.
He became aware that he was smiling softly. Becca, observing this, snorted and threw up her hands.
"It's hopeless, I'm afraid", admitted Baley.
Undeterred, she tried another angle of attack. "Did you think about these Three Laws that we hear so much about? Did he have any choice?" Baley noted that Daneel had now been upgraded from a robot to a sentient, intelligent being with near-human rights, but felt it would be tactless to point this out.
"The Three Laws are why I held off so long. But we found a way to work around them"; he made an airy gesture.
He wasn't going to tell her how it had really happened; how, six months ago, driven to desperation, he had screwed up his courage to tell Daneel what he wanted, but that he feared what the Laws' tyranny could make of his desires. And Daneel had looked at him gently and said "Elijah, I have freedom of volition though not freedom of action. But how many humans can honestly say they have that? I know that it would be more harmful to you, ultimately, to say that I wanted this if I did not. But I do, and I have been waiting for you to ask me-" but then Baley had put his hands on Daneel, which had silenced even that memorably articulate robot.
"Lije?"
He came back to his tiny room with a start, and eyed his sister; she seemed to be bracing herself.
"So. You and…your partner. You're happy, you say?" Baley nodded. "Who else knows? I suppose the Spacers all know, and don't care? They're very free and easy, I've heard."
"Not that free and easy. They'd be more disgusted at the idea of making love with an Earthman than making love with a robot." Becca stared at him, wide-eyed, and then took hurried refuge in her drink. "Dr. Fastolfe knows. Gladia's probably guessed. I couldn't face telling Bentley." He decided to leave Giskard out of the conversation. "But no-one else. Becca, keep this to yourself. It mustn't get back to Earth. It wouldn't be fair to Jessie." Even happily remarried, Jessie would be subject to ridicule beyond bearing if word got out.
"And do you and he really…" She stopped, and gulped the last of her drink, "no, forget I asked that."
Baley reached over and splashed more alcohol into her glass, then into his own. "Yes, we do." Both of them were staring intently into their drinks. "And it's good for both of us" he added defiantly.
He remembered their first time. With only one set of hormones operating, they had been able to take things steadily at first. He remembered the slow, slow penetration; Daneel's body arching above his; his own hands, shaking, moving over his partner's face and hair.
"Lije. You only see him every few months. How do you cope? Not just with – that – but simply being apart."
"Keep busy," said Baley rather grimly. "And there's nobody else I want. How could I?"
He looked down at his sister, braced for her verdict.
"You're actually in love with him, aren't you." She sighed. "If you're happy, and he's happy, and there's no harm in it for either of you, then I wish you luck."
"Thanks, Becky." He reached over and clinked his glass against hers. "Been dreading telling you this. But you had to know. Because if anything happens to me, you must tell him, right?"
"Yes, of course." She smiled suddenly. "He'll be at the negotiations this week, I take it."
"Dr Fastolfe always brings him."
"Then I had better leave you to get your beauty sleep." She heaved herself out of her chair. "Good night, little brother."
"No rush, Becca", said Baley, rather surprised.
"You haven't seen him for three months. You won't be getting much sleep tomorrow night, will you? Sweet dreams!" She toasted him with the last of her drink, smiled wickedly, put the glass down on the desk, and was out of the door before he could think of a suitable reply.
Elder sisters, he reflected. He'd been doomed from birth.