Tally stood out on the balcony with Zane. They were talking about the Rusty Ruins and how they wanted to go out there. Zane had just asked her if she had ever met anyone out there in the Ruins but Tally couldn't remember. She stood thinking for a moment before the Lurker that had been following her all night appeared again. They held her gaze for a moment and then disappeared into the crowd. Tally wasn't about to let them get away this time.
Tally left Zane in mid-sentence and took off after them. Even though they had a costume on like a Special all of a sudden Tally wasn't so sure that it actually was a Special. It could be anyone, a Crim, a random Pretty, or it really could be a Special. Tally ignored her thoughts though. She raced after them at full-speed, knocking people over as she did. But the Pretties never really seemed to notice. They were too drunk to really care.
She ran down some stairs and kept seeing flashes of the silk coat of the costume. It was driving her nuts. Why wouldn't they stop?
They kept running and she kept chasing. Tally watched as the Lurker ran out of the entrance of the mansion and towards the Pleasure Garden. Maybe they had something privet they needed to talk to her about. Tally decided to follow.
She chased the figure out of the mansion and into the Pleasure Garden. Once they were farther inside the garden they stopped short. Tally didn't even see them stop just ahead of her and she plowed right into them.
"Uhff." the figure grunted as Tally ran into them. She knocked them over and she fell right ontop of them. She pushed the hair out of her eyes and scrambled up off of them and stood her ground.
"What do you want from me!?" she cried when they didn't say anything else after a while.
"Tally, are you ready?" the Lurker said. It was a boy, that much Tally could tell but she couldn't tell anything else. Although she thought that the voice sounded vaguely familiar.
"Ready for what?" Tally asked. What was this guy talking about?
"To come with me." the boy said.
"Excuse me but I don't even know you." Tally pointed out.
"You…you…don't recognize me?" the boy stuttered, almost losing him confidence.
"I don't want to be a Special!" she cried.
"Oh…I'm not a Special, Tally." the boy laughed.
"Well who are you?" Tally asked.
"Take off my mask and find out." the boy told her. He moved closer to her until she could just reach out and grab off the mask. Tally hesitated for a second. What if it really was Special Circumstance? Tally wasn't sure. But for some reason something inside Tally told her to trust this person.
Tally reached up and gently slid off the mask revealing the person behind it. He was an Ugly. A real Ugly.
"You're an Ugly." she whispered.
"Yes, but do you remember me?" he asked.
"I…I…" Tally studied his face. He was tall and slender and had a large forehead and a big nose. His lips were thin and he had shaggy hair. He wore crooked smile and as she looked closer she saw a white cut going through his eyebrow. Realization struck her and when it did she almost couldn't breath. She was shocked yet so happy at the same time.
"David…" she said in a shaky voice.
David nodded and smiled softly at her. He reached out and wrapped her in a hug. He was the first Ugly that Tally had seen since turning Pretty and it almost scared her. Why did he look so Ugly to her? Tally knew that she used to not think he was Ugly so why did she now.
Memories started pouring back. She remembered that she had been with David before turning Pretty. She remembered Dr. Cable's threats and the look on David's face when Tally told him about how she betrayed him. She had told Shay that she thought that she loved him. Did she still love him? She was pretty sure she did.
"Are you ready to go now?" David asked her.
"Go where?" Tally asked. She was still in a daze.
He leaned into her ear and whispered, "To the New Smoke to get the cure."
Tally remembered the Old Smoke. She had led the Specials to it. Not on purpose though. The tracker went off when she threw the necklace into the fire to destroy it. But she didn't know what he meant by 'the cure'.
"What cure?" she asked.
"I can't tell you here but you just have to trust me okay Tally." David said.
Tally wasn't sure if she should go or not.
"But I…" Tally started but David cut her off.
"Tally we don't have much time. You have to come with me. You have to trust me. This is for your own safety." he pleaded with her.
"I trust you David but I don't know if I want to leave…" she said quietly.
"Tally…please." David said. He moved closer to her and cupped her face in his hands. "You made me a promise, you promised you would come back with me…" he trailed off.
Tally remembered now. She remembered how she told David that she would go back to the Smoke when him when he came to get her after she turned Pretty but she couldn't remember why.
"Okay David…" Tally said, finally agreeing.
David grinned and wrapped her in his embrace. "I knew you would Tally!" he said happily.
It felt good to make David happy. Tally knew she had to do this; she had to make it up to him. She couldn't believe he still came for her though, even though she had deceived him. She wanted to tell him that she was sorry and they needed to talk but now wasn't the time. She could tell he was getting antsy to get out.
"We need to leave…now." David said.
"Okay." Tally said.
She watched as he switched his crash-bracelets on and a hoverboard came out of the darkness. He got on and motioned for Tally to get on with him. She stood behind him and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. She snuggled her head on his shoulder and breathed in his scent. She was happy to be back with him.
David's hoverboard came to life and started to lift up.
"When we get out of the city I need to scan you, make sure you don't have any trackers on you." David told her.
Tally nodded and then they were off. As the reached the green-belt Tally remembered she had her interference ring on. She slipped it off her finger and threw it onto the green-belt.
"What did you throw?" he asked her.
"My interference ring. I'm not letting anyone take me away from you this time." she said quietly. She saw David smile and they continued to hoverboard on the way out of the city.
Once they reached the outskirts of the town, Tally started getting anxious. She wanted to finally be able to talk to David, to kiss him again. It had seemed like ages since she had last kissed him.
David finally settled to a halt in the Rusty Ruins. They stepped off the board and David waved a device across her.
"You're clean." he said with a smile.
Tally felt relieved all she wanted now was to be with David, alone. It was crazy at the beginning of the night she hadn't dreamed she would be out in the wild again with David in just a few hours. But just standing next to him made everything so clear and all her feelings for him were still there.
"Oh yeah and nobody is going to take you away from me, ever." he said. Tally grinned and wrapped her arms around him tightly. They leaned in and their lips met for a kiss. They kissed eachother softly and passionately. Then they finally pulled away Tally rested her head on the side of his cheek looking at the corner of his mouth and gave it a small peck.
"I missed you…" she said quietly.
"I missed you too." he said.
They were silent a moment before David signed softly and began to pull Tally back onto the hoverboard.
"As much as I would love to stay here, we need to get out of here before Specials come." David said.
Tally nodded, she really didn't want to leave now but it wasn't like she really had a choice. If they Specials came they would take her away from David, maybe forever. This was her chance, to escape and stay with David. Although she had left Shay, Peris, and Fausto behind she really didn't care. Maybe they could join her soon.
The hoverboarded lifted to life and rose up in the air. Tally felt a wave of exhaustion hit her. She rested her head on David's shoulder and snuggled into it. Soon she was slumped up behind David, fast asleep with only her grip on his waist holding her up.
---
Tally's eyes fluttered open. She couldn't figure out what woke her and then she realized that David had turned over in his sleep and took his arm with him. His arm had been wrapped around her waist and now he was turned away from her.
Tally looked around and realized they weren't on the hoverboard anymore. They must have landed after a few hours or so and David had laid a sleeping bag out and he and Tally were laying ontop of it. Tally turned to look over at David. She smiled and slid over and cuddled up behind him and kissed the back of his neck. A few longer stays of hair catching her nose and she almost sneezed. She took her hand and delicately played with his hair for a while. She couldn't believe she was doing this to an Ugly. And she was a Pretty. But of course this was David she was talking about, no ordinary Ugly. After a few more minutes of thinking Tally drifted off back to sleep.
---
They awoke around dusk and ate a meal of VegiRice. Tally still could not stand the thought of SpagBol so she had told him anything but that would be fine.
They were seated getting ready to eat when Tally all of a sudden blurted out, "I'm sorry!"
David looked up at her and smiled softly, "Its okay."
"No, no it's not okay! Why would you want to help me after all the horrible things I've done." Tally said sadly.
David moved over closer to her and took her in his arms and she nuzzled into his chest.
"Because I care about you Tally, and I love you…" he said quietly.
Tally stopped crying and grazed into his eyes, reading all of his emotions in them. She could tell he meant it. "You do?" she asked.
"Of course I do. I wouldn't be here if I didn't." David smiled and then kissed her softly. "I wish my mom hadn't made you leave to back to the city before I had come back. I was so mad when I came back and found out that she had already made you leave, I never got the chance to tell you that I loved you and that…I would miss you." David said.
"I know, I wanted to talk to you too but she did what she thought was best David. If you would have come back you probably could have talked me out of becoming a Pretty but I needed to and…" Tally trailed off.
"I know and I probably would have tried to stop you. I didn't want you to leave……and forget about me" he whispered. Tally took his hand. "When you didn't recognize me in the garden…I…"
"You were scared, David. I could tell you were. But how was I supposed to recognize you. You have a mask on that changed your voice. I wasn't sure exactly who you were until I took to mask off." Tally said.
"Well at least you knew who I was in the end." David said. "Hey can I ask you something?"
"Sure." Tally replied.
"Why were you going to betray the Smoke?" he asked quietly. Tally took a deep breath. She knew that it had been coming. She had been racking her brain for that answer since she actually had got to the Smoke. She took another breath and started.
"Dr. Cable threatened me. She said I couldn't turn pretty until I found Shay. I refused at first because I promised Shay I wouldn't tell anyone about the Smoke but then after I didn't have my operation everyone knew that something was up. I was over 16 and wasn't a Pretty. I felt rejected and I couldn't handle that. Then Peris, my best friend from when we were Uglies, came and he told me to do whatever it took to become Pretty. Of course he didn't know the whole story and didn't know why I wasn't turning Pretty so it really wasn't his fault. And…I…I…I don't know. I just wanted to become Pretty so I could be across the river with Peris and Shay and all my new friends and I was willing to betray the Smoke to do that. But after the day in the cave when you told me about how your parents had ran away and then after our kiss and after Maddy and your dad told me about the lesions……" Tally stopped. "The lesions. That's why you came after me, isn't it." Tally asked softly.
"Yeah, you gave your consensus to mom and so mom spent all the time when you were a Pretty designing the cure for you to take. Then all I had to do was go and get you and bring you back to the Smoke with me." David said.
"I'll take the pills." Tally said.
"I know you will. And I understand why you betrayed us now. I'm sorry I got mad, if I would have known the whole story I…" Tally cut him off.
"Shh…" Tally said quietly, taking his hand in hers. "You know I love you too right?" Tally asked.
David nodded and Tally began to cry silent tears and David held her tightly against him.