He saw her as soon as he left the elevator, the other side of the room.

He knew that frown. It meant a tension headache.

As he watched, she dipped her head a little; rubbed her neck to try to relieve the pain. His poor Trinity. On the Neb, he'd have stopped whatever he was doing to move over and rub it for her, his fingers massaging out the knots, her shoulders slowly relaxing. She'd once told him it was the only remedy that'd ever worked. He grimaced a little, watching. Virtual nothing; the pain was going to be eyewatering an hour or so from now.

He sighed, and began making his way over.

Zach was leaning over her, one palm braced on her desk, his laptop before them. "I can't work out what I'm doing wrong," he was saying, frustrated.

"It's inefficient," she said slowly, eyes narrowed as she scanned the screen. "Cluttered. It works, but it's..." she hesitated, plainly trying to find a courteous way to put it.

"Ugly?" he suggested.

"Well..." she made a face, apologetic, unable to deny it. "Look. Here, here and here..." the mouse darted away, "...it's always going to raise concurrency issues, if you tackle it like that. Which is inevitably going to affect stability as well as speed. If you alter the parameters so," she typed swiftly, "and apply that consistently, you'll avoid the problem altogether. Sidestep it. And then the algorithms will be..."

"Much better," Zach said, and smiled.

"Well. Cleaner, anyway."

"Cleaner is always better. Can you explain how you identified it, though?"

"Hey," Neo said. "Am I interrupting?"

Trinity glanced up, and once again, she did a swift double take. It was over almost before it began, but he'd seen it. The urge to touch her strengthened.

"Hello," she said, and then frowned at the screen. "No, not at all. Zach and I are just working on this."

"Hardly," Zach said, and grinned at Neo. "She's working on it. I'm getting a masterclass."

It was wonderful to see her, stand near to her, hear her even, quiet voice as she analyzed the problem at hand with calm assurance. If he could have closed his eyes, he'd have imagined himself back on the Neb; Trinity resolving the apparently irresolvable with her usual effortless skill.

She moved the laptop back towards Zach, having broken down the difficulty succinctly. "Unless Tom has anything to add, of course?"

"No. That was perfect."

"Thanks so much, Mackenzie. Just couldn't work out what the hell I was doing wrong." He looked at Neo. "She's good, hey?"

"Very."

"Oh, everyone gets that way sometimes." She capped a pen, and put it back in the pot by her monitor. "You spend so long on something, you can't see straight anymore. Needs a fresh pair of eyes."

Zach smiled. "No. It was just too hard. I couldn't have done -" he gestured at the screen, "that. No way."

"Well. Nor could I, couple years ago." And then she paused suddenly, her eyes distant. Seemingly lost in memory, and confused.

Neo knew why. She was aware of the cognitive dissonance now; aware something was amiss. He hated that she had to endure this all over again. He was struggling, stuck in this place, but at least he knew what the problem was. It had to be a million times worse for her - a person who'd already known freedom, but couldn't remember it; grappling with memories she didn't trust, even though it made no sense to doubt them. He wanted so badly to console her, but he had to stand by as Zach touched her shoulder instead.

"'Kenzie?" said Zach, his voice very gentle. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she said, and rubbed her neck again. "Headache, that's all."

"You want some Advil?"

"No. No need. It's just caffeine withdrawal." She looked up at Neo then. "You want to go get some coffee?"

Every instinct he had screamed at him to leap at the opportunity. He'd have at least a half hour alone with her, and at this point, that felt like a deal worth dying for. But the Oracle's words kept playing in his mind.

She needs to believe in a nice dull past and a nice dull job. Put you together, and she'll force past the programming in a week.

She needed to get well. Nothing else mattered.

"Thanks, but I'd better get back. Another time, maybe."

She nodded, without showing any of the disappointment he sensed, and stood up. "Fair enough. Zach?"

"Shit."

He pulled himself out from under a pad and looked over. "Are you alright, Captain?"

"Yeah, s'just a burn. Small one at that." She grimaced. "Goddamn rookie mistake, though. Been years since I've gotten burned."

"Yes, but you've hardly slept in days."

A slow smile spread across her face, and she raised an eyebrow at him. Ghost sighed.

"Delighted as I remain for you and Morpheus, that's overshare. I was referring to the hours you're putting in here."

"I'm sorry," she said, looking entirely unrepentant. "But c'mon, you did walk into it."

She returned to her work, chuckling. Ghost did not. After a few minutes, she turned back. "Ghost?"

"Hmm?" His voice was muffled.

"She's gonna be fine."

He said nothing.

"She is gonna be fine," she repeated. "Goddamn. If it's not you, it's Morpheus. She's alive, for crying out loud. More than anyone expected, last time we saw her. Isn't that worth something?"

"You know what the message said. They don't know the extent of the damage."

"Oh get out of here. Trinity always had more lives than a cat. And if they wanna save her, and Lord knows, it sounded like they're making it their mission in life - then they will." She snorted. "Those bastards can do anything, pretty well. And now they're for us. Not against us."

"They're for Neo, perhaps. I'm not sure they are us."

"I think Neo and us is pretty well one and the same to the machines. Hell, Trinity definitely is."

"Morpheus doubts whether saving her matters to them as much as convincing Neo they tried." Ghost said quietly.

"And Morpheus," she said, "is feeling guilty as shit. It's making him afraid to hope."

"Guilty?" Ghost blinked. "Why? Nobody supported them more."

She hesitated. If Ghost knew the decision Morpheus and Roland had taken - to leave the Logos to Bane - he'd find it hard to forgive him. She'd agreed, when they told her. There was no other option. But she wasn't sure Ghost would see it that way, not when it came to leaving Trinity in the hands of a murderer.

No, she wasn't about to share that.

"He doubted Neo," she said instead. "After the source thing messed up. He feels pretty badly over it."

"Everyone but Trinity doubted, then." He paused, and added, "Except you. You began to believe. I have never understood that."

"What can I say. I'm a natural born contrarian."

"Am I supposed to argue? Because I can't think of any grounds."

She smiled. "Me neither. And Ghost? She's gonna make it."

"What makes you so sure?"

"He's not back. So she's still alive. That simple."

"You okay?" Neo asked. Zach had been staring across the bar for ten minutes, evidently in a world of his own.

"Huh?"

"You seem a little distracted."

"Oh. No, I'm fine."

"Well, good. Thought something was wrong."

"Not wrong, exactly." He made a face. "It's stupid, actually. Really stupid."

"What is?"

Zach took a deep breath. "It's a girl."

"Ah," said Neo, a little amused. "Of course."

"You ever felt like, you just have to see someone, and it's like..." the voice trailed off. "God. I can't even describe it."

"Like you can hardly breathe?" said Neo.

Zach grinned, embarrassed. "You have."

"Yeah."

"I can't imagine that. You always seem so calm."

"There're always exceptions. She at the office, this breath thief?"

"Yes."

"So what does she do? Secretarial, reception, what?"

"No. She's," he snuck Neo a swift smile, "a programmer."

Neo froze.

"She's so insanely gifted, you know?"

"Yeah," Neo managed. "I know."

"She looks the way she does, and she moves the way she does, and she's so quiet, and calm, and then she just does shit nobody can believe. Does it like it's nothing at all." Zach shook his head. "People started asking. Once they realized. She just said, she always liked puzzles, enigmas, working shit out. Beating systems. And then they asked where she went to school." He smiled. "Harvard. And grad school at Berkeley and MIT."

His throat was dry. He cleared it. "Impressive."

"Yeah, but she doesn't give a crap. Really doesn't. She's confident and all, don't get me wrong, but she's kind of... quiet about it. She just gets on with things."

"Genuine confidence. No ego?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that's it exactly. And she can handle herself, too." He chuckled. "You heard she told Caleb off yesterday? He never left her alone, and then suddenly he got kind of dirty over it - you know Caleb - and she turned round and tore him a new one. Suggested he get himself a blowup doll because it might appreciate his advances more, that kind of thing. Final line was I suggest you go fuck yourself, because you aren't going to fuck me. Didn't even raise her voice, but Christ, she was scary. Trust me, you do not ever want to piss that woman off."

"Uh huh."

"And this sounds perverse, but that - the way she could do that - it was hot. When she's usually just really cool with people - really patient, really reasonable, just never bitchy at all. And she's so quick. Quick-witted. But so calm, too. Just really - I don't even know. It's like she's found some kind of zen state, so she can do shit at the speed of sound inside of it." He rubbed his eyes. "God. It sounds crazy."

"No," Neo said quietly. He felt sick. "No, it doesn't."

"And I don't want to sound like Caleb - I mean, you know. That's not what it's about. Or not only, anyway. But you know something? When you first brought her up, I thought she was okay looking. Bit too thin, bit uptight, but okay. But the more time I spend with her... just, fuck." He stared down at the table. "Don't laugh. But at this point, I think she's probably the most beautiful girl I ever saw."

Neo swallowed. "I won't laugh," he said. "But Zach, you know, she probably... she may already have someone."

"I know. I know that. Of course I know that. And I know she's way the hell out of my league, too. But Christ. No law against hope, you know?"

There was a silence.

Then Zach spoke again. "Oh, and thanks."

"For what?"

"Look, I know she likes you." He shrugged, a little dispirited. "They always do. So I appreciated it, you blocking her today. I mean, I did wonder if you'd be interested in her. She's... yeah. If it was gonna be anyone, you know? So I was relieved, I have to say."

Neo was speechless. It just kept getting worse.

"Some of the other girls were talking," Zach went on. "About you. When she was there. And it sounds bad, but I was relieved she heard it."

Yeah. Definitely kept getting worse. "What were they saying?"

"Just that you never date anyone. Never seem interested in women at all." He fidgeted. "Uh, I hope you don't mind, but I kind of mentioned that you were really, really into someone."

Neo stared at him. "You did what?"

"Oh, not who she was! Just that I figured it was why. Why you didn't want to know about anyone else, I mean."

"You gossiped about my personal life," Neo said slowly, "to give yourself a better shot?"

"No, it wasn't like that..."

"So tell me. What was it like?"

Zach looked even more awkward. "It doesn't matter. Forget it."

"I think that's for me to decide."

He fidgeted a minute more, then said in a rush, "Well, Caleb kind of made out that you were, uh, gay."

"And?" Neo said blankly.

"And you're not!"

Neo closed his eyes, suddenly exhausted. "For fuck's sake, Zach. I don't care if they think I'm screwing every guy in the city. I'd rather they gossip about that, than about," he sighed, remembering Trinity's face as he'd refused her invitation to coffee, "my life."

Zach was quiet a moment. Then he said, "I'm sorry. But I didn't think you'd be okay with that. I wouldn't be." He hesitated. "Look, I'd never mean to screw with you. I hope you know that."

Neo looked at him. He'd rarely felt so defeated. But at the same time, was it Zach's fault? How was he to know? And given the situation, perhaps it was just as well if she did think Neo involved with another woman. If he knew anything, it was that she'd never go there. So the belief was a protection for her, of a kind. And when the inevitable happened - when he and Trinity were reunited - Zach was going to go through hell, too. Did he really deserve anger over something essentially minor, on top? Neo already had everything Zach wanted in life, knowingly and otherwise. The truth, his freedom, and Trinity. If that wasn't reason to be generous, Neo didn't know what was.

"Just... never again, Zach. Seriously."

He nodded, his expression sober. "I understand. Really. I do. I mean, I fucking hate it when they gossip about Kenzie. So of course you feel the same about - well. Her."

Sometimes, Neo reflected, lost for words for the umpteenth time; sometimes, he just wished he could get back to the day job. Being savior of the world wasn't a lot of fun, it was true. But it had at least been a damn sight less complicated.