6.
I smoothed the dark fabric of my Seeker uniform, remembering the first time Dorsey had seen me in it. She had just about fallen off the benchtop laughing.
"You wear that to work?" she had grinned, incredulous.
"Not always. It's standard issue. I've always had one," I said, a little defensive. It was navy blue, it wasn't that funny.
"I've never seen you wear that."
"No, well, it's not for field work really, is it."
Jackson didn't wear one either, so I didn't usually bother. But today I was going to be a character witness in a trial, and I needed to look as respectable as I could. Alex's trial.
I stood up in front of the courtroom and I did what Dorsey said. I told them about Yash's father, Bhask's father. I told them about the guy that saved Falling Smoke. I told them about the guy that fought Blackheath to save Souls. I didn't tell them about the guy that worked with him to torture me. I liked to pretend he didn't exist. It meant ignoring his current reincarnation, sitting opposite me in the court room. Which was surprisingly hard, as I talked about the Alex I had known and loved before.
Then I walked away from the witness stand and went back to work. Got on with my life. I didn't wait to hear the result of the trial. I didn't care if it went on for days. I didn't even turn on the television. I had done my bit and it was over as far as I was concerned.
It was amazing how engrossed you could get with computer work. I didn't hear Jackson til he was sitting on my desk.
"Earth to Flame?"
"Sorry. What were you saying?"
"Interview room 2. Juvenile vandalism. You up for it?"
"Of course."
"You sure you're ok? The past couple of days…"
"I'm fine."
"You say that a lot you know."
"Because I am. Let's go."
The juvenile vandalism case was something Jackson had dragged in opportunistically; two human teenagers graffiti-ing a building. I read this as I walked into the interview room, and looked up to see
"Alida!"
"Oh man!" Alida groaned, "You're gonna tell Margie, aren't you."
"You want to explain?" I asked calmly, sitting opposite them. The other girl was Etienne St Louis, I'd seen her hanging around Margie's.
"It was just a wall," Alida said, flopping back in her chair in defeat, "A blank canvas. It was boring, and we livened it up."
Etienne kicked her under the table.
"No it's alright. Flame's alright," Alida told her.
"You know you can't just do that to other people's property," I told her.
"No one owns it. No one goes there. It's just us kids. It's our place."
"Alida…"
"No one would have even noticed if Bozo there hadn't been snooping around."
Jackson raised an eyebrow at his new nick name, but before he could reply, Montgomery stuck his head in the interview room.
"Sorry, guys, thought you'd want to know. Alex just got acquitted."
"Thanks," Jackson said, when I said nothing. I ran my fingers over the dent my ring had left in the table when I threw it. Consciously, purposefully, feeling nothing.
"Well, looks pretty open and shut to me," Jackson went on, taking over, "You were caught in the act, you've admitted it, if you agree to clean it up that's as far as it'll go."
Etienne and Alida protested loudly.
"We spent days on that!"
"It's Art!"
"Tell you what. Clean it up, I'll find out who owns it, when we get their consent, then you can start again," Jackson said.
Softie, I thought distractedly.
"What's the point in that? Why can't we just leave it?"
"The point is that you've been charged with vandalism. Now, you go about this the right way, it'll disappear. You want to fight me on it, you can fight me all the way to the courthouse. Capiche?"
The girls knew when they'd hit a dead end, and agreed sulkily.
***
That night, when I dreamt the dream again, I could remember it. I was in a dark room, maybe a cave, and Alex was walking towards me. I was afraid he was going to hurt me again, but his fingers when they picked up my hand stayed gentle, smoothing the skin round my joints as if he could heal them by his touch. And his touch was magic, it drained away the fear that clenched my inside tight all the time, and I felt myself relax in a way I hadn't felt in ages. Part of the calm stayed with me when I woke, staring at the books on Yashie's shelf in the semi-dark, illuminated by the gentle glow of her night light. I watched her tranquil face sleeping completely undisturbed, and settled back into her warmth to join her.
***
I sat at the table, turning the CD round and round in my hands, tapping each corner on the table as it passed. Dorsey had long ago given up nagging me about it, resorting to refusing to move it from the table just as I refused to see it. But this morning, for some reason I was drawn to it. I think I wanted to open it. I think I did. It's not like it could hurt me now.
I loaded it into the screen before I could change my mind. It was a video recording. A plain in the Kimberley, a human child centre screen. A child I recognized.
The eldest child.
"Uh, hi. This guy here… What's your name? Alex? This guy Alex said that Seeker that found me didn't know what had happened to us. And so she might be upset. So… I just wanted to let her know, we're fine. And… thanks."