"—al."
There was almost little surprise to Ro that she was no longer speaking to the Bucky-Zee hybrid. In fact, she was speaking to herself, in a dark bedroom. There was the slight glow of the nightlight in the corner, a stream of light from under the closed door, and some faint street lights from the window. As her eyes looked around, she saw a bed – presumably "hers" – and something that was probably a toy chest.
It took her a long moment to realize that she was standing in front of another bed, or at least a crib, and looking in she saw the angel-like sleeping form of Zee. And she remembered this Zee, the small baby Zee who liked snow globes and spelled with letter blocks, the one where Agent Bennett was nice and looked after them.
Despite herself, Ro smiled gently and brushed the soft hair. The kid didn't even twitch, deep in sleep, and Ro leaned against the crib and looked down at the little guy. At least this one didn't snore, Ro thought with amusement.
Soon enthralled with looking at such a precious Zee, even if it was a fraud, Ro didn't realize she wasn't the only one awake. Slowly, her ears picked up and started to understand that it was voices, and she left her vigil to press her ear against the wood of the door.
It was the parentals' voices. She couldn't catch all of the words, but all of the words weren't needed to get their meaning.
" … just give him up …"
" … expensive …"
" … shame … waste a gift …
" … get money if … to Brothers' Day …"
Her breath froze in her throat at such callous ideas. How could anyone decide to get rid of Zee, especially this one? Fine, he was probably a little genius, but what sort of person made that excuse to get rid of him? He wasn't some homeless puppy. And expensive … this Zee would be swamped with scholarships, if that was a problem!
And to send him to Brothers' Day! Ro had only heard stories about the Brothers' Day – stories all orphans and wards tell the smart brainy children to scare them – a group that specialized in smart things and did possibly not law-abiding tthings. Wards and children with families went there, and all of the stories were never pleasant. Memorizing dictionaries and formulas and creating things so the organization could someday rule the world. Such a place would only make him a little drone, never let him outside to play!
Ro turned and leaned heavily against the door, gritting her teeth. Even if he wasn't real, the little guy didn't deserve that. She had to help him, somehow. This was just a dream, so he had to be able to control a thing. Had to.
Somehow.