14: Work in Progress

- A/N: It's a coincidence that both chapters posted this week are set in winter, but this fic has had a time skip, so it's not the same winter. Right now 'Longest Way' is a year or two ahead of 'Downshift'.

After Bass left, Giertz went to comfort her mother, and Desirée continued rocking and soothing the baby until Suna had fallen back asleep. Then she gave Giertz a look that was downright maniacal.

"Babe, was I hearing things or did he say 'Oma'?"

"Good grief, Des, is that what you got from that?"

"You know me better— of course I understand the gravity of the situation. It's just… seriously. There's a grandmother involved? He actually calls her Oma?"

Giertz shook her head in disbelief.

Hours later, when things were quiet, and Mrs. Giertz had the baby while Desirée took a nap, Giertz sent Bass a message over the com chat. A few minutes later she threw on her coat and gloves, hopped into the hovercar, and headed for the outskirts of town.

Bass was waiting— loitering, really— at an empty construction site, were the work was halted because of the weather. He was in his armor this time, which gave a pretty good indication of where he was emotionally.

Neither said anything as she approached. She stood there for a moment with arms crossed, before Bass spoke.

"Sorry. That was stupid, and I was really ticked, and— I'm sorry."

She chuckled dryly. "Wow, two 'sorry's? You must feel like a heel." There was no sarcasm, Giertz knew he was usually reluctant to accept blame and apologize.

"Giertz—"

"Apology accepted, dummy. I'm still very disappointed, and to be honest, I'll probably be mad for a few days."

"Okay."

"Of course Des forgives you, and she's dying to know all about this 'Oma' character."

"She asked me to call her that," he said quickly. "It wasn't my idea."

"Look— Bass. Come over here so we can sit down." With that, Giertz turned and walked over to a low stone wall. It was freezing, hard, and really uncomfortable. She quietly studied him as he sat next to her. "You know that me and Des care about you, right?"

He nodded hesitantly, very self-conscious about this topic.

"And I understand— you probably have a lot of different feelings about all this… It's just…" She sighed. "We have a daughter now. It doesn't change how we feel towards you, but Suna is our number one priority."

"I get it."

"The last thing we want is for you to feel like you're unwelcome… but at the same time, we can't let anything happen to Suna. If we— if I think that you pose a risk, that you might be dangerous…"

"I'm a combat robot Giertz, of course I'm dangerous," Bass said, disgusted. "Look, I don't like babies. But that little brat belongs to you and Dee. I would die before letting anything hurt her."

She smiled at him. "Good. Me too."

"…Do you think I should talk to Dr. Cossack about— about making some kind of adjustment to—"

"Nah," she said, interrupting him. "That's not something you need reprogrammed, you just have to keep working on your temper, and being more patient. Figure out how to work through your feelings without blowing a gasket. Maybe don't let little things get to you so much."

"I guess."

They sat in silence. After a minute or two, Giertz cautiously placed a hand on his knee.

"There's something else I want to talk about, yeh?" When he didn't reply, she continued. "I want to talk about what you said earlier, about Wily 'violating your cognitive liberty'." She had enough knowledge in robotics to make an educated guess about what he'd meant by that. That it had come up now, with everything that was going on... it had set off alarms in her head.

"That was a long time ago," he replied, instantly dismissive.

Giertz reached down and rolled up her pants leg. "When I was a little kid I climbed up a chair and fell, busted my leg open. I don't even remember it happening." On her calf was a three-inch long, puffy scar. "Thirty years later and there's still a mark."

"I know what you're trying to say, but it wasn't— Wily wasn't trying to— He stopped when he realized… well anyway, it's not like it hurt. I'm just annoyed that he didn't apologize."

She took in a deep breath. "As a human I can't know what it's like to have someone else in my head, but I imagine that it must've been terrifying, and an unbelievable breach trust, for—"

"Giertz. I don't want to talk about this."

"Okay, that's alright." After a brief pause, she continued. "It would mean a lot to me if you did. I really think it will help, like with all the stuff that happened with Zero." That had taken a momentous amount of coaxing on her part, and she never got any specifics, although apparently Break Man'd had better success there. "If you're not comfortable talking to me— and that's perfectly fine— then maybe you can talk to Break Man. Or Dr. Cossack, Dr. Light, or even Sarge."

"Sergeant Jahveri?"

"Yeh, you know, before he was in the tac division, he… er… He's helped people who— who also had a breach of trust."

"Hmm."

They sat in silence for another minute before Giertz slid off of the wall. "I'm freezing my buns off here, sorry. You should steer clear until mum leaves, I'll let you know when she heads back home."

"Sure."

"Think about it, will you?"

He pulled a face, but then shrugged. "I'll think about it."

On the way back to the car she realized she'd have to put a bug in Break Man's ear— maybe Dr. Cossack's, too— because with Suna now she just didn't have the bandwidth to follow up on this.

Also, that she needed to commend Dr. Cossack, because even a year or two ago there'd have been no way Bass would've apologized so quickly and sincerely.

…and that she found herself appreciating her own parents a little more. Their fall out had been truly terrible, one of the most painful things she'd ever experienced, but all things considered Giertz would take that over Dr. Wily any day.

That said, on some level, seeing Bass scare the bejeezus out of her mum had been immensely satisfying.

- A/N: It's possible this will be continued in the future, I have some nebulous ideas that will hopefully come to fruition. Until then... thanks for reading!