This chapter focuses on some adult content. Nothing overly graphic with the descriptions, but it's also not completely vague. If you'd like to skip over it, I'll include a couple of notes in the next chapter as to the other events that happened. One more chapter to go. Thank you!

In the end, Erik decided that the university was the best place to hide her while he went on his missions with Saeed. The home was concealed, fairly difficult to access. Yet the university was crowded enough aboveground so that someone would notice suspicious activity, like masked men running around with guns. Erik went further, showing her a passage in his former office that would allow her to escape. It was hidden behind one of the metal cabinets and would take her to another room on the other side of the building. She could close the door behind her, and it would lock, creating a saferoom.

"I checked it three times," said Erik, a confidence in his voice now that he was back in a familiar world. "No one will find you."

He then gave her a phone. If she were in danger, she would call Erik first. If she couldn't get ahold of him, she would call Saeed next. Then Darius. Then the police. She nodded as he told her these things, her stomach tightening with anxiety.

It was a little strange going back down there. Saeed and then Erik had cleaned the home up, so it looked fine. But she had such mixed memories of it. Fear and confusion, along with her first stirrings of affection for him.

Still, she did feel safer there than alone at the apartment. She had a key to let her out, so she wasn't trapped. Erik had allowed her to be as secure or free as she desired; it was all her choice.

But she was always worried about Erik and Saeed during those strange nights. She didn't sleep well and would frequently check outside her bedroom to see if he had returned yet. Erik would wake her up before sunrise, and they would go back to her apartment, where they would both take a lot of naps. In the afternoons, she always asked him how about the adventures. Erik would tell her where they had gone and what they had found. They discovered some of Andrew's old files at his previous place of employment. They found chips that hadn't worked. Drawings. Prototypes. Computers with similar programs to that of the laptop. Correspondence between Raymond and the scientists. Erik didn't give her the details of this, but Saeed did. Some of it was so coldly evil – "The mind will be suppressed, so you'll have full control of the body. You shouldn't encounter any resistance, although I'd use arm and leg restraints as a precaution in the beginning, just in case there's anything we've overlooked."

With the help of Darius, they also listened to gossip amongst law enforcement and discovered that other criminals were beginning to swoop in on Raymond's operations, drug trafficking rings, money laundering, and the like.

She could only ask, "Is that good?"

"Yes, I imagine so," said Erik. "They are free to fight amongst each other. As long as no one specifically wants me."

"I want you," she stated.

"As an Automaton?"

"No!"

"I can think of worse fates than being your automaton." It was a good sign, she supposed, that he was able to talk about such a thing with humor. That he felt safe enough with her to do that.

"I'd only give you commands that you liked," she informed him. "Erik, play the piano. Erik, kiss Christine." She frowned. "Even that feels…um…unethical?"

Erik chuckled. "I can assure you that, if you commanded me to kiss you, my first thought would not have been how unethical it was."

He was still kidding, but there was an uncomfortable truth there. Being under Raymond's control had been so horrible that being under the control of someone like her probably sounded like a happy relief to him. And that was sad.

On one of the last missions, Erik and Saeed were sneaking into some warehouses that held old files. Documents that the company felt were no longer relevant but still wanted to keep. The building would be empty, and the surrounding area was rural and sparsely populated. Erik made sure she was comfortable below the university with some fried rice and noodles. She played on a computer that he gave her access to, knowing not to give away her location. She watched more of that show she had watched with Lily, as it was lighthearted and calmed her nerves.

Around 10PM, she went to bed. Erik said that he would be back by 1AM. Christine uneasily dozed on and off, checking the time whenever she woke. 12:30AM. Good - he would be home soon.

1AM.

1:15AM. Maybe he was just a little late. At that point, she couldn't go back to sleep.

At 1:45AM, she was pacing through the living room in her pajamas.

At 2AM, she took out the phone to call him, hoping she wasn't putting him in danger. Her heart was pounding, and her thoughts were racing. He had never been more than ten to fifteen minutes late before…

Just as she was about to press Call, Erik opened the door. They stared at each other, and he seemed surprised to see her. "What is wrong? What are you doing awake?"

"You're…late," she murmured, a little embarrassed.

"Yes. The drive took a bit longer than I thought it would. Didn't I say 1 to 2? If you were worried, you could have called."

"I didn't want to make your phone ring and put you in danger." She walked up and hugged him.

"It would only vibrate." His arm crept around her. "I apologize. I am still getting used to the idea of someone wanting me alive so badly. I thought you would be asleep."

"You and Saeed were being safe?"

"Yes. This place was completely empty. The most danger came from a rather large spider living in one of the boxes. It crawled on Saeed's hand, and I thought he would die of a heart attack."

She giggled. "Did you find anything?"

"Some of my uncle's research but nothing too important. I think we are reaching the end of our investigations."

"Do you think you found most of it?" she asked, chin pressed against his chest as she stared up at him.

"I believe so. At least enough so that it would take years for anyone to figure out how to create a new chip and program it. Now I just need to get the damned thing out of my head. Give me a sharp knife and an alcoholic beverage, and I will be done with it."

"Erik." They stood in the living room for several seconds, in an embrace. Then they spoke at the same time.

He said – "Do you want me to take you to the apartment or-"

And she said - "Will you come lie down with me?"

She didn't answer his question. She waited for him to answer hers.

He hesitated, glancing away from her and to the side. "That is what you want?"

"Yeah."

He didn't say anything. After a moment, she released him. She headed to the bedroom, figuring he could follow her if he wanted. And she would accept it if he didn't.

Erik did follow. She had turned on a lamp in the living room earlier, and he didn't turn it off. He left the door open a crack, so that they had a tiny bit of that light to see. Christine climbed under the sheets and covers. There was the soft rustle of material as he removed his jacket and shoes, and then he slowly joined her. She moved beside him and rested her head on his shoulder, on her side with her arm around his waist. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, and they stayed like that for a while.

Over the last weeks, they had spent many evenings on the couch at her apartment – kissing and sometimes sleeping there together. She had touched more of his skin and removed her shirt so that he could experience the same without hesitation. Their affections had become so heated one time that she had fallen off the couch. And she had said, with laughter, from the floor, as he stared down at her with alarm, that they needed more room. But…they hadn't gone to her bed yet. Not because she didn't want him there – if he had asked or carried her there, she would have agreed in a heartbeat. Erik just seemed like he was still settling in, processing everything.

She didn't invite him to bed that night because she expected anything from him. Or because of what did or didn't have to happen. She simply wanted to sleep close to him, feel him alive next to her and not wonder where he was.

Now that she had what she wanted, Christine was able to sleep.

At some point, perhaps a couple of hours later, she woke up. She felt his hand playing with her hair. "Are you awake?" she whispered.

"Yes, Angel," he whispered back.

"You can't sleep?"

"You know I never do with you."

She laughed. "Well, you're going to have to learn. Otherwise, you'll go years without sleeping."

"Oh. There are worse things…" His voice sounded distant.

To bring him back to the present, she found his unmasked face with her hand and leaned up to kiss him. The intensity with which he returned it delighted her. He was more comfortable with that act of love, more confident. They continued to kiss, her half on top of him. His lips touched her neck, which had healed, and her shoulders. His hands searched for more of her skin, so she helped him find it. The temperature difference between them was always a bit shocking at first, but she adjusted, his cold fingers gliding up her stomach and toward her chest, making her heart race.

Emboldened, she asked if she could touch him. And he must not have understood her meaning, because he said, "Of course you can touch me, Angel." Then he nearly jumped off the bed when she did it.

It wasn't the first time she had touched him. The second. But, in the darkness and in a bed, the act must have seemed especially intimate.

She started to apologize and move back. She was glad it was too dark to see her face turning red.

Erik quickly replied, "No, no. I simply didn't…It is fine. Do not be sorry for that. I will die if you apologize for that."

"I'm sorry," she couldn't help but say again. But thankfully he did not die.

"No, don't be sorry," he repeated. "Please don't be."

They slowly lay back down beside each other. She thought perhaps the moment had passed, though, and was going to lie there quietly. But then Erik asked, in a shaky whisper, if she could please do that again.

She heard heartbreaking fear in his voice. As though he were worried that he had permanently ruined everything and would never get to have that experience again – or others. She pushed away her own embarrassment, realizing his shame was more intense, cuddled up to his side, and fulfilled the request. He shakily exhaled and tried to relax against the pillow, sinking into the bed. "I love you so much," he murmured into her hair. She kissed his cheek as she touched him, enjoying making him happy. She briefly wondered what this felt like, for a man. Her man. This was all still very new to her.

He could only stand this for a little while, before he gently stilled her hand and held it, entwining their fingers together. His breath was quick and needful. But he didn't ask for more. He probably wouldn't have.

Yet his obvious desire for her made her want him even more. She kissed his lips and whispered, "I want to. If you do. We can."

He gave this audible, shaky sigh that almost sounded forlorn. And she thought maybe he would tell her he wasn't ready, and that was fine. At least he knew that she was. She would reiterate it later, she decided, when they were back at her apartment. She would tell him that he was always welcome in her bed.

Then Erik turned toward her and started to touch her. That was the first time. He was gentle and uncertain, curious yet cautious. She whispered encouragements to him, still a little unsure herself.

What she remembered about that night wasn't the discomfort. That was brief and not too bad. He was very slow and tender with her through most of it, and the faster parts didn't last very long. It also wasn't rapturous physical pleasure – they would have lots of time to figure that out later, when there was more light and they were more relaxed.

She mostly remembered the joy that expanded in her chest at being as close to him as possible, hearing him breathe into her ear, feeling his normally chilly body heat up a bit in her arms. Letting her hands skim along his back as he moved.

She felt vulnerable at times, enveloped within and beneath his taller frame. But she supposed that he felt that way too, by the way he tried to keep his face hidden against the pillow and pulled the covers over them so she couldn't fully see his body, even in the dark. Once she had adjusted to all the new sensations, Christine let herself relax with her arms draped around his narrow shoulders. Her skin warmed and tingled as something began to feel good even while it was still a little uncomfortable.

She whispered, "I love you" into his ear, then pressed herself up and into him. He was a quiet lover in those days, sometimes a quiet person in general, but he choked out her name in response. It was over fairly quickly after that. He seemed to lose himself in her during the fastest moments of those early morning hours, then suddenly shuddered and buried his face into the crook of her neck with a long exhale. Her hand stroked the back of his head as they lay there, his sparse hair soft beneath her fingertips, and she felt all of him pressed against her, still connected. After moving away from her, he quickly gathered her into his arms, their legs still entwined together in the sheets. She rested her head on his shoulder.

In a very weak voice, once so uncharacteristic of him but now sometimes more common, he asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm wonderful," she murmured as a pleasant exhaustion fell over her. "Are you?"

"God," was his only strangled reply.

She dozed again, bare skin pressed against bare skin, and he never let her go. Until he finally, with reluctance, murmured, "We should leave before sunrise. To be unnoticed."

Her eyes opened. "Oh, okay." She leaned up to give him a kiss, not really in a hurry. But then she realized that leaving in the daytime would make things more uncomfortable for Erik. She got up to dress.

"May I turn on the light?" he asked after a moment.

"Sure." She was half-dressed, drowsy. Christine smiled shyly in the light, blinking as her eyes adjusted. He was already dressed. She couldn't read his eyes, but there was something sad about them. "Are you really okay?" she asked. Did he regret it? She hadn't completely processed it, but she certainly didn't regret it. She had been anticipating it for some time, had known it might be a little intimidating at first, but had still wanted it to happen.

"I am fine, my Angel." The sadness in his gaze turned to adoration. "It is simply…far too tempting down here. Isolated with you. Safer than we will ever be aboveground. Having you like this with no one questioning what the hell you are doing with me. But I want to see if you if…if we do that again. It will always be too dark to completely see you down here, I think."

She had the feeling he was not quite speaking literally, even though her tired brain took some time to detangle his words. "When we do that again," she corrected. "I'd love to sleep with you every night." His gaze intensified. "I…I didn't plan this. Here. I just…"

"No, do not…I had never wanted anything so badly in my entire life. I considered telling you that we should wait. But then I thought – what if I am shot today? Now if I die, I can die very happy. Remembering what we did here. How wonderful you felt. No one can ever take that away from me. So I could not wait once you let me…"

"Erik!" She came over and threw her arms around his neck, still half-dressed but she didn't care.

His hand touched her bare back. "I should not say that to you. About being shot. You will think I am mad. What am I thinking?"

"No, you can speak honestly. And, you know, maybe I felt the same. I felt so scared for you during these missions with Saeed. I…I think about dying more, too, I guess."

"Because of me."

"It's not your fault, Erik. Just everything we've been through. I'll be okay. Like you said, though. Why wait when we want each other so much?"

"God," he said again, glancing at her body. "I don't…I still don't know how I wound up here. I am going to think about nothing but this for the rest of the day, probably for the rest of my life."

Before sunrise, they returned to her apartment and enjoyed each other more there, with more light. Back in the world. He wanted to see her, focus on her this time.

But that underground home was always available if they needed some quiet. If they wanted to hide away with only each other. That and the little cabin. Sometimes they just wanted to be alone.

Despite Erik's fears that he would be shot, the next weeks were peaceful. No one came racing out of the shadows to harm them.

She admitted to Saeed that she didn't know what was irrational paranoia versus sensible paranoia. "I don't think Erik knows either," she said with a laugh. "Do you?"

Saeed shook his head. "No. It's a dilemma, isn't it? The only solution is if we all pack up and leave. I don't think anyone would follow us across the country. Or to a different country. But – that would be so hard on all of us, wouldn't it?"

She, Saeed, and Erik eventually made a decision. They would remain in that city for now. But if a single attempted attack occurred, if they were targeted in any way, they would disappear. Thankfully, that day didn't seem to come.

She did have a tense day when Erik's chip was removed. The procedure involved Saeed, Darius, another friend of theirs with a medical background, and Darius's wife, Amira, who happened to be a physician's assistant with some surgical experience.

Amira was a friendly, smiling woman. She greeted Christine with a warm handshake and a boisterous "Hello, Dear! I love your skirt!"

While that made Christine feel a little better, she was still nervous. Erik insisted upon being facedown and awake through the entire thing, so they were only using a local anesthetic. The chip was located too far under his skin to be destroyed with a hammer but not so deep that its removal created any major threats his life.

"Do you want me to be there?" she asked him beforehand.

"Forgive me, but I think I would rather you not watch. It will make me worry about you."

"No problem. I'll wait outside and worry about you the whole time."

Erik and the others went into the guest bedroom, carrying water, towels, bottles of a clear liquid, and some sharper instruments. She heard murmured voices throughout the hour. But no panic. Saeed had assured her that, "If we cannot get it out safely, we won't do it."

Christine jumped up from the couch when the door opened, nearly sending a laptop to the floor. Saeed emerged, looking a little tired but smiling. "Everything went fine. They're bandaging him up. We'll monitor it for infection over the next weeks, but they took good care of him."

She learned that Erik didn't like to be fussed over too much when he was ill or injured, appearing alarmed as she wrapped him in a hug when he came out. "I am perfectly fine. I don't feel anything. As I said, I could have gotten it out myself again with a pocketknife and some whiskey."

They went home, and he took a long nap, and that was thankfully the end of it. No one would ever be able to control him again.

But while Erik wasn't worried about his own head, he did still have his own paranoia concerning their security. He set up an alarm system throughout the apartment, along with an array of cameras throughout the property. He made sure the windows were impenetrable from the outside while still allowing them to quickly escape from the inside. "We cannot be trapped," he stated. "There must always be an out."

"You know, I'm not sure the landlord is going to be thrilled with all these changes, once he figures them out," she said.

"Why? He could charge a higher rent on such a secure unit," Erik replied. She supposed she'd let him deal with that conversation when it occurred.

Christine didn't know how long they would all feel disturbed and suspicious. But, one evening, she finally remembered how they might begin to shift their thoughts to happier things, to the future. "How about a voice lesson?"

Erik glanced up from his computer. "Oh, yes. Yes. We absolutely should."

"I'm surprised you haven't mentioned it," she teased. He did play the piano every day for at least an hour. It obviously helped him relieve stress.

He looked down as though embarrassed. "I…I think when it was the only piece of you I could really have, your voice, it seemed very important. I mean, it is still important. I want you to succeed, and we can go as far as you would like. But it is not everything now."

The lesson did bring back memories, good and bad. Sometimes she still grew upset if she thought about those weeks beneath the ground. If she had only known everything, so much terror could have been avoided. She would have been on Erik's side from the beginning. They would have been a team, and maybe she could have convinced him to reach out to Saeed earlier.

Christine tried to let her negative feelings fade as she sang, staring at the back of Erik as he gracefully played, a small scar visible on the lower part of his skull. He had been lost and devastated and understandably bitter. He had probably seen her as yet another person who might turn on him, even if he did love her.

Hopefully he trusted her a little more now.

After an hour or so, he said, "We have a little touching up to do but not so much. You did very well. Have you been practicing without Erik all this time?"

"Sometimes I'll try to sing, when I'm cleaning or in the shower or something. It's harder without accompaniment. And your help." She probably would have needed to find another voice coach. The grief from doing that would have been difficult to stomach. "Are we finished?" she asked him as he stared down at the keys.

"For today." A pause, and he turned to look at her. "I hope you will not think me ridiculous, but I want nothing more than to touch you right now. In any way you will allow."

She supposed the lesson had brought back those days of loneliness and confusion for Erik as well. And being together in the closest way possible helped to dispel them, an emotional endorphin. In any case, the lessons led to a lovely evening. They had both become more confident with each other by then. That was the first time he let her stare down into his unmasked face and kiss him from above as she settled on top of him. She whispered how good he felt into his ear and pressed her cheek against his. That nearly undid him.

She was grateful that those parts were so good, that they found such joy in touch. It helped to soften the harder parts when the past popped up now and then.

In the morning, Erik squinted down at his phone and grumbled, "Saeed called three times."

She had heard the phone buzzing, but they had ignored it, perhaps at their own peril. Her heart gave a nervous jump. "Erik, you should see what he wants." What if someone bad had found them?

Erik slowly sat up with an annoyed grunt and called him. She suspected that he was also a little nervous, too. "Dammit, Saeed. What do you want? I am busy - That is none of your business. What do you want?" Saeed said something to him that she couldn't hear, and Erik's mood immediately changed. His back hunched. His voice became deeper and more somber. "I see. Thank you for letting me know. Yes. Best to not tell me this over the phone next time. Tell me in person. Yes, fine. Thank you."

When he hung up, she asked, "Everything okay?"

"Yes." There was a long pause, but she didn't prod. It obviously wasn't something that put them in immediate danger, or Erik would have been loading her and everything else into the car. "They found her. Olivia."

Christine swallowed. She knew that Erik had asked Saeed to look into it. They didn't talk about it beyond that. "Alive?"

"Yes. She's at an embassy somewhere. She will receive medical attention and then return home." Erik's voice was dull and detached.

"That's…good," Christine murmured. "I know…I know it's not all good. But it is…it's the best we could have hoped for now. All because of you. You helped save her."

He didn't reply. She supposed it was hard for him to see even that in a positive light. She hoped that both of them, forever part of each other's nightmares, could heal somehow.

Eventually, Erik sat up and stretched with a sigh. He looked down at her. She gave him a calm smile.

He said, "I am going to need to find a job, aren't I?"