Three words.  I love you.  I Love You.  Shakespeare composed sonnets.  Menelaus slaughtered Troy in its name.  Men live for it and men die for it.  For it to last in perfection death is a necessity.  If Romeo and Juliet had lived through more than a week of marriage she would have had time to discover that he was a thug with raging hormones, and he would have tired of her religious zealousness and whininess.  It's never perfect.  Sometimes it will sting like hell, and burn twice as badly.  Then comes the worst situation, my situation.  La amour de loin.  The love from afar; the lover who doesn't love you in return.  Six days ago I died.  Some might even say that I died for love.  Six days ago I said three words to the hellcat of a girl that claimed my heart.  I think that I may have to die another death before she says them back to me.

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"Tap, tap, tap."  My fingers beat out a dread tattoo on the boardroom table.  Sensitive transgenic ears pick up the sound like the beating of bongo drums.  A dozen pairs of genetically enhanced eyes seethe angrily at me.  Using what has become an unfair advantage, I smile my patented cocky, I'm gods gift to women smile.  It used to piss people off, but now icy stares melt in my direction as everyone remembers how long it's been since that particular expression graced my face.  Except Kate, slightly less emotionally involved, who continues to pin me mercilessly in her gaze.  With a nod in her direction I fold my hands respectfully in my lap.

"Of course we are going to take the offer."

"Don't be foolish CeCe, we haven't even heard their terms yet.  Hell we don't even know if there are going to be terms yet, this might be one big setup and ambush designed to capture Max and leave us leaderless."

"Who's being foolish now Mole?  It doesn't seem slightly paranoid to assume that everything is a big government conspiracy?"

"Right CeCe, and Manticore wasn't at all a government funded, top secret sham?"

"This is a legitimate senator that we're talking about here Mole.  I did all of the research on her personally, do we have to go over this again?  You're suggesting we pass up what might be our one chance at legitimate recognition."

Our heads shot back and forth like spectators at a Wimbledon tennis match.  They'd been having this discussion off and on for hours.  Eventually they would just rehash all of the points, driving them into the ground, and then sit silent for another twenty minutes or so before starting it all over again.

"Tap, tap, tap-tap."  I glance around for the culprit, and Kate smiles guiltily, halting her fingers mid-tap.

"Enough."  At long last our leader speaks.  "Dix, get Senator Burnhart back on the phone.  Arrange a meeting for tomorrow."  Max holds up a hand for silence before any of us, and most especially Mole, have a chance to vent our disapproval.  "This dicking around while the angry hordes gather at our gates isn't getting us anywhere.  Besides, whereas we could most certainly take the military in a fair hand to hand fight, there are a hundred times more of them than there are of us, and I get the feeling that we'd be seriously outgunned."

"And you're bored of sitting on your hands, not getting to hit anything."  I take it as a sign of Max's increasingly tender feelings towards me, that she only glared instead of getting up out of her chair and punching me in the nose.

Oh the seemingly endless number of times that Max had punched me in that particularly vulnerable area.  Why do they always go for the nose?  Do I have a sign painted on my forehead that says "Please break my nose, it'll be funny and relieve the tension in your shoulders immensely.

Ufh.  Biggs elbowed me roughly at the ribs, and tilted his head in Dix's direction.  "…Eleven o'clock.  She "respectfully" asks you don't come armed, as you would not appreciate the consequences."

"See, I told you this was a government trap."

"Because a smart senator holds meetings with ARMED, genetically engineered killing machines."

"Ahem."  Dix cleared his throat ostentaciously.  "She also said that Max was free to bring her a second transgenic with her, to act as counsel."  Oh god, here we go again.

"Obviously you ought to bring someone who is skilled in organization and tactical planning."

"What you need is someone who can recognize a trap in time to save your ass from getting killed."

"Really Mole, and you think that you should be a poster child to the government because you just scream "of course transgenics can fit in with the rest of the population" and the senator might not be scared or anything."

"You got a problem with nomlies sister?"

"Just the paranoid schizophrenic, militaristic, pushy, overbearing."

"Alec."  The whole table turned to look at me.  "I'm taking Alec with me, as my second in command.  If he's up to watching my back that is?"  Her wide chocolate eyes locked on mine, eyes a boy could lost in, eyes to die for.

"I'll always have you."  Even if I never had her at all.