A/N: Greetings and welcome to the tenth installment of A Glitch In His
Breathing! Many cookies once again to Rei for posting! Please keep the
reviews coming! Thanks to those of you who have for being honest and not
sugar coating anything.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Matrix or The Matrix Reloaded and
I'm not making money off this. I make my money in other ways.
*Surreptitiously kicks cat-o-nine-tails and leather corset under the table*
The song lyrics are from Cirque du Soleil and I don't own those either. My
friend Eien gets credit for the line "aura of melancholy you could cut with
a knife" I do not own anything pertaining to the movie Ghost either. Glitch
is mine. No using.

Rating: R for a bit of harsh language. Some sensuality, but this chapter is
actually pretty clean. However…the following chapters will not be. I
guarantee it. *evil little smirk*

And now…for the tenth installment of A Glitch In His Breathing!


Chapter X: Spark

Alegria
I see a spark of life shining
Alegria
I hear a young minstrel sing
Alegria
Beautiful roaring scream
Of joy and sorrow so extreme
There is a love in me raging
Alegria
A joyous magical feeling
******

There was a small café on a street corner across from the park that was
often frequented by afternoon shoppers and businessmen on lunch break.
Several umbrella-d tables were scattered out on the sidewalk. Sitting at
one of the tables was Glitch and Smith. The Agent stood out against the
crowd of casually dressed patrons but Glitch dressed in a baby tee and jeans
blended in perfectly as always.

Smith noted that Glitch had yet to say a word since they had arrived. She
sat there, munching on her sandwich in a kind of reflective silence. The
aura of melancholy that seemed to hang around her was thick enough to cut
with a butter knife. She appeared to be trying to ignore the fact that he
was there.

Smith decided that they were getting nowhere just sitting in the thought
laded silence so he spoke, "How did you sleep last night?"

"I didn't." Glitch replied simply before she took a sip of her Sprite. Her
tone was neither curt nor hateful. She almost sounded bored. She turned her
eyes up to his face. Her gaze seemed stagnant and watered down with
exhaustion.

"What did you do all night, then?" Smith asked

Glitch thought for a moment that she heard a note of concern in his voice.
"I thought." She answered. "And drank coffee."

"Well then, it doesn't go to wonder why you couldn't sleep." Smith said
a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

She didn't even look like she was thinking about smiling. "It was decaf."
She said blandly.

Smith's smile vanished. "What were you thinking about?"

"Last night." She answered picking a piece of tomato she had missed off her
sandwich.

Smith nodded. "I think it is weighing heavily on both of our minds." He said
with a small amount of sympathy noting how tired she looked both mentally
and physically.

Glitch licked a bit of mayonnaise off of her upper lip before she spoke. "I
think I can answer your question." She said. "About why I don't find someone
to meet my physical and emotional needs."

Smith frowned slightly. For some reason he almost didn't want to know the
answer. "I thought you said that it was because it would make your life too
complicated."

"Well, that's part of it." She replied

"What is the rest?" Smith asked leaning forward with interest. He rested his
elbow on the table beside his sandwich, which he had hardly touched.

"It's not really that I haven't found someone to meet those needs as it is
that a person who is willing to meet those needs hasn't found me." Glitch
answered smiling sadly.

Smith took a moment to process what she had just said but it was obvious by
his answer that the concept eluded him. "I am willing to meet those needs."
He said.

Glitch smiled in an almost pitying fashion. "I know you are, but that's not
what I mean." She said. "The emotions aren't involved. I'm a job to you. An
assignment."

"I'm sorry you look at it that way." Smith replied in the same tone.

"There isn't any other way you can look at it, is there?" She asked as she
munched on her chips.

Smith sat up a little straighter. "I know that I cannot know how it feels to
have an intimate relationship without some help, but I am sure I will be able
to comprehend it."

"No, no, no! You still don't fucking get it, Smith." She said. "I don't want to
be touched or held. I want to be loved and you can't love me."

"You can teach me to love you." Smith countered his voice full of
confidence.

Glitch made a harsh sound in her throat. "I can't teach you how to love
any more than I can build a rose out of daisy petals."

"My superiors are not so sure that it is impossible." Smith said.

"Are your superiors AI's as well?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Well, there's your problem right there." She paused to take a bite from her
sandwich. She chewed a few times before she continued her words muffled now.
"If they are AI's, they don't get the concept either."

"It was my assignment to gain access to such information." He said rather
stiffly.

"Well, you won't find it in any computer database." Glitch's expression
suddenly turned rueful. "Believe me. I know. I've looked."

There was a short silence as Smith watched Glitch stare at her food. He
wasn't sure what to say to what she had just told him. After a moment of
reserved thought she crumpled up the paper that had housed her sandwich and
chips and started to stand up.

"Where would you like to go?" Smith asked following her example and cleaning
up his eating space.

"Home, actually." She answered over her shoulder as she walked towards the
nearest trashcan. "I have some cleaning up to do."

"May I accompany you?" Smith asked.

Glitch gave one of her breezy shrugs. "If you like. I wouldn¹t complain to a
little company."

Smith stood and followed her. They walked in silence back to Glitch's
apartment. Once inside, Smith took his usual seat on the stool in the
kitchen looking seemingly content as he watched Glitch bustle about the
kitchen whistling a bittersweet tune between her teeth. She ran a sink of
water in which she seemed to be planning to watch her endless array of
coffee mugs, which were stacked two high and four deep by the sink.

Smith removed his sunglasses and watched her work. Before five minutes had
passed she was elbow deep in suds. He couldn't suppress an amused smile. He
couldn't ever remember that happening. A good many things had happened that
he couldn't explain since he had been around this woman.

Glitch was so different from most women Smith had observed, who seemed to
flaunt themselves in flashy clothes trying to attract the attention of
anything male. But not Glitch. She didn't ever seem to make any sort of
effort to stand out. Glitch never seemed to do anything but blend into her
surroundings and in Smith's opinion she did a great job. In a crowded room
her faded jeans and simple shirts would just fade away. And yet…there was
something about her that made Smith want to stick around. Smith let his eyes
caress their way over Glitch's body. She really was a beautiful woman and it
was such a shame that cynicism had made her its victim.

He looked down at his hands where they lay folded on the table. He felt a
pang of something within him. It seemed to start in his stomach under his
ribs and spread through his whole chest. It made his insides twist and his
skin felt suddenly cold though he could tell that the temperature in the
room had not changed.

Smith looked up at Glitch and noted that she looked a bit like the heroine
of Ghost. Molly was her name? Yes, Molly. When Glitch would lean over the
sink to scrub away at a mug in her hands her posture looked like that Molly
when she had been bent over the pottery wheel. The memory of what transpired
after that scene suddenly drowned Smith's mind. Sam had taken Molly in his
arms and kissed her, and his reasons still eluded Smith's wiring. He needed
to know why and his only avenue to the answer was carrying so much emotional
baggage that getting an answer from her now would be next to impossible even
for him.

"Why?" He asked himself silently. "Why did Sam want to kiss Molly?" Smith
answered his own inquiry and while the answer only raised more questions, it
was an answer nonetheless. "Because Sam loved Molly."

The Agent pulled his thoughts into focus and regarded Glitch again. His skin
still crawled with cold and seemed to ache with deprivation of sensory
input. This was something else he never recalled happening before and the
longer he sat there and stared at Glitch, the worse it got. Was this alien
feeling he was experiencing what he had been trying to understand all along?
More importantly, if it was, what was he supposed to do about it? He had
only one example to follow.

Smith rose quietly from his seat and crossed the kitchen to where Glitch
stood at the sink. If she had heard him move she gave no indication of it.
Smith stood only inches behind her, towering over her in an almost menacing
fashion. He could have easily rested his chin on the top of her head if he
had wanted to. His hands worked nervously by his sides as he debated as to
what he should do next. All he had to work on was his one example.

So Smith trailed his hands down the bare skin on the back of Glitch's arms.
Glitch straightened suddenly her breath going backwards. She dropped the mug
she had been washing back into the water.

Smith frowned, nearly taking his hands away. "This is not unpleasant?" Smith
asked.

Glitch's throat was so tight that it took her three tries before she could
work out a coherent reply. " No. No, Agent Smith its not."

Smith worked one hand up over her shoulder to brush her hair away from her
neck and she gave another tiny gasp. "What are you doing?" She whispered.

"Learning." Smith answered, breathing the word on the nape of her neck
making the fine hairs there stand up. The change in the tone of his voice
took both of them by surprise. "Since you will not teach me, I will learn for
myself."

Glitch swooned for a moment as the room grew fuzzy and her eyes glazed over.
She leaned back against Smith to steady herself. He felt warm. "You learn
fast." She barely managed.

Smith pulled her back against him wrapping his arms around her waist careful
to keep them from getting soapy. Glitch felt tight and stiff and her breath
came in frantic shallow pants. Some of the people he had interrogated hadn't
been this tense. He leaned his lips a little closer to her ear. "Would you
like to go for a walk tomorrow afternoon?" He whispered.

"I would love to." Glitch replied rather breathlessly.

"And then dinner afterwards?" He offered. "At the Traditional Rose?"

"Even better." Her voice was a little steadier.

"I'll call you tomorrow then." Smith said kissing her hair. He inhaled as he
did finding that she smelled of lavender and dishwashing soap. "Good bye, Ms.
Carter."

"Good bye, Agent Smith." Glitch replied somewhat mechanically. Her world was
such a blur. She wasn't even sure she heard him leave.
******