Solace was actually skipping as she went down the hallway and into the elevator, bouncing lightly from heel to toe, impatient for it to descend to the ground floor. The last two days, despite (or perhaps because of?) Kerr's presence, had been utterly perfect. She'd gotten the interview, gotten the lead on the story that had earned her many plaudits and backslaps in the news room, had the long talk with Smith that had resulted in things that gave her a funny feeling in the stomach and a cold chill to think about. And she had accomplished all of this while still managing to get some decent sleep and even some conversation in on the Neb.
The elevator doors dinged, cheerily, or so she thought. Solace bounded out between them, skipping down the hall...
... and skidding to a halt as she saw Kerr arguing loudly with the concierege. Who was, to his credit, trying to bar the man entrance. But Solace knew that it wouldn't to any good to shout at Kerr if Kerr decided he wanted into the building. He had all the powers of a man outside the Matrix, or at least within it without being a part of it.
He hadn't seen her yet. There was, just maybe, time enough to get to the garage and get the hell out of there before he noticed. Except... oh damn. Except she had to warn...
"There you are..." she couldn't tell if he was angry at her, pleased to see her, just exasperated in general, or what was going through his mind at that point. She didn't want to stick around and find out, though.
"And I was just leaving, too," she said, putting as much iciness into her tone as she could. Those skills, she was starting to realize, were becoming more and more easily picked up as she hung about with Smith. Maybe quiet scorn and monotone snarkiness was catching.
"Sol, I really don't think you're taking me seriously."
He was the absolute limit. "I'm taking you very seriously, Kerr, all right? Very seriously. But I don't think you're actually listening to me when I tell you I just want to be left alone! Can you even comprehend that? Leave! Me! Alone!" From even voice to screaming match in two point five seconds. That was a record even for her. It was the urgency that was doing it, the sense that she needed to get him out of there before something really bad happened.
"Sol, baby, I can't do that, okay? I care about you. I care about your welfare, and what you're doing right now is..."
She pulled back, but somewhere in the last two sentences worth of conversation he had gotten a good grip on her arm, and when she reached out to fend him off he grabbed the other hand.
"Sol, listen to me."
"I've listened to you enough for one lifetime, Kerr."
"You've got to trust me, okay, just..."
"I've also trusted you enough for one lifetime, Kerr, okay? Your passion is compelling, it's also extraordinarily futile. If you wanted to look out for my welfare and well-being you should have actually done a half-decent job when we were still married. You should have actually cared about me then. It's a little late now."
He drew back, startled and stung. Unfortunately he didn't relinquish his grip on her arm.
"Let me go."
"No, Sol, I can't..."
"Let me go!"
"Sol..."
"I believe the woman told you to release her."
Solace closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. This was exactly what she hadn't wanted... Smith, and herself, and Kerr in a public place together, in a confrontational situation where it was entirely possible that everything she was and everything that was going on would be thrust into the light. Even if that didn't happen (and she was actually somewhat surprised that it hadn't yet, although Smith hadn't seen her do too many out of the ordinary things), Kerr had almost certainly been outed. All this talk about terrorist organizations... it could only mean one thing.
And now Kerr and Smith were in the same hallway at the same time, and Kerr had been caught manhandling her. This was a recipe for disaster of Hindenburgian proportions. She could even hear the little voice in her head saying 'oh, the humanity!'
"This isn't any of your business..." she saw Kerr mouthing the word 'robot,' and devoutly hoped Smith couldn't see it around her head. Solace did wonder, though, why he hadn't said it aloud.
"It is very much my business. Solace is a friend of mine, and you have caused her a great deal of pain and distress in the past. I would very much like to see that it doesn't happen again."
Oh, that was a threat. Solace sighed, inwardly wincing as the situation deteriorated with depressing rapidity. Kerr's expression darkened.
"It strikes me, Agent... Smith, isn't it?"
Solace winced again. Fortunately Smith made no audible response, nothing to indicate that he was surprised that Kerr knew who he was. He probably just assumed she had blurted it out in a moment of heat or anger. At least, she hoped he did.
"It is."
"It strikes me, Smith, that you're the one more likely to cause her harm, pain, or distress. You're the one who runs her kind down and puts them away. You're the one who kills our kind."
Our kind. Shit. Please, please God. Please, if there was any justice in the Matrix, let Smith not make that connection. She squinched her eyes shut and went down to her knees, trying to curl up and praying as hard as she ever had to all the gods she could muster belief in that everything hadn't just been blown wide open.
The next thing she saw, the next thing she was conscious of actually experiencing was a blur by her side, a rush of wind past her cheek, and the unmistakeable sound of a man's fist impacting on the hard jawbone of someone's face. She opened her eyes, sitting back sharply and ending up on her butt in the hallway. Smith had punched Kerr back a good several feet, and Kerr was also sprawled on his butt in the hallway, rubbing his jaw and looking startled. Hell, she was startled. She hadn't expected Smith to haul off and pop him one like that. Not in the public haunt of men, as it were.
"Smith..." she got to her knees, stretched out a hand to do something, stop them somehow, but that was as far as she got.
"You bastard..." Kerr got to his feet, rubbing his jaw, and then he started to move almost faster than the human eye could follow... at least, the unassisted human eye. She had no idea why he was... why both of them were cracking the secrecy that both Agent and Resistance had previously tried to respect. Now...
"Smith, don't..." He wasn't even listening to her. Kerr's first punch was blocked easily, and Smith kicked him across the room (much to the startlement of the concierge). He must have still been dazed. "Smith!"
Kerr picked himself up off the wall, wincing, clearly in pain, and clearly more enraged than a bull in the toreador ring. About as dumb, too, Solace thought wryly. He gave as good as he got for a little while, and Smith hammered him back and forth across the lobby. Solace racked her brains, thinking as fast as she could for some way to stop this, some way that wouldn't reveal who or what she was ... they were going to kill each other. Well, Kerr was going to get killed, since Smith had the immortality of the AI... "Smith!"
That time she reached him. The volume of her voice, or the tone, or just that particular moment he might have had a chance to stop and breathe and listen, she didn't know. He paused just long enough to be humanly visible, and she ran up behind him and pulled him back like any ordinary woman would have. "Don't. Don't do it. He's not worth it." She was speaking a mile a minute and she didn't care. "Smith, let security deal with it."
Because security was coming, oh yes. With the pitter patter of little feet in thick hard-soled (possibly steel-toed) boots, security was here. Solace tactfully interposed herself between Smith and the belligerent ex-husband, who still looked as though he wanted to knock the Agent across the hall and back, several times.
Smith angrily straightened his suit. It was, Solace reflected with the clarity of thought after panic, a damn good thing he'd worn that today. He looked about as federal as he ever had, even if it was I've-just-been-prevented-from-apprehending-that-bastard federal. The sort of expression one might expect to find on an FBI agent who's just realized he's come up against the walls of jurisdiction. The sort of stance that said 'the only thing keeping me from giving you the ass-beating you so richly deserve is my contractually-obligated mysterious stoicism.' The death glare of the Secret Service.
"Ma'am...?" They approached her, probably at the concierge's direction since she'd been the only non-combatant involved in the fight. "What happened here?"
"Her..." Smith started to say, and she kicked him lightly in the ankle.
"My ex-husband showed up," she said, exasperatedly gesturing at Kerr. "He tried to drag me off somewhere with him... Smith came down and ... well. There was an..." how did she put this delicately. "Altercation."
The security guard who seemed to be in charge (and the only one who wasn't hanging onto Kerr) looked over at Smith. The former Agent gave him the blank stare of a government enforcer. The guard shrugged. "What do you want us to do, ma'am?"
"Throw him out, for one thing." Solace took probably an excessive amount of pleasure in glaring at Kerr as he gaped at her in astonishment. "And if he ever shows his stupid face back here again... I don't know, shoot him or something. Have him arrested for trespassing. Or stalking."
"You can't..." Kerr started to say, but they were already hauling him off.
"I don't think the lady's much interested, sir."
Solace smirked, muttering under her breath. "Watch me. Kerr, you stupid, stupid man. You have no idea what you've just done."
Smith's hands came down on her shoulders, lightly, but she still jumped and squeaked. "It's all right," he said quickly. "It is only me."
"Sorry..." she took a deep breath. "I... sorry about that. I have no idea what the hell's going through Kerr's mind when he pulls stunts like that. Hopefully this time he'll at least stay out of my apartment building."
Smith slipped a protective arm around her shoulders as they moved back to the garage where they'd been heading before all hell had broken loose. "I still do not understand why you don't want me to..."
"Smith..." her tone was teasing, but also warning. "Not today, okay? Not after that."
He hugged her lightly, half protecting her, half steering her since she seemed to be about to walk into things at any given moment. The fight had shaken her up more than she wanted to admit, or even could admit to him. "As you wish."
She burst into quietly suppressed giggles. The former Agent cocked an eyebrow at her, which only made her laugh harder. "Some day you are going to tell me what it is about that phrase that makes you laugh like that."
That pushed her into full-on laughter. The thought of Smith as the Dread Pirate Roberts... ah, too much. "Tomorrow," she promised. "I'll fill you in tomorrow."
The elevator doors dinged, cheerily, or so she thought. Solace bounded out between them, skipping down the hall...
... and skidding to a halt as she saw Kerr arguing loudly with the concierege. Who was, to his credit, trying to bar the man entrance. But Solace knew that it wouldn't to any good to shout at Kerr if Kerr decided he wanted into the building. He had all the powers of a man outside the Matrix, or at least within it without being a part of it.
He hadn't seen her yet. There was, just maybe, time enough to get to the garage and get the hell out of there before he noticed. Except... oh damn. Except she had to warn...
"There you are..." she couldn't tell if he was angry at her, pleased to see her, just exasperated in general, or what was going through his mind at that point. She didn't want to stick around and find out, though.
"And I was just leaving, too," she said, putting as much iciness into her tone as she could. Those skills, she was starting to realize, were becoming more and more easily picked up as she hung about with Smith. Maybe quiet scorn and monotone snarkiness was catching.
"Sol, I really don't think you're taking me seriously."
He was the absolute limit. "I'm taking you very seriously, Kerr, all right? Very seriously. But I don't think you're actually listening to me when I tell you I just want to be left alone! Can you even comprehend that? Leave! Me! Alone!" From even voice to screaming match in two point five seconds. That was a record even for her. It was the urgency that was doing it, the sense that she needed to get him out of there before something really bad happened.
"Sol, baby, I can't do that, okay? I care about you. I care about your welfare, and what you're doing right now is..."
She pulled back, but somewhere in the last two sentences worth of conversation he had gotten a good grip on her arm, and when she reached out to fend him off he grabbed the other hand.
"Sol, listen to me."
"I've listened to you enough for one lifetime, Kerr."
"You've got to trust me, okay, just..."
"I've also trusted you enough for one lifetime, Kerr, okay? Your passion is compelling, it's also extraordinarily futile. If you wanted to look out for my welfare and well-being you should have actually done a half-decent job when we were still married. You should have actually cared about me then. It's a little late now."
He drew back, startled and stung. Unfortunately he didn't relinquish his grip on her arm.
"Let me go."
"No, Sol, I can't..."
"Let me go!"
"Sol..."
"I believe the woman told you to release her."
Solace closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. This was exactly what she hadn't wanted... Smith, and herself, and Kerr in a public place together, in a confrontational situation where it was entirely possible that everything she was and everything that was going on would be thrust into the light. Even if that didn't happen (and she was actually somewhat surprised that it hadn't yet, although Smith hadn't seen her do too many out of the ordinary things), Kerr had almost certainly been outed. All this talk about terrorist organizations... it could only mean one thing.
And now Kerr and Smith were in the same hallway at the same time, and Kerr had been caught manhandling her. This was a recipe for disaster of Hindenburgian proportions. She could even hear the little voice in her head saying 'oh, the humanity!'
"This isn't any of your business..." she saw Kerr mouthing the word 'robot,' and devoutly hoped Smith couldn't see it around her head. Solace did wonder, though, why he hadn't said it aloud.
"It is very much my business. Solace is a friend of mine, and you have caused her a great deal of pain and distress in the past. I would very much like to see that it doesn't happen again."
Oh, that was a threat. Solace sighed, inwardly wincing as the situation deteriorated with depressing rapidity. Kerr's expression darkened.
"It strikes me, Agent... Smith, isn't it?"
Solace winced again. Fortunately Smith made no audible response, nothing to indicate that he was surprised that Kerr knew who he was. He probably just assumed she had blurted it out in a moment of heat or anger. At least, she hoped he did.
"It is."
"It strikes me, Smith, that you're the one more likely to cause her harm, pain, or distress. You're the one who runs her kind down and puts them away. You're the one who kills our kind."
Our kind. Shit. Please, please God. Please, if there was any justice in the Matrix, let Smith not make that connection. She squinched her eyes shut and went down to her knees, trying to curl up and praying as hard as she ever had to all the gods she could muster belief in that everything hadn't just been blown wide open.
The next thing she saw, the next thing she was conscious of actually experiencing was a blur by her side, a rush of wind past her cheek, and the unmistakeable sound of a man's fist impacting on the hard jawbone of someone's face. She opened her eyes, sitting back sharply and ending up on her butt in the hallway. Smith had punched Kerr back a good several feet, and Kerr was also sprawled on his butt in the hallway, rubbing his jaw and looking startled. Hell, she was startled. She hadn't expected Smith to haul off and pop him one like that. Not in the public haunt of men, as it were.
"Smith..." she got to her knees, stretched out a hand to do something, stop them somehow, but that was as far as she got.
"You bastard..." Kerr got to his feet, rubbing his jaw, and then he started to move almost faster than the human eye could follow... at least, the unassisted human eye. She had no idea why he was... why both of them were cracking the secrecy that both Agent and Resistance had previously tried to respect. Now...
"Smith, don't..." He wasn't even listening to her. Kerr's first punch was blocked easily, and Smith kicked him across the room (much to the startlement of the concierge). He must have still been dazed. "Smith!"
Kerr picked himself up off the wall, wincing, clearly in pain, and clearly more enraged than a bull in the toreador ring. About as dumb, too, Solace thought wryly. He gave as good as he got for a little while, and Smith hammered him back and forth across the lobby. Solace racked her brains, thinking as fast as she could for some way to stop this, some way that wouldn't reveal who or what she was ... they were going to kill each other. Well, Kerr was going to get killed, since Smith had the immortality of the AI... "Smith!"
That time she reached him. The volume of her voice, or the tone, or just that particular moment he might have had a chance to stop and breathe and listen, she didn't know. He paused just long enough to be humanly visible, and she ran up behind him and pulled him back like any ordinary woman would have. "Don't. Don't do it. He's not worth it." She was speaking a mile a minute and she didn't care. "Smith, let security deal with it."
Because security was coming, oh yes. With the pitter patter of little feet in thick hard-soled (possibly steel-toed) boots, security was here. Solace tactfully interposed herself between Smith and the belligerent ex-husband, who still looked as though he wanted to knock the Agent across the hall and back, several times.
Smith angrily straightened his suit. It was, Solace reflected with the clarity of thought after panic, a damn good thing he'd worn that today. He looked about as federal as he ever had, even if it was I've-just-been-prevented-from-apprehending-that-bastard federal. The sort of expression one might expect to find on an FBI agent who's just realized he's come up against the walls of jurisdiction. The sort of stance that said 'the only thing keeping me from giving you the ass-beating you so richly deserve is my contractually-obligated mysterious stoicism.' The death glare of the Secret Service.
"Ma'am...?" They approached her, probably at the concierge's direction since she'd been the only non-combatant involved in the fight. "What happened here?"
"Her..." Smith started to say, and she kicked him lightly in the ankle.
"My ex-husband showed up," she said, exasperatedly gesturing at Kerr. "He tried to drag me off somewhere with him... Smith came down and ... well. There was an..." how did she put this delicately. "Altercation."
The security guard who seemed to be in charge (and the only one who wasn't hanging onto Kerr) looked over at Smith. The former Agent gave him the blank stare of a government enforcer. The guard shrugged. "What do you want us to do, ma'am?"
"Throw him out, for one thing." Solace took probably an excessive amount of pleasure in glaring at Kerr as he gaped at her in astonishment. "And if he ever shows his stupid face back here again... I don't know, shoot him or something. Have him arrested for trespassing. Or stalking."
"You can't..." Kerr started to say, but they were already hauling him off.
"I don't think the lady's much interested, sir."
Solace smirked, muttering under her breath. "Watch me. Kerr, you stupid, stupid man. You have no idea what you've just done."
Smith's hands came down on her shoulders, lightly, but she still jumped and squeaked. "It's all right," he said quickly. "It is only me."
"Sorry..." she took a deep breath. "I... sorry about that. I have no idea what the hell's going through Kerr's mind when he pulls stunts like that. Hopefully this time he'll at least stay out of my apartment building."
Smith slipped a protective arm around her shoulders as they moved back to the garage where they'd been heading before all hell had broken loose. "I still do not understand why you don't want me to..."
"Smith..." her tone was teasing, but also warning. "Not today, okay? Not after that."
He hugged her lightly, half protecting her, half steering her since she seemed to be about to walk into things at any given moment. The fight had shaken her up more than she wanted to admit, or even could admit to him. "As you wish."
She burst into quietly suppressed giggles. The former Agent cocked an eyebrow at her, which only made her laugh harder. "Some day you are going to tell me what it is about that phrase that makes you laugh like that."
That pushed her into full-on laughter. The thought of Smith as the Dread Pirate Roberts... ah, too much. "Tomorrow," she promised. "I'll fill you in tomorrow."