Title: Choices and Chances: Chapter Eight

Author: Stormhawk

Chapter Word Count: 2287

Notes: Niet

Please read and Review.

Her self-diagnostic flashed red, and red is never good. The string she had pulled off was having trouble fully reintegrating itself into her code. Apparently pulling her guts out after her code had been damaged by Ander-snot hadn't been the smartest idea she had ever had.

Not to mention, the code string was having trouble communicating with several helper subroutines that the doctor had given her to speed up her recovery. The problem was stemming from the fact that the subroutines he had given her had been programmed specifically for agent code.

And as much of an agent as she was, she was written slightly different to the other agents, and so, sometimes different things had different effects on her. Communication errors were usually minor, something that she didn't even notice, but this time was quite a bit more serious than when subroutine 7658-90-a couldn't communicate properly with subroutine 9725-56-w and the result was that subroutine 8954-87-p had to be used instead of 3126-78-s. Stuff like that was trivial, but if the string and the helper subroutines couldn't work with each other, the helpers were going to reject the code string and eventually more of it would follow until she was nothing more than a pile of string on the floor.

"Come on," she whispered, "don't screw up, just repair so I can get out of this freaky white hallway."

She performed another diagnostic but it flashed red again. She winced and pulled out all of the subroutines again, and then slowly fed it back in, allowing each to acclimatize and communicate before putting the next one in, it was slow, tedious and painful, but it was working.

After an hour, her hands were covered with her own blood and a handful of green characters that had fallen off the slowly degrading subroutines but at least she was fixed. She stood up and walked toward a door to the collaborator mansion.

She put her key in and walked through into the kitchen. Turning on the tap, she let the cool water run over her hands and wash the blood off them. Dreamily, she watched the blood circle in the sink and slip down the drain until the water ran clean. She turned off the tap and turned around.

Stevie had been watching her.

Stef did a double-take, "where did you come from?"

"Living room. Stef what in hell is going on?"

"What do you mean?" she asked as she walked past her, wanting to avoid this conversation for as long as possible.

"Don't play dumb, you know what I mean."

"Steves, I need to sit down ok?"

"Where's dad?"

"Smith?"

Stevie rolled her eyes, "who else would I be talking about?"

"Can we talk later? I really don't feel good."

"What happened?"

"Well Ander-snot tried to shatter me, he might have thrown junk at you and tried to choke you but if I had to explain to you in human terms what he did to me...I'd have get a chainsaw and stab you with it, and then injure all of your internal organs and let a vampire suck out a pint and a half of blood."

"Where's my dad?"

"Later Stevie."

"I'm not belittling the fact you got really hurt, but WHERE THE HELL IS MY DAD?" Stevie yelled.

"Leave me alone Stevie," Stef said as she pushed past her and headed for the stairs.

Stevie tackled her to the floor, "where is he?!" she demanded. "Is he dead?" she asked in a quieter tone as Stef pushed her off.

"Come here sis," Stef said quietly as she held out her arms. She held onto Stevie, "this isn't going to be easy for you to hear." She felt Stevie shudder. "He's not dead...but I don't think you're going to see him for a while."

"Where is he? Or is he sick or what is going on?"

"I can't really explain."

"Why not?"

Instead of an explanation that would break her heart, Stef chose to go with the lie. "Because it's all technical stuff that would sound like gibberish to you. It sounds like gibberish to me, Jones had to explain every single bit to me, it took two hours."

Stevie gave her a deadpan stare, "then give the quick version."

"You know how we teleport around?" Stef asked, hoping Stevie would believe this explanation, "he's kind of...stuck for lack of a better word, and his data is all corrupt so he has to get fixed."

"Oh, ok. So why didn't you just tell me that in the first place?"

"I wasn't sure you'd understand."

"Cray's the one who's failing in school, not me."

"What is the Smurf failing?" Stef asked as they stood up.

"I'm not failing anything," he said as he walked down the stairs.

"What about that note Miss Corcastle gave you to give to your parent/guardian?"

"Note?" Stef asked, glad that the topic was on something trivial like this.

"Your son/daughter/charge - circle appropriate - grade for this subject has been dropping and this may affect their end result. And it's math he's failing."

Cray made a face, "they give those to everybody."

"I didn't get one," Stevie said.

"Just for that, I'm not bringing you breakfast in bed anymore."

"Oooh..."

"You bring her breakfast in bed?"

"I have twice, aren't boyfriends supposed to do that kind of stuff?"

"Usually, people your age aren't living together."

"I was trying to be nice after that whole thing with Ander-snot."

Stef winced and looked over at Stevie, "next time you shoot him, make sure it's a head shot."

"Sure thing."

"I will see you guys later, I need to lie down." As strange as it sounded to her to even say that, she really did feel exhausted to the core, as well as sore. Lying down sounded like a good idea, and if she was relaxed, she might be able to figure out what to do - if there was anything she could do - about Smith.

She walked up to Darth's room, but he wasn't there, so she kicked off her shoes and collapsed on the bed, pulling a pillow under her head.

11111

Darth walked into the mansion about twenty minutes later, with a big brown paper bag in his arms. Shopping was done sporadically, so instead of one decent shop a week, there were at least four trips each week, but no one really minded.

He walked into the kitchen and the phone started ringing, he dumped the bag down and picked it up. "Hello?"

"It's me," Galli said.

Darth sighed inwardly and sat up on the bench, "yeah Galli?"

"So is it true?" Galli asked him in a serious tone.

"Yeah," Darth said with a long sigh, "it's true, so go ahead and yell or tease or say your piece. I've had one serving from the captain, I guess I can handle another."

"I meant was it true that Cray beat my Doom score, but if you want to talk about that then I guess we can."

Darth's mouth dropped open, "you find out that my girlfriend is an agent, an 'evil-suit-person' and you're worried about your Doom score?"

"I have priorities," Galli said with a grin in his voice. "Darth you were never going to find someone out here, you and Zion chicks don't mix. I'm all for it, I'm just glad you're spending time with something that doesn't have a CD-ROM drive." There was a pause. "She doesn't...does she?"

"Nah...DVD-ROM," he said with a wry grin.

"Ha ha," Galli said dryly and paused for moment. "Now the guy-guy half of my brain wants to know if you've hacked or hacked her yet."

"No and no."

"That's no fun."

"Is Ryder still pissed off?"

"Darth, he's going through your computer looking for that prototype 'kill the evil suit people' virus."

Darth felt his lungs turn to lead, "you're kidding. He can't be...oh shit, I completely forgot about that."

"Breathe and blink my friend," Galli whispered, "the disk is hidden in my underwear drawer and I'm going to destroy it as soon as they go into the Matrix next."

Darth let out a big sigh of relief, "thank you Galli...but can I ask why it's hidden in your underwear?"

"I kinda already knew about this. I check in on you guys every so often and one night I saw you and your girlfriend. I thought you were living in sin but since you guys aren't hacking each other, I think it's kind of...cute."

"And you never told the captain?"

"It's not my place to tell."

"Thanks Galli."

"I got to go, I think I hear the captain coming."

The programmer smiled happily and hung up the phone, he dumped the foodstuffs away and walked up to his room with a bag of cookies under his arm. He pushed open the door to his room and found Stef lying across the middle of the bed staring at the roof.

"Stef?" he asked, he was sure he could see her breathing, but after what had happened, he didn't like seeing her this still.

She lifted her head and smiled wanly, "hey."

"So what happened?" he asked.

She groaned and pulled another pillow of her face. "I don't want to talk about it," she said through the pillow.

He closed the door and sat down beside her, "you can tell me." She said something that was muffled by the pillow. He picked up the pillow, "want to try that again? I don't understand pillow talk. Or rather, talking through pillow talk."

"Nurg..." she said and pulled the pillow back down.

"Did you find him?"

"Yeah..." she said as she sat up.

"That doesn't sound too convincing."

"He's alive, as in living. But he didn't want to come back to the Matrix...what am I supposed to make of that? I even lied to Stevie about it cause I don't know what to think or do."

" 'Come back to the Matrix?'" Darth questioned, "then where is he?"

"0x1x0x1, nowhere and somewhere, it's kind of hard to explain. He's in a place no one knows how to find. A nonsensical shunt point that has really interesting architecture."

"Why wouldn't he want to come back?"

"Well, he doesn't want to leave his girlfriend behind."

Darth blinked a few times, "his what?"

"His supposedly dead girlfriend. She's actually in the shunt point, and since she can't come back, he doesn't want to leave her."

"So he's going to stay there for a while?"

"Judging by what he said to me, he's prepared to stay there forever."

"Forever? That's really heavy."

"I don't get it, surely if he came back out he could find a way to make her code stable so she wouldn't break down."

"Steffie," Darth said gently, "what if it's more than that?"

"What do you mean?" she asked him.

"Do not, in any way, take this as offense, but the Mainframe isn't exactly big on the idea of agents being in love is it? And the death penalty seems to be the punishment for basically everything. What if he just wants a break from that for a while?"

"Why can't he just accept things the way they are? Like we have to. Like everyone has to."

"Wouldn't you prefer if the system wasn't so harsh?"

"Of course, no reasonable person would choose to have to live like this. But I adapted, there are ways to get around the rules, he knows that...but Smith is a man of extremes."

"Well, that goes without saying. So maybe he just wants a break for a while, I doubt he could choose to live forever in some nowhere place."

"I'm not sure, he's made a few decisions that are or were pretty permanent."

"Like Carol Whitman?" Darth asked.

"How the hell do you know about her?"

"Ghost story. Poor little angel corrupted by an agent."

"If you ever associate Carol with angel again I'm going to ask what hard drugs you are taking."

"She's that bad huh?"

Stef nodded, "she's committed horrific murder, don't make me say more than that. She was the first, she's why Brown hates me so much, he thinks I'm going to turn into her."

"Well you're not."

"I know, but the guy has a stick so far up his ass it obscures his vision."

"Are you going to be ok?"

"I'm not sure. When...or rather if I can get back into there, cause I don't know how stable the place is or if the way I got in will still work, I still don't know if he'll want to come back."

"He won't want to stay there forever," Darth said, "he's got so much out here."

"This will kill Stevie if I tell her, so I am going to hold off telling her as long as I can. I just don't know what to do, it's not going to take the Mainframe that long to decide to bring a replacement online."

"I'm sure he misses you too, not just Stevie."

"I'm replaceable."

"You're irreplaceable."

"I'm irresponsible that's what I am, I was so wound up about what happened with Ryder that I wasn't completely alert and on guard for all possible dangers, this is all my fault."

"No it's not, you couldn't have known someone was waiting with a dart, how often do you face people using darts in this day and age?"

"I should probably go, I don't want Brown to get even madder at me or worse, come looking for me."

"You can tell him you're thanking me."

"He wouldn't believe that anymore than he would wear a pink suit."

He kissed her as she shifted away. Darth sighed, then ate a cookie.