Title: Choices and Chances: Chapter Ten

Author: Stormhawk

Chapter Word Count: 848

Notes: Sorry it's so short, but this chappie belongs on its own.

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Night fell over the Matrix.

Darth was asleep, more out of exhaustion than anything else. He half-woke up when he heard his door open and close. "Who's there?" he murmured as someone walked across the floor and sat on the bed beside him.

Someone gently tilted his head up and slid something silky over his eyes...a tie by the size of it. Before he had a chance to react, they quickly tied it in a knot and laid his head back down.

"What's going on?" he started to ask but the someone...Stef, it had to be Stef, no one else in the house wore a tie - or would be using it in such a manner...pressed a finger to his lips and silence him.

He felt her weight shift in the bed, and then she put her hands on his chest, she kept them there for a moment and then she moved them up to his collar and tore his shirt down the middle. She pushed it away and then started to kiss his chest.

Darth reached up and pulled the tie from over his eyes, he had no intention of staying in the dark any longer.

And in the pale light, he saw a head of white-blond hair. Not Stef. Niq. Not Stef. He froze and then pushed her off him. Jumping out of bed, he flicked the attic light on. "What the hell are you doing?" he yelled.

"A minute ago it was pretty obvious," Niq said as she picked herself up and smiled.

"It was pretty obvious because I thought you were someone else," he said then he took in what she was wearing. A see-through nightgown and red lingerie. He put his hand over his eyes. "For god's sake, put on some clothes."

"Why? Don't you like what you see?"

"I'm a decent guy Niq, I have no intention of ogling another woman - especially one in her underwear - while I have a girlfriend."

"There's no law against looking," she said as she sauntered over to him and tried to pull his hand away from his eyes. "And there's no harm if that she-agent doesn't find out."

Darth clenched his teeth and walked past her and over to his window, "was this Ryder's idea or something? Niq...why did you do that?"

"This was not Ryder's idea. But he did tell me about what's going on, I'm sorry."

He spun around, "what are you sorry for?"

"That you had to find someone less than human to find someone."

He turned back to the window, "don't you ever say that again."

"I just thought you weren't interested in finding someone yet. I never knew...none of us knew...why'd you hide it?"

"We were afraid - and rightly so - of what you would think, and we knew you wouldn't understand or accept it."

"Why her?"

"Because I love her, and that's all the justification I need or you're going to get."

"But how can you, she's one of them. An agent. A killer. Don't you remember how scared we used to be of them?"

"We're collaborators, we get to look past the guns and suits now."

"You're very good at looking past things."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

Niq walked over to him, leant her head on his shoulder and hung an arm over his chest. "You looked straight past me and saw her instead."

"What?" he asked as he took a few steps away, not comfortable with her invading his personal space after what she had just done.

"I was right here, I've always been right here, am I that easy to look past? So easy to forget what happened between us?"

Darth pulled open his wardrobe and threw his dressing gown at her. Slightly miffed, she put it on. "Niq, this is the last time I am going to tell you this. Nothing happened between us that night. You were so drunk you didn't know what the hell was going on, I, on other hand was completely sober. You walked into my cabin, stripped naked and got into my bunk. I just walked out and left you to sleep it off."

"Yeah, right. I wasn't that drunk, I remember."

"You were so drunk it took you forty-eight hours before you could eat. You almost gave yourself alcohol poisoning, don't you remember that."

"Yeah, I also remember us. What happened between us."

"You must have dreamed it." He shook his head, "so what was your motive for coming up here tonight?"

"Two reasons, I wanted to make you realize that programs are never as good as the originals, and when you get over this phase and this agent, I'll still be here."

Darth shook the ripped shirt off and pulled on a new one, slipping his feet into his shoes, he picked up his wallet and left the room without another word.

He made his way to Stonehenge, which was open for all-night gaming, paid the fee, and fell asleep on one of the couches. It didn't bother the owners, he'd done it before.