Title: Choices and Chances: Chapter Twenty

Author: Stormhawk

Chapter Word Count: 1644

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"...you can't be serious..."

Stef laughed and dropped down in the chair in front of his desk, "no, of course I'm not. I just always wanted to see what your face would look like if I ever said that. And I was right, it was priceless." I really thought about it though, but I can't tell you that. Just like all those other things I can't tell you about.

"Do me a favor and never say something like that again."

She crossed her heart but had her fingers crossed behind her back - just in case - "I swear."

"I am not amused."

"Too bad, I liked it."

"Did you get corrupted by the exiles?" he asked with a wry smile.

"No where near as much as you did Smithy." His face, and she slapped herself, "I'm sorry, that was way out of line."

"You can go if you want."

"No, I think I'm going to stick around for a while."

"Around where?" he asked as he opened the bottom drawer and looked in at the hourglass Whitman had given him.

"Around here, around the Agency. But I think I'm going to go to my office and have a nap."

"If you want."

"And maybe later you can tell me about the real Ivy, she must have been pretty special."

"Yes," Smith said as Stef got up and walked to the door, "very special."

Figuring that six hours was enough time to have stuck around the Agency, Stef shifted to the collaborator mansion. Jones had restored her security and asked her nicely to not let her code be affected in the next week, as it could only sustain so much damage in a short amount of time.

She shifted up to Stevie's room and knocked on the door. Stevie opened it a second later.

"Your dad is fine."

Stevie squeaked in joy, "so he's all right? He's really ok?"

"Yeah Steves, he's fine. He's coming by later."

"You promise?"

"I swear."

Stevie narrowed her eyes, "show me your hands."

"Huh?"

"Hold up both of your hands and swear, cause if you're anything like me, you'll have your fingers crossed just in case."

Stef held up her hands, "I swear he's ok and that's he's coming over later. And I only cross my fingers when I'm unsure about something." Stevie smiled and nodded.

"You know where Darth is?"

"I heard him walk down the stairs muttering about doughnuts."

Stef watched silently as Darth opened the cupboard and then the breadbox before sighing. Screw the Agency, I want to go exile, get a lame house with a white picket fence and spend my life with him.

The programmer, having not noticed her yet, opened the freezer and rummaged around.

I could have died, I thought I was never going to see him again. I love him so much.

"Yay!" Darth said as he closed the freezer and held up an old, icy ice cream bar.

"Hey."

He looked up at her, dropped the ice cream and walked over to her. "Where have you been?" he asked her as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Stop talking," she said as she kissed him.

When he was about to turn blue from oxygen deprivation, she broke away and buried her head in his chest.

He rubbed his hand on her back in soothing circles, "are you all right?" he whispered.

She laughed into his chest, "I suppose," she looked up at him, "so, anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

"You're not all right, what happened?"

"A few things, but one highest on my list is that, for a time, I didn't think I was ever going to see you again. I was so scared that you wouldn't know how much I really loved you."

"Believe me," he said as he kissed her, "I know."

"Oh, puke," Niq said as she walked into the kitchen. "There's a certain hope a person can live in until they see the disgusting truth for themselves. And my hope had just been shattered."

"Shove it," Stef said as she let of Darth and glared at Niq.

"Is that what you say to him?" Niq asked as she jerked her head toward Darth, "or are you just a tease?"

"I thought I made everything clear," Darth said as he walked over to her. "There is nothing between us, there never has been, so just drop it."

"Are you willing to get shunned by the rest of the crew, for her?"

"Not everyone in the crew disapproves of us. Take a lesson from them."

"Who else approves of this unnatural...whatever it is? And did you tell her what we did the other night?"

Darth looked at Stef, "before this gets out of hand, shift us somewhere, anywhere, now." She shrugged and they disappeared.

Darth looked around, "ok, where are we?"

"My apartment. Open the curtains please." She held her nose as she walked toward the kitchen, "I have to stop leaving food in the fridge." She required it away, "much better."

Dropping down onto the couch she looked over at him, "feel like telling me what you two did the other night?"

"I have no problem telling you, but promise not to shoot me before I finish talking."

"Did you guys...?" she started to ask, feeling dread rising from the pit of her stomach.

"Niq tried to seduce me. Or rather, she skipped the seduce part and..."

"She...she what? Did you...you know?"

"No, of course I didn't, I'm not like that. I would never cheat on you."

"Did you want to?" she asked in a whisper.

"What?" he asked as he sat down beside her.

"Did you want to spend the night with her?"

"No." he said firmly. "I did not."

"Then why did she try something like that? You guys lived on that ship for so long, so why now?"

"You got a minute for me to explain?"

"I'm immortal, trust me, I have the time."

"She has been living under the impression that one night, years ago, when she was drunk, we did what she was trying to the other night. I've told her a hundred times that nothing happened, but she doesn't believe me."

"Ok."

"And Ryder told her what's going on with us and she was going on about how programs would never be as good as humans and that I didn't need you if I could have her instead."

"What did you say to her?"

"A couple of things, then I spent the night at Stonehenge."

"They didn't mind?"

"Nah, it was a lock-in session and the couch was free. I've done it before."

"I guess I'm kind of ruining your life aren't I?"

"Stef, if being with you is ruining my life, then I want my world to crumble into ashes."

"Isn't that a little over-dramatic?" she asked with a mocking smile.

"I mean it. I don't care what Ryder or the rest of the crew thinks. This is my choice."

"At least Stevie and Cray are on our side."

"Galli is too."

"Your operator? Are you serious."

"Completely, he's thankful that I'm spending time with something besides a computer."

"But I'm..."

"He means something that has a CD-ROM drive, USB ports, a keyboard and a mouse. He likes the idea that I'm spending time with something that isn't unfeeling hardware. You're software," he put his hand on her cheek, "really soft, software."

She put an arm around his neck and pulled him close, "and also lumpy."

"Soft and lumpy..." he said in between kisses as he leant down and wrapped his arms around her, "on you, it's a good combination." He leant up on one arm and pulled her tie off, then, after a second's hesitation, he started to undo her shirt buttons.

"My turn," she said as she reached down and pulled his shirt up over his head.

Then the phone rang.

"Of all the times to get a wrong number," she said with a heavy sigh.

It kept ringing.

"It could be important," he said as he slowly sat up.

"No one calls me here, no one ever did call me here. And most of the world that never knew I existed thinks I'm dead."

But it still kept ringing.

"It seems quite persistent, maybe it isn't a wrong number. I think you should answer it."

She shrugged and shifted the phone over to her, she picked it up, "hello?" A look of confusion crossed her face as she handed it to Darth, "it's for you."

"Hello?" he asked as he put the phone to his ear.

"It's me," Galli said. "A couple of things, firstly, you may want to firewall or scramble the code of the place you're in if you want some um...private time..."

Darth blushed bright red, "you were watching?"

"No, I was trying to find where you were. You're lucky the captain didn't see that or he may have had a coronary, then come after you with extreme prejudice. The violent kind."

"Ok, point taken. What else?"

"Said violent man wants you to meet him in a warehouse on the docks."

"Why?"

"To talk. And it's a pretty quiet area."

"All right, we'll be there in a couple of minutes."

Darth put the phone on the coffee table. "Captain wants to see us.

"Were they watching us?" she asked as she buttoned her shirt back up.

"Not intentionally, you can firewall can't you?

"Yeah, it's easy as."

"You want to see the captain?"

"Is going to throw me against another wall? I may have to hurt him this time."

"If he pulls something like that again, I won't leave him standing. He's really a nice guy, I swear, or at least I thought for a lot of years he was a nice guy."

"I believe you."

They shifted away.