A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Eric (whose pseudo- sense of humour inspired Neo's character).
Eric never reads my stuff, never reviews it, but insists that one day, if only once… he will make good on one of his promises. (As of June 1st, 2005, he has never gone jogging with me, never called me for coffee, nor has he given me a birthday present from last year's Dec. 18th). I have to wonder how he hasn't moved away and changed his name in embarrassment yet. But we can always hope, can't we, people?
So, this chapter is a dedication to true love. May Trinity and Neo be happier in their love than I was. Cheers - to not losing heart, and never giving up!
Chapter 7
"Neo?" It is a soft whisper.
Neo turns and looks at her with a bewildered expression on his face. It takes a few moments for his eyes to focus on her properly. She is leaning on the door frame, arms crossed tightly across her chest, hands curled into the sleeves of her sweater.
Trinity.
There is a long, awkward silence as he examines her with curious bemusement. He is still stricken with the difference in her appearance. In fact, earlier, in the Core, he almost hadn't recognized her. She just looks so different in this place. Her skin is much paler, her eyes more strikingly blue. And, in the faint glow of the fluorescent lights, the curves of her cheekbones and jaw seem much softer than he'd remembered. Indeed, the woman standing in the doorframe, regarding him with a faint smile, seems too delicate to be the Trinity that he'd met in the Matrix.
"I'm sorry." Trinity's eyes flutter nervously around the room. "… If you want to be alone, I'll just..."
"No…. no, I'm sorry." Neo realizes he'd been staring, and consciously tries to look at something else. It is hardly an instant, however, before he looks back at her. "Actually, I could use a little company. Right now I'm feeling a bit… I don't know… lonely, I guess."
Trinity's heart skips a beat. Oh, Neo.
"I didn't… think anyone was awake, so…"
Her chest tightens.
"Anyway." He sighs, and runs his hand over his nearly bald head. He looks up at her with dark, chocolate-brown eyes. Eyes that are impossibly lost. But they're also very alive. Open, and deep, and alive.
In that moment, Trinity sees something that she hadn't expected to find. She'd seen it in the Matrix, and had been so afraid that she'd never see it again. That somehow, he'd leave it behind. Or that she'd only imagined it in the first place.
There's such strength in you, Neo. I see it.
"I just got off the night shift," she lies. Trinity's lips curl into a strange, indefinable smile. "I don't sleep much."
"Ah." Neo shrugs. "But how you can tell?"
"…What?"
"I mean, how can you tell that it's night?"
"I'm sorry… uhm… I don't quite…"
He scowls, struggling through his sentence. "If you can't see the Sun. And, I mean, you don't even know what year it is… so... how can you really tell the time?"
Caught off-guard, Trinity takes a moment to process the unexpected question. "Oh….Matrix time. We go by Matrix time."
Neo nods, seemingly satisfied. Then, abruptly, "Which time zone?"
The corner of her mouth twitches upward. "Greenwich."
"Ah."
"That's G.M.T."
"Yeah…" He grins at her, "I know that, Trinity."
"Right." Feeling foolish, Trinity turns her head down to hide an nervous smile that, despite her sincerest efforts, she can't keep off her face. When she finally looks back up, though, she finds Neo's face stricken with an exhausted worry. She feels sick.
Oh, No. I should have come here sooner.
She steps into the room and takes a seat next to him. Then, gently, carefully, "You wanna talk?"
"I Just." Neo exhales sharply. "I just don't think I'm going to make a very good Saviour, that's all."
Trinity feels her cheeks burn. Her hands form two tight fists. Foreverly tactful, aren't we, Morpheus? This is all my fault. I should have stayed with him.
"See, I don't think that I um… handled the news very well this morning."
Trinity watches as he struggles with an impossible task, trying to place himself in a world he knows nothing about. In a world he apparently is supposed to save. She frantically searches for something to say to him. Anything. She sighs.
"Okay. I'll tell you a secret about me." She brushes a few strands of hair out of her face and stares Purposefully into his eyes. "When I was first unplugged. When Morheus told me the news… For three days, I didn't sleep… I didn't eat…and I didn't speak. Not a single word. To anyone. I just… stayed in my room… lying in bed… staring at the ceiling. Counting the rivets in the sheet metal."
Neo nods slightly, looking down at the table. But Trinity leans in her seat and stretches her neck until her face is in his line of vision. Only when she has his eyes back does she continue.
"103." She says, drolly raising an eyebrow. "918, if you count the walls and the floor." Her eyes travel all over his face. "On the third day, I caught pneumonia. For six days I was delirious from the fever. I almost didn't make it."
Trinity rests a hand firmly on his shoulder, "So… Saviour or not, Neo. I think you're handling the news just fine."
He lets her words hang in the air, wanting to revel in the security of her confidence for as long as possible. He'd heard that even, sure tone of hers before. Strange that she looked so different here, but that voice was the same. It was the only thing that kept him from leaving that car in the Matrix. And now it was the only thing keeping him from falling apart at this table.
"How old were you, Trinity?"
She relaxes her grip on his shoulder, and gently slides her hand down his arm, stopping at his elbow. "That was… twelve years ago. I was seventeen." She lets him go. "Barely."
Neo tries to imagine her that young, and wonders what kind of hell she'd gone through since arriving in the Real World. Although he knows almost nothing of life aboard this ship, or the kind of dangers the machines pose to their survival, he suspects that she'd lived through more than he could imagine. She looks tired, and much older than twenty-nine. He resists the urge to wrap an arm around her shoulders.
"And, so… this is what you've been doing for the past twelve years, then?"
"…What?"
"This. You and Morpheus… you two…unplug people for a living?"
"Well…okay, yes." She seems amused by the question. "I suppose that's an accurate description."
"Saving humanity?"
"Oh, I don't know about that." She sighs. "These past few weeks anyway, we've mostly only focussed on you."
"Ah, so that's the deal, then." He leans closer to her, so that their shoulders are touching. A slight intonation of sarcasm is detectable in his voice. "You save me, and I save everyone else?"
"Hmmm." Trinity is reminded of something the Oracle told her, a long time ago. "Apparently."
Neo tilts his head curiously, trying to read the expression on her face. She appears contemplative, a distant, absent-minded look in her eyes.
"Trinity?"
She looks back at him, an elusive whisper of a smile crossing over her features. He was about to ask her if she believes in the Prophecy. He was about to ask about the machines, about the War, about the world… but something stops him. Somehow, the blue softness of her eyes, the mess of her hair, the slight curl of her lips, makes him not want to know anymore. Instead, "Tell me about the IRS database."
Trinity almost bursts out laughing. That was the last thing she expected him to say. As much as she couldn't bear the comparison, he was sounding slightly like Cypher, nine years ago. "Kansas City? That was…"
"Was a long time ago?" Neo leans closer to her, and lowers his voice, as if telling her a secret. "Come on, throw me a bone, here… Red Queen."
"…What did you call me?"
"The Red Queen… that's you, isn't it? Morpheus' legendary Red Queen. You have to be."
Trinity nods, and wonders what else he has managed to figure out about her. "That pseudonym is… outdated," she replies. "Nobody here calls me that anymore."
"As in The Queen of Hearts?"
"That's right." She silently gives him points for making the Alice in Wonderland connection so quickly. Morpheus would be proud. "The name started out as a joke that, unfortunately, stuck for a very long time. I thought I'd finally escaped it."
"A joke?" Neo places his elbow on the table ad props up his head, as if preparing himself for a long story.
Trinity hesitates, not wanting to tell him the embarrassing truth that, in fact, the nick-name was Niobe's surreptitious way of commenting on her short temper, while simultaneously mocking the Ruby- Red leather catsuit that she used to wear in the Matrix. This was certainly not a piece of information that Neo has to know. She'd rather talk about hacking into the IRS mainframe, and even this is a story she'd much rather forget.
"It's late," Trinity says apologetically, glancing at the door. "We should get to bed..."
Neo sighs his disappointment, wishing that she'd stay. He wants to know more about her, the Red Queen… Trinity… the elusive phantom who shadowed the internet hacking boards.
"Anyhow, I heard that you're starting training tomorrow." Trinity continues to try and wrap-up the conversation.
"That's what I'm told."
The reminder of the looming day ahead is not a welcome one. He'd almost managed to forget about it for a moment or two. As the grip of anxiety returns tight in his chest, Neo's eyes come to rest on Trinity's hands, which are sitting on the table, fingers woven together in a delicate maze.
She's so… tiny.
He is reminded of the long, slender gloves he'd found in his apartment. His eyes travel along her dainty wrists and up to her elbow. A smile creeps over his face when he considers the possibility that perhaps, he knows a bit more about Trinity than he originally thought.
"Tank is going to be your Operator… I trust him, but you should know that he can be a bit intense."
"Uh… really?" Neo replies, distracted. It was you in my apartment, wasn't it? You're the Ghost.
"Yes. So, you should try and sleep."
"Yeah, I'll uh… do that." The cake…My clothes…My plants…
"Neo?" Trinity wonders about the ridiculous smile that he is giving her. Of course, it is wonderful to see him smile. But something about it seems… a bit sinister.
"Yeah." Snapping back to reality, Neo decides to test his hypothesis. "Right. Thanks for the advice. Um. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a… piece of cake?"
She scowls at him for a moment, confused by the strange, suggestive tone of his voice. His eyes shine back knowingly at hers.
"What…?" But before she can form the question, Trinity catches her breath. Oh, my God. Oh, God no. She now understands his full meaning and suddenly wishes for the earth to open up and swallow her whole (that is, of course, if she weren't already five miles down). Trinity can feel his eyes on her face as she looks away uneasily, trying to decide how best to respond.
"Why, is there something the batter, Trinity?"
She wants to shoot him a glare of contempt for his awful puns but she decides rather, to play it cool. Betraying nothing, her eyes drown his face in a sea of blue.
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," she says evenly.
Unconvinced, Neo continues to study her patiently, challenging her. Daring her to smile, or frown, or flinch… anything. But the Marble Bunt Fairy just stares right back with a flawlessly impartial expression. A bit too impartial, actually.
It was you, I know it was you. His eyes travel along the curve of her collarbones, and up along the lovely slope of her neck. Pausing at an earlobe, he then follows the fluid curvature of her jawline to her chin.
She really is beautiful.
"Well, I'm off to bed." Trinity points to the door and gets up, desperate to make a quick escape. She suddenly has a renewed interest in her initial plan to drink the night away.
"Me too." Neo rises and won't stop smiling. "I'll walk with you."
Trinity freezes. Oh, no.
She quickly calculates the odds that Neo will somehow not notice that she made his bed and folded his sweater. Maybe he wouldn't think it was her. She frowns. No, he will know. He will know instantly… and she does not want to be there when he figures it out.
"I'm sorry, but no."
"What do you mean… 'No'?" Neo raises an eyebrow, puzzled, and more than a little worried. Trinity looks like she might faint.
"What I mean is… uhm…" She feels like a complete idiot. Her heart pounds in her chest as she frantically grasps for a way out. "I'm going to…"
"Go to bed?"
"Yes. I said that. But first…" Desperateeyes dart around the mess-hall. "I'm going to grab some bleach and head up to the Core. Goddamned monitors are filthy…"
Even as she is saying it, Trinity realizes that this is potentially the worst, most absurd excuse she could have come up with. Neo seems to agree. He contorts his face into an 'are you kidding me?' expression, chuckles, and says, "Right. I think I understand you perfectly. It's oh- kay."
Frustrated and angry with her own stupidity, and quite frankly annoyed by the patronizing tone of his voice, Trinity glowers at him dangerously. Then, in the most intimidating voice she can manage, "Goodnight, Neo."
Neo is delighted with her distemper, judging it as a clear admission of the defendant's guilt in all counts. However, he is also stricken with the possibility that the accused might hit him if he persists to tease her any further. So, he wills the smile (barely) off his face, backs away to a safe distance, and, in a tone of exaggerated chivalry, he wishes her a goodnight, and oh, if she's planning on using bleach to clean the hardware, she shouldn't forget to wear her gloves. Those chemicals are corrosive, after all.
Before Trinity has time to respond (or take off her boot and throw it at him), Neo turns and heads down the corridor, leaving Trinity to sit in the mess hall for the next half an hour, with her head in her hands, feeling totally ridiculous.
When he gets back to his cabin, it takes Neo a few seconds of to confirm that he's actually in the right room. When he spots the perfectly folded sweater on the desk, he can't help but chuckle.
Oh, Trinity…
He imagines her making his bed. The mental image is irresistible to him.
So that's why she wouldn't walk down here with me.
He studies the tightly-tucked sheets, and the precisely placed blanket at the foot of the mattress.
You could flip a quarter on this bed.
He smirks.
You could flip a quarter on a lot of things when it comes to Trinity…
Neo picks up the sweater and thoughtfully runs his fingers across the knit.
One day, Bunt Fairy… I'm going to catch you…
8
tbc...