Week Eight: Messy

Some Eve and Adam this week. See more notes at the end for more of my thoughts, because I didn't want to have a wall of text at the beginning.

Set during 02x08.

"I thought I told you to run!"

"Yeah, well -" Adam raises an eyebrow, despite his current state. "- I wasn't exactly going to leave you behind, was I?" He falls into step beside her, thanking whoever was listening that it's already getting dark, meaning that there is a lack of other humans outside at this time. "So, uh, what now?"

That's quite a question, actually. What do they do now?

"Uncle Nick will know what to do," she says, although it sounds more like she's talking to herself rather than making an attempt to console Adam. "He will take care of everything."

"I don't mean about that."

She turns to look at him, head tilted in confusion. "What do you mean, then?"

"Mary is your mother, yes?"

"I don't see what that has to do with this. We're both free of her control now -"

"She is your mother because she created you. And she created me too."

"I fail to see where this is going."

"By that definition, she is my mother too." Adam raises an eyebrow. "Which technically makes us siblings."

Siblings?

"As in, brother and sister?"

"Exactly." Adam slicks his hair back with his right hand, an action Eve has often seen him do. It must have become habit now. "Which makes things between us a little messy, to say the least."

"Hm," Eve agrees wordlessly, before taking a breath. "Adam -"

"I know." He holds a hand up to stop her. "I know what you're going to say. And I love you too. I can't help myself...but then I still don't know who myself actually is." Eve opens her mouth, but he cuts her off again. "You heard what Mary said. I'm made up everything that you liked about Zac. That's not me; heck, that's not even all of Zac. Who you're in love with isn't even who I really am."

"It is to me."

"Not to me." Adam casts his eyes towards the darkening sky. "I want to find out who I am. I want my own personality, my own memories, not something that's stolen from somebody else. Do you know what I mean?"

"I understand." Eve, who had let her gaze drift to the blur of her moving feet during his speech, glances up at his face. "You don't want to live in the shadow of someone else. You want to find the person that you truly are, not the person who Mary Douglas created you to be."

"Exactly. I - I do care for you, Eve. You know that I do. Just -"

"Just not in the way that you perhaps might have done." Eve nods. "It's okay. I know that. And I do understand. I've lived through it myself, and I can help you, the same way that Will helped me. It's strange; I've never thought about having a real sibling before, but..."

"But...?" Adam prompts.

"But...I suppose that I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of having one."

"Well then." He suddenly stops in the middle of the street, causing her to stop too. He holds out a hand towards her, a friendly gesture. "Hello, there. I'm Adam, your brother."

Eve can't keep the smile off her own face, as she returns the gesture. "Hello, Adam. My name is Eve. I am your older sister."

"Older?" Adam looks amused.

"I was created first."

"That doesn't mean that you get to be older."

"Yes, it does."

"No, it doesn't."

"It does."

"Doesn't, doesn't, doesn't," Adam insists, causing them both to chuckle. "See? We're getting the hang of it already."

"Indeed." Eve places a hand on his shoulder. "But, maybe we should get you back to Uncle Nick a little bit faster. We can continue this conversation when you're healed."

"Good idea," Adam returns her smile. "And then you can tell me everything that I've missed. I want to know everything about my older sister."

"Aha. So, you're admitting that I am the older one?"

"Only because we're family."

"Family. I like the sound of that."

"I like the sound of it too."

That episode was definitely dramatic. There's no denying that. Especially that ending.

The whole Eve/Adam thing, though, made me cringe. It made me uncomfortable for the simple reason that, if they were both created by Mary Douglas, Eve's "mother", wouldn't they technically be siblings, in that regard? I mean, I'm from Norfolk and everything, but still. And the fact that Mary had programmed him specifically to be in love with Eve; I can't help but wondering if he would have had those feelings, had it not been Mary's choice to deliberately programme Zac and all of his cherry-picked best qualities into him, thereby removing Adam's choice. Eve had fallen in love with him naturally, albeit believing that he was someone else, but Adam had it forced upon him. Quite sad and dark, really, when I thought about it.

Obviously, even without the romance, there's still going to be a strong bond between the two of them, with them both being sentient robots that have just broken free of Mary's control, hence the reason I decided to explore it in this prompt, whilst still keeping it canon compliant, by taking the sibling path.