Chapter 2 – New Freedom

Tally's eyes started to adjust to the light as David's blurry figure became clearer. He had a smile on his face but he looked extremely tired. He was unshaven and looked like he hadn't slept or bathed in days. But Tally didn't care. He was here now and that was all that mattered.

"Tally." David said again. He didn't notice that she was awake yet. She smiled noticing how tenderly he shook her, not wanting to hurt her or disturb her in any way. She suddenly felt his rough hands touch her cheek. Tally looked up and saw him staring at her. His eyes full of happiness and relief. He rubbed her cheek affectionately and she smiled at him.

"Morning." she said, her voice laced with sleep. She hadn't slept that long or that well since she became a special, she was still a little tired but she didn't mind. David was here now.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah I'm fine." she answered. "Where were you?" she asked him quietly.

He sat down next to her on the sleeping bag and sighed. "I've been looking everywhere for you Tally. I was worried. I don't know what I would have done…" he trailed off.

Tally smiled warmly at him. He cared about her and she knew it.

"I couldn't get into the city. I kept trying all night but I couldn't get in so I hoverboarded on the outside of the city looking for you but there was no trace of you. Finally I decided to come back here and rest for a while and then look for you again tomorrow but I found that you were already here." he whispered. He looked at her with all sorts of emotions in his eyes. She suddenly felt the feeling that she used to feel when she had been an ugly. The one she used to feel when she looked at a New Pretty.

"Yeah Dr. Cable let me go. She didn't want me turned back into a mindless Pretty so she released me. I still have all my Special abilities but I'm…" she started but then cut herself off.

"You're Tally again." David said softly.

"What?" Tally asked.

"You're back to your old self. Not pretty-minded or special-minded you're just Tally." he explained as he reached over and clasp their hands together.

Tally looked down at their hands and suddenly she felt tears coming to her eyes.

"Tally…I'm sorry did I say something wrong?" he asked, fear showing in his voice.

Tally shook her head and then looked up at him. She smiled and then said, "No David, you said something right."

---

Tally and David fixed food in the purifier and ate as Tally explained to him how she gave Dr. Cable the cure. At first David had been confused on why Dr. Cable let Tally go but after she had started to explain he nodded, finally understanding it all.

"So she jumped forward and it hit her finger and she was cured. Just like that?" David asked with a mouthful of VegiRice. Tally looked down at her PadThai, took a bite and then answered, "Yes. But she didn't start changing right away. It took a few days." Tally told him.

David nodded. Tally then remembered something.

"David?" she asked.

"Yeah?" he answered her.

"Maddy sent me a message for you." she told him.

"Really?" he asked with his eyebrows raised in shock.

"Yeah she said…" Tally started but then paused. She swallowed and then choked out, "I love you…"

He nodded and then realized the look on her face as she said those three words. He dropped his food and crawled until he was couching right in front of her, less than a foot away.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Tally nodded and then shut her eyes. The dream she'd had earlier replayed in her mind. All of a sudden she really wanted to kiss him. For real this time, and to hug him and tell him those three words.

She leaned forward closing the distance between them and her lips where on his. The kiss felt so right, it felt like the emptiness she had felt inside her ever since she had turned Pretty and then later into a Special. One of her arms was wrapped tightly around his waist while the other was snaking its way up his chest to his neck. She could feel the heat penetrating from his body. He settled his hands around his waist and pulled her even closer into him. One of his hands left her waist and he ran it slowly up her side and finally let it settle on her cheek. He cupped the side of her face in his hand and the kiss got more and more intense. Tally was enjoying the new feeling of completeness and how good kissing him again felt. But then something happened.

Tally started getting a gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach. Like maybe there was something wrong with kissing him. Then she remembered………Zane.

She pulled away quickly. She scrambled away from David and ran to the window to where she was not facing him. David was still awestruck by the intenseness of their kiss to notice that not only had she pulled away from the kiss, she had pulled away from him too. He sat with his eyes still closed and his mouth slightly parted.

Not long after he realized that she was no longer in his arms and his eyes fluttered open. She could feel his stare burning on her back. But she didn't dare turn around to face him. She stayed standing by the window looking out at the trees just like she had in her dream. Only this time, her knight in shining armor was already in the tower with her and she also had a way to escape but something told her not to. Something told her to stay right where she was and she abided by that feeling.

She felt his presence coming up behind her but she still didn't turn around. He set his hands on her shoulders and she felt his breath on the back of her neck. He stared out the window with her for a few seconds before he finally said, "Tally, did I so something or…"

Tally cut him off with a simple. "No."

"Well what is it then?" he asked, but she knew he already knew the answer. She looked down at her feet and he then said, "Its Zane isn't it."

Tally nodded and tears formed in her eyes.

"I don't know if I can…I mean he just…" she tried to say but she just couldn't get it out.

"I know Tally, I'm sorry about that. I knew that you would be upset and regret it but I didn't stop you…" he said quietly, he slid his hands slowly down her arms and entwined their fingers together.

"No David. I didn't want you to stop us. It's just…" she couldn't finish.

He nodded and then replied with, "I know Tally." Tally leaned back into his arms and squeezed his hands tight.

They stood in silence, her body leaning back into his, their fingers interlocked together. Tally started thinking about what happened next. She told Dr. Cable she would escape into the wild. Cutters were made for the wild after all and David grew up in the wild. He could help her. She suddenly saw their future being put together, piece by piece, right in front of her eyes.

She broke the silence that they had settled in by saying, "I have a plan."

"What is it?" David asked. She could feel his breath on her neck with every word her uttered.

"Well…Dr. Cable told me she wanted me to stay in the wild, away from everyone. She didn't want her work becoming extinct. I'm the only real cutter left. Just like I told you, they were trying to make me pretty-minded again but she stopped them. She doesn't want me to have to deal with it all." Tally explained.

"Oh." David said.

"Like I told her, freedom has a way of destroying things…" Tally stopped and took a breath before she continued. "With all the new minds out there they could go back to the way the Rusty's were, destroying everything. Someone needs to be there to stop them." Tally said.

Tally could tell David was thinking for a while and then he spoke, "And that's where you come in."

"Exactly." Tally said.

"So you're going to the wild." he said softly. "Alone." he said the last word with a tinge of sadness in his voice.

Tally knew he thought that she didn't want him with her but she did. She couldn't bear losing him like she had Zane. She needed David. She might be a Special but the wild was still a very dangerous place to be all alone.

"Well maybe, maybe not." she said.

David untangled their fingers and turned her around by her shoulders so she was looking at him. He had confusion written all over his face. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well it depends." Tally said.

He thought a moment then said, "On what?"

"On if you will come with me or not." she said quietly.

A grin spread across his face and Tally knew that he would never leave her now, no matter what happened.

"So you will come with me?" she asked.

"You're never alone Tally. Remember that." he said with a grin. The sun was starting to set as they leaned together, Tally pushing all of her weight against him and their lips met. This kiss wasn't as intense as the first but it was soft and gentle, one that Tally could feel how much David cared for her in. She smiled into the kiss and removed her lips from his before taking a breath. She didn't move far though, she stayed glued in her stop, her face millimeters away from his. They smiled at one another and David wrapped her into a hug. She buried her face in his chest and breathed in his scent.

He no longer seemed ugly to her, just different. But it was a good different. The different Tally liked. Tally leaned in and gave him a simple kiss on the lips and then looked out the window. The sun was almost all the way down and the Ruins where getting very dark. Tally turned back to David. He looked very tired. She knew he needed some rest and Tally was still very tired for some reason. They needed to sleep.

"We need to sleep." she said.

David nodded but then said, "I only have one sleeping bag."

Tally stopped to think for a moment. It wasn't summer, it was near the fall. It started getting cold around here in the fall, especially at night. One sleeping bag would not due. Unless…

"Well, we could always, you know, sleep together until we find another." Tally said quietly. Not daring to look at his face. "When I had gone to find The New Smoke, when I was a Pretty, I ran into some savages. The ones that you and the other Smokies helped get away from the Specials experimental site. You know Andrew Simpson Smith, right?" Tally asked.

"Yeah he helps runaways from your city get to the New Smoke." David told her.

"Well they all slept together in piles because they did not have enough blankets or sleeping bags for everyone. So they slept huddled together to stay warm." Tally explained.

"I don't mind." David told her.

"Neither do I." Tally said.

"Well okay then. I guess we're sharing it." David announced.

David slid into the sleeping bag and after he was it Tally slipped in next to him. She was glad that his sleeping bag was a little bigger than average ones so it fit them both just fine. Tally leaned over and kissed David softly before resting her head on his arm that he had wrapped around her back.

"Night Tally." David told her.

"Night David." Tally replied.

Tally snuggled into him and within minutes she was asleep.