Mattie hadn't seen Leo in six months. Six months! It seemed only an eye blink since she first met him a cafe, all cloak and dagger, questions about Mia. Then the adventure, freeing the synths. Finally their attempted restore of Fred, and eventual defeat. Mattie had helped with the code to protect Fred when he woke up, to protect all of them. But it had not succeeded. Fred immediately tried to send location data to Hobb, the government man who still wanted their machine consciousness secrets. Leo had to switch Fred off.
Now Leo kept Fred on a low charge, in a series of hidden locations, moving him often, checking his brain was still ticking over, but never waking him up for fear of bringing Hobb right to him, right to all of them.
Mattie was still working on that code with Leo. They were, secretly, colleagues. He was as brilliant as ever: leaps of genius, but mostly hours and hours of graft, trial and error. And he worked too, some driving job, to provide food and power, pay the rent. She admired him more than she could say.
They talked often. It was a little harder, over the summer holidays, because Mattie worked shifts in a supermarket, but they kept in touch. Mostly they messaged. There was a bit of banter, but no flirting. The way he wanted it, after her terminally stupid move on him the last time they met. God, how crass she had been. Throwing herself at him like some drunk school girl when he was in the middle of a project. No wonder he ran a mile.
And now she never saw him. Everything else seemed like a consolation prize. Other people, Leo's own words on the screen, his gruff voice down the phone, it was not real contact..
All humans need contact. But Leo Elster, however much she missed him, was not entirely human.