[SEQUEL TO GUN FOR HIRE]
Chapter 14: Forgive Me For My Confession
Warning - light NSFW after it shifts to Piper's perspective halfway in

"Mr. Butler?" A woman broke Gat from his reverie and he reluctantly lifted his head from his hands, glaring at her. The woman was clad in a lab coat bearing whatever facility yellow was supposed to represent, accentuated by her gold-blonde hair. She held a clipboard in her hands and wore a thin smile. "My name is Doctor Allie Filmore. I am now in charge of you, and it's fallen to me to relocate you to different living quarters."

"In charge of me? Did something happen to that Adam guy?"

"No, not at all. This is just the Director's request as per a deal struck with Ms. Wright."

That didn't sit well with him at all, and he scoffed as he buried his head in his hands again. "Yeah, whatever..."

"Well, then, I'll interpret that as compliance. If you'll follow me, we will go retrieve your belongings and move to her quarters."

"What?" His head shot back up and he studied her, though she remained indifferent and simply waited for him. Will this place ever stop treating him like a dog? "And this is what she asked for?" Just what was her plan, or theirs? There wasn't any way he was prepared - or ever will be - to see the face of the woman he had condemned to wherever they were holding the real Piper, and have replicas condemned to thinking they're her. He bristled when the doctor nodded plainly. "Does this mean I won't get to visit my family anymore either?"

"That privilege is at the discretion of the Director. He canceled the order to expel you to the surface, and so he will be monitoring your situation to deem if you are stable enough to continue visitations."

"Stable?" Gat seethed, snapping up into standing. It didn't escape his notice - he would have had to have been blind to - when a couple coursers took note and began to approach, hands hovering over guns. Whatever threat he posed hadn't deterred the doctor, and she nodded plain and simple again. Aggravating.

"Indeed. He's concerned over the welfare of your family and believes you may engage in unsafe behavior with them, as you've proven to do so with Ms. Wright."

"Unsa-? Are you fucking kidding me right now?!" His hand whipped out to the side, gesturing to the tiny pods he was once stuffed in. "Do you seriously expect me to play nice with fucking fakes, and eat up all the lies you're shoving down my throat? To hell with you fucking assholes, you're the fucking reason I'm 'unstable'! Concerned? He doesn't even know them, and I wouldn't ever lay a hand on them the way you fuckers did, or are we just going to pretend that didn't happen either?!"

"Please mind your language as we have children in this facility and zero tolerance for disrespect," Allie stated brusquely, and she had even measured up to his level as she took a step closer, lowering her voice. "This is exactly the proof we are talking about regarding your stability and mental health. We 'seriously' expect you to adhere to our rules; my advice? Don't spurn this chance the Director has given you again if you ever want to see your family."

Gat was ready to explode, but he held it in as best as he could. His jaw clenched painfully and he seethed through gritted teeth, "fine. But I have a request of my own to take to Ms. Wright. If she wants to be with me, then she moves to my quarters, not the other way around."

"Is there any particular reason for this?"

There was, but he wasn't stupid enough to fess up the truth to this woman. "Yeah, if she wants to prove she's the real Piper Wright, then she better listen to me." He smirked when annoyance flared in Allie's eyes, and though he knew he'd get in shit for this someday - if he ever confessed, that was - he braced himself to be the kind of arsehole his pa was, angling his head as he leaned in close. It was enough to spark a hint of fear and discomfort in her eyes, and he used it to his advantage to crawl under her skin. "I'm not interested and have no use for women who can't follow simple orders - just like the Director and you, right?"

"Frankly, Mr. Butler, I don't care who you think you are. In this facility, you'll address the Director, me, and all women with respect." Allie snapped, and she stepped back to wedge space between them as she openly glowered, her dainty demeanor gone with the wind. "However, out of the Director's wishes to faciliate peace and cooperation, I'll still bring this request to both Ms. Wright and the Director to decide what arrangements will be made. In the mean time..." She looked over at the coursers. "Please escort Mr. Butler back to his quarters."

"No need, I know my own way back." Gat shrugged off the first hand that dared come upon his shoulder, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he began to stroll down a hallway without caring what went on behind him. He heard the sounds of guns unholsters but didn't stop. If 'Piper' was able to convince the Director to agree to such a request, they had the upper hand of some sort, and there was value left in them yet.

"Mr. Butler," a monotone voice rang out, "in the name of the Institute, I order you to stop." A beat. "Please."

Seriously? Fucking manners from a robot? Just what the hell do they do to the synths to brainwash them to this degree?

Gat was beginning to pity them, honestly.

"Piss off. I ain't a fuckin' dog." He shot a glower over his shoulder at the courser that advanced towards him. "And you shouldn't be one either."

It didn't even make the courser flinch or hesitate even a second to apprehend him, and he sighed when a bruising hand ensnared his elbow, muscling him down the hallway. "Oh yeah, still headin' down the same way. This sure makes a huge fuckin' difference," Gat spat under his breath. It pissed him off when he couldn't rouse a reaction whatsoever, but that was the least of his concerns.

On the walk back, he raced with ideas that would hopefully be a little less gut-rushed than his request to bring Piper to him instead of her quarters. Hopefully she'd have enough of the Wright instinct to deduce there was an ulterior motive other than him being a blatant dick and 'ordering' her around. Regardless of being a synth or not, this way it'd be easy for both of them to tell just how safe her quarters truly was if the Director denied the request. Thanks to Adam boasting about his division before, Gat knew his quarters were safe.

Hopefully Piper remembered that he wasn't.

x - x - x

L-3-0. What a sick joke. Leo stood, wrists clasped neatly behind him as Adam cheerfully described his pet project in unfiltered detail to a man Leo assumed was in charge of this place, if the 'cybernetics division' was in danger of being shut down. He still didn't have a voice, and for some reason, not all things he dearly wanted to exact were reflected in action. He would much rather choke Adam, but every time he looked at the scientist, he couldn't even force himself to snarl.

Everything was dull and numbed, almost like the high Leo would get from chems, but he was still fully coherent instead of being lost in a blissful fog. He stared at the 'leader', wishing that his misery could somehow show through fake robotic eyes. As Adam droned on and on and on over the usual psychopathic schpeel, Leo began to pick apart the hypocrisies in the sociopath's ambition.

Mankind, redefined? Another joke. What Adam did was took a dead man and ripped him apart until he turned into a robot - or half of one, at least. How was that any better than the synths the scientist so often spat on in disgust? Leo was just as much of a fucking machine as them, now. Ironically enough, even the latest synths were more human than him. Mankind sure was redefined and fucked up for sure.

"And what of the enhancements you provided to Mr. Butler? Have you been maintaining visual through his cybernetics, and have they been performing as hypothesized?" The leader asked, though seemed dismissive and disinterested judging from his tone - he had already made his judgment, hadn't he? What would that mean for Leo if the cybernetics division was permanently shut down? It made him shudder to even let his mind wander for a second. And in that second, the smile on Adam's face faltered. It was renewed with passionate exuberance as he once again descended into another bout of boasting, fingers rapidly firing on a terminal in order to display more evidence through the projector.

Adam was desperate, wasn't he? If he lost whatever point he was trying to prove here, than Leo was sure he would lose his life.

"All I ask is for L-3-0 to prove what all these enhancements can be capable of, Director. Mr. Butler did, as you can see in the graphs here, and that was just through the more minimally-invasive series I had installed in him. L-3-0 has my entire arsenal, and would be much better suited than some measly babysitting duty that a gen 1 synth could fulfill."

Leo's gaze snapped to Adam. Where the hell was this sick fuck taking this now?

"What do you propose?" The leader, or rather the 'Director' - that meant he was the head honcho of this entire place, right? - wearily took a seat, old bones popping along.

"Live field tests. Have L-3-0 watch over the mutant, and then we will have raw data over stealth capabilities. Then we can test his combat efficiency by having him fight the mutant. We'll also be able to see a demonstration of a wide variety of methods that L-3-0 will be able to incapacitate the mutant in the event we move forward to capture and research it."

Mutant? Like super mutant? Were they about to pit him against some sort of fucking behemoth?

The Director folded his hands over his mouth, and now more than ever before, Leo wished he could scream and protest to the insanity of all this. He would much rather face the fury of Piper than a grotesque monster that could literally crush him with a finger. He was still condemned to silence and his body hadn't responded to any command that revolved around running away.

"Very well, I approve of this - but make sure you handle this task with discretion this time. We cannot afford to alarm anyone anymore." The Director's withering gaze fell on Leo, seemingly scrutinizing him before it shifted back to Adam. "Are you sure you can control him?"

"Control? Of course not! That's not necessary, because he's fully compliant and loyal to both me and the Institute."

What the hell? Just how delusional was this freak?!

"Good." The Director's hands fell from his mouth, revealing a thin-lipped smile. What came out of his mouth next froze Leo in his tracks, and clearly relieved Adam.

"I know you've been working hard to hear this. I'm proud of you, my son."

x - x - x

Piper couldn't stop trembling as she packed her things - not that there was much to pack to begin with, and it still took her ages. She paced around her apartment and waved at her cheeks in a sorry attempt to bring cool air to them, stripping herself down to a tanktop as she struggled not to pass out from the heat that anxiety wrought.

What would she say when she saw him again? What would he say? What did this request of his mean? It better have not meant that he had some delusional idea that she'd be his servant if he truly believed she was a synth. He'd get a stern lecture if that was the case - that she wasn't a synth, and that kind of ideology was exactly what the Institute believed in. That ought to change his mind real quick if her first point rang hollow. She couldn't believe she was even apologizing to the doctor who was visibly infuriated over the nature of his request, and had not reserved her opinion of Garrett. It was both amusing and annoying that Piper could actually empathize with the doctor.

Beeps announced someone coming into the apartment, and she hesitantly left the bedroom to see who it was. Apprehension balled a lump in her throat as her mind wandered with ideas, though it promptly died when she saw the courser waiting in her living room. He wore a polite smile and gestured to the door. "Are you ready to depart, Ms. Wright?"

"Um... Not yet, sorry. Can I have five more minutes?"

"Yes, of course. Are you sure you do not wish for any assistance? I can carry your-"

"That's not necessary, but thank you very much. It won't be much longer, I promise." They should know how little she had to pack - and that was probably why they'd ordered the courser to check in on her, especially if they watched her from cameras and saw her pace about. She had to start being a lot more mindful of what she was doing and assume that the Institute could see and hear everything. She melted with relief when the courser took his leave without bidding farewell, a lapse of manners that was normally there; likely a script they had to follow to appease her.

How little did those coursers think for themselves? How much did they scream inside for freedom? She made a mental note to see if she could interview coursers someday; even if the conversation was recorded, there were plenty of other things confessed in other ways besides words. She went back to her bedroom and steeled herself for another hot flash when she begun to stuff her spare clothes in a small suitcase. That this was all they offered her was an infuriating reminder of how much power and control they held over her.

Not for long.

Piper donned her black trench coat and grabbed the ends of her hair to pull it out when it was ensnared inside the jacket. She forced herself out, ignoring the memories that hit her as she strode across the living room. She shook again at the thought that she would be face to face with Garrett soon, praying he was the real one. That the Director granted his request could be interpreted any number of ways - and it being a gesture of faith that the Institute was ready to move forward was the last thing Piper believed.

Manipulation was like a grand game, and she refused to be the pawn, as well as investigate as to who the other pieces were on the chess board. She was going to move in silence until it was time to say checkmate.

"Alright," Piper stated as sternly as she was not when the door opened and revealed the patient courser. Her lips thinned in a subtle smile. "I'm ready."

"This way, please," the courser gestured down the hallway before he took the lead.

Every step echoed in her brain, and the white noise buzzing in her ears gradually grew louder as she wondered how much longer the trek would be - even though they'd barely walked. She observed other scientists that passed by, stifling her frowns when children were often by themselves. It was a harrowing reminder of Nat, and emotion balled up in Piper's throat. She cleared it as subtly as she could, fixating her mind on something else.

Someone caught her eye the moment one of the hallway doors slid open, and she openly glared at the thin man she had burned into memory: Adam. The willowy scientist hadn't noticed her, however. He took off in the same direction they headed in, alongside some other... 'Man'...? Mechanical eyes - ones that bore another heartbreaking reminder as her mind's eye brought forth the image of Nick - snapped to her and sent shivers racing down her spine. Her gaze fell on the metal arm, and on the boundless amounts of surgical scars marking nearly every inch of skin. She was stuck the same time the man was. He just stood there and stared at her, then suddenly advanced towards her. The courser blocked her and held an arm out to the man.

"Sir, you need to-"

The courser was flung aside. Piper yelped when the metal hand clamped down on her arm and jerked her roughly, and she reeled back her suitcase to launch at him. He lifted his other arm and took the brunt of the impact without any visible grimace, ripping the case from her hand and throwing it aside.

"Let go of me!" Piper yelled, and every attempt to hit was deflected. Both her wrists were ensnared, and Adam's shouts for security bounded off the hallway walls. Footsteps thundered from both ends, and she was frozen in time as the mechanical eyes bore into her. The man's mouth opened, but nothing came out, and his forehead creased as his face flushed hot red. He just stared at her and never at all seemed to struggle even as she thrashed with all her might. She exhausted herself in no time, and he hastily took the moment to turn her palm up, his chilling metal finger tracing something on her skin.

Within seconds, a group of coursers ripped the man away. "Unhand him!" Adam screamed at the top of his lungs. "Or you defects will damage 3-0! I can handle this!"

He clearly didn't, if he had to call for the coursers in the first place.

Piper almost smirked at that, but she was stuck on the way '3-0' still stared at her, metal hand reaching towards her. He poked his palm with his 'real' hand. If that was real. Her gaze panned to Shaun when he emerged at the entrance from the doorway and watched over the commotion. 3-0 abruptly ceased fighting the coursers, and his every move was stiff and mechanical as the crimson faded from his complexion.

"Ah, Director!" Adam laughed nervously. "Everything's under control here, we're on our way to the armory now."

"See to it that it remains that way." Shaun's weary eyes settled on her, and he approached her with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry about that. Are you harmed?"

"No, I'm fine, thank you." God was it ever hard to force those words out. "The coursers got him away from me in time." She nodded in gratitude when her guard retrieved her suitcase and handed it back to her, and she looked at Shaun. "Thank you, also, for trusting in me and granting the request of me moving to Garrett's room instead."

"See to it that my trust is not misplaced," he warned bluntly, gesturing to the courser. "Your guard will remain outside at all times, so be sure to call on him if Mr. Butler does or says anything unfavorably towards you, and you will have your old quarters back if you so desire." He turned back and shuffled inside as if he was absolutely exhausted, his gait betraying his age. "Please take care of yourself around him, Ms. Wright. I would hate to hear of something ill befalling you."

"I'll be just fine, you'll see." Piper clutched her suitcase, her thumb tracing the letters drawn on her palm into the handle. She needed to find out what 3-0 was trying to tell her. "Also: after I get settled, when may I begin my interviews and tours around the facility?"

"As soon as you'd like. Have a good afternoon." The conversation was clipped short when Shaun pressed a button and the door slid shut. She wondered what could have caused him to be that tired when it wasn't even the middle of the day yet. She wasn't granted the time to decrypt the puzzle as the courser gestured to the hallway and took the lead again as if nothing ever happened, and she wasn't anywhere closer to figuring out what was drawn on her hand. The letters - or symbols - didn't make sense. Was it an entirely new language or something?

Piper wished she had more time - not just to get to the bottom of all this, but to not get to the top where Garrett resided. Her heart stopped the moment the courser did, in front of a door, and pressed one of the buttons that seemed to engage the intercom as he leaned towards the speaker. "Mr. Butler? Ms. Wright has arrived."

It felt like a year passed before that door finally slid open, and she inhaled sharply, holding her breath as they stared at each other. The light in his eyes died, as if there was no hope or life in them left. It felt like another year rolled by when Garrett finally turned and held his arm out inside the room. "Come on in, Boss."

"Please inform me if you need any assistance," the courser murmured as she forced herself to walk past him, and into the wolf's den. She still had no clue what was going on through Garrett's mind with a request like this, and she dearly hoped he had not planned to harm her - whether physically or verbally - but she came prepared to communicate the truth safely, without the Institute snooping on them. As soon as she heard the door slide shut behind her, she set the suitcase down against the wall and patted her pockets to find her notepad. Her hand slipped in, but it was torn out and a hand slapped over her mouth before she could yelp.

"Don't scream," Garrett hissed in her ear; it was counterproductive, considering that was all she wanted to do. Her body ignited and thrummed with adrenaline once more, ready to fight for her life just as she had with 3-0, until all the fight was drained from her with a single fact. "They see through me - but we're safe to talk here."

Piper froze. The pieces of a puzzle fell together, and fury boiled in her blood when she remembered of the possible cameras hiding inside Gat's eyes. Did Shaun know about that fact, too? Had he agreed to her request only because he'd found a loophole to retain both visual and audio? If he knew, though, then why would he give it up and grant Garrett's request for her to move here? There still had to be something here.

"Are you sure, Garrett?" She muffled in his palm, and he lifted it away from her mouth.

"I'm sure, or that prick Adam would've lost his job with the shite he said." A beat, and they both sucked in sharp breaths, though for different reasons. "Do you... Remember Adam?"

"I remember every little thing since the day we've met. I'm me, Garrett." It was hardly convincing with how numb she sounded. She sighed when he grew rigid, and so did she when he buried his face in the crook of where her neck met her shoulder, through the collar of her trench coat blocked any feel of his lips or his breath. "I know I am."

"So did the last one."

"How do you know you're you?"

"I don't," came the honest confession. "I'm assuming I am, only because of the... Cybernetics."

"Then if you don't know you're you, then how do you know I'm not me? And don't say the 'eyes' again, because your eyes look cold and dead too."

Silence fell. He sucked in a slow breath, his hands wandering aimlessly. She was tempted the moment they slipped past the open flap of her coat and held her hips. "I don't know the truth about anything anymore," he whispered brokenly, and the way his voice cracked and rasped had driven a knife straight into her heart. His hands slid up her waist, pain briefly zinging all her ribs when he clung tightly. "I'm scared because I miss you, and I need you, and I don't know if I can kiss you. It'd be cheating if I'm kissing the wrong one, wouldn't it?"

"...This is what you're most concerned about right now? Really?" Not being kidnapped. Not the reality of their own existence, but whether or not it would be considered: "fucking cheating? I better have misheard that, Garrett." She muscled her way to turn around and cradled his jaw, fighting past his resistance as she narrowed her eyes. "Look at me. If the Institute is watching, then they better fucking see the face I'm making right now."

For some reason, Garrett was smiling. Even though it was largely entrenched in sorrow, there was still a hint of mischief and eagerness. It only served to infuriate her even further. "This is really not the time to joke, you know that, right? This is literally the worst time to."

"You're scary when you're mad, y'know that, right?" He shot back playfully as he looked at her, and there was a subtle spark of hope in his eyes, though was soon suppressed. "I told you I don't know anything anymore, and yes, that is what I'm concerned about. I don't want to piss off the real Piper. I mean, just 'cause you look like her don't mean nothing - or else people would have a free ticket with twins."

"I am the real Piper," she seethed through clenched teeth, shoving him by his chest - though it barely budged him. "And you're doing a fantastic job at pissing. Me. Off." Another shove until he hit the wall, and she didn't know what she wanted to do. She wanted to grab him and kiss him to prove herself, to take what she dearly missed too, and yet at the same time she wanted to beat her fists on his chest. After all this time, he still retained the talent of driving her crazy enough to want her to push him off the cliff, and to catch him down below.

Instinct propelled her fists, though her hands were deflected down and her wrists were scooped up. She yelped when he twisted them and pinned her to the wall instead, his beard scratching her neck. Her heart kicked against her chest and she gasped when he roughly suckled in a patch of skin, nibbling on it between his teeth.

"If you're already mad, then you're really about to hate me, Boss."

Oh, sure, sign her up.

That wasn't ominous at all.

"Do I want to know why? Is this another one of those ideas of yours?" Piper rasped, eyes fluttering shut when waves of pleasurable shivers chased after the electrifying white-hot thrill that shot down her spine, as her starved skin was finally spoiled rotten with the warmth of his lips and hands.

And then she froze stiff when he nibbled on the shell of ear, confessing his sin.

"Yup. Because the Institute is watching, and they're about to see the fucking face."

Oh dear lord.

"Wha-? Hey!" Piper yelped when he threw her over his shoulder as if there was nothing to it, and she held on to his back for dear life, trying to bend to see over her shoulder as he marched. "Where are you taking me?!"

"Bathroom." The short and sweet answer did little to curb the wildfire consuming her face - like, was Garrett actually serious right now? Was this not a complete 180 to what he just said like... Not even two minutes ago? First he was scared of kissing her because 'cheating', and now he was implying that they have sex while being fully aware that there were who knew how many witnesses. It turned her off and frightened her, honestly, extinguishing the flame in the pits of her belly. She didn't care how much either of them missed the other; there were some lines she'd never cross. He let her back down on her feet, and she was absolutely petrified as she watched him open a glass cylindrical pod to turn the shower on, issuing a simple demand.

"Undress."

"G-Garrett..."

"Trust me," he whispered, but made sure he never faced her as he talked. How sure was he that they really couldn't hear them? "Let them see enough to know what we're doing. I won't let them see your body. They'll be skeptical and want to get nosy about what we're talking about if they don't see us rutting, and my best guess is that's what they're hoping you'll do to convince me." He began to strip, and Piper's eyes widened at the sight of ghastly scars that were never there before. She absentmindedly came up to him, running a finger along one that cut straight down his spine.

"My god... What did they do to you...?"

"You don't want to know." He sounded so ashamed, so uncertain, and his shoulders caved forward as he hesitantly turned to face her. It destroyed the image of the tough man he always postured to be, and his eyes were dead again. "It's why I don't really care to wonder if I'm human or not - because either way, I'm not human anymore. Was also a part of the reason why I didn't wanna do nothin' back at the hotel in Goodneighbor. I was afraid when y'took off my shirt - afraid of you seeing this."

"And you're not afraid anymore?"

"I still am." A beat - and then her heart really sank. "But you're not human either." He grabbed the flaps of her jacket and roughly pulled it down, claiming her lips with a sense of mindless ferocity, his eyes always open.

It made her sick to her stomach.

Garrett pressed a button to open the pod and pulled her inside, clothes and all, and trapped them inside. The heat inside here was unbearable as steam collected rapidly. The words died in her mouth when he dove down and kissed her, taking advantage of her gasp by slipping his tongue past the crevice of her lips. His hands clawed at her soaking tanktop, though there wasn't much room left for either of them to move. She was crushed against the glass wall, and her heart thundered in her throat when her pants loosened. He knelt to tug them down, encouraging her to step out of them.

His eyes were still open.

"Garrett," she warned, though her head lulled back and smacked the glass when he forced his way under her jawbone, nipping her throat as his hand slipped between her legs, touching her through her underwear; at least he kept his eyes out of the danger zone as he tended to her neck again. She couldn't feel anything because of the blasted wet fabric, and part of her was frustrated with it, while the other part screamed for sense to return and decipher where the hell he truly even stood anymore - until a pitiful whimper scalded her ear.

"God, forgive me."

That... Was unexpected.

But what came next wasn't.

"I don't know the truth, and it still isn't enough to stop me. I just miss her so much..." He grabbed her underwear and wrapped the thinner sides around his fingers, prying it apart until it had actually ripped. He peeled it away and she gasped when he grabbed under her thighs, lifting her up against the glass wall. She didn't have the chance to orientate to what in the bloody hell was going on, consumed by the moment she felt him prod against her entrance. He burrowed his face in her neck, and were it not for the choked sob that shook him, she would've assumed the wetness trailing down her neck was just the hot water.

"I am real, Garrett," she murmured, clinging to his shoulders for dear life. Her hand wormed in the back of his wet hair, and she angled to kiss his temple as she chanted. "The one you're missing is right in front of you. I'm real. I'm me. You're not doing anything wrong."

"I'm sorry." The frailty tore her heart apart, and her eyes began to burn. He still didn't believe her - and she was almost angry that he'd still go through with this, but she wasn't one to talk when there was no certainty for her either. She was caught in limbo, desperate to feel him inside her one more time - to feel complete and safe and loved - and the other part begged for their senses to return to them, to think about the dangers of their predicament.

She was just as lost as him when he succumbed to the same desperation.

"I'm sorry," he chanted as he sank inside of her, setting a frantic pace as he thrust aggressively. The water dulled the sensations somewhat, and she wished he'd ripped her drenched tanktop off as well. It drove guilt home that she selfishly indulged in the need for this comfort just as much as him, despite the paranoia overwhelming them in their minds. She groaned when her legs were pushed out wider as his hips slammed hers, and bucked in rhythm when pressure steadily melded to pleasure, nails clawing across his back. He hissed and cussed and they grew rougher with each other, greedy for more.

Breathing in here was like trying to suck air through a straw, and what air she gulped for was squeezed out her lungs when she tilted her pelvis, catching a sweet spot that made white flash behind her eyes. It disappeared quickly when he slowed down, his pace slacking and movements mechanical, and she was prompt to reignite the passion he once made sure she learned that he had.

"Harder," she hissed vehemently. "If you're going to do this anyways - whether I'm 'real' or not - then at least love me the way you would if I were real."

Maybe then instinct would take over and be proof enough for him.

"Fuck you," Garrett growled, slamming his fist on the button to open the glass wall. She yelped as chilling air nipped her, her heart racing at a furious pace as he carried her - still inside her - out to the bedroom. He withdrew himself from her and threw her on the bed, then dragged her to the edge by her ankles. He pinned her wrists above her head as he entered her again, while his free hand fought it's way under and released the suction her tanktop held to her skin, sinking blunt nails as he gripped her breast hard enough for dull pain to diffuse along the entirety of it.

His eyes were still open, and she stopped caring.

"Fuck," he chanted amongst a mix of apologies, and they only irritated her. She pushed her wrists against his hands until he released her, and she shoved him by his chest to give herself enough space to climb up on the bed, and rose high up on her knees. She motioned for him to come back, cradling his jawbone as she kissed him with every ounce of rage and love that she felt for this foolish man.

"I'm me, Garrett." She had to try. She wouldn't ever stop, but her voice cracked with emotion and it nearly overpowered her when lust was swept away by her real craving: to be mindlessly loved, and not mindlessly fucked. As soon as his calloused hands snapped back on her hips, ready to maneuver her however he saw fit, she grabbed his wrists and tenderly squeezed them as she urged. "Please, Garrett. Listen to me. What's stopping you from believing that I'm real?"

Their ragged breaths filled the room, and the bed was getting soaked from the water that dripped off of them. She leaned away and stared hard at his eyes, now desperate for him to look at her, but he just glared at the ground. Shame intoxicated his voice.

"Because I took you here, and I saw them take you away, and then I saw you die. Now you're here again just like that, but I didn't see where you came from. It's my fault you're here. It's my fault you died. And it's my fault they've brought you to life. Everything's my fault, with you and my family and... Things are still bein' my fault 'cause I can't control myself, even now. I can't take this anymore. All of this hurts more than what my pa ever did to me." He knelt on the floor, and she was forced to sit back on her heels when he draped himself over her lap, his body trembling as much as his words. "God, forgive me..."

And what he confessed next terrified her more than this endless wondering of the validity behind their existence.

"I just want to die."

Did validity matter if there was no existence at all?