dot.

38: For Old Times' Sake

"Did everything go well?" Digorn sat with his hands folded across his lap, questioning Nimue.

"Yes. It was easier than expected, actually. Hopefully his body doesn't reject it." She refused to meet his eyes. He was letting her stay free on the condition that she did everything he told her to- and that meant everything. It was horrible, being in the same position that she had been in all those years ago before Dot was born, but little did he know she had zero intentions to obey him. This time, she was not the scared young girl she had been: she was strong enough to fight back.

  He took a sip of his tea, trying his best to read the woman. She had been shifty and nervous around him, which wasn't a shock, but was still irritating.

  "Crita, get me some tea. You can you back to your room now." He directed the last part of his speech at Nimue, letting her know she was free to go.

  "Thank you." She got up and left, walking back to her room as fast as she could without seeming suspicious.

  Crita fetched him a cup of tea, preparing it with milk but no sugar: just how he liked it. She served it with a teaspoon on a porcelain platter, suggesting they go somewhere more pleasant to talk.

  He agreed, and soon they were relaxing in a pretty blue-painted room. There was a TV in here, one of the only rooms that had one. Crita flicked through the channels until they settled on a documentary on the deep sea, then turned the volume down so it was mere background noise.

  "Sir, while I know you must have put a lot of thought into your decision and it is probably the best choice, I am not sure how I feel about letting Nimue roam free. I understand that you have had a long term relationship with her, however... I do not believe she is trustworthy."

  "She will not defy me. We have a history deeper than you know." He sipped the tea, and nodded at Crita, making her relax at the indication that it was good enough for him.

  "As you have said before. While I am still not completely certain that she will obey... I will trust you. You make good decisions." Crita laid the flattery on thick: after all, that's how she got this position. Stroking his ego was the easiest way to get the jobs that allowed you closer to him; and the closer you were, the more you got paid.

  The things that happened here didn't bother her; it was just a matter of business after all. So long as she was getting her paycheck each month, it didn't matter who she had to hurt. Crita was okay with being the bad guy- so long as she could be the rich bad guy.

  Digorn finished his tea and set the cup aside, crossing his legs and resting his chin on his hand. "Nimue's return and Felix's reattachment operation have both disrupted our schedule. I want to get back to doing trials as soon as possible. Are there any companies that have put in a request to work with us?"

  "Not yet, sir. But I am sure that there will be. What you have created here is incredible; any self-respecting company should count themselves lucky to have the opportunity to work with you."

  "Hm." He reached for his mug again, frowning when he remembered it was empty. "I hope we get more offers soon."

...

  "Here's the plan." Nimue crouched down in front of the three in Dot's room, hunched over some paper and a pen she was using to scribble on it.

  "Digorn trusts me not to run away because we've known each other for a while, so he'll let me be free even while keeping you guys locked up." She sketched out a rough plan of the route they would have to take to reach the exit of the facility, accidentally tearing the paper at one point but moving on regardless.

  "What about us?"

  "Don't worry, I'm not just going to leave you behind. Even you." She glanced at Felix as she said the last part- she wasn't planning to take him with them originally, but since Dot seemed to like him so much, she supposed she was going to have to.

  "Thanks."

  "Welcome. But anyway, the sooner I can get you all out, the better. So we're doing this thing tonight."

  "Tonight? But you still haven't said how you're even going to do it." Tiro joined the conversation, and Dot nodded along to this as well. "And what if it doesn't work?"

  "I'll do it under nightfall so Digorn and his annoying assistant will both be asleep. I have the keys to this room, my room, and the exit, so it shouldn't be hard to smuggle you all out. We just have to keep quiet."

  "What about the CCTV?" Asked Felix.

  "It's fine if it catches us. There's no one monitoring it overnight at the moment since we're struggling to find new assistants, and there's never been any motion sensors or alarms attached to them. They'll find it in the morning but at that point, we'll be long gone."

  "Okay, but what if it doesn't work?" Felix repeated Tiro's earlier question as Dot slumped his head into the man's lap, already tired of the discussion which he couldn't completely understand.

  "If we can't make this this work first try, then... we're screwed. Completely, utterly screwed. He won't give us the chance to escape again- before Dot escaped when he was little, we didn't even have any CCTV up and he was allowed to roam around unsupervised. In hindsight, we set ourselves up for a breakout there, but I dunno." She paused to fiddle with her sleeves, chewing on the inside of her mouth. "Maybe I wanted him to. But Digorn caught him, and that was that."

  "You used to let him just... walk about? Wherever he wanted?" Felix was playing with Dot's hair as the hybrid struggled to stay awake, curious to how he had been treated when he was very small. Tiro had mentioned in passing that before Digorn ordered them to make money off him and the experiments started that Nimue had actually been very caring towards him, kind and loving as a mother should be.

  "Yeah. It was my idea, Digorn was against it- he never supported my ideas. It was his escape that led to him being kept in this room instead of having free range, but if it wasn't for me, it would have just been a cage. In fact, if I hadn't fought so hard to keep him once he was born and we knew the experiment had been a success, I have no doubt that Digorn would have put him in a tiny cage even when he was a baby."

   "So that's why you thought he was better off here?"

  "That's some of it. Mostly I wanted him because he was still my son, and I knew Digorn wouldn't give him any sort of love or contact aside from showing him off to his scientist friends. I was convinced he'd be better off here, and I mean I was right for a while. His early childhood was genuinely fun, and I'd smuggle things in for him like icecreams and lollipops from the circus that visited sometimes."

  "We painted his old room yellow together- though admittedly his help was more of a hindrance than anything else- but it was still sweet. He loved me then, and I'd do anything to get back to that."

  She looked at Dot especially now, resisting the urge to tuck his hair behind his ear and let him fall asleep on her, instead of on the lap of a man he had only known for a couple of months. It ripped her apart to see how he loved Felix, and although she knew she had no right to his love anymore, she craved it more than anything in the world.

  When they were free, she was going to apologise. Properly, truly, apologise. If he chose to forgive her, then she would be the happiest woman on earth; and if he chose not to... then she would have to accept his hate. He had every reason to loathe her, but she just had to hope and pray that he could look deep within himself to find the love that used to be there- for old times' sake.