Doppelganger

Chapter 24

A/N: Whoops, accidentally posted the last chapter when I had two more before it... XD

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Quip scraped her spoon around the rounded sides of the bowl. Technically, the bowl didn't have sides. It was spherical in nature, and spheres had no sides, but there was no other way to describe the boundaries of the ceramic dish. She had devoured the bowl of chocolate goodness that Logan had placed in front of her, but that didn't mean she wasn't paying attention to what the others were talking about in Logan's office. They thought they could distract her with sugar and cream and putting hallways and some walls between them, but she was an X8. Multitasking and eavesdropping were a part of her DNA.

"So there was no way you could've kept Krenski alive?" Logan was asking for the third time. It was her experience that Ordinaries' memories weren't as good as transgenics, but Logan should've remembered an answer that he had already heard twice. He seemed intelligent enough for someone who didn't have enhanced mental faculties.

"Nope," Alec answered. She heard him take a sip of coffee. "Look, I got Quip, dispatched some baddies and left. I wasn't too concerned with keeping him alive at the moment."

Quip sniffed at her ice cream bowl. There was officially nothing left worth having, and she was satisfied. Max had given her three scoops of metropolitan, and Alec had let her put on as many toppings as she wanted. She had stayed away from the chocolate syrup, though. She had a feeling she wouldn't be wanting that for a while.

"How do you think she's doing?" She could almost feel Logan glance at her through the rooms. Why was he worried about her? She was fine. If she had had more time, she would've gotten out of that chair by herself, but it was okay that Alec had shown up. Not that she really needed him to, it was just good to have back-up when you were in a bind like that. She usually worked in pairs or teams anyways, back in Manticore, so having someone else to work with was second nature.

"She's fine," Alec said, his tone light but cool, "Ready to go off to happy joyful family land whenever you want to ship her off."

Quip drew her shoulders up and tapped her fingers on the counter. Oh, yes. She had sort of forgotten about those people in Canada, the ones who wanted to give her a puppy and find friends for her and let her live in their house without knowing what she could do. She had hurt people tonight. It didn't really bother her too much. Well. It bothered her a little bit, but that would pass. They were bad, very bad, and they were going to hurt Alec and they were going to hurt her. She had acted in self-defense. But these people wouldn't really understand that, and they wouldn't even know about it. Logan wasn't going to tell them what she could do.

Slipping out of the chair, Quip picked up her bowl and spoon and went to the sink. She wasn't ashamed of herself. How could she be ashamed when she could outrun a bullet and track a man for days and pick out a certain target's breathing pattern in a crowded room? She liked the way she was made, even if she was just a prototype.

And if she went to Canada, she wouldn't be able to go to Joshua's every day. Quip liked going to Joshua's house and looking at the old things there; she liked sneaking around the basement and poking around in stuff she didn't know the name for. She liked reading the stories and poems in the dusty books, and she liked when Joshua made mac and cheese. Quip put her dishes in the sink and then climbed up on the counter so she could wash them with water. If she went to Canada, she might never see Joshua again, or at least not unless she was a lot older and could track him down.

"What do you want to do with her, Alec?" she heard Max ask. Quip ran hot water over the bowl and watched the last scrapes of ice cream melt off and drip into the sink. "What exactly is your plan, if she doesn't leave? Are you going to raise her?"