Symbiota Sapiens

Chapter 7

"Morning Jer," Julian smiles brilliantly at me. He doesn't know what happened last night. Of course. I grunt in reply, continue to mechanically chew at the bagel. Twenty dollar bagel, and I'm not tasting a thing, enhanced senses or no.

Julian sits in front of me, obviously just out from under the covers if his bed-head is any clue. He looks well-rested at least. He grins at me, utterly relaxed.

"That looks good, you mind?" He scoops up the second half of my bagel and crunches right into it. "Oh, MAN that's the stuff! Guess there's a a thousand-dollar exception to the hotel breakfast rule."

I chew silently, keep my eyes on the food. My brain has been turning this over almost all night, and I still don't know what to do about the heavy weight of guilt twisting in my stomach. He doesn't even know, dammit. Doesn't have a clue what I did to him, except somewhere deep down his subconscious knows. Obviously.

"Jer?" Julian is studying me more carefully now. Shit. I make an effort, and feel my mouth curving into a happy-to-be-alive-this-morning grin.

"Pretty good huh?" I raise my bagel as if in a toast.

"Yeah." He's still watching me though, boring into me. He knows something's up.

"Dude, you okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Just...that construction I told you about. It went on all night." I lied.

"Does it hurt?" Concern shadows his face. Shit, I've got to get him to quit looking at me like that. I can't take the guilt.

"Not really. Just sort of...draining I guess." I shrug nonchalantly. "Just one more night and it'll be over though."

"Oh."

We eat in silence for a while. He's still peeking at me, furtively, now and then. Finally I catch him at it.

"I'm fine, alright? Lay off, eat your food." I put a strong hint of annoyance in my tone and he freezes for a minute, then he finally replies, softly.

"Sorry. Just...worried bout you man." I see the hurt. Shit, guess I was a bit sharp. Still. At least he's not watching me anymore. Now he's carefully avoiding looking in my direction. Now I feel even more guilty. I try to ignore it.

There's a long silence before he finally pipes up again.

"What we doing today?"

"I don't want to go out anymore until we can detect anymore of those...those..."

"Zombies?"

"Er, yeah. Or potential zombies. So...we've got a day to hole up in here to be safe. And...I don't want you answering the door."

"Well, shit." He looks like I've just grounded him.

"Hey, it's not so bad. We're in a luxury suite - you could swim laps in the bathtub for crying out loud!"

"Ha. Yeah. It's a Jacuzzi by the way." That's more like it.

"And satellite TV?"

"There is that. What are you gonna do?"

"I dunno. The AI is still downloading all sorts of crap off the internet. All night, during construction, even."

"What's he looking at?"

::At the moment, I'm reading into electronics. It seems there should be an obvious tracking device for anyone to find if they get a hold of Julian. Something based on your society's technology, as would be expected of someone unfamiliar with Esseren.::

"Uh, he's reading up on tracking equipment. He wants to lo-jack you in case someone tries to kidnap you again."

Uh oh, I should have seen that coming. Julian's face just lit up like Christmas.