24 Dreams Of You And Me

43) Mutually Beneficial Relationship

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
-Helen Keller

***

"Ma'am, this way." A man in an all black suit gestured Alyssa towards the door.

Alyssa kept staring towards where he disappeared.

He had given up. Just like that.

"Well," she sighed and started walking, "at least his security can talk in sentences."

Once outside, she walked towards the public park on the other side of the road.

She saw a little girl sitting alone on a bench, feeding a few pigeons.

"Hi, can I sit here?"

"No."

Alyssa groaned as he remembered. The people he won't communicate with are defected in manufacturing.

She sat down beside her.

"What do I do, little girl?" Alyssa said as she looked up to the blue sky. "I don't feel good leaving him alone."

When the much anticipated 'no' didn't come, she looked beside her, only to find the girl gone.

"Great." She scoffed.

"A park." Robb's voice made Alyssa spin around.

"Your job was to talk him out and you're sitting in a park talking to your own damn self." He said, walking closer and placing hid gun behind his back.

Alyssa stood up. "What are you doing here?"

"You were taking so long, I thought you're dead or something."

"I thought you were gonna go find your brother, not keep track of how long I'm gone."

"Alyssa, you've been gone more than 15 hours. I already searched for him. He's not there."

"15?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Told you, difference in time speed."

"Yeah. Well, Levi isn't coming back."

Robb frowned. "You met him?"

Alyssa pointed at the house. "That's his home. He asked the security to get me out."

"Why?"

"He's, uh, with his college girlfriend. Aradia knows all the right buttons to push. He's happy here, doesn't wanna go back."

"You told him he'd die, right? Or worse."

She shrugged. "Didn't seem to care."

"Well then what are you still doing here?"

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, he's too far gone. You should get as far away from him as possible. He'd try to kill you first when he's turned. A soldier that's bound to Earth as well as here, would be scary powerful. Best of both worlds."

"That's precisely why I'm still here." Alyssa said.

"So that he can kill you?"

"No, so that he's not turned, you idiot."

"He refused to come, didn't he?"

"I'm not leaving him."

"Wait," Robb held his finger up, "you told Crystal and I that you've parted ways because he left you to die and now-"

"It was a misunderstanding. He did help me.. late but he did."

"So when did he clear this up?"

Alyssa recalled seeing Levi and Lauren together. "Kinda figured it out myself. He's not one of them or working for them since Aradia is clearly trying to get to him. And even if he was just using me as insurance.. I understand.. that's what I started out as too. And that's all that should be between us. We're strictly business."