SPLICED

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

On the trip back, no one says much of anything. There's isn't really a need to. What's happened, what's transpired is really just more of the same thing we're used to, and I know if it's wearing on me, it's certainly wearing on the others. It was the first time since Eden took us that we had really begun to feel of use, that we'd begun to feel like our people again, but in the end we were only being manipulated once more, this time under the surface. And finding out that Dana Jarr is only the tip of the iceberg, it's the crushing blow. I know, undoubtedly, Gideon is feeling it worse than any of us, and when we arrive I take him aside, take him back to our room to talk him through it.

Closing the door behind him, Gideon leans against it, closing his eyes, his hand on his forehead. He's quiet for a long while and I sit on the edge of the bed, letting him think, letting him stew. When he finally speaks, his voice is quiet, broken.

"...I thought we were out. But we never escaped, did we? We just fell right into her plan, right into another scheme. It feels like the harder we fight, the more hold they have on us."

"We'll get through, Gid. We always do. I know that this is hard, that this isn't what any of us expected, but we've survived this far, we've gotten past so much adversity. Hell, we survived that place, twice. And maybe Dana's still pulling strings, but we're not under her thumb anymore... not entirely. And we can beat this... I know we can."

"But at what cost, Charlotte?" Moving to the bed, he sinks down beside me, reaching up to run his fingers through my hair, "The world is never gonna let us be. They're never gonna give us freedom, no matter how much good we do, no matter how much we fight for them, or how many people we save. We'll just be someone else's lab rats..."

Leaning forward, I press a soft kiss to his forehead, "...So we escape again. We get ourselves out, like we did before and we run, Gid. And we don't stop, this time. Not until we're safe. Not until we're free. There's a life for us... There is. I have to believe it. And I need you to believe it, too. Otherwise, this..." I say, wiggling my ring finger at him, "Means nothing. It's just a pretty sentiment we'll never really be able to follow through on. And I don't want that. And I know you don't, either. Maybe this whole mess just got a lot worse, and maybe it'll never really get better, but the good that came out of it, Gid? Don't lose sight of that. Don't give that up... I know you're frustrated, and if you're feeling anything like I am, I know you're scared. But we can fight them. We've done it before. You and me, together... and the others."

Smiling dryly, he leans his forehead against mine, nips at my lips, "You know I love you, Charlotte Cruz?"

"You've told me once or twice, yeah."

Pressing his lips to mine, more firmly, I lean into him with a soft sigh, letting my fingers wind through his, "How long as we been doing this? Running like this, non stop...?" He asks, softly.

"Too long. Too damn long. Maybe that's the problem. We haven't stopped long enough to think, to unwind..."

Grinning, as he pulls away, his hands fall from my hair to my waist and he pulls me close, "...Unwind, hmm? I was thinking the opposite, actually. I could stand to get a little tangled up."

I laugh, shift my leg so I can straddle his hips, "...I love you, Gid..."

"...You better." He murmurs, before crushing his lips to mine, again.

Roughly an hour later, we meet with the others in the common room, as Harrison explains to us the notion of the encryption he's put on the chip. The long and short of it was, he'd made it hard, but not hard enough that it was unbreakable. And he'd managed to encode it in such a way that it appeared to have been done prior to their stealing it from the penthouse. Prior, even, to the man's murder. It was a risk, but it was a risk they had no choice but to make. Delivering the chip to Donner, who left to bring it to Dana, we sat down to discuss the rest of the plan.