One of Us is Robotic

Two of Us

It was little over a month after the explosion that had nearly cost Janelle her life. Leo could still remember the day clearly. The click of the deactivated androids' auto destruct mechanism, the cry he had aimed at Janelle as he ducked for cover, and he deafening boom of the explosion that followed. Leo could still remember that sinking feeling he had felt afterwards, like his whole world had exploded along with the androids. He thought it couldn't get any worse than that, yet he was quite wrong. For the next three weeks, Leo had been too depressed to even get out of bed, replaying the explosion over and over again in his head. Janelle had died, and it had been all Leo's fault for dragging her into the whole mess to begin with.

But then life took a turn for the better. Actually, better wasn't adequate enough to describe that day, but advanced vocab had a way of escaping Leo's mind. The day was, of course, the day that Douglas had brought Janelle back from the dead. Of course, she hadn't actually died, but in her comatose state, dead had been a pretty safe bet. But nevertheless, Leo had just sprinted down to the lab when Janelle's eyes had flitted open. Leo couldn't believe his eyes when he saw it. He had even pinched himself to make sure that it wasn't some sick nightmare. He used his bionic arm by accident, and the pinch had hurt way more than it was supposed to. Then Leo had heard a laugh come from the lab table that Janelle was on. She had turned her head to see Leo's pinch fail, and that had confirmed it for Leo.

His girlfriend was back.

The happiness never wore off over the next week. Janelle had been making an exceptionally fast recovery, and a process that was supposed to take months was actually taking just days. Leo actually started having a life again, actually getting out of bed and doing stuff. Mostly, he was helping out Janelle with her physical therapy, which, as mentioned earlier, was going way better than anyone expected. Also, it was a bit of a silver lining that Leo was temporarily stronger than Janelle, which was a first. But the way things were going, that wasn't gonna last long.

Leo's Point of View

"Leo? Leo!" Tasha, my mom called, "Its ten o clock! Why aren't you up already?"

"It's ten o clock! Why should I be up?" I called back.

"Janelle has physical therapy at 10:15!" Mom called.

"Crap," I muttered, stumbling out of bed, "I'll be down in a minute!"

After tripping over random things strewn on my floor in my attempt to quickly create my signature Leo glow, I finally just gave up, threw on some random clothes, and called it good.

"Leo?" called another voice. That one belonging to Janelle.

"It has not been fifteen minutes," I muttered, running toward my door and promptly tripping on my bedpost, "I'm coming!"

When I finally got to the bottom of the stairs, Janelle was standing there, drinking a glass of water. I just stared for a minute, still wondering how I had managed to get her as my girlfriend. I mean, sure, we'd saved each other's lives enough to warrant a pretty close bond, but it still mystified me that she was still here. I probably would've continued my trance for a while, but my aforementioned girlfriend snapped me out of it.

"Are you gonna keep staring at me?" Janelle asked, "Or do I need to get another glass of water?"

"Another one wouldn't hurt," I mused.

"You didn't let me finish," Janelle laughed, "That glass of water's gonna end up on your head if you keep standing there."

"Oh come on!" I protested, "I was enjoying myself!"

"I'm sure you were," Janelle said, "But I'm sure the physical therapist is not gonna enjoy waiting if you make me late."

An Hour and a Half Later