The Fourth Law

Chapter 12, Part 1

After breakfast... and they all wanted Ai to be hired as their cook... Lily got ready for work. She was leading her bicycle out of the U when Ai came out of the dining hall and began to walk alongside her.

"Ai?"

"Yes?"

"I'm going to work now; at the hospital."

"I see."

They kept walking.

"You're coming with me?"

Ai stopped. "Should I not?"

Lily stopped, too, but looked at her watch. "No, please, you can do whatever you'd like to, but having you shadow me at work would be..." She paused. "I know we've so little time, but I don't want to cause any trouble...?"

Ai held both of Lily's shoulders and looked sharply into her eyes.

"I'll stay at the mansion; use a Command Seal if something happens."

"W...what?"

Ai laughed uproariously. "I'm sorry! Personal joke! I shall play tourist for a bit? Perhaps I'll meet with those men from the University! May we have lunch together?"

"Of course! I can meet you—"

"On the roof at 1230. Sure." She saw the look in Lily's eyes. "We talk on the phone all the time, remember? Did you think I wouldn't know your schedule?"

"Oh!" With another glance at her watch, she got on her bike. "See you later!"

Ai continued to wave until she was out of sight.

"I will not allow harm to come to you... yes, Thaad, First Law makes preemptive strikes... difficult... yes... no, I've not changed my mind about that, either."

She turned north, started walking.

For so long always wondering what people were thinking when they looked at her, Lily now found herself in the situation where other's eyes would glide past hers, looking for someone else behind her. Everyone at the hospital is looking for Ai, she thought. I guess I should have brought her along after all.

She shook her head at that. No. She's not a pet nor my primary school show-and-tell! But, people she rarely if ever saw kept wandering through the fourth floor, looking around. Focus, focus!

"Good morning, Miss Barrett!" Her charge nurse, Mrs. Watters, said. "Oh, is that person I read about not with you?"

Not you, too!

The morning seemed to last forever, and Lily was relieved when she received a message from Ai that she was bringing lunch and would be there shortly. Lily walked down the stairs to meet her friend in the lobby. She heard the tumult before she saw it. A crowd of staff and patients milled about the entry, all trying to see and talk to Ai. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...

Ai saw her and waved. "Excuse me, everyone!" she called. "I'd like to have lunch with my friend now! We can talk later, okay!" Ai took her hand, and with a wink, pulled Lily outside to a table in the small park in front of the hospital.

"I'm sorry, Ai," she began, "I never meant for things to get like this."

"Oh, please!" Ai said, pushing a soft-sided lunch bag over to Lily. "I find this all very interesting. How has your morning been?"

Lily started taking things out of the bag, trying very hard to ignore those people who kept wandering by to take a picture.

"Surreal. Everyone is looking at me to find you."