Starlight

XXXV: Take Me Back

You and I were meant to be
Something more than a faded memory
Till you and I, something divided us

- 'Take Me Back', Black Friday

xx.xx

"Who is it?"

Robbie's hand lingered at the door to the lab, her scarred knuckles glinting in the low light. "It's me, Henry."

"But I'm Henry."

"Yeah, good one. You gonna let me in or not?"

The door swung open, and there he stood looming over her, a cigarette between two of his long fingers, his silver hair a mess. "You should go back to the bar."

"And you shouldn't be smoking in a lab among a shitload of chemicals, but I guess common sense has gone out of the window today, huh?" She planted her boots on the ground, centered herself, made herself look as determined and confident as possible. "I'm coming in. I'm not letting you do this alone."

Henry surveyed her face, taking note of her upturned nose, the frown she was clearly struggling to upkeep, the not-quite-steely determination in her grey eyes.

"If you insist. I can't imagine that Scott or Linda are keeping tabs on us anymore."

Robbie stepped through the door to find what looked like a crime scene. Papers were strewn everywhere, some with music and dialogue scribbled all over in Henry's scrawling hand, some with diagrams of the body, of plants, of the stars. A weaponry rack hung on the wall and an ashtray smoldered on a side table next to the handgun he'd been waving around an hour ago. His microscope took center stage, perched on the middle bench with the unidentified blue stuff suspended in its slide.

"Changed a bit since the last time I was here," Robbie remarked, remembering the clinically clean surfaces and equipment that had been here on their last night together.

Henry shrugged, but his cheeks flushed a pale pink. "How is your hand doing nowadays?"

Robbie showed him her fist. "You patched me up pretty good. There's a scar but I guess that couldn't be avoided. Something like that is gonna leave a mark." She hovered awkwardly in the entrance way. "Finn and Danny are fine, by the way. They're in Clivesdale."

"I'm glad." He shuffled on the spot for a moment, before shutting the door behind him. "I'm very glad they're well. And I've made progress with identifying our blue shit."

"Okay, so tell me," Robbie wandered over to the microscope, weaving around the mess, being very careful not to touch a thing. "What are we up against?"

Henry reached the table at the same time and stubbed his cigarette out on it, paying no mind to the small round burn it left on the surface.

Robbie took a deep breath. The feeling of his body next to hers, the question of whether or not they would be able to salvage what they had lost, the looming threat (or perhaps promise) of what was still to come that day... The tension of it all clouded the air like the smoke from his cigarette, now dead and cooling on the counter. She felt her pulse in her fingertips, heard the rush of blood in her ears.

Constantly, consistently, she teetered on the edge. Daring herself - willing herself - to just plunge over the side and say it.

I still love you.

Do you still love me?

He turned a dial on the microscope, peering through its lens. "It's a good job you reminded me to wear gloves."