Empathy Goes

Chapter 2

The pair sat, resting on a large flower. Grace checked her makeup, after all what kind of Apex would she be if her line smeared. She then turned her attention to Simon, who was still in a melancholy state.

"You okay?" she questioned though she already knew the answer. After all she and Simon had known each other for years, his sadness was her sadness.

"This isn't going to be a normal procedure," Simon said clearly mulling over the differences from his written protocol.

"You're right." Grace said though she was perplexed by his thought processes, they'd known they'd be on their own since the turtle car.

"We're supposed to have backup, we're supposed to have two working harpoon packs; I don't think we've even been this far out on the train before." He stated, his neuroses coming to the surface. Grace had seen this before, Simon needed control of everything and when that didn't happen he tended to fall apart. She needed to quell his fears before they got any worse.

"So what do we have, besides pessimism." She asked, trying to divert his attention. As if to punctuate her statement she tossed her fanny pack at him. A gesture which caused him to fumble a bit before catching it.

"Good idea, we might have to ration." Leave it to Simon to find a serious situation in even the most playful of gestures. He dumped the contents of the pack on the ground to survey them.

"Now let's see, we have some snack bars, rope and...three toothbrushes?" Simon asked quizzically the number of toothbrushes striking him as odd.

"One of the teeth, two for the sneaks." Grace comically explained

"I don't even get one?" Simon asked feigning hurt

"All I know is that I packed three." Grace responded. In truth they both knew she'd give him a toothbrush. After all if they were going to spend extended time together Grace preferred both of their breath to be acceptable at least.

"A bag of gorp, Arctic Cowboy brand deodorant for summer sports perspiration." Simon continued listing more items

"That's good cause I don't need your ripeness giving away our position." Grace joked

"Ha ha ha." Simon faked laughed before abruptly stopping indicating his lack of amusement with her joke.

"Aww you think i'm joking." Grace said in response. Simon rolled his eyes before handing her the fanny pack back.

"Okay first impressions," Simon began sizing up the car. "Looks to be a moderately sized car, jungle themed, but with a little extra..." he trailed off as he turned his attention to watching Grace survey some foliage

"Flare?" She said, finishing Simon's thought as she often did. To make her point she picked up a mushroom which glowed at her touch squeezing in into dust in her grip. He looked at her with awe. After all, watching Grace do just about anything was his second favorite activity.

"Hmm?" Simon said, snapped from his trance by a lizard like Null. When touched it glowed and whistled. "Threats seem minimal." He assessed Grace as slid her arm around his shoulder watching the Null with distintrest but pleased to be near Simon.

"But Simon's presence seems aloof and dorky." she said arm still on his shoulder as she mocked him. She then proceeded to snatch the Null from his hands and toss behind them. "Dude we are the Apex. But also we're Grace and Simon remember." Grace said once again, trying to calm Simon's nervousness.

"Yeah." He responded stoically

"Yeah." She mocked back with feigned stoicism "Yeah what?" She put her arms on his shoulders as she shifted into pep talk mode. "I've seen you lead an army of kids but I've also seen you play sock ball. You can play a super serious general guy when we get back. Until then loosen up!" she said, shaking him enthusiastically. "Think of it as us being on leave." A dark blush unceremoniously crept across his face. Maybe he could relax a little if only for her sake. He took a deep breath and couldn't repress the smile that indicated his true feelings on the matter. The two hopped across rocks, climbed trees, and joked with each other. When the veil of tiredness fell over them they slept in a clearing in the brush, hands touching, their need for each other's warmth exceeding cautiousness. As the two walked across a log a conversation was struck up by Grace. "See, isn't this a nice change of pace?"