Michelle Maddox - Countdown

"Thank you," he said. "And I wish you luck with your top-secret plan, whatever the hell it is. Please do what you can to save my brother."

"I will." He nodded and his eyes were sad. "But I should have done more. Sooner."

"Hell yeah, you should have. But better late than never."

I gave Jonathan a hug, too. "See, I knew you were a good guy after all."

"I wouldn't go that far." He pulled away, and I could see that his expression was sad.

"Thank you for the tickets," I said.

He nodded. "You have four hours. Stay inside this house until then. Understand? There are clean clothes upstairs if you would like to change. Good-bye." He turned away and left the kitchen. A moment later I heard the door slam behind him.

Rogan looked at me.

I stared back at him.

"My head is fucking killing me," he said. "I have no idea why."

"It might be because a big piece of metal just got yanked out of it."

"Yeah, that could be part of it." He looked at me for a moment longer. "I shouldn't have let him leave. I should be helping him."

"You heard him. He has a plan."

"I wish he would have told me what the hell it was." His expression was grim, his attention on the path Jonathan had just taken to leave the safe house. "But you're right. It would be crazy to interfere. Right now, after everything we've been through, I just want to get as far away from here as possible. I want you to be safe."

"I'm really sorry about your brother," I said.

He didn't look at me. "Yeah, so am I."

I reached around to the back of my head and felt the hard ridge of cauterized skin. "I can't believe the implant's gone."

"I know."

"And here I thought I was going to have to get used to having you within ninety feet or less of me for the rest of my life."

His smile faded at the edges. "Good job they're finally out, right?"

"Yeah. I'm … I'm going to go upstairs and look into that change of clothes Jonathan mentioned."

"You do that."

I swallowed hard and turned away from him, leaving the kitchen. Around the next comer was a flight of stairs to the second floor.

Once we got to our destination we'd go our separate ways. Was I thinking there would be another outcome to this story? Rogan had enough problems to deal with without having me-one big problem magnified a thousand times-in his life. He was better off without me.

And I was better off without him.

After all, I was getting my wish. I was getting the chance to go to Offworld, just like I'd dreamed of doing for years. I was going to go where my father had planned to take me and my mom and my sister all those years ago. I wondered what my life would be like now if that plan had gone through. If, instead of living on the streets of this dying city for seven years, I'd lived those years on Offworld, the start of a new civilization with tons of potential and future happiness.

However, I wouldn't have met Rogan.

I pushed the thought away. We'd been thrust together- neither of us had had any choice in the matter-and we'd dealt with it the best we could, and now it was over. It was just dumb luck that I'd fallen hard for him.

I'd never been in love with anybody before.

It sure hurt like hell.

I took the stairs up to the second floor of the safe house very slowly, as if there were weights attached to my feet. At the top I tapped the light pad on the wall so I could take a better look around. The house was small, but fully furnished. In some ways it reminded me of the house I grew up in. Or maybe it was just the fact that it was a real house, not some crappy place where I could crash for the night to get off the streets.

The stairs behind me creaked, and I realized that Rogan was following me.

"I haven't had a chance to check the clothes yet," I said.

He was frowning. "I know. I just wanted to tell you that since we have a few hours until the shuttle arrives, we should probably try to get some rest if we can."

His words were dry and fairly clipped. He wasn't making eye contact with me anymore, which was a little strange. I swallowed past the lump in my throat.

'That sounds like a good idea," I said, and turned away from him.

"Kira…"

I turned back. He climbed up the rest of the stairs until he was standing next to me in the hallway on the second floor. I waited for him to say something else.

He didn't.

"What is it?" I prompted.

His throat worked as he swallowed. He studied a small picture of a lake and an overhang of trees on the wall over my shoulder. "Will you see the scientist that Jonathan mentioned when you get to Offworld?"

"Yeah, I think so. I mean, sure I will. I want somebody to help me with my abilities. All my life I never even realized anybody else was experiencing similar things to what I did. I thought I was some sort of a freak."

"You're not a freak."

'Thanks for the vote of confidence." I smiled weakly. "And what about you? Now that you don't have to have me tagging along with you everywhere you go, what are your plans?"

"That's a very good question. I'm going to wait for news about my brother, and after that…" He shook his head. "I guess I'll have to see where life will take me."

I nodded and pushed away the sadness that I'd probably never see him again. "Well, I wish you luck."

There was silence for a moment, and I began to feel very awkward, and at a loss for words. I didn't want to say anything I might regret. He'd moved to block my way to the back rooms, where I assumed the clothes might be.

I eyed him uneasily. "Can I get past you or do I need to pay a toll?"

His lips curled. "Of course."

But he didn't move.

"Urn, hello?" I said. 'The moving-out-of-my-way thing we talked about? We do have four hours, but time is fleeting."

He snorted softly and looked up at me, finally capturing me in his gaze. "It's going to be a little strange."

I bit my bottom lip. "What's going to be strange?"

"Not having you around anymore."

My heart began to pound faster. "I thought you'd be glad to finally get the hell away from me."

"Glad isn't exactly what I'm feeling right now."

He was acting so strangely, I didn't know what to make of it.

I took a deep breath. "What are you feeling?"

He shrugged and looked away again. "Forget it. I know the past couple of days have been really rough for you, Kira. To say the least. Getting stuck with a guy like me isn't exactly a picnic, even on a good day. Don't worry; just a few more hours and we don't have to be together anymore."

I touched his face and forced him to look at me.

"But we're together right now," I said, and slid my fingers into his dark hair.

He studied me warily for a moment, as if he wasn't sure what to make of that last comment. Then he closed the remaining distance between us and crushed his mouth against mine in a hard, deep kiss that made me gasp against his lips from the sheer force of it. He pressed me up against the wall, and the picture of the lake went crashing to the floor.

He ate at my mouth, devouring it, sliding his tongue between my lips.

All of the stress, panic, fear that I'd felt over the last two days parted to make way for the single-minded passion I felt for the man in front of me. If this was going to be the last time I got to touch him, to kiss him, before we got on the shuttle, then I damn well had to make it worthwhile. I didn't want him to forget me.

At that thought, my heart ached. I hadn't known Rogan a few days ago. He hadn't been a part of my life. Now he'd managed to become the most important part. The thought both scared me and thrilled me. I had thought I was dead inside, but he'd managed to prove that that wasn't true. He made me remember that I was alive.