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Rain poured down the street, cascading over the pavement.
The door was open, as it nearly always was. As it was meant to be. Frozen in another time and shivering, he stared at the sign above it, as rainwater caught in his hair and in his eyelashes.
An aura of peace radiated past the threshold. It settled over him like a shroud once he got the nerve to step through it. A heady incense was burning in one of the braziers, drifting to the ceiling and making his nose itch. Knickknacks and figurines – symbols of protection, of good fortune, of peace – stared down at him as he passed under their gaze, keeping watch or making judgment and keeping it amongst themselves one way or the other.
Engrossed in a world all her own, Misty was pulling cards at the counter. Her eyebrows knit together, and her mouth was set in a mystified little pout at whatever they were telling her.
Thinking of her made his heart ache.
Seeing her made it bleed.
She tapped the edge of the card pinched between her fingers against one on the counter, and raised her head at last. The movement of her hand stilled, and her mouth fell open as wide as her eyes.
Jackie smiled.
Or tried to.
It may have come out all wrong.
Misty didn’t notice. Or she didn’t care, if she did. The deck fell from her hand, half scattering over the counter, as she darted around it to meet him, practically falling into him as he swept her into his arms. He crushed her to him tight, maybe even too tight, but he couldn’t tell and she didn’t complain.
She pulled away to look at him, and her mouth moved over words she couldn’t quite choke out, but he caught the How? and What? on her lips clearly, only he didn’t have much of an answer to give. She puzzled over his appearance, his clothes, his being here now in front of her; she cupped his face in her hands, as though touching was believing, and ran her fingers through his two months growth of sodden hair.
He held her hand to his mouth, and tried again to smile.
Breaking from her gaze, he cast a meaningful look around the store, and once more met her eyes.
“V?”
The question brought her back down to Earth; the light in her eyes dimmed. Misty glanced away, and gave a subtle shake of her head. It wasn’t quite denial but wasn’t at all encouraging, and it only served to feed the thing gnawing on his stomach lining.
“She’s not here right now.” Taking his hand, she led him to one of the chairs she had set in the back, coaxing him to sit down and kneeling down beside him. “Let’s... focus on what you need for now, okay?”
Jackie swallowed.
And nodded.
Squeezing her hand, he lifted it to the port on the back of his neck, pressing her fingers against the empty gap. Misty’s eyes widened, and he let her hand drop. It landed on his shoulder.
“Need to talk to Vik. Everything... I’m all out of sorts.”
She nodded. “Okay, well... he’s with someone right now, but he should be free in just a little bit, alright?”
Jackie mouthed a little yeah, in agreement.
“Alright. Just a little bit longer.”
His shoulders slumped as he settled in to wait, and she wrapped her hand over the back of his, giving it a gentle squeeze.
Curled up together, wisely out of the rain, two cats kept watch from the altar, eyes reflecting the light as they tracked him. At length, one stepped out of the basket and stretched, and hopped down onto the arm of Jackie’s chair to investigate.
Before long, a lone edgerunner stepped out of the back room. She regarded them coolly, and nodding once in silent greeting on her way out through the shop.
For all the Jackie knew the way, Misty still led him by the hand out the back, and down the steps. The drizzle caught in her hair and in her sweater, but she never had minded the rain. She brushed the droplets out of her eyes, smudging her makeup as they stepped though the basement door to the security gate.
Vik was orating notes when he noticed them, Misty at first, and trailing off into stunned silence when Jackie stepped into the light.
Behind his glasses, his eyes flicked between them. Tentatively – stepping closer, eyes locked on Jackie’s face like he might vanish, or become someone new – Vik reached out to squeeze his shoulder.
“...Jackie?”
“¿Qué tal, señor?”
Vik’s hand skimmed down his arm. He gave Jackie a once-over, looked at Misty again, then back to his face.
“It’s him.”
Misty’s voice was small, but confident.
Like there was ever any doubt.
And maybe there was. Or should have been.
Vik certainly seemed less sure.
“Need a new deck,” Jackie rasped. “They ripped it...”
His voice cracked, and caught in his throat. He glanced at Misty, who still held on to his arm, and back to Vik.
Vik gave a slow, understanding nod.
“Also need’a make sure I’m not being tracked.”
“Yeah, sure...” he agreed, finally remembering to turn off his recording. “We’ll get you all set up, run a full diagnostic – the works. Misty, you think you could go upstairs and keep an eye out?”
At first her lips pressed together thinly, and she looked like she might protest. Then she gave Jackie’s arm a firm little hug, and he reached to catch her hand and squeeze her fingers before she moved too far away from him and let go.
She took her time making her way across the floor, and paused at the gate to look back before disappearing around the corner, the door creaking open and soundly closed a moment later.
Gesturing towards his workspace, Vik intoned, “Chair, please.”
Jackie dutifully followed through as instructed. Dragging himself up into the chair, he eased back against it. The chair could hardly be deemed comfortable, but the familiarity of it was a comfort.
“And... plug in?”
He jacked in to the array, and felt the electrical buzz of a connection as the diagnostic software started with a shallow scan of his system.
His cyberdeck would’ve been feeding him information all about it.
If he still had one.
Vik disappeared behind the stack of equipment, and Jackie could hear him rummaging through his stock somewhere nearby. He reappeared soon enough with a small metal case in his hands, the device within smaller than a shard but similarly shaped and vastly more powerful.
“A Raven Microcyber,” Vik introduced it to him. “Impressive little piece. Oughta at least get you back on your feet. I think it might even be brand new.”
“Know I ain’t got cash, right?” Jackie warned. “Can’t know I’ll ever be able to pay you back, way things are.”
“We can argue about eddies later. Right now I want to be certain that everything is in working order and you’re not going to collapse in the next five minutes.”
“And anyway,” Vik added, “V donated this one. As I recall, she... found it, in a drawer somewhere. That seems like an even trade to me.”
The question bubbled up within him, but before he could force it past his tongue, Vik had tilted his head to one side and forward to access his port. Jackie felt, rather than heard, the sharp little click of the deck sliding into place.
All at once, every implant in his body started to synch up properly. Vik let his head fell back against the chair.
Groaning deeply, Jackie scrubbed his face with his hands.
“That good, huh?”
“That is so much fuckin’ better, you would not even believe.”
Vik chuckled.
“¡Dios del cielo!”
“It should have your usual suite of basic functions pre-installed. And I still have your profile in the system, so we can make sure all your firmware gets installed and is up to date.”
“Mmmph.”
Giving his arm a pat, Vik moved to step away. “You’re welcome.”
Jackie stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours, watching the data feed scroll down his display. Updates and diagnostics.
The silence crept into him, like darkness eating at the roots of his soul.
“They ripped me out of my head, Vik.”
He draped an arm over his eyes.
“Thought it was over; thought I was dead and then...” He didn’t even know how to describe that part. “And then... they shoved me back in. Made me go through all these... tests. Evaluations? Guess I didn’t pass, ‘cause they ripped me out again. And again after that. Over and over and fucking over, I thought I was gonna crack.”
“I guess we’re talking Arasaka?” Vik asked. “How did you get back here? I can’t imagine they decided to let you walk free.”
“Eh, you know how it is,” Jackie lifted his arm to look at him, and forced a smile. “They underestimated me.”
Vik smiled back, a gentleness in his voice that Jackie wasn’t accustomed to, “Can’t say they’re the only ones who did that.”
While he was there, Vik turned his attention to the readout.
Jackie watched the reflection of the data that scrolled down his sunglasses.
“Hey, Vik?”
“Mhhm?”
“Where’s V?”
The question caught Vik off guard. He glanced down at Jackie, frowning.
“Misty wouldn’t tell me, now you too, huh? Getting me kinda worried here.”
Like they didn’t think he’d even ask.
“At least tell me she got out. She did get out, right? She made it?”
“That is... a complicated story, Jackie.”
“Complicated, how?” Jackie waved at the apparatus he was still connected to by his wire. “This seems like it might still be taking a while; you got my total and undivided attention.
Crossing his arms, Vik studied his screen.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” he asked. “Before...”
He struggled with the phrasing, prompting Jackie to scoff.
“Before Arasaka?” He prodded. “Before dying, you mean.”
He breathed out a long, even breath.
“Last thing I remember is V,” he said. “For a while there, it hurt like hell. Then it didn’t hurt so much anymore at all, I just felt... cold. And tired, like... exhausted. And there was V, and she was... hurt. I mean, we were both banged up, but that’s not what I mean, she was... she was...”
She was.
Vik was staring at the floor.
“V... took your death hard.” He shrugged. “I’ll admit, we all did. But V... she blamed herself. She felt she’d let you down.”
“She didn’t let me down.”
“That’s not how she saw it.”
“I didn’t want to leave her there all alone. Not that I wanted to leave her at all, but especially not like that. Just... It wasn’t really my choice, you know?”
“You didn’t let her down, either.”
Jackie only realized he was leaning half off the table when Vik calmly reached over to push him right back onto it, pressing him down by his shoulder.
“Hey, at least tell me she’s alive.”
Vik’s expression softened.
“She’s alive, Jack. Last I saw her. If you want to know where she is, I don’t have that answer.”
“I gotta find her. After this.”
Jackie fidgeted.
The doctor didn’t argue.
He did, however, completely change the subject.
“I can’t honestly say you’re as healthy as you were six months ago, but you’re certainly healthier than you were two months ago when I pulled you out of the back of an armored cab.” He gave the readout a discerning stare, and asked, “How long did you spend on the street before you came here?”
“‘Bout three days, I think? ...maybe longer? I... I didn’t wanna lead them right to you, but I didn’t know where else to go.”
“My setup didn’t find any tracing bugs,” Vik assured him. “But you’re dehydrated. You need rest and you could definitely use some nutrition. Go ahead and unplug.” Jackie pulled his link cable free. Standing up as Vik shut everything down, he stretched.
Everything felt so much better.
“My recommendation is that you go upstairs, eat something and get some sleep. Tell Misty she can take the rest of the day off.”
“Sounds like my kind of prescription,” Jackie remarked.
He tagged his phone, only to find it completely blank. Which shouldn’t have been a complete surprise, but for a moment he’d forgotten.
“Ah,” he told Vik, as he was herded towards the security door. “Trouble authenticating my phone account. You got one I can borrow? I need to call my mother, let her know I’m okay.” Then he stopped. “Fuck, what am I saying? I can’t just call her up, ¡Eh, Ma, sorpresa para ti – no estoy muerto! she’ll have a fucking heart attack. I need to get down there and see her in person.”
“I’ll bring you down to see her myself. We can go tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Mañana, you’ll bring me.”
“I will.”
“¿Juras?”
“I swear.”
“And when you gonna tell me what happened with V?”
Vik sighed.
“What happened with V is that your dying was just the start, and that Relic the two of you made off with caused a whole lot more trouble down the road. I promise I will tell you everything once you’ve gotten some rest. Tomorrow – I am going to have Misty clear my schedule – I will tell you everything that happened with V, I will personally bring you home to see your mother, we can go and find a place that sells old fashioned ice cream if you’d like, my treat, but right now-....”
“Gonna hold you to that last one, Vik.”
“-...right now, I want you to take it easy for a few hours, and get some food and hydration in your system.”
Before he could step out the door, Vik tugged him backwards.
“Wait, hold on a sec.”
Jackie watched him, blankly, as he strode straight back into the space that was vaguely defined as his office, and came striding straight back out again.
“Always helps to have a little cash in your pocket at times like these.”
Vik shoved the money into his hand before Jackie realized what it was. Jackie balked, trying to hand it back.
“I can’t take this.”
“In case for any reason you need it before tomorrow,”
“Vik, I can’t take this.”
“Or in case anything else happens before then...”
“This is-...”
“Take the Goddamn money before I go up there myself and inform Misty that bedrest includes from bedroom activity.”
Jackie’s fingers closed around the bills with a subtle crunch.
Something else cracked, deep inside.
Reality setting in, maybe.
With a shuddery little breath, Jackie pulled Vik into his arms. Vik hmphed, and hugged him back, but Jackie didn’t want to let go. Didn’t feel like he could. It was everything of the past few months, pain, elation, despair, hope, sinking into his bones all at once.
He held on.
And Vik, being Vik, let him.
For as long as he needed it.
Eventually, his mind grew calm again and breathing steadied. Only then, and finally he could let go.
And when he did, Vik slapped his shoulder, and pointed to the door.
“Out.”
“Tch.”
“Tch, yourself, hermano.”
~*~
Jackie sat on the roof, mulling it all over.
Watching the sky grow pale and colorful, and the colors mix with the leftover rainwater.
Watercolor.
Taking it in, one breath at a time.
Misty appeared in the shadows. Or maybe she was there the whole time. She smiled when he noticed her, and stepped out onto the deck. Passing by the other chair with water in it, she came around to crouch beside him, folding her arms over the chair arm and resting her head on them as she stared off into the city skyline.
Jackie didn’t smile.
Oh he could have.
But he didn’t want to force it.
“So, uh... finally got hooked back into my phone account.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
“V... she left about an hour’s worth of messages. Still haven’t gotten through ‘em all.”
Misty didn’t say anything. But her gaze was drawn from the sky to him. She reached over the arm of the chair for his hand where it rested in his lap, and gently squeezed his fingers.
“She’s out there somewhere, all alone....”
V had never been any good at all alone.
“I gotta find her, Misty.”
“I know.”
At that, Jackie did smile.
He bopped her third eye with his thumb.
“Yeah, you always know.”