Epilogue

[moon_custafer]

Victor checked into a hotel room and spent that night and the next day staring up at the ceiling, listening to old metal anthems on the satellite radio. In the evening he got up, washed and shaved, and paid his bill. He picked up dinner from an anonymous take-out place, ate it on a park bench, and returned to his most non-descript hideout to think up a new villainous plan. It was two months before he let himself take a holiday. In the middle of the week, he bought a plane ticket for Sapphire, drove to the Gradient airport, parked his car, changed in the airport washroom and took a bus out to Crawford Hill. Amanda wasn't there - he hadn't dared to hope she might be - but there were signs she sometimes came by: the bed sheets had been changed, a few books reshelved differently and the soap in the bathroom was a different brand than the one he used, one that smelled like he remembered her smelling. There were also, he noticed, two toothbrushes in the cup by the sink.  He stayed two days, sleeping in the bed she had slept in, and when he re-stocked the pantry, he remembered to buy foods she liked.
    It was another two months before they ran into each other. He heard the key turn in the door one night as he sat reading in the kitchen with a cup of coffee, and looked up as nonchalantly as he could when she entered. He'd noticed, looking at newspaper photos, that they'd been training her hard in the new Forensic Five, and she looked extremely fit and Valkerie-like as she filled the kitchen doorway. At last his legs let him get up, and she crossed the linoleum and scooped him up in a crushing hug. When she set him back down on his feet and he could breathe again, he said,
    "I won't ask about work, but how long can you stay?"
    "Until Sunday evening, unless they ping me. They didn't ask where I was going, but my cel will pick up no matter what. What about you?"
    "I don't have to punch back in until Sunday afternoon," they embraced again, a little more gently now that they knew they had two days to spare, "Mm, you've been working out in your new job, I see."
            "I have. You're looking well too - villainy must agree with you," she ruffled his hair playfully, "and that's all the shop talk I'll allow for this weekend. I just want to pretend to be normal for a little while."
            "A little normality every now and then can be a very pleasant indulgence," Victor agreed. He started a new pot of coffee as Amanda went down the hall to unpack her things.

In the living room, a vacuuming robot finished its methodical sweep of the carpet, and trundled back to its wall port.