The tears finally stopped. I gave a final sniffle before I turned my head towards Dax, Dr. Shaw, and Rust. Their sympathetic looks almost caused a fresh wave of tears to break free, but I managed to hold them back.
Dax reached out and clasped my hand, his green fingers enfolding mine. “I swear to you, Miss. Marley, I will do everything I can to make sure both you and the little cyborg make it through this.”
A red hand clasped my free hand. “I have to be honest and tell you, at first, I agreed with Acer. I saw too much death. I couldn’t save a single female or tiny cyborg from what that monster did.” Rust’s voice cracked, and his eyes grew shiny. “But, maybe this is my chance. I am here with you, Marley. The both of you.”
I could only nod in agreement, overcome by too many emotions.
“Well, you know you’ve got me as well, my dear,” Dr. Shaw said as she gave my knee a pat.
The little one decided to give another kick. I grimaced, it still hurt but not as bad as before. I rubbed my stomach. “Hey, in there. I know you didn’t get a choice about who you wanted as your mother, but I am yours no matter what happens. You are a gift. I will do everything I can to keep you safe until it’s time for you to greet the world.”
Another kick, this time a bit stronger, and I sucked in a breath.
Viper tapped a finger against my belly. “You got to be careful, little one. Your mom is strong but not as strong as you.” He placed his palm next to mine, resting it against my stomach. “You need to keep her safe too.”
This time, I felt a much softer kick in response to Viper’s words.
“I think he heard you.”
Viper smiled.
“You are going to need to stay as close to the lab as possible, Miss. Marley.” Dax pointed to a door located in the far back of the lab. “My quarters are small, but they are attached directly to the lab. I believe that would be the best place for you. I will move out into the lab. I am here most nights anyway, so it’s no hardship.” Dax offered me a smile.
“Is there anything you would like me to retrieve from your quarters?” Viper asked softly.
I knew why he was asking. He didn’t want me to have to face Acer to collect my things. My chin trembled, a painful tightness in my throat. I told myself he would be back. He just needed some time to deal with the shock of it all.
We bonded.
He loved me.
He would be back.
ACER DIDN’T RETURN. Every time the door opened I looked for him, but he wasn’t the cyborg coming to check on me.
Rust, Viper, Brone, Axios, and Dax, when Dax wasn’t poking and prodding me, were the ones who stopped by to keep me company. On the days I felt like my insides were being torn apart, Viper sat with me and rubbed my back, telling me outrageous stories to keep my mind off the pain.
On days when I felt better, Dash and Iris popped in with a stack of entertainment files and a massive bowl of popcorn. They stayed and watched movies with me until I got tired. Iris always made sure to bring something from her stash—a soft blanket, a box of real paperback books for me to read, and of course, new sets of cat pajamas.
Brone took me out for walks, my arm laced with his as we walked the halls together. He talked to the little cyborg, informing him he couldn’t wait to meet him and told him how lucky he was to have a mother like me. The first time he did it, I broke into tears in the hallway. Poor Brone. He panicked, wringing his massive hands, and apologizing profusely. I reassured him he hadn’t done anything wrong, that I was crying because of how sweet he was. I left out that deep down in my soul I wished Acer said those things to me, instead.
Reaper, Aria, and Theo visited often, as well. Both Reaper and Theo offered to kick the shit out of Acer. They even offered to let me watch. I knew it was their model’s way of trying to make me feel better.
I thanked them but politely declined, as more days passed without Acer returning, a part of me seriously started to consider their offer.
Instead, I tried to focus my attention on the little cyborg growing inside me not the cyborg who left me.
The little bulge was now a full-blown bump, sticking out beyond my waistband.
I ran my hand over the rounded bump and smiled. “I have a funny feeling I’ll be meeting you sooner than expected.” A small handprint appeared on my belly, the first time I got anything other a kick from him. Tears welled up in my eyes. I pressed my hand over the imprint of his tiny hand pushing out. So overcome by the rush of love I felt for this tiny being and the moment we were sharing, I didn’t hear the door open.
“Marley?” A familiar voice asked. A voice I thought I’d never hear again. I whipped around and found Acer standing in the doorway.
*Acer*
I fucked up, and I knew it. I don’t know what the hell my processors had been thinking. Days passed. Then weeks. Cyborgs pounded on my door, but I refused to let them in. I knew I failed. I let down the person who mattered most to me. Pure terror drove my actions. The idea that I found Marley only to lose her was so incomprehensible that I hadn’t been able to handle it. I ran. Then, when I realized what I had done, I felt terrified to face her.
What did I even say? How could I ever make up for abandoning her when she pleaded with me to stay? How can you take back asking the woman you love to get rid of the small cyborg she carried?
I pleaded with her to remove it. My only thought to save her life. My existence meant nothing without her. The life inside her became a threat to our happiness and the future I planned with the female I loved. I should have known Marley would see it for what it truly was. A tiny cyborg who needed her. Marley would never abandon a cyborg—especially one growing inside her. It didn’t matter that the evil doctor put it there. The small cyborg was hers from the moment she opened her eyes and learned what she held inside her.
I could only stare at her and note the changes I hadn’t been there to see. The expanse of her belly had grown, now rounded, it jutted out between her loose shirt and the waistband of her pants. I noticed she had one hand pressed flat against it, and to my shock, I detected the outline of another hand, this one smaller, pushing out from inside.
I strode closer, my feet reacting before my circuits, as both curiosity and a wave of wonder rushed through me. “Is that?” I couldn’t finish, awe filling my wires.
“Yes.”
I took another step forward and she moved back, her arms wrapping around her stomach to guard it fiercely. From me. She was guarding it from me.
Marley claimed the tiny cyborg as hers and from what I just saw the cyborg claimed her in return. My steps faltered, my heart cracked into bits and pieces inside my chest.
Bonded. They bonded.
I felt the truth flow through my circuits. The steady hum of the bond between us was now wrapped around the infant cyborg. Marley had accepted it.
I rejected it. Discarded it. Wanted to destroy it.
Now that I stood here, I could feel it reaching out for me, seeking me the way Marley had, its processors unsure why I wasn’t reaching back in return.
I felt my knees buckle, and I hit the floor with a thud. What was left of my artificial heart cracked even further. I hung my head as dark drops of fluid struck the floor.
“Acer?” Marley whispered. The tips of Marley’s toes moved into my vision system when she stepped closer. A soft, shaky hand landed on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“Don’t,” I growled. “Don’t ask me if I am okay after what I did to you. What I did to the both of you. I don’t deserve your concern.” I buried my face in my hands. “Oh, God, Marley. I am so sorry.” I shook my head wildly. “I left you. You pleaded with me to stay, to help, and I walked out. I asked you to...” I couldn’t say it.
The hand on my shoulder froze, and I waited for her to tell me. To tell me that it was over. That I had broken her trust and faith in me, and she would never be able to have either for me again. I waited for her to order me to take my pathetic cyborg ass and leave.
When she
said nothing, my broken heart gave a tiny stutter of hope. I remembered what I shoved into the pocket of my hoodie. I reached in and pulled out the yellow, stuffed duck, lifting my head I held it out to her. “Take it.”
Her eyes moved over the stuffed duck and frowned. “I don’t understand. Iris gave that to you.”
“I want you to have it,” I pressed it into her free hand, urging her to take it. “For the little one.”
Her fingers closed around the duck, and she drew it to her. She ended up cradling Quackers to her belly. Her hand slipped off my shoulder. “Thank you,” she whispered.
She shouldn’t thank me, not for handing her a stuffed duck like it made up for the fact that I hadn’t been the one who had been by her side taking care of her. Other cyborgs had stepped up. They took care of her, made sure they were both okay—done the job I should have done from the start.
“Don’t thank me. I’ve done nothing to deserve it. I should have been here. I should have been the one to take care of you—both of you.” I clasped her hand. “I was wrong, Marley. I was scared and stupid and all I could think about was losing you. But this...” my other hand automatically reached for her belly but stopped.
She looked at my hand hanging in the air and slowly reached for it. Pulling it towards her, she placed it on her stomach right over the bump.
My lips parted, and my heart picked up speed. A zip of current shot up my arm, the wires in my arm ablaze as my processors felt something slide into place. The bond. It was faint and still unsure, but there.
My heartbeat synchronized to theirs, all our hearts beating in time. Complete. Whole. Right. This feels right. The three of us together.
“This—he is beyond anything I deserve.” I rubbed my palm over her belly where I knew the small cyborg rested. I felt the pulse of his processors like a slug to the chest. “I have no right to ask you to allow me near him, not after...” I stopped. I couldn’t bring myself to even say it aloud. Not again. I thought I did the right thing at the time; now I saw the truth. The little one was a gift—something precious and deserving protection, even from me if Marley so wanted.
Something pushed against my palm.
Marley looked down and the sight before her made her eyes widen. “It looks like he’s already chosen.”
A little hand greeted my hand, and I couldn’t stop the grin that spread across my face. It fell at once. Marley had said he’s chosen, what about her? Did she still want me? The bond between us was still there, but it felt tethered by a thread.
I rose and captured her cheek. “What about his mother?” I asked softly. “Has she chosen?”
Her mouth opened to answer, but the door swung open. We both jumped, so caught up in the moment that we forgot everything else around us. Even Quackers hit the floor, slipping from Marley’s fingers with a dull thud.
“Marley, I came to see if you wanted to—what is he doing here?” Viper hissed from behind us.
I spun around. “Trying to win back my female,” I hissed, blocking Marley with my frame.
He pointed a purple finger at me, accusingly. “You left her! Abandoned her and the cyborg she carries! You are nothing but a fucking coward. Too dumb to see you had something other cyborgs would kill for!”
“Viper,” Marley called his name after she stepped out from behind me and took a step in his direction. I wanted to order her back to my side, but I slammed my mouth shut. She hadn’t answered me, and I wasn’t sure I was still the cyborg she wanted.
She took his hand, and I cut off the growl that erupted from my lips at the sight. She looked back at me and huffed.
“Acer came to apologize. He understands what he did was wrong.” She patted her stomach with her hand. “The little one seems to like him and wants him around.”
Viper’s brow raised. “And you?”
Marley glanced back at me, tears making her eyes bright and shiny. “I love him and want him around, too.”
“Really?” The air whooshed from my lungs. That tethered thread turned into millions, wrapping around my heart, and snaking through my soul. The force was strong enough to drop me back to my knees. I crashed to the floor, swaying as joy surged through me.
Marley dropped Viper’s hand at once and rushed to me. I caught her around the waist and hid my face in the rounded swell of her stomach, being careful to not press against it too hard.
My son was in there. Another wave of joy washed through me. I tilted my face to gaze at the female who saved me, returned my heart and brought me home. “You call me Sunshine, but the truth is, you are mine. My light. My heart. My home. Where you go, I promise to follow. I have nothing without you,” I placed a kiss to her belly “And him.”
She swatted at her eyes. “Oh, Sunshine. We missed you. Welcome home.”
I heard heavy footsteps as Viper stormed out with a curse. Marley swung her head towards the door and sighed sadly. “I think he’s hurt.” Her shoulders sagged.
“He’ll be okay, lovely. Viper is one tough Technology Model.”
Her head turned back to me and her eyebrows rose. “How do you know that?”
I sank back on my heels and shook my head. “Don’t know. I just do.”
“Wait! You called me lovely. You haven’t done that since...”
My eyes lit up with delight. “Since before the wipe.” I finished for her.
She let out a whoop and grabbed my face. “Holy shit, Sunshine! I think your memories...”
“are returning.” Confusion and wonder filled my voice.
Chapter Thirty-One
*Acer*
Suddenly, scattered images raced across my processors, and I struggled to keep up. I knew things. Things I couldn’t recall before. My time at the Global Allegiance. The hate I felt for every single one of the MechTechs except the pretty female with green eyes. Marley. She always smiled at me, fixed me when they broke me, and brought me clothes when she realized it bothered me to have my frame exposed. She hummed happily when she saw me, and I knew it was because she liked me. Really liked me. No, it was more than that. She cared for me.
I remembered the day everything went to hell. The cyborgs broke free and how I searched for her, desperately hoping I would reach her in time. I smashed heads, ordering the MechTechs I came across to tell me where she was.
They told me I was too late to save her, and I raged like a wounded animal. Pain ate through my circuits, my processors fractured further, bringing forth the madness that clouded my unfinished core.
But somewhere inside me, I knew; I knew she wasn’t gone. I searched for years and years until finally, I found her. Dying in my arms, I ordered Dax to inject her with the only thing that could save her. He couldn’t do it. So, I did. I panicked when she shuddered in my arms and took a last gasp. I about blew my processors when she opened her eyes and kissed me.
Memory after memory flashed. The first days together exploded in my brain like fireworks. I almost couldn’t keep up.
Her kicking Reaper’s ass. The first time she gave me the precious gift of her body. Watching other cyborgs stand up for her in the common room.
The look on her face when I ordered Viper to take her away, so she wouldn’t have to watch my destruction. The promise she made to find me if I got lost. Her face, the last thing I saw as she sang to me, even when I knew her heart had to be breaking.
My ass hit the floor while I truly remembered how fierce my female was. How she kept her promise and found me in ways I didn’t know a person could be found.
Fluid streamed down my cheek as laughter rolled through me.
I looked up to find a stunned Marley. “Sunshine?”
“I’m okay. I remember, Marley! I remember it all.” I grabbed her and pulled her into my lap.
“Are you sure?” How?” Happy tears spilled down her cheeks as she held my head in her hands.
“You did it. You found me.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in my shoulder. “Is this real?” she whispered.
“Yes, lovely. There is no going back into the darkness for either of us ever again.”
*Marley*
When I woke up this morning, the world felt wrong. It felt wrong every day I spent without Acer. Now, I sat in his lap, heard his vow, and everything in my world suddenly righted. I had my cyborg, he had his memories, and our cyborg grew inside me just waiting to greet us.
I held onto Acer a bit tighter. “Our road hasn’t been easy, Sunshine, but it’s been worth it. I love you.”
The little one felt our joy because he chose that exact moment to kick me.
Acer must have felt it too because he reared back and stared at my stomach, I think, hoping for a repeat performance.
I swatted his shoulder. “Hey! Don’t you even...”
I got kicked again.
Acer laughed.
I rolled my eyes. “You two working against me now? Wonderful. It would be great if you didn’t encourage him to treat my insides like his own personal punching bag.”
Very carefully, he lifted me so his face was right next to my belly. “I am excited to meet you too, but you must not hurt your mother in your excitement. She is working hard to keep you safe, so protect her my son.”
There go the waterworks again.
Damn hormones.
And, stupidly perfect cyborgs who make mistakes but know how to make it up to you so well you can’t hold your happy tears.
He lowered me back to his lap. “I made you cry again.”
“Happy tears. You sure know what to say to make a girl’s insides turn to mush. How do you do that?”
He shrugged. “Natural talent?” His eyes flashed, leaning forward, his mouth brushed against my ear. “I seem to recall someone promised to woo me with compliments.”
I hiked an eyebrow. “Is that so? I wonder who that was.” I chuckled and grabbed his hand, climbing off his lap to tug him to his feet. I would woo him to his heart’s content, but I really wanted to do it without so many clothes on.
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