“Oh, yeah?” I let my fingers find the buttons he had just done and unbutton them one by one, pulling his shirt down and trapping his arms. “Well, we can’t have that, can we?”
“Sienna...” he said plaintively, “...I’m going to be late...”
“We don’t know what’s coming or when,” I said. “This may be the last breather we get for a while, and I don’t think that Omega is going to launch an all—out assault on the Directorate in broad daylight. All I want,” I said, unbuttoning his pants, “the only thing on my list now...is repetition.” I steered him to the bed and pushed him down, climbing up onto him and staring down. “I think you can handle being late for once in your life.” And I brought my head down to kiss his neck.
“Hmmm,” Zack said, his voice sounding in my head like the moans he emitted whenever we had been together in my dreams. “Maybe just this once...”
20.
I was late for breakfast, and I knew it as I closed the door to my quarters. Zack had left a half hour earlier, but I needed time to shower and doll myself up (okay, I didn’t really do that, but I still liked to feel clean). I paced down the hallway, and stopped at the corner next to the elevator. Scott was waiting there before me, and the elevator dinged, the doors opened, and he started to get in.
I followed him, sneaking in just as the doors began to close. “Morning,” I said as he acknowledged me with a nod. He had a suitcase in one hand and a backpack on his back. “Umm...are you...” I tried to find a way to not come out and say it, but failed, “...bailing out before it hits the fan?”
His jaw set, and I could almost hear his teeth grind as the elevator dropped, floor by floor. “I’m leaving, yeah.”
“Why?” I felt a sudden deprivation of oxygen, and wondered what the hell had happened to the atmosphere in the elevator car.
“Because I’ve been ordered to go on medical leave by Dr. Perugini and Ariadne,” he snapped at me, turning his head long enough to give me a searing look. “Because when I try to use my power, I think about Kat and this happens—” He held a hand out and a tiny squirt of water came forth, no more than a few droplets that fell immediately to the carpeted floor of the elevator, making little dark spots in the beige carpet. “Because I’m pretty much useless to everybody now, Sienna, so they’re sending me home, out of the way, where I won’t be a danger to anyone but my parents and my siblings, and not much of one at that.”
The elevator doors opened to the lobby and Scott’s hand returned to his suitcase, which he dragged along behind him. “Scott, wait,” I said, and he slowed. I ran to catch up with him. “I’m sorry,” I said. “Sorry for Kat, sorry for everything.”
“I told you it wasn’t your fault,” he said with his lower jaw jutting out, as though he was encouraging me to aim for it, to hit him or something. “And now I’m pretty much out of the fight because I’ve gone and turned my head into a spaghetti noodle of twisty ties.” He waved a hand at me. “Or something. I don’t know.”
“Have you talked to Kat?” I asked.
“No,” he said, sullen. “I tried a couple times...the first, she didn’t even recognize me.” He adjusted the backpack over his shoulder. “The second time I couldn’t even find her to say goodbye. I’m sorry I’m not more use. Sorry I can’t...” He shook his head. “I’m just sorry, in every definition of the word.” His eyes came up, and met mine. “Get out of here, Sienna.”