Gaia

The next couple of weeks passed without incident, unless you counted Andy glowering at Eli every time he and Mari came over for dinner. Eli was busy doing performance reviews at work, and was actually grateful for Mari's company. She proved to be very good at her job when she decided to be, and her company kept him in much better spirits than he usually was. Even if she did sometimes try to distract him from his work, and always succeeded because she was impossible to ignore.

At that moment she was flicking his ear with a pen.

"Mari."

Flick, flick. "Yes, Eli?"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm bored."

She flicked him again and Eli spun around to catch her wrist, yanking her forward. She laughed as she fell into his lap and tried to keep the pen away from him. He pinned her arm against her side and pried the pen free, tapping her on the nose with it.

"You're supposed to help me do my work, not hinder me from doing it," he teased. She fixed the collar of his shirt, shrugging innocently. She leaned forward and planted a feather light kiss on his lips. He grabbed her when she tried to pull back, kissing her harder. He could feel her smiling but they both sprang apart as a knock sounded at the door. Mari jumped up and smoother her dress, trying not to giggle.

"Come in," Eli called. Renee stepped inside, flashing him a dazzling smile.

"Hello, Eli. I know I'm a little early but-who is this?" Her cat eyes narrowed at Mari, flashing against her caramel skin.

"This is Mari," Eli said. "My new personal assistant."

Renee frowned. "You've never had a personal assistant before."

"First time for everything, Enforcer Perona," Eli said.

"It's nice to meet you," Mari said. "That's so cool that you're a female Enforcer. There aren't a lot of those. And your boots are to die for."

Renee looked Mari up and down, eyes hard as ice.

"Please excuse us while I conduct Enforcer Perona's performance review," Eli said politely to Mari. Renee looked like she was about to hiss at Mari as she walked by. She sank into the chair across from Eli, looking supremely peeved.

"Nice new decoration," she said sarcastically.

"That's quite enough, Perona. As usual, your record is spotless. You've made more arrests and solved more disputes than anyone else."

"You know I'm good at my job, Eli," she said impatiently.

"Well then keep up the good work." He flipped her folder closed and she scowled.

"That's it?"

"Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

Renee huffed. "No, I suppose not," she grumbled. She swung open the door to reveal Mari holding two cups of coffee. She'd been about to knock. Renee sneered, shoving past her and nearly making Mari drop the coffees. Mari looked bewildered as she came back into the office.

"I brought one of these for Enforcer Perona," she said. "Did I offend her somehow?"

"Don't worry about Renee," Eli assured her. "She's not a people person."

"She's really pretty."

Eli blinked. "I suppose so."

"You mean you've never noticed?"

"Should I have noticed?"

"Kind of impossible not to notice."

"Do you have a point here, Mari?"

"No. I was just saying, she's really pretty." Mari set a coffee in front of him.

"Are you worried about me thinking she's pretty?" Eli asked, amused.

"Of course I'm not. I don't care who you think is pretty."

"You don't even care if I think you're pretty?" he teased. She blushed.

"Are you hitting on your assistant, Mr. Beckstrom? That's not very professional."

"This coming from the same assistant who was just sitting on my lap?" Eli retorted, laughing. He noticed that he was doing that a lot more lately. He hadn't laughed much at all since what happened to Jess and his family. He wasn't sure what exactly that meant. He just knew he liked being around Mari, liked making her smile and liked how she fit perfectly against his side when they sat on his couch watching movies. He felt more and more like the person he used to be when she was around.

That night she was arguing with Andy when he tried to watch Ella Stellar music videos, trying to swipe the remote from him when Eli's holo caller pinged. The grin on his face vanished the second he saw Gracie's expression.

"Eli," she said shakily. "I'm hearing them again."

"I'll be right there," Eli said. He sprang up and grabbed his coat.

"What's wrong?" Mari asked.

"It's Gracie. I have to go see her," he said, voice strained. "You two stay here. I'll be back."

The shuttle couldn't move fast enough, and Eli burst into Gracie's apartment, calling her name. She came shuffling out of her art studio, a paintbrush clutched in her hand like she was grasping the hilt of a sword. Her eyes were unfocused and she had obviously been crying.

"Eli," she choked. He went to her, pulling the paintbrush out of her white knuckled grip. Behind her he could see an easel with a holo-canvas covered in wild red splotches.

"I can't stop hearing them," Gracie whimpered. Eli wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"I thought you had something you could take when it got bad," he said quietly, easing her onto the couch.

"Sometimes it doesn't help," she sniffled. "Sometimes it gets really bad. All I can hear is the screaming." She looked up at him. "Do you still have nightmares?"

"Yeah," he admitted. His most recent nightmare flashed through his mind, the one with the hooded figure killing Mari. He felt Gracie trembling beside him as she choked back more tears. He felt a familiar knot of guilt form in his chest. He had already inflicted this on Gracie; what if he ruined Mari's life too?

"Will it ever get easier?" Gracie asked meekly, head resting on his shoulder.

"I don't know, Grace. I really don't know."

He stayed with Gracie until she'd drunk nearly an entire pot of chamomile tea and finally fell asleep. He carried her to her room and instructed her droids to call him immediately if she had another panic attack. He felt drained when he returned to his suite, where Mari was waiting for him, looking anxious.

"Is Gracie okay?" she asked.

"As okay as she can be," Eli sighed, sinking wearily into the couch and dropping his head into his hands. Mari sat beside him, trying to put her arm around him.

"No," he said quietly, stopping her. "You...you shouldn't do that."

"Why not?" She looked hurt. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, absolutely not. I did."

"What are you talking about?"

"Mari...I have something I need to tell you." Eli closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath, steeling himself to tell her everything. "When we lived on he Ground, I told you about how my dad taught me a lot of computer stuff. I got really good, at hacking into various systems. I never did anything major, of course. I tried to stay under the radar. But one day I was screwing around on an older tablet model that my dad salvaged from work. And I accidentally hacked into a Lord's personal files. I severed the connection as soon as I realized what it was, but tech up here is far more advanced. They were still able to trace the back back to me.

My family was going to flee, try to disappear, drop off the grid. Whatever. There was a girl...Jess. We'd grown up as neighbors and best friends and when we were about thirteen it turned into something more. She was there, when the Enforcers came. Trying to convince me that I wasn't going anywhere without her. My mom saw them coming down the street and I put Gracie in the secret crawl space and told her not to come out. The Enforcers killed them all. They didn't find Gracie; I guess they assumed Jess was my sister. She hid in that crawl space and heard everything.

They must have tortured us for over an hour. It was a miracle that I didn't die too. They broke my legs, beat me senseless. And that was still nothing compared to what they did to everyone else. One of them thought Jess was pretty and he..." Eli couldn't even force the words out. "I saw everything. I can still remember every second of it until I blacked out. I came to because Gracie finally came out and was screaming at me to wake up. Our mom had worked at the clinic, and she taught Gracie a lot. Somehow she managed to splint my legs well enough that I wasn't crippled for life. Then she went to everyone who ever knew or owed my parents and did everything she could to keep us both alive. She was only twelve. Sometimes she still hears the screaming."

Mari was covering her mouth with her hands, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. Eli hurriedly cast his gaze back to the floor, too ashamed to look at her.

"I got them killed, Mari. My family. My girlfriend. It was my fault. Once I was better I worked my way up here, with the intention of someday getting revenge on the Lord that sent the Enforcers after us. I altered Gracie's and my identities, changing our last names. As far as anyone else knows, Eli and Grace Carver died with the rest of their family. But if I'm ever found out...you and Andy probably would be better off if I'd never brought you up here. I don't want you to get hurt because of me, too."

"Eli," she said sadly. He stood, running his hands through his hair.

"I'm going to take a walk," he said. "I'll leave you alone to...to decide if it's worth it to you to stay here or not. If you want to go home I completely understand. It would be the smart decision. I'm sorry for dragging you into my mess, Mari. I just thought it was only fair to tell you the truth."

He left before she could say anything, wandering bleakly through the halls of the tower until he wound up at the Sky Deck. He sat down and stared up at the stars, feeling hollow. He never should have let himself get close to Mari. His very touch would probably taint her, mark her for something terrible.

He tilted his head back, letting it thud against the back of the bench and closing his eyes.