Weathering the Storm

The virtual facade slowly fell away before Audra until she was back in the pod. Rain was hammering down on the roof still, and wind howled outside.

She unhooked herself from the machine and the door opened up. The dim light of the workshop hit her eyes as she stumbled out.

She felt numb and exhausted. Everything was muted.

"Audra?" Zephyr's voice cut through the fog in her head.

She saw him putting down the debug console. He seemed worried. Of course he did. He'd been watching what'd happened in the simulation, after all. She couldn't imagine what he was thinking right now.

Was it pity? Something else?

"H-hey, Zeph."

Her voice was hoarse and raspy. She tried to clear her throat, but she couldn't. Her mouth was dry, and she felt like she was about to throw up.

His expression dropped. He walked up and put a hand on her shoulder cautiously.

"Come on. Let's go sit down, you seem like you—"

She didn't let him finish. She threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly and burying her face in his chest before she even realized what she was doing.

He was warm. Comfortable. Safe. Alive.

The floodgates broke. The tears came. She couldn't hold it back anymore. Everything she'd bottled up since that day, it all came pouring out at once.

She cried, hard—uncontrollably—clinging to Zephyr as sobs shook her entire body.

All the while, he simply stood there wide-eyed.

"A-Audra?"

She couldn't manage a response.

"…" He eventually pulled her close and rubbed circles into her back.

She didn't know how long she stood there sobbing, but it must've been a while.

By the time she finally pulled away from him, her eyes stung from all the tears. She sniffled and wiped them with her sleeve, trying to compose herself.

She looked up at Zephyr still eyeing her with concern. He wasn't stupid. He could put two and two together to figure out what'd happened to her and her parents. But still, she had to say it. She couldn't keep it locked away inside anymore.

“They’re gone,” she whispered. “It… happened about a month ago."

She flinched as lightning struck, bracing herself to continue.

"We’d just gotten back from dinner and were standing outside the shop. It was raining hard, and… a truck… it was going too fast.”

The memory flashed through her mind—blinding headlights, the deafening screech of tires. Her body tensed at the ghost of it.

“It slammed into us… into the shop. Then there was a fire.”

Her voice cracked and her hand instinctively brushed against her metallic arm.

“I’m only alive because of these stupid bionics—protected me from getting crushed. My parents didn’t make it. They were… pronounced dead on the scene.”

She could still feel phantom blood dripping from them and onto the pavement.

"The funeral happened a week before I left. I had no relatives in the area, and no friends to stay with. So, I came here—ran away. From CPS, from the pain, from everything."

Snot ran from her nose as she sniffled.

"I-I didn't even get to tell them how much I loved them! You know those movies where they always manage to get a cheesy goodbye in before someone dies? How come I didn't get that?! I-it's not fair! They were good people! Why did they have to be the ones? Why did only their half-machine freak daughter have to survive?!"

She felt Zephyr's hand move to her head. It was gentle despite the sounds of the storm.

"Audra." He looked directly into her eyes. His own were glistening as he ran his hand through her hair.

"You're not a freak."

"T-then why did this have to happen to me?!"

She hiccupped as the rain continued to pour.

"I don't know why bad things happen to good people. I just… I'm so sorry that you had to go through that."

"D-don't apologize! I'm not a good person. I'm a coward! I didn't even go to see their graves or take care of the shop or anything else—I just left!"

"You were scared and hurt. That doesn't make you a bad person. No one should judge you for that. As for taking care of things…? You will. One day. But that's not important right now. What's important is that you're okay."

"…" Audra couldn't respond. Instead, she buried her face in his chest again and closed her eyes.

*ba-dump*

She focused on the rhythm of his heartbeat, letting it soothe her frayed nerves.

The sound of it was calming, comforting. Something that she could focus on instead of the thunder.

"…You're not going to report me to CPS or something, right?"

"No, of course not. Not so long as you want to stay here."

"But you could get in trouble."

He wiped his own eyes. "It's um, a big island. They'll have to find you first. The Bygone isn't even in their jurisdiction."

Her tears began to slow.

"Z-Zeph…?"

"What is it?"

"…You sure you don't have a shady past?"

He smiled wryly. "Knock it off."

She giggled, dabbing her face with his shirt as the raindrops quieted.

"T-thanks. And sorry about being such a mess."

"No problem. But I wouldn't say you're a mess. Now, if you're talking about me? Yeah, I'm a total disaster."

"Shut up." She rolled her eyes but couldn't help but smile. "D-don't degrade yourself like that, dummy."

"Can't help it. I'm a realist, remember?"

"You also said you were an optimist."

"Details."

Audra shook her head as she hugged him closer.

She felt a lot better after getting all of that out of her system. She still missed her family, but at least now she didn't feel completely lost anymore.

They just embraced beneath the storm for a while.

"You doing alright now?" he eventually asked once enough time had ticked by.

"I… don't know," she answered honestly. "But… maybe, um, do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Hm? What is it?"

"Just something's that been on my mind—seeing my old shop made it worse. I, um want to make sure that you don't lose your shop."

He seemed surprised by her answer.

"W-wait, hold on. Staying here is fine and all, but you don't need to worry about Third—"

"Before you continue, just know that I snuck a read through all of your paperwork. Remember when you went to sleep?"

He audibly gulped.

"Those were confidential documents."

"And you said nothing was off limits. You're a terrible businessman, Zephyr Lee."

"Yeesh, using my full name and an insult? What are you, a tax auditor?"

"I'm being serious here, Zeph. You're months behind on your mortgage, you have a bunch of loans coming due soon, and you haven't paid yourself a proper salary… ever, really."

"Still, that doesn't mean you should be concerning yourself with it. It's my problem."

She pulled away to stare him in the eye—amber and silver, still glistening.

"Zeph, you're going to lose the building if things continue like this. I can't let that happen. You've gotta actually charge clients properly."

Her voice went firm as she shoved the last of her sadness away. Despite how stupid-smart Zephyr was, he could be so dumb sometimes.

"Audra, like I said before, I'm not in this for the profit—"

"When you inevitably shut down because you can't afford to keep the lights on, do you really think that'll benefit your customers?"

"Erm." His lips quivered at the point.

"Think about it for a second, Zeph. If you go under, the next guy who'll set up a business like this might not be so kind. Plus, I bet you that there'd be people that'd miss Third Chances and you regardless."

"But—"

"No buts. Don't you remember your own damned motto? 'Third Chances is for everyone! Even me. Even you.'"

His mouth opened slightly, as if he were about to say something, before he sighed.

"Using my own words against me. Clever… But what do you propose we do then?"

She gave him a smirk as she sniffled away the last of her snot.

"Don't forget, I technically meet the minimum requirements to do most jobs. I can work as your behind-the-scenes accountant or something."

"Sounds like a lot of work though. Are you sure you're up to the challenge?"

"I'm not, but if this place goes down, where will I stay? I don't want to be homeless again."

"Hah. Fair point. You're really making it hard to argue."

There was just something about the way his eyes crinkled with his laugh that made it impossible for her not to grin dumbly.

"Damn right I am. So… partners, then?"

She held out her hand for him to shake.

He ruffled her hair as he took it.

"Partners it is."