Aftermath pt. 2

“Do you think it’s over?” Courtney asked.
“It looks like it. Suzuki got what she wanted, even if she had to deceive us in order to get it.”
“I’m just surprised,” Courtney said, “that she didn’t think she could come to us with her plan.”
“Would you have been for it if it included murder?”
“We don’t know it was her, though.”
“Yeah, but we don’t know it wasn’t either.”
Courtney conceded to my observation, and we sat in silence a bit longer. Just as I was thinking about saying goodnight, I felt something warm touch my hand. I looked over at it, and saw Courtney holding my hand. She didn’t look up at me, but kept her hand on mine where she sat. Then she squeezed. Not the sort of comforting squeeze I gave her on a couple of occasions, but one like she was scared; or more likely, in recovery from everything that happened today. I let her squeeze my hand into a pulp, only continuing to hold her hand as she sat there, tearing up.
“So much happened today,” Courtney said, pulling off her large glasses and wiping her eyes, her voice choked with emotion, “I thought we weren’t going to make it.”
I wrapped my arm around Courtney’s shoulder, letting her switch hands from her left to her right as we sat there, calming one another in our closeness. I smiled after a minute when something came to my mind.
“You know, Courtney,” I said, “we make a pretty good team, don’t you think?”
“What do you mean?” Courtney asked, looking up at me.
“Well, we did a lot today.” I said, allowing myself to smile for the first time in the last couple of days. “I didn’t know if either of us were up to what Suzuki planned, but we did it.”
Courtney started to smile. She was relaxing too, I could see.
“Heh, we did, didn’t we?” She said, smiling a bit.
“Yeah,” I said, “we infiltrated the largest drug company in the world, and brought possible terrorists to justice.”
I looked down at Courtney and grinned.
“We’ve had ourselves a full day.”
Courtney looked up at me, smiling a bit more.
“We should become spies or something.”
I laughed, and Courtney soon joined in. We laughed for a couple minutes, with the weight of the previous events rolling off our shoulders. We had done something incredible, and were alive to talk about it. The relief was overwhelming. Once we finished laughing, we grinned at one another, holding our sides.
“Courtney,” I said, thinking about a promise I made to her the other day, “the other day when I said I wanted to date you after this was over…”
“…yes?” Courtney asked. Her eyes were wide, and I could see her cheeks were red.
“I want to know you,” I said, “I want to be with you, as more than a friend. I,” I paused only for a second before taking hold of Courtney’s hand and continuing, “I want to date you.”
Courtney’s eyes got really wide. And so with them, my anxiety started to inflate. Did I say too much? Was it too early? But any doubts about my decision died down a second later when Courtney smiled so wide I thought her jaw would break.
“Of course, Michael!” With that she threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. As the wind blew through the station that night, Courtney and I shared a few minutes of silence, just holding one another in a hug. We cried a little too; our storage of emotions over the past couple of days was far from depleted. Eventually at one point Courtney sniffed, then slowly started to let go. We released one another and sat there for a few more minutes, hand in hand, waiting in the silence. Waiting for what, I didn’t know. The wind that blew by was a little chilly, but I didn’t even feel it. Even though both me and Courtney were in our PJs. After a few moments of simply breathing and being quiet, I felt like the ordeal was beginning to calm in my mind. I felt like Courtney was relaxing too. Then I heard something, sounded like footsteps. I looked up upon hearing someone approach and immediately tensed at what I saw. Courtney looked in the direction I was and gasped. Suzuki walked towards us, looking just as blankly and emotionlessly as usual. I stood up, ready to shield Courtney from where she sat on the bench.
“What do you want?!” I barked at Suzuki.
Suzuki didn’t look affected by my words, but simply stood there for a minute in her bike suit before answering.
“I was wrong to mistrust you two.”
I balked at her confession, but felt anger soon well up inside anyway.
“You nearly had us both killed! And if you murdered the CEO-”
“I had nothing to do with Mr. Kalihart’s death. I showed him the evidence in order to drive him to his limit, threatening to expose him to the public. However, in light of his unexpected suicide, the matter was investigated and the word got out anyway,” Suzuki interrupted, “and as for you two, I apologize for my rougher methods, though in no way was I endangering you two.”
“You expect me to believe you can somehow guarantee the safety of someone, even a computer like you?! You’re not God, you can’t do that!”
Suzuki didn’t reply for a moment, and when she did her words shocked me.
“But you’re both alive.”
I clenched my fists, angry. I was about to lose another bout of anger when Courtney stood up beside me.
“What are you going to do now, Suzuki?”
I turned to Courtney.
“Courtney,” I hissed, “stay back.”
“I’m of no use to anyone,” Suzuki said, turning, “I’m a machine intended for harm-”
“Then just go!” I hollered, finding strength in my new-found anger, “go away! We don’t care where you go, just leave us alone!”
I hung my head, knowing I went overboard. I was just so tired of what happened, I couldn’t process anything clearly through the thick lens of swirling emotions. Suzuki looked down and to the side for a moment, then spoke.
“I’m a machine intended for harm,” he said, “but I am not built with weapons compatibility.”
I paused. Was I really hearing this right?
“What?” I asked, a little dazed.
“I cannot kill.” Suzuki said, with a bit of bite to her words I thought.
I sat down on the bench behind me, beside myself. I was so sure Suzuki was doing something underhanded; really she just knew how to play evidence into the right hands, not only to get the issue resolved, but to keep me and Courtney safe. If we had gone about things how I originally thought we would, which I would have held Suzuki to at Rimoss if she hadn’t knocked me unconscious, we’d be targets for sure. I sat there, amazed beyond words. I felt Courtney’s hand on my shoulder, and I looked up. Courtney was looking over at Suzuki.
“Suzuki, I think we had the wrong idea,” Courtney said, looking Suzuki straight in her emotionless eyes, or maybe eyes that had more emotion than was visible on the surface. “We were wrong, Suzuki. We thought you had another idea, but,” she looked down at me for a moment, “we’re grateful that you did your best to protect us. Thank you, Suzuki.”
I looked up at Suzuki. Suzuki was trying to protect us, that is why she did what she did. She was a lot smarter than I gave her credit for. Suzuki inclined her head to the side, and I stopped. She had only done that once before, when something didn’t make sense to her. I looked at Courtney. Courtney’s words, her words of gratitude, were they foreign concepts to Suzuki?
“Suzuki,” I said, standing up, “I’m sorry for what I said. I don’t want you to leave. I don’t know what you plan on doing now, but you’re, you’re like a hero, Suzuki. We’re indebted to you.”
Suzuki paused, then replied.
“I only have one request,” Suzuki said simply.
“Name it.” I answered.
“I want to continue to be your transport.”
I smiled. So did Courtney.
“That is where I plan to go from here.” Suzuki continued, answering the question from earlier.
Courtney clasped her hands together excitedly, then suddenly ran towards Suzuki.
“Wait, Courtney!” I said, but Courtney was already in front of Suzuki, throwing her arms around the being before her. I didn’t expect anything bad to happen, but wasn’t sure what Suzuki would do given such a human greeting. Suzuki paused, looked at Courtney, then wrapped her arms loosely around Courtney’s back, completing the hug. Courtney stepped back a moment later, and the two of us looked at our mechanical friend.
“Suzuki,” I said, “I’d be more than happy to have you as my transport. I want you to be my motorcycle.”
Suzuki stood there for a moment, looking placid, then I thought I saw her lips tug upward just a tad. I might have just seen things, and when I blinked, the smirk was gone. So I shrugged it off, could have been nothing. I reached out a hand, like when we first met, for Suzuki to shake.
“Stay with us, Suzuki.” I said, keeping my hand extended.
Suzuki looked at my hand, raised her own, then shook mine.