Chapter Text
As it turned out, breakfast wasn’t late. Meredith and I were sitting on the deck with coffee when the girls wandered out to join us. They looked sleep-rumpled and grumpy, but seeing them up before nine was a miracle.
“Andi made me get up,” V pouted, squirming under Meredith’s arm.
“Well, I wanted—Judy, can we?”
After Andrea had told me what she wanted to get V for her birthday, I’d had an idea. Amanda had been to see Gina, who’d exceeded my expectations. When I’d stolen Andi away to show her what Gina had put together, I was lucky to escape unmolested.
I’d wrapped the gifts while she’d agonized over a birthday card. I wasn’t surprised that she was desperate to give V her gift.
“With breakfast, kitt—sweetheart.”
Don’t call her kitten!
V giggled, and I tried not to blush.
“Well, can we have breakfast now?”
Andrea was dancing from foot to foot eagerly. I could see V eyeing Meredith’s coffee. She’d be grumpy until she’d had caffeine and a cigarette. I stood up and took Andrea’s shoulders, steering her across the deck toward the steps.
“Come on. You can help me in the kitchen. V? Bring everything down with you?”
She peered at me through her curls and nodded. I chuckled and followed Andrea down the stairs. One of these teens was a morning person. I was kinda glad I was in love with the one who wasn’t.
In the end, my contribution to breakfast was telling Andrea where she could find everything. By the time Meredith and V came down, there was a continental style breakfast laid out and a fresh pot of coffee brewed. Andrea had even plucked up the courage to ask if she could have tea.
She was almost as shy coming forward with her wants as V was. Sadly, I could see why. They were both very happy to wheedle and beg for sexual intimacy, but when it came to their other needs, they both seemed to think they weren’t allowed to express them. It was heartbreaking.
I hoped NCCPS would be working with all the children on that. Sadly, I suspected they wouldn’t. Although there were people like Dr Dota looking out for them. I should email V’s case worker and ask. Suddenly, it felt more urgent to get that fund up and running. It could pay for specialists that CPS might not bother with.
Both birthday presents had been stashed in the kitchen the night before. I snuck Andrea’s next to her plate when she wasn’t looking..
She didn’t even notice at first. She was too busy watching V’s reaction. Gina was a fucking star, and I needed to do something to thank her. Andrea had wanted to get V a copy of one of the earliest Combat Zone games, from back when the franchise was still single player.
Gina had tracked down an unopened collector’s edition. I didn’t even know until V’s shriek of joy and babbled explanation, but there was an incredibly rare skin she could get in the current game if she had a finished save on her account. Itwas limited to one per copy, and finding one with unredeemed codes was almost impossible. Unless you were Gina Josephson.
When I was fourteen, I'd thought Gina could do anything. By the time I was twenty, I'd sadly concluded she was just a fixer with a soft spot for street kids. But in the last couple of years, I'd started to think I'd been right about her the first time.
Once V was done thanking Andrea for the present—Meredith rescued the coffee pot —and cooing over the absolute essay Andrea had written in the card, Andrea finally noticed the present next to her plate.
“What’s this for?”
“I missed your birthday,” V said simply. “So… Happy birthday, Andi.”
Andrea stayed on V’s lap to open her present. V had dragged her there when she’d opened the game. It was probably a good thing. The earrings and the promise that we were going to go out and get their ears pierced as soon as we were done with breakfast led to another round of thanking, and we’d already cleared that end of the table.
Meredith toasted me with her coffee. I took a smug bite of my Danish.
Should’ve known better than to think I could go shopping with a pair of teens and stick to my plans. Even when it was just me and V, getting sidetracked was probable. With Andrea as well, it was inevitable. And Meredith was no help.
“I think Andi would look very fetching in this, don’t you, kitten?”
“Yes, Ma’am! And they have it in dark pink, look.”
She and V were busily buying Andrea what looked like a whole wardrobe. We were in a mall that was only a ten minute walk from Meredith’s building—we’d done what I’d suggested and opted for somewhere that did simple fashionware. V only wanted her lobes pierced, but Andrea had been coaxed into revealing that she’d like a few more than two. She now had a neat row of hoops running up each lobe and a sparkling pink stud in her nose.
Once the piercings had been fitted, Meredith announced that V needed more casual clothes. It took me a few seconds to realize what she was up to—V figured it out instantly. V had picked up some things for herself, mostly cute graphic tees, but she and Meredith were both concentrating on getting things for Andrea.
There’d been a moment when Andrea tried to object, but V and Meredith put paid to that quickly.
“Merri’s gonna send stuff for ev’ryone,” V pointed out. “You’re gonna help us choose it so y’might’s well get your things now.”
Once she came around to the idea, Andrea went to hug Meredith. There was a curious moment when it looked like she asked V for permission. She took a half step, arms open but then stopped herself.
“Y’can hug her, y’know,” V giggled.
“Didn’t want to step on your toes. Everyone knows Meredith belongs to you.”
Meredith cocked her head at the pair of them and raised an eyebrow. V shuffled her feet and her cheeks pinked. She could blush to command, but I didn’t think she was doing it on purpose now.
“I belong to you, do I, kitten?”
Her voice was husky. V’s throat bobbed as she swallowed. She was lucky we were in public. Meredith had to restrain herself to ‘acceptable’ behavior. I watched with amusement as V set her jaw and pushed her shoulders back.
“Yes,” she stated emphatically. “Y’do. An’ to Judy. An’ we belong t’you.”
Meredith tugged both girls into a loose hug. I grinned at her over the top of their heads. She winked at me and subtly pinched V’s butt.
“Nobody wanted to take you from V.” Andrea’s voice was slightly muffled. “Like, it isn’t right to try to steal someone’s special client.”
Andrea missed it. I didn’t—Meredith didn’t say anything, but the way her face creased was unmistakable. V didn’t miss it either. She curled her arm tighter around Meredith’s back and pressed her face into the side of her neck.
“Y’were never jus’ a client, tho.” The whisper was barely loud enough for me to hear. “Never chased after ‘nyone like I did you. Never wished ‘nyone else wouldn’t go away.”
Meredith closed her eyes and rested her cheek on top of V’s head.
“I love you too, kitten.”
Andrea slipped out of the hug. V and Meredith melted into each other. She looked so forlorn standing next to them that I threw an arm around her shoulders. She sighed and rested her cheek on my arm for a second before looking up and giving me a watery smile.
“I’m glad V has you,” she whispered, “but I miss her so much.”
“We’ll speak to Dr. Dota,” I promised. “If it was okay for you to come this weekend, I guess it’ll be okay for you to come again, right?”
It was very hard not to say that we’d find a way that she could come and live with us. I knew what would happen if we did that. And it wouldn’t be fair to Meredith, or V, or Andrea.
“Are you guys allowed holos?”
“I dunno. We couldn’t use them tho, right? ‘Cause of our cyberware?”
That was a good point. And getting V fitted with her personal link had brought up all sorts of other issues. Fuck . It hadn’t even occurred to me. Did Andrea and the others have the same dense neural networks? Not to mention whatever had made V react to the mugger the way she did? Was it even safe to mention it? What might happen to them if the wrong person found out?
I’d looked into twitchers after T-Bug had given me a name for it.
What I’d found scared the shit out of me. No way Meredith didn’t know either. She worked for fucking Militech. If Militech knew what V was, they’d be recruiting her by any means they could. I shuddered at the thought of them hooking her up to millions of eddies worth of cyberware and using her as a weapon. If Andrea and the other kids were the same…
What was it V had said about the little kids? They had to be kept dark and quiet and they didn’t run about like normal kids? Fuck. Fuck, they were, they all were, and…
“Judy?”
I couldn’t spiral on V’s birthday. I didn’t have time.
“Sorry, Andi. Jus’ thinkin’. I’ll ask, okay? See if we can set you guys up with holos. Then you can talk to V whenever you like.”
“Yes please.” V had stopped clinging to Meredith, and they were listening to our conversation. “I’d like that too.”
“We’ll speak to the relevant people,” Meredith assured her. “And you and I have something to set up as well. I’ve had some ideas about that. We’ll have a good brainstorm about it soon, okay?”
“Okay. Andi, what d’ you think of this shirt? Same pink as y’hair, see?”
“I was thinking.” Meredith’s quiet murmur made the hairs on the side of my neck stand on end. “Perhaps what they need is their own place. Not a group home, but a school. And I think we might know the right man for the job.”
I squeezed her hand.
“Gonna need some kick-ass security,” The girls were too interested in their shopping to pay us any mind, but I kept my voice down. “Y’know, ‘cause of their, um. Neuralware.”
“I wasn’t sure you’d realized. I—I should have told you.”
“I was happier before I figured it out,” I confessed.
She rubbed her thumb comfortingly over the back of my hand, and I took a deep breath. Now was not the time. After V’s party, after her birthday. There would be time then to work out how much danger she and the other kids were in.