Part Six

                                    

                                          
    Early sunlight hits my face when I step out of the portal, mostly awake and ready for Brigit's hike. The group gathered at the trailhead is larger than I'd expected. Brij waves me over, and I grin in response, my chest doing that weird squeezing thing when I notice Drew standing next to her. 
                          
    "All right, lazy butts. The trail won't hike itself." Brij sets off, skirting the large boulder a few feet from the trailhead, and we fall in step behind her. 
                          
    "No Bee today?" Drew grins, and I snort.
                          
    "Nah. She's probably still sleeping. She doesn't seem to understand if she does this more often, it wouldn't suck as much when she does do it. Shannon wanted to come," I add. "We'd end up towing her up the trail, though." He lifts a brow, and some of my good humor dies. "Pregnant. Her extraction's a couple of weeks away."
                          
    "Must suck, having to suffer through that." He steps over a large pothole in the trail. 
                          
    The comment's too carefully casual to be natural, and my guard goes up. I have no problem deriding the procedure amongst my friends. None of us want to go through it. Some of the other women don't mind, though, and even enjoy it. 
                          
But no one ever talks about it. We monitor our words in public, all too aware the stranger next to us could report our conversation and get us in trouble simply for voicing our opinions. Bottom line - it's wiser to keep your true feelings about it to yourself unless you're certain about the person you're talking to.
                          
    I shrug. "It is what it is. A necessity. We all have to do our part." I've read about what the men have to go through, of course. It doesn't sound nearly as uncomfortable or as big a violation.
                          
    Before he has a chance to say anything more, I change the subject. "Actually, I wanted to ask a favor."
                          
    "Yeah? Need me to program a unicorn into one of the Realms for you?" He's grinning again, and I elbow him in the stomach.
                          
    "If you could, that'd be fabulous. No, it's for someone else. Shannon, the pregnant friend? She's on the tech and code track. She's hoping after the extraction's done and she completes her coursework she'll get a job monitoring the AI. I know it's not the same area as you, but could she maybe talk to you? Get an idea of what goes on?"
                          
    "Sure. You want my comm number?"
                          
    I trip on a tree root and stumble forward, Drew catching me by the elbow before I can go down. "God. I swear I'm not usually this much of a klutz." I brush the hair from my eyes and give him a rueful smile.
                          
    With his comm number, I don't have to wonder what he's doing. I can ping him and ask. We could make plans ahead of time instead of relying on running into one another. All the air whooshes out of my lungs as he keeps his gaze locked with mine. His blue eyes look flatter today. Normally they're full of depth, the blue multi-faceted, sometimes shining with amusement. Not today. They're monochrome. It's disappointing.
                          
    He glances up the trail. "I think we've got some catching up to do."
                          
    We're quiet as we hurry to catch up with the rest of the group, but instead of trying to integrate ourselves back somewhere in the middle, Drew slows down as we get closer. Soon there's enough space between us and the group that we're out of earshot if we talk quietly.
                          
    "So what do you teach?" He reaches out and steadies me as I step over another pothole.
                          
    "Mostly what the profs tell me to," I say. "I'm a teaching assistant, not a full on instructor, so I've only got one class to myself. It's a freshman seminar, theater as literature. We're finishing up a discussion on Tony Kushner's Angels in America and starting Doubt."