All of My Tomorrows (COMPLETE)

12: Leather and Lace

Perhaps he was imagining it, but everyone on the bridge seemed to be looking at him from the corners of their eyes. Did he look different, somehow?

Janis slipped her hand underneath the modified GREMLIN, still unable to believe Shen's promise that the little machine was lighter than a book. Not a paperback, mind you, but as she lifted it up she had to suppress a gasp.

"There's no way this thing can—what did you say you wanted these to do?"

Behind her back, Janis missed the smile that formed on the young woman's face. "Hacking. Healing. Target Immobilization. You name it."

"But— how ?"

Shen came up next to her, took the shutoff GREMLIN from Janis' hands. "Hey, that sounds an awful lot like doubt. I thought you said you were going to keep an open mind? If you're not, just do that when you're talking to Tygan."

"You think this can take the place of immobilizing subjects up close and personal?"

Shen seemed to relax, her lips catching in an almost devious grin. "Oh, I think that'll be the least of what I can do with one of these, once I figure out how to do it. For now, though, I don't even know if I have a good enough model to share with the soldiers."

"That's a pity—"

Whatever Janis had been about to say was cut off with the soft sound of someone hitting the doorway with their knuckles. Both women turned around to see John standing there, an undeniably awkward look on his face. He said, "I was hoping I could talk to Ja—the Commander."

Again, a feeling of unease, the first time she felt it when he had called her by that title, came up Janis' spine. Nevertheless, she looked over at Shen, about to say something when the other woman spoke, her head turned to look at John.

"And here I was thinking you were coming to talk to me ." The slight, teasing humor in her voice went over the intruder's head.

John glanced over at Shen for a moment before his gaze re-settled on Janis. "Is this a good time?"

What better time for this talk than now ? "Sure, John." She turned, giving Shen an apologetic look before she walked out into the hallway after the man.

She asked him what he wanted, but instead, the man directed her to follow him. Curious, Janis did, letting him lead her to a small alcove in the hallway. She turned into the small space and found herself face to face, alone, with John for the first time since she had left that morning.

John looked vaguely uncomfortable, his hands shoved into his pockets. He even seemed to find it uncomfortable to look her in the eyes, but he still did it nevertheless. "I was hoping—" he cleared his throat, his eyes dancing away from hers. "Wondering when we'd talk about this."

When we would talk about this? Janis wanted to ask him what he thought this conversation was or would be. Instead, she said, "I wanted you to have some time and space first."

John's brow creased as his eyes returned to hers, staring deeply. "Why would I need any of those things?" There it was in John's voice, perhaps unconscious. A biting, snapping annoyance, or at least very close to it.

Fighting the urge to blush, Janis rose a hand out as if she meant to stop the ensuing rush of emotions and words to come. "I needed to get my head clear, I thought—figured—the same could be said of you."

John's eyes seemed to darken until Janis could have been mistaken to ever think that they were brown and not black. "I don't need space, don't need to... to clear my head ," John threw an arm out, nothing more than a passionate gesture, one that he likely didn't think anything of, meant no threat by. Nevertheless it drew Janis' attention, prepared as she had been all morning for this eventual confrontation. "I know what I am. How I feel."