The Man In The Machine Read online

  She was ready for whatever he decided to throw at her. Whatever barrage of insults or hurtful words he settled on. She could handle it. She was used to it.

  It was that combination of actions that showed him just how badly she'd been hurt.

  He walked around her, slowly, slowly, until he was directly in front of her. He knelt down, careful not to touch her, because he knew she was scared. He knew that whoever had come before him had left a mark, but Nych would do his part to wipe that mark clean.

  He would make sure that Willow was never hurt again.

  "Willow. Open your eyes. It's okay. I will never lay a hand on you like he did. It's okay."

  She sniffled, tensed up and nervous. After a second, she opened her eyes, though they were bloodshot, and the rest of her face was hidden behind her knees. The fact that he knew about Marcus didn't make her feel any better. She had always been the strong one, and to not be that person now… It left her feeling very vulnerable and self-conscious, and she didn't like it at all.

  She sniffled, shoulders shaking with silent whimpers as she held his gaze.

  She wasn't sure what to expect from him, honestly.

  He held a hand out to her face, but didn't touch her. He simply left it there, staring into her eyes, offering himself to her if she wanted him.

  "I… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have stormed out like that. You brought me back, and… That's amazing. You're amazing, and I could never see my life with anyone else. So… Can I stay here? Will you… Will you be with me?"

  He was asking the same question he'd asked all those years ago.

  This time, however, there wasn't a deadline. There wasn't a cancer between them.

  Just a child.

  Her breath caught in her throat, and the moments that passed between them felt like years. She had broken her promise to him, and yet he still loved her nonetheless. And there was no yelling this time. No anger. Just him… Being gentle with her?

  All of this was far unlike what she was used to, and it caught her off guard.

  After a moment, she let out a sob and uncoiled herself. With that, she flung herself into him, clinging to him with desperation as she nodded her head silently. For years she had wanted nothing more than this moment, and all of the hardships she had faced were worth it to have him here once again.

  And this time… This time they wouldn't have to take things so fast.

  Nych clung to her, smiling and sobbing at the same time, thanking whatever Gods were listening that Willow was so brilliant. She had brought him back from the dead, even though the feat should've been impossible. All those years ago, when he told her he'd thought it possible… He didn't know if he actually meant it. He'd just been hopeful.

  Now, however…

  He was the evidence.

  "I'm so sorry I left you alone." He sobbed quietly, holding her tightly against him. "I'll never do it again."

  Willow trembled, holding onto him tightly, as if the second she let go of him he'd be pulled from her grasp once again. Her hair was a frizzy mess, pulled back into a loose braid that really needed to be redone. Her eyes were red and puffy from a combination of tears and exhaustion, and she couldn't help but let herself go limp in his arms. She didn't have the energy to support her body any longer after the day she'd had.

  After a minute or so, she quieted down. She had her face pressed against his neck, eyes closed as she worked on trying to steady her breathing so she'd be able to get herself to unwind.

  She took a deep breath. "… You saw Aisling…?" Her voice was soft, and somewhat hoarse. "Little shit- she's not supposed to be up this late."

  Nych rolled his eyes, laughing quietly as he wiped the tears from her face. "Give the poor kid a break. She was getting a cup of milk, and just happened to see me leaving the house. She's just like you."

  He picked her up, terrified at just how easy it was. His arms… They didn't feel any different, but he could lift Willow as easily as if she were a feather pillow.

  There would be a lot of things he had to get used to.

  "Where's your bedroom? You shouldn't be up this late either."

  "Upstairs, on the second floor." She sniffled, somewhat startled at being hoisted up into the air. She relaxed after a second, and wrapped her legs around his waist and let her chin rest on his shoulder. As strange as it was, it was nice. "It's… It's the room at the end of the hall. Just- be quiet. I don't want to wake up Terry or Blake and get questioned for an hour about this." She closed her eyes, though opened them not long after.

  She knew that she would fall asleep in his arms if she got too comfortable, and she didn't really want to pass out yet.

  "We can go over your body's features and current world events tomorrow." She yawned. "I'll show you everything that happened while you were gone."

  Nych nodded, walking up the stairs slowly and without a sound. Eventually, he closed the door to the basement, and walked down the hallway that Willow indicated.

  In the bedroom, there was a king-sized bed and another door, presumably leading to a bathroom. There was also a walk-in closet, and bookshelves that went from floor to ceiling.

  And the obligatory blueprints tacked up here and there, but he didn't expect anything less from Willow.

  "Let's change the sheets first." He said, a bit of an edge to his voice.

  He didn't want to sleep on anything that man had slept on.

  "Mhm." Willow nodded, carefully putting her feet on the ground and pulling away from him as she looked towards the bed with weary eyes. She walked over, stripping the pillowcases from the pillows and the blankets from the bed. She pulled the fitted sheets off and tossed it all into a pile on the floor that she'd deal with the next day, when she put on a load of laundry. There was no way in hell she was dealing with it that night.

  She looked towards the bare bed, and then turned towards the hallway. "I'll go get new sheets." She yawned again.

  Just a couple more things she would have to do, and then she'd have the best sleep of her life.

  Nych nodded his head, looking around the room as she left to go get the sheets. He walked towards the wall and began gazing at the blueprints tacked up, taking in everything she’d invented.

  And for the first time since he'd been back, he felt genuinely lost.

  Everything was so… Different.

  The technology had progressed to levels that he didn't comprehend, and he hated the fact that he hadn't been a part of it. Yet as he looked around once more… He realized he had.

  Some of his inventions had gone into creating these new things, and his name was therefore on the prints.

  Even in death, he had created.

  Willow came back a minute or two later, holding new sheets and blankets in her arms. She dumped the blankets onto the floor beside the bed, and reached for the pillows to put the new pillowcases on them. Once she had finished that, she grabbed the fitted sheet and looked to the mattress.

  … She was tired.

  She sighed, and carefully began stretching the fitted sheet across the bed. It took a couple tries, but she eventually got it, and once she was finished, she collapsed onto the bed and sunk into the mattress with a content purr.

  It took a special kind of tired to sleep in jeans, without blankets or pillows.

  Nych smiled at her, carefully lifting her from the bed so that he could finish putting the sheets and blankets on. He set her down lightly against the wall, finished the bed, and then laid her back down on it.

  "You really are tired. You should've just waited till morning." He muttered, laying down next to her. He lightly wrapped his arms around the woman he hadn't seen in fifteen years, even though it felt like he'd done the same thing only yesterday.

  "Sleep well, Willow." He said softly.

  "Mm." She rolled onto her side, wrapped her arms around him, and pressed her face against his neck.

  She would've retorted, and she wanted to, but the weight of sleep tugged on her consciousness, and in not even a minute sh
e was asleep. The tension unwound from her limbs, and at that moment, she was simply content to sleep in his arms.

  They would talk more in the morning.

  A Reintroduction

  The morning rolled around, and Nych found something very interesting when it did.

  Apparently, this new body didn't need to sleep.

  He found that he could sleep, if he wanted to, but it was a very different sleep than when he had been… Human. He could, at will, turn it on and off, and while he was asleep, he was always aware that he was asleep.

  It was disconcerting, but… He didn't mind much.

  "Good morning." He muttered, rolling over to look at the sleeping woman beside him. The way her hair fell over her face made his heart flutter, and he smiled warmly as he tucked it behind her ear.

  Willow stirred, and after a moment her eyes wearily fluttered open. Green eyes locked onto his, and after a moment of sleep-induced confusion, a slow smile spread across her face. She certainly looked older, a little more angular and elegant than she had been, but she was still the Willow he knew and loved. She yawned, stretching and then relaxing into the bed as she looked over at him. "… We're going to have to go talk to everybody soon."

  After all, many things were about to change in the Grace household.

  "I work tomorrow." She murmured. "At the hospital. And Aisling starts kindergarten in about a week."

  He smiled, nodding his head. "Yeah, I suppose I'm a rather new old edition." The paradox of the words made him laugh a bit more, as he pulled her body close to his own.

  "Does this not feel weird for you?" He asked suddenly, looking to her eyes. "I mean for me, it feels like only yesterday we were together. For you… It's been fifteen years. You have children. A family. Are you sure you want to fall back in line with me?"

  He didn't understand why she'd still feel the same about him, after so long without him.

  They'd been practically kids when they met. Now, they were in their mid-thirties.

  She thought over his words for a couple seconds. "Nych… I have spent days and weeks and years putting this body together." She took a moment to examine her handiwork, and then met his eyes. "For years it has felt like something has been missing. Truthfully, if this hadn't worked… I would’ve been content living with just me and Aisling. But… Now that you're here, I don't want to lose you again." Her eyes lowered for a moment, and then she smiled sweetly.

  "You're going to have to meet my parents." She snickered. There was the clever Grace spark she always had. "Have fun!"

  Anastasia and Christopher Grace were nice, but both very intimidating people.

  Nych nodded his head slowly, but winked back at her. "Sure, I'll meet your parents. But you are going to have to explain to them that I'm a robot. I've known some pretty liberal people in my lifetime, but I wonder how they'll take the fact that their daughter is dating a robot."

  It was a fair concern.

  "Plus, haven't you told a ton of people that I'm dead? I think that you'll be the one having fun, not me."

  He smiled. They were remarkably alike.

  "My parents do know I've been working on you." She raised an eyebrow at him, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "I actually stored your brain at their house for about three weeks while there was an investigation going on because me and Blake kinda stole your fucking brain." She tapped his forehead, and then wrapped her arm around him. She had missed this. Just being able to talk to him was amazing.

  They had only known each other for a few days. It felt like they’d been together for years.

  She had really brought a man back from the dead.

  She glanced towards the door, where sounds of chatter could be heard downstairs. "… When do you want to go down there?"

  Nych shrugged, standing up and stretching. He nearly fell backwards once he heard faint metallic crackling, which was apparently the sound his new joints made when they cracked.

  That was alarming, but he supposed he'd get used to it.

  "We can go now, I guess. Better to get it over with."

  With that, he helped her out of bed, his eyes lingering a bit on all the curves of her body.

  "God, you're beautiful."

  Willow looked up at him, and after a second her cheeks tinted and she looked away bashfully. She reached up, lightly resting a hand on his cheek as she lovingly studied his face. She then leaned forwards after a moment and gently pressed her lips to his, holding it for a couple seconds before pulling away and walking over to her closet. She pulled out a pair of sweatpants, took off her jeans, and pulled them on. It was a comfortable day. No need for jeans.

  She turned and examined herself in the floor length mirror she had, and after a moment sighed. "Hold on. I want to try and deal with this hair."

  She still looked like a bit of a mess, and turned to go into the bathroom to attempt a hairstyle. After all these years, it was still the same long and wild mane it had always been.

  Nych followed her into the bathroom, taking the brush from her hand just as she picked it up. He began brushing through the tangles in her hair, doing so carefully as to avoid as much pain as possible.

  "So what happened to the partying lifestyle?" He asked, a bit curious.

  It was a bit shocking to remember her in what felt like yesterday as the party girl, where today she was a suburban mom.

  It almost made him want to laugh, but it was a sweet change nonetheless.

  "I had Bain." She looked at herself in the mirror, and after a second looked down at the counter with saddened eyes. She sighed, and shrugged her shoulders. "… I don't know. I suppose I just grew out of it. I don't have time for that anymore between working and taking care of Aisling." Her mood lightened somewhat at the thought of her little girl, but it was clear she was still downcast by the thought of Bain.

  Something had clearly happened to the child.

  She looked back up into the mirror. "… He disappeared one day. When Aisling was a baby." She knew he was going to ask, so she started to explain. "We never found him. He… He was the same age as Aisling is now when he vanished."

  Nych's eyes darkened at her words, until eventually, he wrapped his arms around her, hugging her from behind. He didn't understand what it would feel like to lose a child, but… He could understand that it probably hurt just as bad as when she lost him.

  "What do you think happened? Do you think he ran by choice, or was he taken…?"

  He wouldn't be surprised if the kid had left by choice, considering the beatings the other two had taken.

  He'd probably grown sick of getting hurt by the person he was supposed to love.

  She shrugged, lowering her eyes and leaning back into the embrace as she sought comfort from the man she loved. It still hurt, almost as bad as it did when it first happened. No parent should ever have to outlive their child- or not know what happened to them at all. "I don't know." She murmured softly. "I- I'm waiting until Aisling is older to bring the topic up with her. She doesn't remember him, so…"

  She closed her eyes, and sighed sadly. "He was- I-"

  After a moment she turned around to hug Nych back. "…It’s been hard."

  Nych held her tightly, nodding solemnly. "Well, think about it this way. He's a Grace- part of the smartest family I know. He'll be just fine. And now that whatever assbag father he had is gone… Who knows? Maybe he'll come back."

  That was a peaceful thought.

  "Now. Your hair's beautiful, you look gorgeous, let's go introduce me to the family." He said lightly, trying to lift the mood.

  With that, he released her, and left the bathroom.

  She smiled slightly, and followed him out of the bathroom as she ran her fingers through her hair. "… Alright. Let's go see what they've got cooking down there. I thought I smelled breakfast sausages." She paused. "Oh. You can eat, by the way. You don't feel hunger in the traditional sense, but you do have a fully functioning digestive system." That was nice. Food certainly was a plus to living- and no
w he wouldn't ever have to watch what he ate.

  She led him down the hallway and peered around the corner towards the kitchen. She smiled slightly when she saw everyone in there, and gestured for him to follow as she walked into the room.

  Aisling looked up from where she had an entire pancake speared on her fork, and her eyes lit up. "Hi mama!" She looked past her to Nych, and then grinned. "Hi Nych!"

  Nych smiled shyly, looking around the table. There was a man he didn't recognize, Aisling, a boy he didn't recognize, and-

  "By the loving mother of fuck."

  Yeah. Blake.

  She stood up, a halfway-eaten sausage forgotten on her fork. She looked between him and Willow incredulously, before a huge grin split her face in half. "It was that guy last night, right? I thought he was lying, but Jesus Christ- Hey, Nych!"

  She nearly vaulted the table as she threw her arms around him, and it struck him as very strange. He and Blake had never been close.

  She was hugging him simply because he was alive, not because of who he was.

  "Hey, Blake." He said, the smile on his face growing even wider.

  Dean looked around at everyone in the room, and then frowned. "… Who's that?" He gestured to Nych, taking a bite out of the breakfast sausage he was eating.

  Willow smiled, ducking her head bashfully as she rubbed the back of her neck. "This is Nych. He's going to be staying with us from now on." She smiled when Aisling's face lit up in a grin, pleased that her daughter was so happy about Nych staying with them.

  "Well I'll be damned." Terry stared at him in amazement. "… Fuck, Wills, you actually did it. I can't believe it."

  Blake let go of him eventually, and he made his way over to the man. "Hey… I'm Nych. I'm sorry, I don't know who you are." He held out a hand, waiting for the man to shake it.

  Blake, meanwhile, walked up to Willow and wrapped her arms around her. "You absolute bitch… Fantastic work. How'd you eventually pull it off?"

  Everyone was immediately put into a good mood.

  Except maybe Dean, but nobody really knew how to read that kid.