Null Space

[Narrator]

The day after their blowup in the point, a fruit basket would be delivered to the door of Sam and Tereza's dorm room, wrapped in a lime green bow. A hand-written letter, addressed to Tereza, stuck awkwardly out of the top.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza opens the door, looking down at the basket with a raised eyebrow. She takes the envelope, glancing at the name and then cracking it open to see what's inside.

[Null]

A hand-written note!

Code: Select all

Look...

I'm sorry for the blowup the other day, alright?  It's a stressful time, and I'm angry at...pretty much everything these days.  I get that you're trying to help, and I ~do~ appreciate the motives behind it, even if not the actions themselves.

Anyway.  Truce.   I don't know how much longer I'm going to be here, but the last thing I need is to be duking it out with your group for the rest of my days.  I apologize.

The note is unsigned, though that's probably more due to a lack of a name rather than forgetfulness or impoliteness.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza makes a thoughtful noise and picks up the fruit basket, carrying it into the room.

[Narrator]

It's a decent, if not spectacular, fruit basket -- some oranges, apples, pears, bananas, nothing far too exotic. Just like the wording in the letter -- nothing fancy, nothing special, just, you know. The thought that counts, right?

The green ribbon was a touch above and beyond.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"You want some fruit?" Tereza asks, looking at the other occupants of the room.

[Narrator]

The fruit basket shook, slightly.

[Samantha McManus]

"Is it... supposed to do that?" Sam asks, cocking her head.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I don't think so?" Tereza says, lifting the basket closer to examine it and give it a good sniff.

[Will Stanton]

It mostly smelled like fruit!

It also smelled a little like Will, to those with enhanced senses.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"He didn't," Tereza says with consternation, before directing at the basket, "Will?"

[Will Stanton]

One of the bananas in the back twitched a little bit.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Sam, is this fruit 'thinking' at all? It smells like Will."

[Narrator]

Will would still be unable to be sensed by Sam, thanks to The Boy's futzing around with the computer core in his brain.

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm not getting anything, but that's no guarantee. He can get pretty deep when he's an object."

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza sets the basket down on her desk and tugs at the bow, trying to undo it, "If this is you, Will, you can shift back."

[Will Stanton]

The bow came undone in her hands, and fluttered to the floor, remaining a bow.

In the back, the banana that had been twitching fell over, as if it had been supported by the ribbon, tucked in after the fact, rather than placed in the basket originally with the rest of the fruit.

[Samantha McManus]

"Do you think maybe he's stuck?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I don't know," Tereza says, picking up the loose banana.

[Will Stanton]

The banana twitched once more in her hands, before finally unpeeling itself and twisting around to reveal a tiny Will, looking up at her.

"Heya, 'Reza," she grinned up at her, sheepishly.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Will... what are you doing in there?"

[Will Stanton]

"Trying to be a-peal-ing?" she giggled, shrugging.

"No, seriously, the other guy was bringing this basket to your door, I asked him why, he told me, and then, uh...

...He stuck me in to the back to 'keep an eye on things' for him."

[Samantha McManus]

"Wait, did he force you to shift again?"

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah," Will admitted, rubbing the back of her head. "Just kind of grabbed and squoze. You know, like he does."

[Samantha McManus]

"We've got to come up with a way to stop him from doing that."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, if what he told me is true, then maybe Tereza just needs to put him in time-out.

Because it IS true, right? You bought us from the school?" she asked, looking up at Tereza.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I did, because we couldn't get you established properly as 'people' while the Headmistress was responsible for you."

[Will Stanton]

"Wait...so you..didn't want to purchase me, then? It's just a means to an end?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

"As a general rule, I don't think purchasing people is a thing that should be done, so no, I didn't strictly want to purchase you. I wanted to help the two of you out though, so I had to play by the Headmistress' constraints."

[Will Stanton]

"Oh.

I thought, that, well...

Oh."

Will hopped down from Tereza's hands, landing on the floor. "I'm sorry, I should have...no, I misread things. I apologize."

[Samantha McManus]

"I think she has a plan, Will."

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah, I mean, of course she does. That makes sense. Plans are good. Plans are always good."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"What did you think, Will?" Tereza says, squatting down closer to his current height.

[Will Stanton]

"You know, I thought, that, like...

I mean, you take good care of that old bike you bought, and you were concerned about the leather jacket you tore...

I just thought that, you know, it'd be nice to be owned by someone who cared about things, and I thought that you might have decided that, you know, it would be nice to own someone who liked you and wanted to help.

But, you know. You know best, I'm sure."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"You're my friend and a person, not a thing, Will. We'll all still take care of you."

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye, it's not like we need to own you to keep you safe."

[Will Stanton]

Will frowned some at that.

"But...I mean, you DO own me now, right? Paperwork's filed and all that..."

She grew back to normal, person size. "I don't understand why you would do all that if you just want me to be a person. But I'll give it a shot, I guess..." she frowned.

"I'll leave the two of you to your fruit basket, then."

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza sighs, not standing up despite Will's increase in size, "Will... there were reasons that Ashlie couldn't get the paperwork to set the two of you up as legal people. It was pretty much based on the operating restrictions she has. I don't have those restrictions, so to free both you two and her up, I had to make the deal with her."

[Will Stanton]

"Well...did you need to do that? I mean...

I'm going home again, Tereza. Do you know how happy that makes me," she said, smiling down. "There's a happy ending at the end of the story. I thought, for sure, there wasn't. But now I know there is, and it's only sixteen years away.

And everything's set up just how I like it back there, so there's no need to worry too much about, you know, how things are set up here? It's only for a little while longer, after all. I mean, you're sweet, but I don't want you to do things you don't want to do just because you think I need a piece of paper."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I just remembered how much it irritated you that people treat you like property and I thought I could do something to alleviate that. Sixteen years is a long time and I was hoping I could make it at least a bit more pleasant."