"She's coming round."

Dante.

"Can you see if her facial muscles are reacting?"

Cristina.

"Not yet. Still looks like a creepy doll."

Cristina groaned. "Hang on."

Something pricked the back of my neck.

"There, how about now?"

I sensed warmth spreading through my cheeks and my eyes twitched behind their lids.

"Not yet, no, wait, yes! Yes, she's opening her eyes."

As I tentatively roused my eyes to obey, the resulting blur of brilliant sunlight flushed tears free.

Dante sat, kneeling in front of me. Sunshine flooded through a wide open barn door behind him. A halo of light crowned his head. His hair had become longer and his beard had grown back in full. His dashing smart blue suit stunned me for a second. I swallowed hard and reminded myself not to look like a fool for this crippling crush. I'd gotten reasonably good at hiding it by now.

"It's about time, Tyke."

I smiled as I watched his expression change from wrinkles and frowns to dimples and a smirk. His voice sounded odd, free of the raspy croak of pain that I'd last heard him use.
"Welcome back. You've got a lot of catching up to do. We didn't know if you would make it."

Cristina leaned round from behind my right shoulder and grinned. A wave of luscious chestnut hair swept around her bare neck, her cleavage displayed amply by her close fitting bodice-style dress. Loose sleeves of light cream cotton clung to her arms, falling free from her shoulders. The rich black velvet of the knee-length dress put our surroundings to shame.

I became aware of the scent of apples, sweet but slightly acrid. Glancing around the barn's interior, I noticed dark wooden barrels of the fruit stacked in piles within every available space.

Cristina placed her cool hand on my cheek. A knot of familiarity screwed itself up in the pit of my stomach. My mother had done the exact same thing whenever I'd been upset.

Had it been my mother? Could it have been an implanted memory or a real event with Cristina herself?

"You're safe now, Poll. The man who tried to kill us is under arrest. The Central Committee is holding the sentencing today."

I scrunched up my face and attempted to work out what could have happened.

Dante laughed at my confusion.
"Don't worry about it. We'll fill you in. Or, maybe, you'd like to do it?"

He craned his neck to indicate someone to the left, behind me.

Turning, I smiled as Erica strolled her long-legged way through barrels of apples.

"I would not want to take the pleasure away from you, Professor. Besides, I still don't trust this one a hundred percent."

I caught her eye and saw the depth of pain swimming there. Swallowing hard, I tried out my vocal chords. They cranked into action slowly, breaking up here and there.
"That's completely understandable. You reserve the right to hate me for what I did to your father."

My throat tightened, restricting the strength of my voice.
"Remember that it had nothing to do with me. Not the real, human inside me. Not this, this... Tyke."

Erica observed me, her expression void of emotion.
"Then that should be your name from now on. The other one will be known as Poll."

She inclined her head to the left and pointed to a bulge of grey canvas lying on top of a collection of apple barrels.
"She saved you all from the purge of the dawn."

I nodded at the inert shape and struggled to find the right words. "Is she, you know, dead?"

Dante sighed then rose to his feet. He stepped lightly to me and took my hand. With his left, he enveloped his wife's hand on top of my right. He smiled, his eyebrows raised high.
"Poll is decommissioned. The tracking device has been removed and she can stay safely hidden with us until we find what we need to repair her. She found us. We won't let them have her back to use again."

"Should they allow the Programme to continue that is." Cristina added, lifting her hand from mine to reach out and hold her husband's arm.
"General Tander has always been a loose cannon and now that we've had the chance to tell the Central Committee the truth about the P. O. L system abuse, it may cause him to run it underground instead."

I watched the speech flow between the couple, the love and respect clearly displayed in every motion of their bodies and faces. Each flick of the eye, or twitch of the lip. All the unspoken communication spoke so much louder than any words they could have chosen. I sank to my knees.

Almost immediately, I became surrounded by patting hands and prodding fingers. Christina's voice came through the sullen mist that had swamped my mind. A beacon of a lighthouse amongst the fog.
"What's going on? There's no reason why? She's functioning perfectly, everything's in working order, I don't understand it. Unless..."

Dante's sweet voice sparked an ember of warmth in my chest as he interrupted his wife.
"Unless, she's developing like you said she could. She has changed since I met her. Do you think it's possible?"

"Yes! Wow. I don't believe it. Really? Is this actually happening?"

The excitement in her voice struck painfully hard against the wall of despair that had wrapped itself around my heart.

Dante doesn't love me. How could he ever love me? I'm an experiment and nothing else to him. I must be a fool for thinking he might care for me.

My body heaved with sobs of self-absorbed misery. What kind of life would it be now, without the hope of reciprocal feelings from the only person I'd ever cared for?

So, I really am a robot. If I have no other reason to exist for, other than his love, then I might as well be reprogrammed. In fact, yes, that's the perfect way out of this sharp, stabbing ache in my heart. No, not my heart, that's too anatomical. My soul. That's where it hurts. My very soul.

"Damn you, Dante."

The words shot from my tongue. Venom laced with pain.

All eyes were on me. Christina's eyes filled with tears. She folded me into a warm embrace, her strong hands gently brushed up and down my back. The soft dark cotton of my knee-length dress rubbed hotly against my skin. She smelt of home. Freshly baked bread and cinnamon milk rations warming over the fire.

Her breath tickled my neck as she spoke soothingly.
"You have learnt so much. I'm very proud of you. Love does hurt, doesn't it? We're here for you, whatever you may feel right now. We do love you. But maybe not in the way you expected."

She pulled back, holding me at arm's length. Smiling with her beautiful green eyes. I couldn't help but smile back.

Dante came to stand beside Cristina. He cleared his throat and watched me almost sheepishly. He appeared uncomfortable.

Good.

"You need to stay here while we go and hear the verdict in the Committee Courtroom. If they spot you they will decommission you for good."

I matched his every eye movement, daring him to avoid me.
"You mean, they will kill me."

"Yes, yes, that's what I meant. So do as you're told and wait. Erica's going to keep you company."

He placed a hand on his wife's arm and squeezed ever so slightly. A rush of red blazed through my cheeks.

"We need to go."

I almost snorted while they left the barn together. His arm draped around her waist.

Erica breezed up beside me. She kept her gaze on their receding figures until they were lost in the sunlight. Then she glanced my way and grinned.
"Want to come and watch?"