The soft hum of artificial lights drifted into my ears. My eyes cracked open and I immediately shielded them with my hand from the oppressive halogen bulbs above.

Holly leaned over with a cold pack pressed beside my left eye.

"Ow." I cringed. "What happened?"

The room was white and smelled like it'd been sterilized.

"Don't worry, a new security detail is just outside the door. We're at safehouse in town."

"Are you okay?" Not sure why I asked her that. She was far more repairable than I was.

"I'm fine." She pulled my eye open wide and shined the light into it then repeated it with the other eye. "You're doing okay. I wrapped your ribs, but we'll get x-rays in half an hour and see if anything else needs to be done."

"What happened to my security detail?"

"They were all tranqed, but they're fine now. They've been replaced for now."

"Already?"

She nodded. "You've been out for hours."

I shook my head, trying to process all of this. "The...Russian?"

"He's dead."

"He was a cyborg or an AI unit from what I could tell."

"Cyborg," she said with a very matter-of-fact tone as she put the cold pack back against my eye. "We're safe now."

I frowned. "We?"

She looked more familiar to me now for some reason, and her eyes carried greater depth than before. "It's me, Dekker. It's Anna."

"What?" I pulled back. "Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"Honey, I know this doesn't make sense, but it's me. I swear."

My stomach slammed into my gut, tangling it in knots. "That's impossible. I watched you die. I held you in my arms, begging for you to stay with me. I watched the life go out of your eyes. Don't tell me it's you!"

"You're right, my body died, but I came out of my body."

The words didn't sound real, didn't make sense.

"When I died, a beautiful light appeared above me through a tunnel. That's when I saw the body of the man who'd killed me. He didn't seem fully human. So I chose not to go into the light. Instead, I stayed with the man's body all the way to the morgue. After the coroner wheeled him in and left, he got right up off the table and walked out. Dekker, I knew he'd come for you again. If not him, then others would. So I stayed behind until I could figure out a way to protect you."

I shook my head vigorously. "No. No. That's impossible."

"It's not impossible. You know people come out of body."

"How are you..." I gestured toward her body. "...in that?"

She smiled. "I found a way."

"What does that even mean?"

"I found a way to link into the AI unit."

I didn't buy it for a second. And yet the way she moved, the way she spoke...all of it was Anna. How could an AI unit fake that so perfectly? "How?"

"I was an organ donor. They used several of my organs in this AI unit. Even my heart. And when they activated the AI unit, I felt a pull toward them. I followed the pull until I found them in Holly."

"What the..." My head felt like it was imploding. "You're actually serious."

"Yes. It took a while to figure out how to do it, but I figured it out, eventually. I...took my body back."

"I want it to be true, but I can't just believe you at your word. I need some kind of proof." Articles flashed through my head about AI. I'd read that AI units experienced emotion and sensations at some level, but they couldn't fully connect the emotions with their memories since their memories were implanted. "Tell me how it felt when you miscarried."

Her mouth dropped for a second then her eyes sank at the sides, the joy wilting from them before they closed. "It was horrific. It felt like someone had run me through, twisting the blade in my gut. I loved her more than anything. I'd spent six months nurturing her in my belly before she was gone, and it was like a piece of me left that day, gone forever. The depression was horrible. I wanted to die, at times, so I could go be with her." Tears formed at the inside corners of her eyes exactly where they should for grief. Had the tears been faked, they would've formed at the outside corners. AI units couldn't fake the experience when a memory was involved, not fully, not like that.

"My god, it is you."

"I'm so sorry." Her face twisted with pain.

"Sorry for what?"

"I'm sorry I don't look the same." Tears kept pouring down her cheeks. "I'm sorry I left you behind. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I'm so sorry."

Now tears poured from my eyes, too. "That's not your fault. None of it is." I took her in my arms, holding her close, cringing at the pain in my side. "You just defied death for me and you're apologizing." I couldn't help but let out a chuckle at that. "I can't believe you came back to me."

"I'll never leave you again." She dropped the ice pack and squeezed me tighter. "I promise."

We held each other for a long while, scared that if we let go, this all might end, as if it were a dream.

Finally, she spoke. "So, where are we headed now?"

I pulled back and held her face in my hands. "Anywhere you wanna go."

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