CD Chapter Thirty-five (Patreon)

The next few days flew by in the closest thing to happiness Ava had experienced in years. She ate good food, slept in a safe, comfortable bed, and played her favorite game using the best pod she’d ever heard of, much less seen. B.T. cleaned up after her, and brought her pain medicine to her, but she thought her hand - and her other injuries - were healing much more quickly than she would have expected.

Best of all, Amythyst was always there. They talked about recent movies, their favorite books, politics, and silly things ranging from pet peeves to the fact that the word ‘fart’ still made them giggle, even though they were supposed to be adults. It was easy to forget that the other end of the couch was an illusion, and that if she reached out, she couldn’t really steal a handful of Amythyst’s popcorn when they watched the latest comic book movie together.

In the game, Tess seemed to lose her wariness around Myles, finally relaxing enough to smack him herself when he teased her, instead of waiting for Alpha to do it for her. They moved on from jungle fairies to meadow fairies, and then found desert fairies when the skill experience Alpha gained from biting each type dwindled away.

On Monday morning, Ava was almost ready for her surgery. B.T. woke her early with a steaming mug of rich, warm cocoa, and she wore the loose, comfortable clothes the little robot laid out for her. Her hand barely shook as she brushed her teeth, and when someone knocked at the door, she only jumped a few inches.

Felicia stood on her doorstep, whirling metallic irises catching the light of the bright morning sunshine. She was as beautiful and perfectly groomed as the first time Ava had met her, though she wore a narrow skirt instead of slacks today, showing off toned legs and strong ankles. Frederic loomed behind her, dark sunglasses concealing his eyes, in a tailored suit that could have been the same one he’d worn last time.

“Good morning, Ava,” Felicia said, offering a slender hand. Her grip was firm and dry, lasting exactly the length of time needed to feel professional, without being either dismissive or overly friendly.

Ava was acutely aware that she’d barely brushed her hair this morning, and she needed a haircut, so it was falling in her eyes. Most of the bruising from the attack was gone already, but she put a hand to her cheek, touching the thin line of the cut and the little bumps of the stitches. She had almost forgotten it was there, but seeing these two again brought back a visceral memory of the fear and pain she’d been in when she saw them last.

Reaching out, Felicia grasped Ava’s chin, tilting her face impersonally so the light hit the wound. The woman clucked softly, brows rising ever so slightly. “It looks good. Better than I expected. If I didn’t know better, I’d think this happened a week ago, not just a few days. How’s the hand?”

Ava lifted it, encased in its light-weight cast, and Felicia turned it, her irises spinning as she looked at it. “This too,” she said, finally, lowering the limb gently. “I don’t suppose our employer would let you tell me how she hastened your healing?”

Ava blinked, shrugged, then shook her head. She hadn’t even realized it happened, much less how, though she could make an educated guess. She didn’t think Amythyst was ready to tell anyone about the pod, but, “That’s up to her,” she said.

Felicia just nodded, curiosity vanishing as if it had never existed, and Ava guessed that the woman ended up in a lot of situations where that feeling was a luxury, instead of a right. Turning, Felicia walked back to the car, which was a different model from the first one, though still similar in style. The woman saw her notice, and one corner of her mouth quirked up. “We rarely use the same vehicle for more than one job. It’s expensive, but safer, and people hire us because we’re the best, not because we’re cheap.”

Frederic silently opened the car door, and Felicia motioned for Ava to enter. She did, noticing that the seats felt velvet-soft beneath her hands, and the windows were tinted so dark she couldn’t even see the two people standing right outside. The scent of musk and cedar filled her nose, and she wondered if there was some reason for it other than personal preference, since she remembered smelling it in the last car, too.

The second passenger door opened, and Felicia slid in, taking her place on the long seat. The car sank down and settled again as Frederic got in front, though the divider was closed, so Ava couldn’t see him. Felicia reached over and picked up a folder that had been lying on the seat beside her. Opening it, she handed Ava an ID card. The face on the card was Ava’s, but the name was Ava Shaw, not Ava Gardner.

“Now, Ms. Shaw,” Felicia said, flipping open her screen and turning it toward Ava. “please sign here, with that name,” she tilted her head toward the ID, “so we can update your e-file with your correct signature.”

The screen was blank, so Ava scrawled ‘Ava Shaw’ on it, and Felicia took it back, nodding in satisfaction. “Good. Your surgeon today will be Dr. Laurence Kumar. He’s working with us on this project, but is not a friend, so please refrain from speaking to him more than necessary.”

She handed Ava several papers. “You’ll be getting ocular and auditory implants today. I’m told you play Veritas Online, so you should adapt quickly to your new hardware. Inexperienced users are often disoriented by the display. The doctor will run you through the initial calibrations, but our employer wishes to complete the setup herself, so we’ll bring you home as soon as your surgery is complete, instead of staying at the facility for further testing throughout the day. If anyone questions this, refer them back to Dr. Kumar and say nothing else.”

Ava looked through the papers. They described each procedure, and she winced as she saw the size of the chunk of bone they would be removing from her jaw. When she reached the description of how a mild vacuum would be used to seal her eye to the ‘exciplex laser’, she turned the papers over and pushed them back at Felicia.

“This is what I need to do, right? I’ll do it. I don’t need all that.” She knew she was being rude, but she’d always been afraid of getting implants. The worst injury she’d ever had was when she broke her leg, and she’d never had surgery. She’d helped her mother recover from several, however, and knew all about stitches that didn’t dissolve when they were supposed to, clogged surgical  drains, and infections.

Felicia just nodded and tucked the papers back into the folder. The rest of the drive to the university hospital’s outpatient surgery center was quiet, with Felicia obviously content not speaking if Ava didn’t initiate conversation. Ava, for her part, kept pulling out her screen, remembering that it was still locked down so the only person she could talk to was Amythyst, and putting the screen away again because she didn’t want to look pathetic.

A late-middle-aged man met them at the door to the surgical center, and was introduced as Dr. Kumar. Ava was hustled inside and her new ID was used to admit her, after which Felicia quietly told her she’d be in the waiting room until it was time to take Ava home.

Dr. Kumar was quietly excited as he took Ava through the process of getting ready for surgery. She would remain awake the entire time, only receiving local anesthesia, and the doctor did everything himself, with quick, efficient movements that said he’d done this a thousand times before. Though, he admitted, not recently.

Apparently, he was developing a new type of optical implant, and had applied for funding, but was turned down due to a clerical error on his application. Amythyst, or ‘Amy Thees’ as Dr. Kumar knew her, had offered to finance his work in exchange for his personally overseeing Ava’s surgery. The doctor was very excited to begin work, and rambled on about flexible inorganic bioelectrics until Ava finally relaxed, her worry soothed away by his complete lack of concern as he tested, measured, and even drew on her eyes and face.

The procedures themselves were shockingly brief, with only one nurse finally coming in to assist the doctor. Ava tensed as her vision went white and foggy, and the doctor seemed to be scraping and pulling at her eye, but his voice was calm and encouraging, and the gloved hands touching her face were steady, so she breathed through it until her vision returned, though it was still cloudy and unfocused.

The auditory implants were slightly better. She couldn’t see anything by then, and just felt pressure and heard strange scraping and grinding sounds as Dr. Kumar and the nurse leaned over her, murmuring quietly to each other. When one ear suddenly went deaf, she nearly panicked, but the doctor spoke into her other ear, letting her know this was perfectly normal, and she was almost done.

Then it was over, and the doctor sent the nurse away, personally leading Ava to a private recovery room. It was dim, with quiet music playing, and the doctor asked her a series of questions about her vision and hearing as he fiddled with a screen on the wall. At last, he made a small sound of satisfaction, and the world snapped back into focus. The music gained depth, and the world no longer seemed shrouded in a thick, heavy fog.

“Oh,” Ava said, barely able to breathe past the relief. She had been terrified that something had gone wrong, and she would be partially deaf and blind for the rest of her life. Instead, colors seemed brighter than ever before, and she swore she could hear the piano strings thrum as the music played. “What are the lights?” Her hand waved through empty air as she tried to gesture toward colored lights that ringed her vision.

Dr. Kumar smiled. “Those will become your display. It can be whatever you prefer, really. Some people like a weather bar, or a video feed of their front door, while others want a stock ticker.” He shrugged. “Normally, we’d set them up before you leave, but Ms. Thees indicated that she wanted you to work with a specialist, so we’ll leave them as is for now. The important thing is that your vision and hearing are satisfactory?”

She nodded, looking around at what she’d thought was a small, dark room. Instead, the walls were covered in an intricate, beautifully detailed painting, and everywhere she looked she saw new details. The doctor noticed her amazement and smiled. “One of our residents is quite an artist, and she plays Veritas Online. She volunteered to paint the recovery rooms, and said she was inspired by some of the graphics in the game. We like it, since there’s so much to see once we get you adjusted correctly.”

Ava nodded, looking from an image of a man bent over, working in a field, to a stout dwarf wielding a hammer, to a woman who was recognizably the game’s user interface avatar, Emily. Now that Ava knew she was based on Amy, she could see a faint resemblance in the bridge of the nose and the arch of the eyebrows, but that was where the similarities ended. The cold, impassive expression on the woman’s face held none of Amythyst’s exuberant personality.

Dr. Kumar held out his hand, and Ava tried to take it. The doctor chuckled as her hand slid off the back of his. Ava squinted, adjusted, and tried again, this time managing to grasp his warm, dry hand. “Don’t worry,” he reassured her. “You think you’re seeing normally, but believe me, your brain is a little more confused than it’s letting on. Just take it easy for a while, and you’ll get the hang of it before you know it.” He knocked on the door, which opened, and Felicia walked in. She held out an elbow for Ava to take, and Ava did, even though she felt a little silly doing so. Then she almost walked face first into the doorframe, and clutched at Felicia’s arm.

Together, the three of them made their way down a few short halls to a closed door. Dr. Kumar swiped his ID badge, and it swung open. He smiled at Ava one more time. “I’m glad I could help you, Ms. Shaw, and I hope in a few years you’ll consider coming back to get my new, upgraded implants!”

Ava nodded, final pleasantries were exchanged, and Felicia carefully led her to the car, which was waiting by the curb right outside the door. Ava winced at the brilliance of the sunlight, and signed in relief when she slid onto the cool dimness of the car’s interior.

As soon as the car started moving, Felicia leaned forward. She shone a light into Ava’s eyes, then examined the three new cuts on her jaw. They were small, and had been sealed with surgical glue, but there were already bruises blooming beneath the skin. Looking satisfied, Felicia sat back in her seat.

“That’s as neat a job as I’ve ever seen. In a few weeks, you won’t even be able to tell you had surgery.” The corners of her eyes crinkled slightly. “Or less, with whatever miracle cure you’ve been using. Now,” she held up a small bag that rattled slightly. “These are your medications.” She spent the rest of the drive detailing the use of the various serums, creams, eyedrops, and antibiotics in the bag. At least half of them were meant to minimize scarring, which wasn’t really a big deal to Ava, but she nodded obediently. Those nods grew smaller and smaller as the painkillers she’d been given at the hospital wore off and her jaw began to throb with a bone-deep pain. The pain in her eyes was surprisingly tame in comparison, feeling more scratchy and dry than sore.

As they started down the long drive to the house, Felicia gently caught Ava’s arm as she started to rub her eyes. “No rubbing,” the other woman said, firmly setting Ava’s hand back in her lap. “Rule number one.”

Ava nodded, yawning widely. “I know.”

Felicia actually smiled. “You know, but your body hasn’t gotten the memo yet. Be vigilant.” The car pulled to a halt, bounced slightly, and Frederic silently swung Ava’s door open. Felicia offered an elegant hand. “Be well, Ms. Shaw.” Ava started at the new name, but shook the hand as Felicia continued, “We start a new job tomorrow, so we won’t be immediately available if you need us, though we’ll still bring supplies as needed, just on our schedule, not yours. Our number is still in your contacts, however, so if you require further assistance, you may contact us.” She fixed Ava with a gimlet stare. “This is not something we offer all of our former clients, so do take it seriously.”

Frederic reached in a black-gloved hand, and Ava set her own in it, though not without some trepidation. His fingers closed with astonishing gentleness, and he helped her from the car and up to her front door. When he returned to the car, he paused beside Felicia, who had exited the car and stood on the perfect lawn. Felicia set her hand on his arm with clear possessiveness, and smiled up at him before looking at Ava. “We wish you all the best in your future endeavors, Ms. Shaw.”

Ava nodded, winced, gave a small wave, and entered the house, almost managing not to walk into the door as she went.