“Like you were going to let the past stay dead,” I said, looking at West.
“Yeah,” he said with a roughness to his voice. A long, heavy silence followed for a few moments.
“You have to understand, Eve,” Dr. Beeson continued, desperation rising in his voice. “No one wanted you disposed of. But we had no idea what you were capable of anymore. We thought it was you that attacked West. You shorted out and killed all those people. Given that was in no way your fault, all mine, but we were on the verge of the biggest medical breakthrough in history. I hate to say it, but you were a liability.
“You were supposed to be dead. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that you’re Eve Two and not Eve One.”
His honesty was brutal, but I appreciated it. It was better than soft lies. “My sister,” I looked back to Dr. Beeson. “You only wiped one of our memories, right? Mine.”
He nodded.
“So she’s still out there somewhere,” I said, imagining her running scared through the desert and forests like I had, on her own. “And she remembers everything we went through at NovaTor.”
“I would imagine so,” Dr. Beeson said as he started picking absentmindedly at his roll. “Your sister had an impeccable memory. I’m sure she remembers every little detail.”
I nodded, processing the implications of that. “Is it true? That he and I hated each other?” I felt West’s eyes jump to me, but I didn’t look back at him.
Dr. Beeson suddenly chuckled, his bright teeth in stark contrast to his darker skin. “I don’t know that hate is the right word, but you two fought every time you were in the same room. You always had to one up each other. You each thought you were better than the other. Given that toned down a bit once your chip was in place, but the animosity between the two of you never went away.”
I glanced over at West, just a moment. His eyes were locked on mine, and I could tell the past, our childhood, was playing through his head.
“It does explain a lot between us,” I said, looking back to Dr. Beeson. “The way I would black out every time we were together. Too much emotion—hate and interest—going on in my head. Even if I didn’t understand it or why. But he and my sister, they liked each other?”
“Yes,” Dr. Beeson said, his eyes dropping to the roll he had now demolished. “Your sister was very unattached to everyone at the facility, except West. She didn’t always like to cooperate with us, she was colder and more removed than yourself. But with West, she was different.”
I looked at West again. His eyes were on the table, and there was moisture pooled in them. He squeezed his eyelids closed and shook his head.
While West looked conflicted, I simply felt relief. Half of the tie and pull I had felt toward West was because I thought there was history that grounded us together. The weight and guilt I had felt was clipped away. My entire body felt lighter.
“You see why I made the decision I did?” I asked quietly. “What would have happened if I picked you?”
Dr. Beeson cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably. “Is there anything else you wanted to ask me, Eve? I sense that the rest of this conversation needs to be just between the two of you.”
“No, that’s all. For now. Thank you for your honesty,” I said as he stood.
He nodded his head, and turned and left with his tray of food.
West and I were quiet for just a moment after he was gone, neither of us meeting the others eye.
“So I guess this is where we finally have the non-break up conversation,” West said, twirling a salt shaker on the table with one hand.
“It’s just a lot more complicated and simple at the same time,” I mused, grabbing the salt shaker from his hand and setting it on the far edge of the table. It required everything I had in me to take his hand in mine and calm his shaking. He was instantly still.
My eyes locked on our hands together on the table and a hurricane of emotions whipped through me. I hadn’t forgotten the passion he and I had shared last year. Waking up emotionally like that would be something I would never forget.
“How much of your pull to me was based on the past? On what you thought had existed between you and me?” I asked, still not looking up at him.
He hesitated a moment before responding. I knew his answer, and knew he didn’t want to admit it. “A lot,” he finally responded.
I nodded, rubbing my thumb over his.
“How different did I seem, all that time before I picked Avian?” I asked. It wasn’t an easy question for me to ask, but I had to paint a very clear picture.
West slowly let out a big breath and sat forward. He never let go of my hand though.
“Your emotions were a lot stronger than I ever thought you capable of. Eve One was always so steady, predictable. But you…” he trailed off. “I guess that should have been a good indicator.”
A tiny smile suddenly came to my lips. “I remember, when we were in the desert, heading here, you said something like ‘you used to be a lot easier to deal with.’ That I didn’t use to freak out over every little thing.”
Suddenly West gave a little chuckle. “I was being an ass that day, wasn’t I?”
The smile on my lips grew. “I deserved it.”
West pulled his hand out of mine and groaned as he rubbed his eyes. “How did this all get so complicated?”
“I think we were both just born into a complicated life.”
West chuckled again. “Yeah.”
We were quiet again for a moment as the air around us grew serious once again.
“So what would have happened if I’d picked you, West,” I said as our eyes met. “And we learned the truth all these months later?”
He didn’t respond, and I could see it playing out in my head. “You would have broken my heart, West. My sister was always the girl you were looking for. Not me.”
He chewed on his lower lip, his eyes once again dropping to the table.
“I know this isn’t easy,” I said, folding my hands on one another. “But you know it’s true.”
He took a deep breath, and then his eyes rose up to meet mine. “There was something real between us, Eve. You know that. We both felt it. And you did break my heart, well, more than that, when you picked Avian. But…”
“But I’m right,” I filled in for him.
He didn’t nod or say yes, or acknowledge it, but I could feel it. He knew.
“So now you can start to move on. To heal.”
“That doesn’t make it easy,” he said, his eyes meeting mine.
“No,” I said, shaking my head slightly. “But it makes it possible.”
I heard footsteps behind me a second before I felt a hand on my shoulder. I recognized the warmth and tenderness that came with it and knew it was Avian. West looked up at him, and finally, the anger and hatred was gone from his expression.
I looked up at Avian and met his uncertain blue eyes.
“This is over,” I said, looking from him to West. “The anger and the competition. The fighting. It’s done. We’re in the business of saving the world together. It’s time to move on.”
They both hesitated. The distrust and hatred that had been building between the two of them the last few months wasn’t going to instantly disappear.
But I knew they were both going to try when Avian extended his hand. West shook it.
“Friends?” Avian asked, his voice guarded.
“We’ll get there,” West answered.