One Ending
http://youtu.be/sUHUJE3IM_A
It didn't take me long to get back to writing after the NaNo madness, even though I thought I'd burn myself out on the project. Apparently not, since I'm eager to get back to the NaNo-12 story to fix it up. But I need to give it some time to settle, to get a fresh view on it.
So I dove back into the Binary Knight's world. This last piece of Nigel's story, a sort of an Epilogue, has been itching my fingers ever since the NBH final. But I couldn't focus on it in November. Now I only hope I remember the dialogue close enough to how it was. Darling, if I made some serious mistake, please point it out to me!
***
"She wants you."
"Me?" Nigel asked, genuinely baffled. Audrye nodded in reply. She was trying to stay strong, but he knew she had been crying, when she thought no one was there to see. But at least she showed her grief over the dead and was coping. It was much more alarming when one didn't show any emotion at all.
Captain hadn't left her room once they had managed to drag her there, away from the body. Not just one Knight had suffered a black eye when she had fought back, and eventually Audrye had had to put her to sleep. When she had woke, she hadn't screamed, she hadn't wept, she hadn't mourned. She had eaten the food the carried to her, if only because the tray was put on her lap and kept there until she did so. Anyone asking how she felt was quickly chased away by a bolt of lightning from her cyborg arm. Nigel had thought of remotely shutting it down, but the sight of Matt rushing out of there repeatedly was too hilarious.
"What does she want with me?"
"You're her friend, Nikki. She needs a friend right now."
"She needs a proper friend... Someone who can handle such things", Nigel tried to say, "What can I say? My condolences? I'm just not good at these things."
"If he doesn't want to go, I'll give it another try", Matt volunteered. The thief had been sitting on Nigel's desk, shuffling a deck of cards.
"I'm done healing you up every time", Audrye told him, "Gain one more burn and you keep the scars."
Matt gave her his most charming smile and sent the cards flying in to the air, only to catch them in to a perfect deck again. Unimpressed, Audrye turned back to Nigel, her eyes pleading.
"Please, Nikki. It's the first thing she has said in days."
How could he refuse?
"Now you're starting to learn about women", Matt sneered as Nigel grabbed his laptop, Rei II, and headed downstairs.
He drew a deep breath before finally knocking on the door. There was no answer.
"Emma?"
As there still was no answer, he glanced at Rei's screen. He hadn't shut down the Hummingbird-program ever since the night of the apocalypse. He saw her blank face, staring at nothing, but blinking from time to time. Still alive then. He tried the doorknob and since it wasn't locked, he stepped into the room decorated in red.
Emma was sitting on the bed, her head drooping between her shoulders. She looked so small and defeated, nothing like the smirking soldier she had been only a few days ago. What now? Was he supposed to pat her on the back, say that it's going to be all right?
"You said that I'd survive. Why couldn't you promise it for us all?" she said in a bitter voice. Nigel bit his lip. How was he supposed to have calculated that?
"You want to blame me? Fine", Nigel just shrugged, sitting down on the bed next to her. He could be the scapegoat. He already did blame himself, so why not let her do the same? He should have planned this more carefully. He shouldn't have spent his remaining hours rushing his reports, so that he could be with Audrye. Michael had been right, they all should have stayed at the HQ. If he had thought things through, maybe they would have been more organised. The angel's wouldn't have just scattered out. Zaphikel hadn't been hurt. Michael hadn't shot that off-target beam. Daniel hadn't had to sacrifice himself to save his lord and saviour.
Daniel wouldn't be dead.
"No", Emma shook her head, "I don't blame you."
Her voice was so monotone that it crept Nigel out.
"If anyone, I blame myself."
"What for?" Nigel asked, frowning. The answer dawned to him only seconds after.
"You wish you could have taken his place?"
The grimace on her face confirmed that he had guessed right.
"Emma, then I'd be having this conversation with him instead of you. And no one would be better off."
Actually he didn't think he'd be comforting Daniel if the roles had been reversed. The guy hadn't seemed to be the type to shut himself into his room and ask for Nigel of all the people to come talk to him. He would have prayed to or yelled at God, or perhaps ride off with that motorcycle of his, maybe back to the Ural or something.
Neither one of them had said anything in a while and even Nigel, who usually didn't find silences awkward, felt the need to do something about it. He cursed under his breath, tried to think of all the things Matt had taught him and found them all utterly useless in the current situation.
"Why did you want me here?" he finally asked in desperation.
"You I can handle", Emma replied, "I can't take Foxy's jokes or passes. I really can't take A's condolences and those sad eyes of hers. You'll just sit there. I won't break down for that."
"So is this going to be it, then? You, sitting in your room. And me, sitting here with you?" Nigel raised his eyebrow. It seemed too simple. Anyone could do this for her. Wait, no, they couldn't.
Matt would have smoothly put his hand on her knee, saying that he was sorry for her lost love all the while grinning lecherously. And, because he wouldn't take no for an answer, he would try to offer her a rebound as if it would make it all better. The thief didn't understand love, he didn't understand broken hearts. He would not understand that a part of Emma had died along with the soldier-man.
Audrye would understand it all too well. She would empathise and would want to talk it over. She would reminiscence about their moments with Daniel, go over the good times and laugh about the bad. She would rip open all the wounds that were still bleeding.
"We can't do this forever though", he added, "Audrye will expect results from me."
"They want me back to the society?" Emma said. If only she had made the tiniest of smirks, it could have been something the old her would have said. But no, she was still like a ghost of herself.
"Be the weapon to be pointed at their command? Be a Knight?"
Nigel hesitated, before he replied. Lord Zaphikel had left them his recommendations for the unit.
"Actually, they want you to be the head Knight. Take over the leadership, be the brass and all that."
Emma glanced at him. Her hazel eyes were cold, almost soulless, but at least it was a reaction.
"Me? The boss?" she snorted, "Who came up with that idea?"
"You're the best suited for it. You're an officer and know how to order people around."
"He would have been better at it."
Nigel almost held his breath. This was the first mention of the man she had made. And she was right. Nigel could see it perfectly: Daniel leading the unit with Emma as his first lieutenant, undermining his authority with teasing slaps on his buttocks. They would have been happy, enjoying each other and driving everyone else around them nuts.
Emma had been thinking of similar thoughts. She was biting her lip, and looking more alive than she had been ever since the moment Daniel had died to save Zaphikel.
"We would have..." she started to say, but the words choked in her throat. Nigel frowned. This was exactly what he had been dreading. What was he supposed to do now? Pat her on the back? Just smile and nod?
"Did you know? What we were going to... Of course you do", her voice trailed off. Nigel blinked a few times.
"I have no idea what you're talking about", he told her, genuinely baffled. She didn't seem to hear him. The soldier was trapped in her own thoughts. Then she made her mind, and turned to the hacker with such determination that it startled him.
"I need to hear him again", she said, with all the emotions she had been hiding for days written on her face, "I need to hear it again."
Her hand grabbed Nigel's arm and he gulped when the mechanical fingers tightened around it. All he could picture was his bones, crushing and snapping if he didn't do exactly as she wanted.
"And don't tell me that it's foolish! I don't need any of that psychology bull-shit! I just... I need to hear his voice, when he told me..."
Nigel was starting to get pale and he couldn't avert his eyes off his arm that was going numb. It took a while for her words to reach his brain and then a while more until he comprehended them. It still didn't make much sense, though.
"What? Just, what?"
"I need you to play it back to me", she demanded, dead serious.
"Again. What the bloody hell?"
Her eyes squinted as she was trying to determine whether he was just acting stupid.
"Don't play with me, Vainary", she threatened, the effect multiplied by her using his whole pseudonym. What the hell was one supposed to look like when they were genuinely innocent? Nigel wanted to know and fast.
"I know you've got me on permanent watch", she practically growled, "And knowing you, you documented everything. So dig it up, your files on me from the night before... Before that day."
How could she have known? Was the first question racing through Nigel's head, followed by: Did Daniel tell her? Is she going to kill me because of it? How do I fix this so that she can't counter my program?
"Emma, I don't think this is a good idea..." he mumbled to gain more time to think this through, but she interrupted him, squeezing his arm more tightly. He let out a small whelp.
"What did I just tell you?"
"To not tell you that it's foolish?"
"Good boy."
She was going to make one hell of a leader to the bloody Knights. Nigel wasn't sure he wanted to stick around to see it.
"I need to get Rei. My laptop", he said quickly, "I'll need both of my arms, please."
The pressure was lifted and he shook his arm to get the blood flowing again. There was going to be some interesting bruising come tomorrow. After he had determined that there hadn't been any permanent damage or broken bones, his fingers started tapping the keyboard. His back-ups went straight to Yuki, but he could make a link to download anything he needed.
"What time?" he asked, narrowing down the search for Yuki.
"It didn't take him more than half an hour after you ended our call."
That would make it around six thirty pm. He entered the parameters and Yuki gave him the files he needed.
"Audio only?"
"Put it on the screen", she told him, pointing at the flat screen mounted on the wall. He flicked it on, frowning momentarily at the Everton background image that was a stark contrast to the Liverpool red of the rest of the room.
The video showed Emma, laying on the hotel bed, watching herself from the mirror on the ceiling. She was wearing a quirky outfit of a collar shirt with a large bow, a miniskirt and stiletto heel boots and looked to be deep in thought. He quickly rewind the feed to the point where the past-Emma suddenly glanced at the door. Someone had just come into the room.
"Hiya, honey!" past-Emma greeted the man. It was spooky seeing Daniel there, alive and moving. Well, he did seem nervous for some reason. Emma had rushed to him, the camera panning to the wall, but after a quick embrace he pushed her away.
"Emma, I need to show you something", he said gravely. The camera showed the man unbuttoning his shirt and just before Nigel was about to hit Pause because there was a line he was not about to cross even for Emma's sanity, he revealed a patch on his side. Daniel ripped off the bandage, showing the newly inked tattoo to the camera.
He could hear a sniff from his side. He glanced at Emma and saw that her eyes were fixed on the picture on the screen. It was a brilliant design for a tattoo, Nigel had to admit. Under the Great Globe and laurels of the Royal Marines were the sabres of the Royal Army.
Neither this Emma nor the past-Emma could find any words of how she felt when they saw their unison inked into the skin of her lover. So she just kissed him, very passionately.
"You know, about my tattoo", past-Emma started to blabber after Nigel's cheeks had already blushed from peeping into such an intimate scene, "It was originally supposed to be three words."
"I know", Daniel interrupted her, with a gentle smile on his lips, "Matt told me."
"So you... You wouldn't have minded then?"
"Of course not", he confirmed, "I would have been very pleased, actually."
"Have we seen enough already?" Nigel sighed, searching for the rewind button as past-Emma jumped onto Daniel's lap and he was now carrying her off to bed, Nigel was going to assume.
"Don't you dare!" Emma snapped at him, slapping his wrist. Daniel had sat down onto an armchair, with a glass of champaign in his hand. Past-Emma was opening a can of beer, to toast their inks. She was going to go and get the 'Mon' the very next day.
"Emma", Daniel said, drawing the attention of both of the women, "I love you."
"I love you too!" cheered the past-Emma and whispered the present-Emma, simultaneously.
"Hear me out now", the man continued, "I can't think of spending my life with anyone other than you."
"Well neither can I. I mean, I wouldn't want any other man but you."
"That's good", Daniel nodded, clearly cut off his practised speech, "Only you'll now have to learn to live with sir Daniel."
"Who?"
Daniel sighed. Nigel could almost hear him thinking how extremely thick-headed Emma could be at times.
"Me. My father, sir Robert, was a baronet. And when he died, the title was passed onto me, quite quickly in fact. Nigel did the paperwork this morning."
Actually, he hadn't touched any sort of papers and it had been the night before, but Nigel wasn't going to point out such frivolous little errors. One shouldn't speak ill of the dead and so forth.
"So you're... an actual noble?" past-Emma gasped. From the corner of his eye Nigel could see a lopsided grin creeping onto present-Emma's lips as she amused on her past self's confusion.
"I'm not actual nobility. Baronet is an inherited title that has been awarded by the Queen", the man began explaining.
"But you're a sir?"
"Yes, I'm a sir", Daniel sighed again, and then continued with a new found determination to go forward with the speech that had been so derailed, "And if I ever marry, my wife would be a lady."
"Well, I'm sure you'll find yourself a suitable lady", past-Emma replied, clearly still trying to warp her head around the 'sir'. Daniel was loosing his patience with the woman.
"Emma, I'm talking about you!" he grunted, regaining her attention, "If we get through this, I would've popped the question at some point."
Nigel blinked. So apparently did the past-Emma, since she was so silent. A tear was falling down the cheek of present-Emma.
"Of course I'd say yes!" past-Emma exclaimed as the other tried bravely to hold in a sob.
Emma had buried her face in her hands and Nigel dared to pause the feed. He patted her on the back as he couldn't think of anything else to do. She turned to him, pressing her face against his shoulder and wetting his shirt with her crying.
Stroking her back in a hopefully comforting manner, Nigel's gaze wandered to the screen. It showed a smiling blond Knight who had just had his pre-proposal accepted. He would have married Emma. He would have made her happy. She would have lived on with him. And Nigel wouldn't have had any more use for the Hummingbird-program.
It didn't take me long to get back to writing after the NaNo madness, even though I thought I'd burn myself out on the project. Apparently not, since I'm eager to get back to the NaNo-12 story to fix it up. But I need to give it some time to settle, to get a fresh view on it.
So I dove back into the Binary Knight's world. This last piece of Nigel's story, a sort of an Epilogue, has been itching my fingers ever since the NBH final. But I couldn't focus on it in November. Now I only hope I remember the dialogue close enough to how it was. Darling, if I made some serious mistake, please point it out to me!
***
"She wants you."
"Me?" Nigel asked, genuinely baffled. Audrye nodded in reply. She was trying to stay strong, but he knew she had been crying, when she thought no one was there to see. But at least she showed her grief over the dead and was coping. It was much more alarming when one didn't show any emotion at all.
Captain hadn't left her room once they had managed to drag her there, away from the body. Not just one Knight had suffered a black eye when she had fought back, and eventually Audrye had had to put her to sleep. When she had woke, she hadn't screamed, she hadn't wept, she hadn't mourned. She had eaten the food the carried to her, if only because the tray was put on her lap and kept there until she did so. Anyone asking how she felt was quickly chased away by a bolt of lightning from her cyborg arm. Nigel had thought of remotely shutting it down, but the sight of Matt rushing out of there repeatedly was too hilarious.
"What does she want with me?"
"You're her friend, Nikki. She needs a friend right now."
"She needs a proper friend... Someone who can handle such things", Nigel tried to say, "What can I say? My condolences? I'm just not good at these things."
"If he doesn't want to go, I'll give it another try", Matt volunteered. The thief had been sitting on Nigel's desk, shuffling a deck of cards.
"I'm done healing you up every time", Audrye told him, "Gain one more burn and you keep the scars."
Matt gave her his most charming smile and sent the cards flying in to the air, only to catch them in to a perfect deck again. Unimpressed, Audrye turned back to Nigel, her eyes pleading.
"Please, Nikki. It's the first thing she has said in days."
How could he refuse?
"Now you're starting to learn about women", Matt sneered as Nigel grabbed his laptop, Rei II, and headed downstairs.
He drew a deep breath before finally knocking on the door. There was no answer.
"Emma?"
As there still was no answer, he glanced at Rei's screen. He hadn't shut down the Hummingbird-program ever since the night of the apocalypse. He saw her blank face, staring at nothing, but blinking from time to time. Still alive then. He tried the doorknob and since it wasn't locked, he stepped into the room decorated in red.
Emma was sitting on the bed, her head drooping between her shoulders. She looked so small and defeated, nothing like the smirking soldier she had been only a few days ago. What now? Was he supposed to pat her on the back, say that it's going to be all right?
"You said that I'd survive. Why couldn't you promise it for us all?" she said in a bitter voice. Nigel bit his lip. How was he supposed to have calculated that?
"You want to blame me? Fine", Nigel just shrugged, sitting down on the bed next to her. He could be the scapegoat. He already did blame himself, so why not let her do the same? He should have planned this more carefully. He shouldn't have spent his remaining hours rushing his reports, so that he could be with Audrye. Michael had been right, they all should have stayed at the HQ. If he had thought things through, maybe they would have been more organised. The angel's wouldn't have just scattered out. Zaphikel hadn't been hurt. Michael hadn't shot that off-target beam. Daniel hadn't had to sacrifice himself to save his lord and saviour.
Daniel wouldn't be dead.
"No", Emma shook her head, "I don't blame you."
Her voice was so monotone that it crept Nigel out.
"If anyone, I blame myself."
"What for?" Nigel asked, frowning. The answer dawned to him only seconds after.
"You wish you could have taken his place?"
The grimace on her face confirmed that he had guessed right.
"Emma, then I'd be having this conversation with him instead of you. And no one would be better off."
Actually he didn't think he'd be comforting Daniel if the roles had been reversed. The guy hadn't seemed to be the type to shut himself into his room and ask for Nigel of all the people to come talk to him. He would have prayed to or yelled at God, or perhaps ride off with that motorcycle of his, maybe back to the Ural or something.
Neither one of them had said anything in a while and even Nigel, who usually didn't find silences awkward, felt the need to do something about it. He cursed under his breath, tried to think of all the things Matt had taught him and found them all utterly useless in the current situation.
"Why did you want me here?" he finally asked in desperation.
"You I can handle", Emma replied, "I can't take Foxy's jokes or passes. I really can't take A's condolences and those sad eyes of hers. You'll just sit there. I won't break down for that."
"So is this going to be it, then? You, sitting in your room. And me, sitting here with you?" Nigel raised his eyebrow. It seemed too simple. Anyone could do this for her. Wait, no, they couldn't.
Matt would have smoothly put his hand on her knee, saying that he was sorry for her lost love all the while grinning lecherously. And, because he wouldn't take no for an answer, he would try to offer her a rebound as if it would make it all better. The thief didn't understand love, he didn't understand broken hearts. He would not understand that a part of Emma had died along with the soldier-man.
Audrye would understand it all too well. She would empathise and would want to talk it over. She would reminiscence about their moments with Daniel, go over the good times and laugh about the bad. She would rip open all the wounds that were still bleeding.
"We can't do this forever though", he added, "Audrye will expect results from me."
"They want me back to the society?" Emma said. If only she had made the tiniest of smirks, it could have been something the old her would have said. But no, she was still like a ghost of herself.
"Be the weapon to be pointed at their command? Be a Knight?"
Nigel hesitated, before he replied. Lord Zaphikel had left them his recommendations for the unit.
"Actually, they want you to be the head Knight. Take over the leadership, be the brass and all that."
Emma glanced at him. Her hazel eyes were cold, almost soulless, but at least it was a reaction.
"Me? The boss?" she snorted, "Who came up with that idea?"
"You're the best suited for it. You're an officer and know how to order people around."
"He would have been better at it."
Nigel almost held his breath. This was the first mention of the man she had made. And she was right. Nigel could see it perfectly: Daniel leading the unit with Emma as his first lieutenant, undermining his authority with teasing slaps on his buttocks. They would have been happy, enjoying each other and driving everyone else around them nuts.
Emma had been thinking of similar thoughts. She was biting her lip, and looking more alive than she had been ever since the moment Daniel had died to save Zaphikel.
"We would have..." she started to say, but the words choked in her throat. Nigel frowned. This was exactly what he had been dreading. What was he supposed to do now? Pat her on the back? Just smile and nod?
"Did you know? What we were going to... Of course you do", her voice trailed off. Nigel blinked a few times.
"I have no idea what you're talking about", he told her, genuinely baffled. She didn't seem to hear him. The soldier was trapped in her own thoughts. Then she made her mind, and turned to the hacker with such determination that it startled him.
"I need to hear him again", she said, with all the emotions she had been hiding for days written on her face, "I need to hear it again."
Her hand grabbed Nigel's arm and he gulped when the mechanical fingers tightened around it. All he could picture was his bones, crushing and snapping if he didn't do exactly as she wanted.
"And don't tell me that it's foolish! I don't need any of that psychology bull-shit! I just... I need to hear his voice, when he told me..."
Nigel was starting to get pale and he couldn't avert his eyes off his arm that was going numb. It took a while for her words to reach his brain and then a while more until he comprehended them. It still didn't make much sense, though.
"What? Just, what?"
"I need you to play it back to me", she demanded, dead serious.
"Again. What the bloody hell?"
Her eyes squinted as she was trying to determine whether he was just acting stupid.
"Don't play with me, Vainary", she threatened, the effect multiplied by her using his whole pseudonym. What the hell was one supposed to look like when they were genuinely innocent? Nigel wanted to know and fast.
"I know you've got me on permanent watch", she practically growled, "And knowing you, you documented everything. So dig it up, your files on me from the night before... Before that day."
How could she have known? Was the first question racing through Nigel's head, followed by: Did Daniel tell her? Is she going to kill me because of it? How do I fix this so that she can't counter my program?
"Emma, I don't think this is a good idea..." he mumbled to gain more time to think this through, but she interrupted him, squeezing his arm more tightly. He let out a small whelp.
"What did I just tell you?"
"To not tell you that it's foolish?"
"Good boy."
She was going to make one hell of a leader to the bloody Knights. Nigel wasn't sure he wanted to stick around to see it.
"I need to get Rei. My laptop", he said quickly, "I'll need both of my arms, please."
The pressure was lifted and he shook his arm to get the blood flowing again. There was going to be some interesting bruising come tomorrow. After he had determined that there hadn't been any permanent damage or broken bones, his fingers started tapping the keyboard. His back-ups went straight to Yuki, but he could make a link to download anything he needed.
"What time?" he asked, narrowing down the search for Yuki.
"It didn't take him more than half an hour after you ended our call."
That would make it around six thirty pm. He entered the parameters and Yuki gave him the files he needed.
"Audio only?"
"Put it on the screen", she told him, pointing at the flat screen mounted on the wall. He flicked it on, frowning momentarily at the Everton background image that was a stark contrast to the Liverpool red of the rest of the room.
The video showed Emma, laying on the hotel bed, watching herself from the mirror on the ceiling. She was wearing a quirky outfit of a collar shirt with a large bow, a miniskirt and stiletto heel boots and looked to be deep in thought. He quickly rewind the feed to the point where the past-Emma suddenly glanced at the door. Someone had just come into the room.
"Hiya, honey!" past-Emma greeted the man. It was spooky seeing Daniel there, alive and moving. Well, he did seem nervous for some reason. Emma had rushed to him, the camera panning to the wall, but after a quick embrace he pushed her away.
"Emma, I need to show you something", he said gravely. The camera showed the man unbuttoning his shirt and just before Nigel was about to hit Pause because there was a line he was not about to cross even for Emma's sanity, he revealed a patch on his side. Daniel ripped off the bandage, showing the newly inked tattoo to the camera.
He could hear a sniff from his side. He glanced at Emma and saw that her eyes were fixed on the picture on the screen. It was a brilliant design for a tattoo, Nigel had to admit. Under the Great Globe and laurels of the Royal Marines were the sabres of the Royal Army.
Neither this Emma nor the past-Emma could find any words of how she felt when they saw their unison inked into the skin of her lover. So she just kissed him, very passionately.
"You know, about my tattoo", past-Emma started to blabber after Nigel's cheeks had already blushed from peeping into such an intimate scene, "It was originally supposed to be three words."
"I know", Daniel interrupted her, with a gentle smile on his lips, "Matt told me."
"So you... You wouldn't have minded then?"
"Of course not", he confirmed, "I would have been very pleased, actually."
"Have we seen enough already?" Nigel sighed, searching for the rewind button as past-Emma jumped onto Daniel's lap and he was now carrying her off to bed, Nigel was going to assume.
"Don't you dare!" Emma snapped at him, slapping his wrist. Daniel had sat down onto an armchair, with a glass of champaign in his hand. Past-Emma was opening a can of beer, to toast their inks. She was going to go and get the 'Mon' the very next day.
"Emma", Daniel said, drawing the attention of both of the women, "I love you."
"I love you too!" cheered the past-Emma and whispered the present-Emma, simultaneously.
"Hear me out now", the man continued, "I can't think of spending my life with anyone other than you."
"Well neither can I. I mean, I wouldn't want any other man but you."
"That's good", Daniel nodded, clearly cut off his practised speech, "Only you'll now have to learn to live with sir Daniel."
"Who?"
Daniel sighed. Nigel could almost hear him thinking how extremely thick-headed Emma could be at times.
"Me. My father, sir Robert, was a baronet. And when he died, the title was passed onto me, quite quickly in fact. Nigel did the paperwork this morning."
Actually, he hadn't touched any sort of papers and it had been the night before, but Nigel wasn't going to point out such frivolous little errors. One shouldn't speak ill of the dead and so forth.
"So you're... an actual noble?" past-Emma gasped. From the corner of his eye Nigel could see a lopsided grin creeping onto present-Emma's lips as she amused on her past self's confusion.
"I'm not actual nobility. Baronet is an inherited title that has been awarded by the Queen", the man began explaining.
"But you're a sir?"
"Yes, I'm a sir", Daniel sighed again, and then continued with a new found determination to go forward with the speech that had been so derailed, "And if I ever marry, my wife would be a lady."
"Well, I'm sure you'll find yourself a suitable lady", past-Emma replied, clearly still trying to warp her head around the 'sir'. Daniel was loosing his patience with the woman.
"Emma, I'm talking about you!" he grunted, regaining her attention, "If we get through this, I would've popped the question at some point."
Nigel blinked. So apparently did the past-Emma, since she was so silent. A tear was falling down the cheek of present-Emma.
"Of course I'd say yes!" past-Emma exclaimed as the other tried bravely to hold in a sob.
Emma had buried her face in her hands and Nigel dared to pause the feed. He patted her on the back as he couldn't think of anything else to do. She turned to him, pressing her face against his shoulder and wetting his shirt with her crying.
Stroking her back in a hopefully comforting manner, Nigel's gaze wandered to the screen. It showed a smiling blond Knight who had just had his pre-proposal accepted. He would have married Emma. He would have made her happy. She would have lived on with him. And Nigel wouldn't have had any more use for the Hummingbird-program.
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