“Yes,” Fallon confirmed. “I imagine that you have a lot of questions for me.”
“You could say that. I’ll come back to the ‘how’ part of regaining your memory later. What I really want to know is why you married me. Was it some tactic, from your…employers?”
Fallon appreciated Wren’s caution. Privacy or no, there was no good reason to mention Blackout in public. Most people still thought the organization was a myth.
“No. I married you for all the normal reasons that people get married.”
“Why?” Wren’s fingers drummed on the otherwise-forgotten menuboard. “You made it clear that getting married is just not done in your profession.”
“Believe me, I’ve gotten a lot of shit about it from my teammates. But you pursued me, remember. Relentlessly. And when we started dating, I found that our relationship was something I’d never had before. Nurturing. Caring.” Fallon fought the urge to squirm at saying such touchy-feely stuff. “I never thought I’d be interested in a domestic situation, but with you it felt…right.” Fallon shrugged, fighting down a swell of remembered feeling. She had no room for that in her life.
“You loved me,” Wren translated.
“Yes.” Fallon didn’t care to put so fine a point on it, but she knew it was the answer Wren needed. And Wren wouldn’t stop asking until she got it.
“And no other reason? No ulterior motive?”
“I was sent to investigate you for smuggling, but it was a bogus assignment. I knew that before I even came to Dragonfire. I knew something was wrong in—” she caught herself and adjusted her words, “—the upper levels. That’s probably why my team was split up on different assignments, to get us out of the way while they decided what to do with us. Or it might also have had something to do with this.” She tapped her temple.
“Right.” Wren’s mouth squinched up as if she’d eaten a lemon. “I won’t ask about your team, or any of that. Clearly, it’s not for my ears.”
Fallon must have let a hint of surprise escape because Wren smiled wryly. “I was a security chief’s wife for six months. I’d gotten quite used to knowing there were things you couldn’t discuss with me.”
“Makes sense. Do you have any other questions?”
Wren’s eyes lit with the irreverent gleam that Fallon knew so well. “Sure. I’d love to know where you’ve been for the last six months and your history with those four you brought back with you. And yeah, I know it’s four. I hear things. But,” she continued, “like I said, I’m not going to ask about all that. I guess my only question now is, where does all this leave us? You and me?”
“Where do you want it to leave us?”
Wren tucked a stray pink tendril of hair behind her ear. “I’m not sure. I still have feelings. But I don’t know about dealing with all the baggage you bring. And, knowing you, you have some strong feelings about how I reacted to the things that happened.”
The reminder sent a streak of resentment through Fallon, though it faded as quickly as it came. “Yeah, you could say that. That was some pretty poor shit.”
Rather than being stricken, Wren smiled. Fallon had always liked how resilient Wren was. She had a way of finding the humor in things that would shock or crush other people. It was one of the things about Wren that Fallon had fallen for.
“You swear a lot more now,” Wren observed.
Fallon hadn’t thought about it, but she suspected Wren was right. She blamed Hawk and Peregrine’s influence for that. “Things change.”
Wistfulness filled Wren’s eyes. “Yeah. They do.” She studied Fallon. “But what does it all mean for us? What are we to each other?”
“I don’t know. Some sort of friends?”
“The kind of friends that used to be lovers? Or the kind that sometimes still are?”
She should have been able to answer that question, but she could only shrug.
“Sarkavians are good with letting relationships be whatever they are at the moment, but would that kind of ambiguity work for you?” Wren didn’t look doubtful, merely curious.
“I guess we’ll see.”
Wren studied Fallon. “I guess so. Does it make any difference that I’ve started seeing someone? Just a casual thing. I wouldn’t even mention it, but since you wanted monogamy before…” She trailed off.
That had been before Raptor returned to her life, and their relationship had changed. He hadn’t mentioned exclusivity, but Fallon had grown up in a very traditional Japanese family, with a strong foundation in loyalty, devotion, honor, and yes, monogamy. She always thought others should do whatever worked for them, but could she feel honorable in that situation herself?
She wasn’t prepared to discuss Raptor with Wren, so she only said, “I don’t know.”
Wren gave a tiny nod, her expression full of understanding. She checked the time on the menuboard. “We should order. I’ll need to get back to the shop. I’m on a deadline to get that chamber ready.”
“Right. So we’ll have lunch. Like friends.”
Wren gave her a sunny smile. “Let’s give it a go.”
As Fallon punched in her order for Bennite stew and bread, she wondered if she could actually manage a friendship with her former wife. Platonic or otherwise.
Some missions were harder than others.
After lunch, Wren went back to work and Fallon lingered on the boardwalk. This had always been her favorite part of the station. The boardwalk teemed with life like no other place on Dragonfire, serving as a mixing bowl of everything the station had to offer. She could observe the commotion of travelers coming and going through the docking bays, and people doing their shopping. Fashion choices ranged from the flamboyantly eccentric to the deeply conservative. Yet all of these elements meshed and interacted in this space, forming a community of variety that Fallon found deeply satisfying.
She loved the smells as much as the sights. A deep breath drew in aromas
