Stop Running

"Hurry up." Steven punched the wall above the elevator buttons as he watched the illuminated up arrow go dark and the down arrow illuminate. Jaqueline and Matthew were standing behind him now.

"Where do you think she will go." Matthew queried.

"How the hell would I know?" Steven snapped. Matthew was smart enough to know that if he did not want to get a reaction like Richard got, he better not push Steven and let him continue at his own pace. "Maybe she will get on a train and go to Paris. Maybe she is going to go for a run. Maybe she will go back to her mom's house. Shit, we are in New York, not London. This whole thing has me off balance."

"Her mom's house in London?" Jaqueline asked. "How much of my life did you steal?"

Matthew was saved from answering that question by the opening of the elevator doors. In an instant, Steven was in punching the button to the first floor. The ride up was dead silence from the three occupants. Steven turned sideways and slipped through the elevator doors as soon as they were open wide enough for him to push through. Sprinting out the front door and too the street, he looks right and left and sees no one. "Shit."

"Are you looking for me?"

Steven spins around and sees Sam sitting on the ground with her back to a concrete planter that he sprinted by. Relieved to hear her voice he sits down next to her.

"I did not think there is any sense in running." Sam continues, "we have been doing that for weeks and it has not getting us anywhere. We… I might as well face this. What ever this is."

"Hey, we are in this together." Sam gave Steven a weak smile.

"What do you know about what is going on?' Sam asked

Steven fills Sam in with everything he knows. He shows Sam the picture that Matthew sent him that could have only come from Sam's own eye. As he does he reaches out and grabs Sam's hand and she squeezes it back. "Oh, my." she exclaims. She blushes. The only detail he leaves out is that he shouted at Matthew to shut her down and that Matthew said there is no way to shut her down. It felt like that is a question she should ask and not forced on her.

"If I am a robot like you are claiming why do I have a lifetime of memories?"

"I don't know. We would need to ask Matthew how that works."

"Our car is here." Matthew says as he comes up behind them. Let go to my place.

"Um. How about we go to my place. I would rather not get any more of you on me than I need to." Jaqueline butts in. "Consider this my resignation. But, I really want to get my head wrapped around your logic on this project. We will go to my house and when I am done listening to you I will throw your ass out with your friend and his robot." As soon as she said it, Jaqueline regretted targeting Steven and Sam. She knew that they would not the master mind in this.

The four got in the car, with Jaqueline getting in front to keep tabs on the driver and destination. A half hour later, they are all in Jaqueline's front room. Steven and Sam were snuggled up on the couch with Sam's wrapped around his arm. Matthew is sitting in a hard straight back chair that Jaqueline had brought in from the dinning area and requested him to sit in it. Jaqueline sat in her favorite chair, an overstuffed leather recliner. She settled in after getting everyone a drink. Wine for her and Sam, water for Steven, and Bourbon for Matthew, at the first sip, she could tell he was not impressed. She could not careless what he thought but wanted him to loosen up so he would talk. Jaquiline could not help noticing Sam dressed in her clothes, in her face, in her body, on her couch, snuggling up next to a man. It was surreal. Like watching a movie that you are the star of. She wondered what Sam was thinking right now. There was a brief moment of desire. It has been a long time since she had been held and that thought set her off. She turned to Matthew. "You are going to tell us everything. But let's start with why me?