Page 62 of Garbage

Quincy didn’t need to breathe. But he could still pull in air through his mouth. Following Ben’s instructions was easier than having to think.

“Good. And out.”

He exhaled.

Ben pushed something into his hand. It was blue, and a little rough and…

“My towel!” Quincy held it to his nose, pulling in the scent of Evan and home.

“They said you could keep it here,” Ben told him. “Until you get out. Just breathe right now.”

Quincy obeyed, losing himself in the bumpy texture and the memories the scent evoked. Evan’s face when he’d given him that first gift—with an expression that Quincy now knew held embarrassment and attraction. He remembered Evan watching fondly as he showed him the washing machine.

He knew now that hanging on to the towel was a little bit silly, and that Evan probably hadn’t literally meant that it was his.

But it was still his most precious possession.

When he was finally ready to move on, Ben was still rubbing his back.

Even though he’d killed people.

“Am I… am I really going to get out?” Quincy asked his friend.

“I’m confident that you will,” Rashid answered instead. “The difficult part is that we need to get you registered as a spark before the case goes to trial. If it goes through too early, the suit will be against the city, for reckless maintenance of a robot. They’d settle out of court with a payout and an agreement to terminate you. While I know it sounds worse, we want you to be tried for murder as a spark, where we can argue self-defense.”

Both of those sounded awful. Quincy didn’t want to be a murderer. He didn’t want to be terminated either. “I didn’t know,” he said again. He hugged the towel to his chest. “Is… How long…” He couldn’t quite come up with a question. What he wanted to know was if he’d be safe. If he’d ever see Evan again.

Justice answered his unformulated questions. “Since you’ve already filed your application for spark registration, your registration would normally clear immediately. The fact that you’re in jail is going to add some complications. But I’m confident I can get it through in three to four days.”

“I passed, then?” Quincy asked. Just to confirm.

“You passed in the first five minutes,” Mr. Carter told him, reaching across the table to pat his arm with one wrinkled, trembling hand.

“Actually,” Ms. Alvarez corrected, “we only got to existential questions and ethics at the end. But I didn’t have any doubts. You’re a spark, love. And that makes you eligible for several funds and other supports for new sparks and sparks who have been the victims of hate crimes. Would you like me to submit your applications for those?”

Quincy looked at Ben, who gave him another nod.

“Yes, please. Do I have to do anything?”

“I’ll send through some documents for you to sign,” Ms. Alvarez said. “You may want to consider a last name.”

He looked at the lawyers, who had to have something special between them to share the last name Pierce. “Do you think it could be Llwyd?” he asked Ben. That was Evan’s last name.

“Absolutely. Quincy Llwyd.” Ben grinned, which… probably meant he was being serious?

Quincy’s fans whirred, even though he wasn’t overheating. He wanted that more than he could say. Well, he wanted to ask Evan, to make sure it was what he wanted… but if Ben thought it was a good idea, he believed him.

“I’ll also have some papers for you to sign,” Rashid told him. “If all goes well, you won’t even need to appear at the trial. I’ll use the footage from this interview, as well as Evan’s recording of the event, and we shouldn’t need to drag you through any more trauma. Just sit tight, and give me about a week to get everything squared away. Two weeks at the most.”

“You’ll be seeing more of us in the meantime,” Ms. Alvarez told him. “I can set up a few appointments with you to just talk things through, if you would like.”

“Yes,” Quincy told her. “I’d love that.”

“You’ll see at least one of us again,” Rashid told him. “We may have more questions for you, and we’ll try to set up a visit with Evan once he’s out of the hospital, if you’d like that.”

Quincy bounced on his toes. “Please! I want to see him.”

Justice and Rashid gave him matching smiles. “We can see that,” Justice replied, as if they’d been the one to start the conversation.