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"Are you all right?" I asked in his ear.
"I am now," he said. "I'm so sorry about…everything. Doctor Mazic…"
"That was the bots, not you," I said firmly. "You wouldn't hurt a fly."
"A what?" he asked.
I snorted. "It doesn't matter. The point is, you wouldn't hurt anyone."
"I would have shot Yinika." He sounded so hurt my heart broke a little.
"I'm not sure she was a person anymore," I said. "She was more bot than anything. I don't think J'avet will feel too bad about it."
"I suppose." He rested his cheek on the side of my head.
"I missed you," I said softly. "Obviously. I did come all the way out here to save your ass." Speaking of that, I cupped his butt and gave it a squeeze.
"Thank you. I'll spend forever showing you how grateful I am for that."
"Me too." Slek wrapped his arms around us both. "I was not host material. I told them that. Do you think they listened?"
"I'm guessing not," I said and gave him a slight smile. "They didn't seem big on independence and consent."
"Yeah, they really weren't," Slek agreed. "Hey, J'avet, can we get out of here now?"
"Do you all need a reminder of how to speak to me with respect?" J'avet rubbed the side of his face. He looked like a guy who had the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders.
I suppose he had.
"Naw," Slek replied. "I never knew, and I'm okay with that."
J'avet grimaced and shook his head.
"I don't think I'm cut out for military life," Danec said. "I may retrain as a librarian, or something less exciting."
"Hey, books are exciting," I protested. And a metric fuckton safer than this.
"They are," Slek agreed. "So, about getting out of here."
J'avet nodded sharply. "Those who can, help those who need it. We'll go slowly if we have to, but everyone leaves here in one shot. No one is coming back down here. Ever."
I let Danec go and reached a hand out to a young Freytauri woman who looked dazed and pale.
"Come on," I said in my best cheery nurse voice. "Let's get you out of here."
She nodded her thanks and let me put an arm around her shoulders.
A mass of slow-moving bodies, we made our way to the stairs as a loud bang rocked the bunker.
The ground began to shake.
"Shit," J'avet muttered. "So much for the IF being two days away."
