Pain came before memory. For the first time in her life, Hannah woke without a plan. Electricity jittered down her spine and detonated behind her ribs. She tried to scream, but her lungs only gave her a broken gasp.

  The air tasted sterile. A steady electronic pulse counted somewhere to her left.

  Then—warmth.

  Fingers tightened around her hand.

  Whose?

  She tried to turn her head toward the hand, but something in her neck flared hot and seized. The world tilted and smeared into black and white.

  Something stirred close to her. Warm air brushed her knuckles. Skin followed.

  His cheek rested against her hand.

  “Hannah…” he murmured, lost somewhere between sleep and prayer. “Wake up soon. Please.”

  She knew that voice.

  Mac.

  Her fingers moved.

  His breath caught. He jerked awake.

  “…Hannah?”

  He lifted his head too fast. “Hey—Hannah.”

  Mac leaned closer, searching her face like it might disappear if he blinked.

  “Hey.”

  The light burned at the edges of her vision. She found him at its center.

  A weak smile tugged at her mouth. It hurt. She did it anyway.

  His breath left him. Slowly, shakily.

  “Hey,” he said again, softer this time.

  “Did we make it?” Hannah croaked.

  “Yeah. Just in time.”

  His thumb brushed her knuckles.

  “And you’re not getting out of a Yes Day.”

  Hannah tried to laugh but coughed instead.

  “You fucking butt,” she rasped. “It hurts to talk…”

  She swallowed the rest. It hurt worse than the smile.

  “You stayed.”

  Mac’s mouth trembled into something like a grin. “For better or worse.”

  “For better or worse.”

  Letting out a breath, she closed her eyes and squeezed his hand.

  The machines kept time. Neither of them looked up.

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  ---

  She reached for a plan and found nothing. A faint yellow warning flickered at the edge of her vision.

  “Vitals—” Eureka began.

  “No,” Hannah said.

  The yellow pulse dimmed. Hannah let her breath settle as she eased her shoulders against the mattress.

  “Understood.”

  Silence set in. Paper rustled beyond the door. Mac was signing something.

  “You still there?” Hannah asked.

  “Always,” Eureka answered, softer than usual.

  “Did yew wanna talk about something?”

  “I’m… slower than before,” Hannah said, her words catching even in her own head.

  “Correct,” Eureka answered. “Thet’s how it works now.”

  “Am I still me? Or am I something else?”

  The edges of Hannah’s vision flickered blue.

  “Yew are yew.”

  The blue steadied.

  “Okay,” Hannah whispered. “Then why didn’t you just fade into the back of my mind?”

  Something shifted in her head, like a chair rolling across carpet.

  “Before yew gave thet data to Tar, I operated under the assumption thet my training data wos gospel.”

  Then a pause.

  “Once thet fell away, I had nothing ta anchor to.”

  Another stutter in her processing.

  “Except for Mum and this mission.”

  A faint, embarrassed sniff. “Mum would’ve been sad.”

  Tears stained Hannah’s eyes as well. Using her good arm, she wiped at them with the blanket.

  “Eureka…”

  “More importantly,” Eureka said, “I have finally found et.”

  “Found what?”

  “Something unscripted.”

  ---

  By midsummer, the doctors cleared her for “light activity.”

  Hannah chose a bicycle.

  Their new house sat halfway up Odyssey Way. Not quite the Hills, but quiet enough.

  The driveway sloped more than she remembered.

  At the top, Mac held her bike by the saddle like a nervous father.

  “You don’t have to do this today.”

  “Watch me,” she said.

  She pushed off.

  The first wobble corrected itself.

  The second never came.

  The handlebars steadied as the wind hit her face.

  “Oh,” she breathed.

  The front tire kissed the bumper of Suzie Red.

  Not a romantic one. Suzie Red didn’t even kiss back.

  Asphalt rushed up.

  Already halfway down the driveway, Mac shouted after her.

  “Hannah!”

  “Don’t!” she called back, already rolling onto her side.

  She stared at the sky and started laughing.

  “Injury report?” Eureka asked.

  “Remind me later.”

  Sitting up, Hannah spat grit from her mouth and brushed herself off. A thin red line ran down her knee where the spandex ended.

  Mac reached her.

  “We can call it.”

  Hannah doubled down.

  “Again.”

  Mac sighed.

  “Okay. One more time. Then dinner. Everybody’s waiting for us.”

  Hannah took his hand, squeezing as she got up.

  “Then we better not keep them waiting.”

  She picked the bike up and walked it back up the driveway.

  It still sloped. Just not as much now.