It was morning again. Today marked the last fourteen days of our time together. Two more weeks, then he was gone.

As if knowing that as well, it felt like Charlie was clutching me a little tighter this morning.

He hummed and kissed my forehead when he sensed I was awake. I hummed back in response and smiled a little. Tiredly, I then opened my eyes and looked up at him.

My heart instantly squeezed. He looked so gorgeous with his golden hair all in a rumple and his face so relaxed as he breathed me in and sighed contently. His purple eyes glowed at me, but his smile won the shining competition. "Good morning," He said, his voice still gravelly with sleep.

"Morning," I replied, exhaling in relaxation as well when I felt utterly peaceful right now. If only the world could stop and stay like this... "How long have you been awake?"

He hummed again, thoughtfully. "About ten minutes. You were almost done with your REM cycle, so I let you sleep."

I chuckled. "How kind of you."

"You're welcome."

Smiling, we both pulled our faces together for a quick morning kiss, Charlie's breath being perfect as always. I wanted to linger, but I could only imagine how horrible my own breath was. I could just picture myself explaining his death to C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S.

Charlie didn't seem to mind at all, though, and if he did, he did a stellar job of hiding it. His lips caressed mine and his hand slowly crept up my side, tickling my ribcage, just below my chest.

"I love you," He pecked my lips and hummed in delight. "And I really love your breasts."

I pulled back and looked up at him. "Charlie!"

He immediately blinked, confused. "What?"

I chuckled again and took his crass compliment with a goofy smile. "It's nothing. It's just, you usually don't tell someone you love them, then point out the specific thing that you love, especially if it's a sexual part of the body."

"Why not?" He questioned with a frown. "How is that wrong? I love you and I love your breasts. How can one be good and the other not good? As long as I'm complimenting you, then what's the problem?"

"There's no problem, silly." I said and brushed his cheek. "As long as you mean well, then it's okay. Humans are complicated, and trust me when I say, not all men compliment women's breast just because they like them."

"Then why do it?"

"So they can touch them. Or even better, go home with the woman and have sex with her."

Charlie blinked even more confused. "I don't get it. If that's what they want, why not just tell them that? Seems time saving."

I let out a laugh and covered my mouth to control myself when Charlie frowned and looked so confused. I really didn't mean to laugh at him, but he was adorable. "It's not that simple. We don't go around just asking random people if they want to have sex with us. It's inappropriate."

"Inappropriate? To ask another human if they may please that other human in a healthy round of coitus?" He looked at me when I sighed and shook my head. "Why are humans so complicated? Whenever I ask you if you if I can be inside you, you never say no. Why can't they be easy like you?"

"Easy?"

"Yeah. No...?" Charlie slowly removed his smile when he saw my face, reading that he clearly just said something wrong. "What happened? W-was that wrong, too? Carly?" He stuttered when I pursed my lips. "I didn't mean to—I just meant that you're not hard to seduce—" He winced and swallowed a lump when I kept staring. "I-I love you..." He finished, lamely.

I looked at him for another two seconds, but then burst into a full laughing fit. I couldn't hold a straight face any longer. I knew he didn't mean what he meant, but the poor man had actually blushed when he thought I was really mad at him. That was worth a few seconds of teasing him.

I grinned, but pressed my lips to his, seeing him looking more confused than ever at me. "Oh, Charlie. You're impossible to be mad at. Even when you mess up, you find a way to help yourself."

"You were staring at me and you—"

"I was just teasing you. You're adorable when you're put on the spot. Plus, it was a nice challenge to see how you'd recover if you ever really messed up."

His face turned into a small scowl and his jaw clenched. "That wasn't fair. I didn't know you were challenging me."

I shrugged and rolled over, turning away from him. "Some challenges in life are unexpected."

"Yeah? I have an unexpected challenge for you then."

And with that, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me on top of him. He made me shriek and laugh loudly as he trapped me face up against his chest, sinking one hand between my legs before I could close them. He wasted no time to tease me to a wrecking ōrgasm that left me panting in his arms.

I couldn't even care that this had become our daily way for us to wake up.

Just. Couldn't. Care.

~~~

Getting out of bed kept taking longer and longer every day, and after this morning, it had nearly taken me an hour to get out of the bathroom as well. My muscles were aching with all the physical activity Charlie kept putting my body through, not to mention the mental strain he was exhausting me with. I never knew ōrgasms could be so intense—that they could leave you spent for the rest of the day, but that was B.C; Before Charlie.

So, after a long bath (separately), we had both finally made it downstairs for breakfast, which was more of a brunch at that point. I had planned for Charlie and me to work in the garden today since the weather was nice and it would be a shame to waste it hidden away inside. After brunch, we therefore ventured out into my yard which needed a loving hand and gave it just that. Charlie did the mowing while I handled the weeds, both of us stopping for sips of lemonade every now and then.

We spent most of the day out there until the whole garden was blooming once again, looking pretty and neat. Charlie celebrated the freshly cut grass with a bit of soccer which I participated in, but then retired from when I begun sweating like a pig. The heat was getting a little too much for me, and Charlie's skin was beginning to turn a little more reddish than brown, so I advised him to step inside as well.

"So," I said as we scrubbed our hands from dirt in the kitchen sink, getting all of it out from under our fingernails, "We have about four hours till dinner. If you're hungry I can make some sandwiches, but I was thinking we should relax for the rest of the day and read some books I have lined up for you. Interested, or do you prefer to do something else?"

"I don't mind reading," He said, playing with a little bubble he made with the soap, then gave me a grin as it floated into the air. "What do you want me to read?"

"I..." I quickly realized as the bubble kept floating up into the air that it wasn't floating by itself. It was him manipulating it somehow; Levitating it. "Charlie..."

The bubble popped and he hurriedly looked down. "Sorry. I won't do it again. I know it's bad."

"No, no." I cleaned my hands off and looked curiously at him. "I've actually been meaning to ask you for a while... how do you do that? Levitate stuff? I remember we talked very briefly about it the first time you did it. The salt incidence..." I could tell by his eyes we both thought back to that evening. I quickly carried on; "I remember you nodding when you said you did that with your mind, but what is it that you actually do?"

Charlie looked down a little and dried his hands off in the hand towel, shrugging his shoulder. "I don't know... I think it's molecular manipulation. The world is made up of them and I... I guess I can manipulate them if I concentrate hard enough."

"And... so you can do this with everything?"

"I think so."

"Does size or material? Density, velocity...?"

He shrugged again and put the towel down. "I don't know."

"They never tested your limits in there?"

"No, they did. They just didn't tell me the results."

"But—"

"They drugged me after some experiments with a potent drug that affects the memory. I think they didn't want me to know exactly how powerful I was. Am."

I paused for a moment, letting it sink in. It appeared drugs were their favorite thing to use in there. "Well... maybe we could try that out tomorrow. I mean, if you're up for it."

He blinked at me in surprise and rose his brows. "You mean...?"

"Yes, Charlie. I want you to use your abilities. They're a part of you and you shouldn't have to be ashamed or afraid of using them. I'm sorry I made you stop."

He shook his head and broke into a wide grin, then surprised me by pulling me in for a hug. "Thank you! I love you so much, Carly."

I sighed and patted his back. How I wished he would stop saying that so my evasion of the subject would stop hurting him... "It's no problem. But today; we read."

~~~

Charlie had adjourned to his room to rest his leg since my couch was too small for him to stretch properly. I hadn't minded. It had given me some private time that I felt I needed since he had become so overly fond of being close to me lately. It was like with each passing day that went by and counted down the little time we had left, he grew closer and closer to me. I knew that in the end, it would only make the goodbye so much harder. Even though I hoped I could convince C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S to grant him more freedom, I stayed realistic and therefore didn't allow myself to be optimistic.

I knew there was absolutely no way they were letting him back out once they learned he had fallen in love.

I shook my head and had just finished organizing a bouquet of flowers from my newly fixed garden when I heard Charlie call my name from upstairs. I sighed and walked up there, smiling when I saw him sitting on the edge of his bed, his door wide open. "What is it? Don't tell me you called me up here because you can't haul yourself up from the bed." I chuckled.

"I can't," He said, and I now noticed the shakiness in his voice I hadn't detected before. And that's when I also noticed his prosthesis lied limply on his mattress instead of being attached to his leg. "Something's wrong."

Worry now crept into me as well. "Wrong how? What is it?"

"It won't link with me," He said, lifting the metal leg and slipping it onto his real leg. He tried to get up, but the mechanical device didn't work it's joints, resulting in Charlie falling back into the mattress. "It's designed to interlink with my mind and follow my brain's signals like a normal foot, but it doesn't respond. I can't get up, Carly," He looked at me panicked, almost hysterically as he tried to get up again, but hopelessly flopped down.

"It's okay, calm down," I said and quickly knelt down to him when he started shaking his head. I put a hand on his shoulder and made his eyes meet mine. "You're sure you didn't tinker with it somehow? Bump it against something that could've damaged it?"

He shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. It can withstand volcanic temperatures and arctic freezes. It's not going to break if it hits something. Something's wrong with me," He said. "I can't... I can't link with it."

I processed his words, then gave his shoulder a little squeeze. "It's okay. I'm sure it's nothing major. I'm going to call C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S and have them send someone out here to look at it. They'll know what to do, and they'll having you walking in no time again, okay? Are you alright with that?"

He nodded silently, but then pulled me into his arms for comfort. A hug fixed everything. I clutched him back and stroked his shoulder—kissed the side of his head.

I had to get him out of my system before C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S got here.

~~~

It was only willpower and my concern for Charlie that kept me from slapping Dr Evan Jacoby as he with a smirk stepped over my threshold once again, a smirk that had seemed just too cocky and arrogant for my taste. Since he his last visit here had promised me we would be seeing each other again and I had told him we certainly wouldn't, the smugness of his prance and attitude cooked me enough to want to slap him limp.

But I didn't. Because Charlie was still sitting upstairs, on his bed, unable to walk with defective his prosthesis.

"There'll be no invasive procedures, do you hear me?" I told Dr Jacoby as we ascended the stairs with his damn medical team that seemed to be a physical requirement for his ass to drag itself here. "Charlie won't be submitted to anything he doesn't want to, and that's final."

"I obviously can't make any promises if you expect me to be able to fix his leg," He told, keeping that arrogant look on his face as we made it to the top. "If the problem is with the Creature and not the leg, we might have to run a few tests on him."

"And in that case, those tests will first be explained and then carefully and harmlessly executed under my supervision. Is that understood?"

He gave me a patronizing, almost mockingly sympathetic smile and then turned his eyes to Charlie who looked up from the floor once he saw us come inside his room. "Perfectly. Hello, 6402-C."

"And you'll address him as Charlie," I snarled before Charlie could respond, which he had almost done. He needed to learn that those numbers weren't his name and he shouldn't ever respond to them.

"Of course, my apologies. Charlie," The Doctor clucked amused and looked at Charlie like this whole ordeal was a joke to him. "Shall we take a look at that leg?"

He met my eyes and probably saw the anger in them, but then nodded to Dr Jacoby and sat up a little straighter. "Yes, please. I don't know what's wrong."

"Let's inspect the leg first, then determine what we can do."

I monitored the whole thing; listened closely to every word that was spoken, even if I didn't understand much as they switched to professional terms and medical jargon. Charlie replied and volunteered to show them the issue, then allowed them to do basic health check-ups which I agreed to as well. After almost one hour of tinkering with his leg and examining Charlie, Dr Jacoby stood up.

"I think I've located the problem with his disability to connect with the prosthetic limb," He told, straightening his glasses and looking solemnly at me. "Of course I can't be certain since you won't allow any invasive procedures, but even so, I'm almost positive my answer will be the same."

"What is it?"

"It appears that 640—Charlie's brainwaves have altered," He said, pursing his lips and glancing at me like it was my fault. "Something inside his brain has changed his brain's signals and, in lack of better terms, is interfering with his mind's link to his prosthesis. In layman's terms, it would be similar to a radio station picking up white noise due to someone tinkering with the stats."

"Oh," I said and frowned genuinely. I glanced back at Charlie who was listening to what one of the other scientists were saying while they were working on his leg together, messing with some wires and re-wiring them. "Well, is it fixable?"

"Oh, yes. The leg just needs an adjustment, he should be able to link with it within the hour. If I were you, I would be more worried about why this happened in the first place," He said and once again looked at me like I had done this. I defensively crossed my arms and gritted my teeth.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that in all the time he lived in the lab, he never had a problem with his leg. That means something on the outside must've altered his brain—made it scramble up, so to speak."

Scramble up? Altering it? I didn't want to admit my suspicions to Dr Jacoby, but what was worse was, I didn't want to admit that his tone of voice was more than just accusatory. It was almost implying. Knowingly.

I schooled my features and steeled my stance. "So in other words, it means I've managed to improve his mind and make it play on a higher frequency? Well, gosh. It's incredible what one can accomplish when not doped on drugs."

It was my turn to be less than vague with my accusations. Dr Jacoby gave me a hard stare, but then shook his head disapprovingly and turned to look at Charlie. "We'll find out in two weeks, won't we? I believe that's the time that's left of his stay here, or am I incorrect? Then it's back to the lab where he belongs."

The power this tiny man had on my fists was amazing. They repeatedly balled themselves up and unwound, then clenched themselves tightly again with every word he said. "Charlie doesn't belong in a lab anymore. He's almost fully accustomed to the real world, and in two weeks you'll see just that. He'll be out again before you can stick anymore needles in him, and I can promise you that that'll be the last time you ever get to touch him."

"Well. That's what you said last time, yet here we stand." Dr Jacoby clucked to himself, then nodded to his colleagues who kept fiddling with his leg, using small tools to fix whatever needed fixing. Meanwhile I was trying to rein in my need to punch the doctor with all my strength.

"Last time his mind was on drugs. This time he's clear-headed."

"Well, that can be discussed, but speaking of last time," He said and looked at me once again with a smile that curled my fists. "Did you receive the videos we talked about?"

The videos. I couldn't believe I had actually managed to forget about those, and it was probably that same horror that made my face pale as Charlie looked up curiously, overhearing our conversation. "Yes, I did."

"And? Did you watch them?" Dr Jacoby pressed on.

I kept my answers purposely curt for Charlie's purpose, even though I saw his frown develop, looking between me and the doctor. "Yes. I watched a few."

"Well, then. And you still think keeping him off his meds is a good plan?"

"Listen, you—" I calmed myself down when I once again was seconds away from becoming violent. I was better than that. I possessed the gift of a colorful vocabulary that could do more damage than a fist ever could. After all, wounds healed, but words were eternal. "I don't care what you put Charlie through; his mind doesn't need drugs to stay leveled to a certain functional degree. I stand by my choice and I don't regret what I said or did. My word is final."

To my surprise, the doctor let out a soft chuckle. There was nothing cheery about it, only pity. Like he was listening to a six-year-old kid state its opinion on politics. "Very well then. I see you've made up your mind. In that case, we'll need those videos back again. You know, for policy reasons, safety and all that."

If they were worried I was going to let them fall into the wrong hands, they couldn't be more off their game. "I'll send them first thing tomorrow morning."

"Excellent. We should be just about wrapped up here as well." He looked back at Charlie who understandably looked confused at the two of us. I gave him a small look back, telling him I would explain it all later. His head then lowered and he stayed quiet for the rest of the time.

It took another thirty minutes before Charlie finally got to put his leg on and managed to get up and stay up. He sighed in obvious relief as he flexed his mechanical foot, moving it just as easily as he did before.

"There we go," Dr Jacoby declared as the team packed up. He turned to Charlie who hadn't looked happier to be standing in his life. "That's that. I guess we'll look forward to seeing you again very soon, Charlie. Stay on your good behavior till then."

The happiness on his face slowly faded like a wilting flower, and with an angry growl, I rushed the medical team out of his bedroom. I followed Dr Jacoby down to to the entrée and made a point of opening the door for him. "We won't be seeing you very soon. In fact, I'll be very surprised if we see each other again at all."

And with that, I slammed the door shut. I was too angry to even formulate a decent burn since a bad gut feeling told me he probably and sadly would be seeing Charlie again soon. I just didn't want to think about that. I wanted to stay in the belief that I could convince C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S that Charlie was fit for the world. Or at least that he needed a few more months on the outside to prove it.

"Carly?"

I turned around and saw Charlie standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at me. I sighed and lowered my head. A headache nagged just above my eyebrows and a wrench in my stomach messed with my insides. "I'm so sorry you had to hear that. I didn't mean to upset you, I just don't like this Dr Jacoby."

"What did he mean by 'those videos he sent you'?" He ignored my apology and started walking down the stairs, my guilt rising in my throat with each step.

I closed my eyes when he stopped in front of me and looked down at me. I couldn't bear meeting his glowing eyes. "I... it's... it's some videos they sent me a while back, back when they came to give you that... injection."

"What were on the videos?" He curiously wanted to know. The innocence in his voice almost killed me.

I had to turn away and clutch myself as I spoke the words I should've spoken a long time ago. "You. Experiments with you in them, where they... where they did stuff to you."

There was a hesitant pause from him, most likely because of the gravel in my voice. "...what stuff?"

I sighed a final breath and knew that it was time to come clean. He deserved to know what I'd kept from him; he deserved to see for himself. I couldn't hide it from him any longer.

"I think we should sit down for this, Charlie."

• • •

Next chapter is going to be... interesting.