Sincerely

I was nervous still that Lev was lying to protect me, that he did want more, but he didn’t want to hurt me by being honest. When we were pulled from each other to go meet his brother and father I hung back just inside the door of the lighthouse. I was still worried that despite changing my appearance and removing my indicator his father would still somehow pick up on the fact that I was a deviant and it would be my fault again that the information had gotten out and we had to flee for a second time.

I watched the young boy, Toby, interact with Lev, it made me smile. I looked at Lev as Toby ran inside the lighthouse, I gave a small smile before following Toby into the lighthouse to see where he went, leaving Lev with Josh and his father.

The boy had stopped between the stairs that led up to the top of the lighthouse and down into the living quarters. He looked unsure. He had a backpack slung over his shoulder and I couldn’t get over how much he looked like Lev in the photos I saw of him when he was younger.

“Hello, Toby, my name is Deckard, I’m a friend of Lev’s,” I state introducing myself.

“Hello,” he replied, still nervous.

“Come on, I’ll show you where we’ll be staying,” I replied giving a small smile trying to ease his nervousness.

I led him down the stairs to the living room and kitchen area. Josh had a TV and DVD player because satellite channels and the connection out here obviously didn’t work that well and he needed some sort of entertainment.

“You can take your coat and shoes off, you’ll probably get hot with them on in here,” I explain.

He takes his boots, coat and beanie off, I take them and hang them by the staircase to the main level with our stuff. He looks over the place.

“I’ve never been to a house without windows, it’s kind of dark,” he stated.

“We like the quiet out here, plus it’s fun to hide,” I comment.

“I and my dad are hiding from my mom, what are you hiding from?” he asks.

“Why are you hiding from your mom?” I ask.

“She wants me to live with her, my dad says it would be a bad idea because she’s a robot,” he states.

“What do you mean Toby?” I ask.

“My dad hired a robot, he put a baby inside her, and it grew and became me,” he replied. “I don’t know how science works, but that’s what he told me. He said I was his though, she gave up her rights when she agreed to have me, he said she was just the surrogate, whatever that is.”

Was this why he wanted Toby kept away from deviants? Because his mother was one.

“What’s your mother’s name?” I ask.

“Cleo Concetta,” he answered quietly, with a sad tone.

She must have been worried sick about him.

I heard the screech of wheels on the tarmac and figured Lev’s dad had left without providing many answers about why he was here, considering I hadn’t left them alone for that long. We’d gotten ourselves into something a lot deeper.

“Do you know how to contact your mother?” I ask.

He shook his head.

“Okay, go watch a movie or something,” I muttered, knowing this wasn’t going to make things a lot harder than they already were.

I heard Josh and Lev coming inside, I watched Toby run off to the couch. He used the remote to turn the TV on and started looking through the DVDs that Josh had on his shelves.

Josh came down first and spotted Toby looking through the movies, he went over and knelt down next to him.

Lev came down next and I reached out and grabbed his arm, he looked at me concerned, but then he saw my face and he could tell we had to talk. He nodded back to the stairs and I followed him up back up them.

“Did your father say anything about why he was leaving him here?” I asked, trying to gauge if he’d been told anything.

“No, he just said he’d be back in a few weeks,” he replies quietly, as if ashamed of or fed up with him.

“Toby said they were hiding from his mother, who’s a deviant. He hired an android to be his surrogate, giving up her rights and she changed her mind and wanted him so your dad fled with him,” I explain.

“I can only imagine what he did to make her change her mind, I wonder if she found out about me, and what he did or if he did questionable things and was just worried about Toby’s health and safety,” he comments quietly.

“We need to find her,” I state. “I was worried about losing you, I can only imagine being worried about your child, especially if she doesn’t know where he is.”

“Do you have a name?” he asks.

“Cleo Concetta,” I repeat the name to him.

“It’s okay, we’ll find her, I promise,” he murmurs, hugging me.

“How?” I whisper embracing him, I can feel tears in my eyes for the second time.

“If she’s smart, like you, she’ll be hiding among humans trying to find Toby already, I’ll call someone to look up her name, if she’s associated it with anything, maybe we’ll get a phone number,” he whispered, comforting me.

“Is your father going to go to jail?” I asked.

Since I had stepped into his life, I had ripped him away from his home city, and his mother and now his father could be possibly going to jail. It was like I was bad luck.

“He kidnapped a kid, his own, but none less a kid,” Lev commented.

“I’m sorry,” I exclaimed, burying my face in his shoulder.

“Don’t be sorry, why are you sorry?” he mutters, trying to get me to look at him.

He pulled me away from his shoulder and held my face, it was tear-stained, and I was sniffling and shuttering.

“This is my fault, none of this would have happened if you hadn’t met me,” I sputtered.

“Deckard, no. None of this is your fault, he took Toby away from Cleo, you didn’t do that or make him do it. He can’t accept that either of us are human and we needed to be treated like it. We’re all just people. I love you, Deckard. Sincerely, I promise, you aren’t to blame for his actions, or even what is happening to us, if we would all just treat each other like human beings we wouldn’t be in this predicament,” he murmured in my ear softly, hugging me again.

“I want you to say it, and believe it. It’s not my fault. What happened to Carlos isn’t your fault. What happened to me, isn’t your fault and what happened to Toby isn’t your fault. Say it, Deck,” he pleaded.

I looked away down at the concert floor of the main floor of the lighthouse, avoiding his eyes.

“Please,” he whispered when I stayed silent.

I glanced up at him, his eyes were filled with tears and shiny, too.

“We’re doing the right thing, okay?” he adds, holding my face close to his.

I nodded, taking a deep breath in, shutting my eyes for a few seconds trying to compose myself.

“It’s not my fault,” I whispered, leaning my head against his.

He smiled sadly, before leaning in and kissing me.