Matters Of Time and Fate

Chapter 19

Olivia discovered that, if she stacked up the books in a certain fashion, she could make a small house. She placed one flat down on the floor, two pressed up against either side, and then one on top for the roof. After taking a moment to admire the small habitat she created, she stuffed her plush cat and her rubber duck inside, as if it was their house.

"Look!" she called out to Heavy, who was polishing his gun across the room. "I made a house for Cat and Duck!"

Heavy glanced up, and he smiled warmly. "Oh, good. Is nice, Olivia," he stretched up, before saying, "I will be right back, I have to talk to Doktor about something. Play with Cat and Duck,"

Olivia nodded, kneeling back down to focus on what else she could add to her charming little book house. "Okay! Maybe I can make a table and a chair,"

Heavy chuckled, but his smile faded a little as he watched her. He slipped out of the room, heading down the stairs to Medic's lab.

In the lab, Medic and Engineer discussed something in hushed whispers as they laid out some supplies, but Heavy's arrival stopped them for the moment.

"Doktor, Engineer," he began, pulling up a chair. "We must talk,"

Medic set down a towel he'd used to clean his hands and sat beside Misha, looking up at him with concern. "Is everything all right, Misha? You appear to be on edge,"

"I am fine," Heavy assured. "But...I am worried about Olivia. These men...these men who are coming, I do not want them to hurt her. She is scared. Tonight, we must do something, keep her relaxed..."

Medic's mouth pursed up in thought. "Yes, good idea...we should stay here, going out may call attention to ourselves. Perhaps you can teach her to play a game? Or..."

Just then, Engineer spoke up from where he stood at the counter. "How about we have a bonfire, like the good old days? Been way too long since we did anythin' like that,"

Heavy perked up at the idea. "Oh, yes! Is good idea, you can play guitar?"

"Sure thing, big guy," Engineer flashed Heavy a smile. "Sounds like a great idea to me! What do you think, doc?"

Medic considered it, and he nodded. "Yes, I miss those bonfires, you know...we should tell the others, and once we are done preparing things around here, we can focus on that,"

Heavy smiled, relieved. "Good, oh, good..." he stood up, stretching a little. "I want to keep Olivia calm, make her happy..."

"I know, I want that too," Engineer agreed. "I think most of us do..."

The afternoon dragged into evening. After learning about the bonfire idea, Spy took a moment out of his fight preparation to make bruschetta, something he was objectively very good at making.

As he sliced tomatoes on the counter and let the radio play beside him, Olivia appeared in the doorway, having been drawn there by the smooth jazz emitting from the radio's speaker. She lingered, listening, yet it was then that Spy noticed her.

"Yes?" he asked, setting down the knife he was using to chop the tomatoes.

"I like that music," Olivia commented, walking in and hopping up on the counter to get a better listen. She smiled, wiggling a little with the beat of the song. "It's nice,"

Spy couldn't help but smile, turning away from the tomatoes for a moment to watch her. "It's smooth jazz," he told her, approaching the counter and lifting her off of it. "I will set the bruschetta there in a moment, best you do not sit there,"

Olivia frowned, but didn't protest. Instead, she started dancing to the music a bit, humming. Spy snorted, amused. "I see you have an ear for jazz! I have a record somewhere, we should listen to it together,"