The Timeservers

Chapter 49

New York City, New York

The Spire

Project Rooms

December 20, 227 P.F.E

1100 hours

Leo had been spending every minute where he wasn't supporting Sophia or Kelly in the project rooms. Sleep was totally out of the question. Doing anything was almost out of the question. So he came down to feel productive in some way.
The hourglass is getting close to finishing. Maybe a few more attempts. Leo glances at the pile of smashed hourglasses in the corner and sighs. There should probably be more than a few attempts.
Leo is about to get rid of his last failed attempt, one with the slim part of the hourglass being off-center when Sophia walks in. He sets it down instead, taking advantage of having to turn his head to put on the face she needs to see right now. It's exhausting, keeping everything at bay for her. But her brother just almost died. Her country is the one falling apart.
Sophia frowns and wraps her arms around the back of Leo's neck. Leo gives her a twisted smile as he hugs her but that just deepens the frown. "I wanted someone to pretend that everything was okay when it's not. I would have gone to my brother. He's still pretending that being stabbed in the gut is just a small deal. You're pretending again. I'm not fragile, Leo. I'm not one of your little hourglasses."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that you're on the verge of breaking into a thousand pieces for the last day and you've been holding yourself together because you think I need you. I don't by the way. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
"I'm fine."
"You only work on the hourglass when you're really upset. I know you, Leo. Are you holding together?"
"Sort of. I'm getting there. Everyone'sanxious and scared. It's familiar. It's a bit too familiar."
"Any flashbacks?" Sophia wonders, releasing Leo and picking up the last failed hourglass.
"Just one. It was easier to get out of thought. I knew it wasn't real."
"Did you see her again?" Sophia puts down the glass but she doesn't look at Leo. She just traces her finger through some of the pulverized sand resting there.
"No. I haven't seen that far since the first time. I still don't know if it was real."
Sophia nods and flips the hourglass. The white sand starts to pour through it, catching on the section that's off-center. It's soothing and peaceful. It's so strange for anything to be peaceful right now.
"Any word from the commissioners yet?"
"They're sending us north. Kelly needs to recover, the mission he and Via were on is still active, and they're sending you as support for her. They think it would be better if she had her trainer with her this time. They think that she might not end up having to give emergency first aid to her supervising agent. We're supposed to head out in three days, give Kelly a bit longer to recover."
"Oh, so I get to meet your parents?"Leo grins. He is nervous though.
"You'll do great. You're a somewhat stable guy. You're nice. You're smart and funny. You would be their absolute dream come true if you weren't a spy. They'd prefer that my boyfriends not be trained liars."
"Boyfriends? Plural?" They'd never actually talked about if Sophia had any previous relationships. If she had asked Leo it would have been as useful as a space heater in summer. He'd never really thought about her former life. Not having his own made it easier to forget that others have a past.
"Don't worry. I just had the one. He was cute, but he wasn't good at making me laugh. He was too caught up in being everything everyone expected from him. He forgets how to be fun, or that he's a teenager. I never told him I loved him."
"So there's no plural there?"
"No plural." Sophia smiles and leans in for a kiss. Leo obliges and holds her tight. He likes it when they're able to be themselves for a minute. Even if everything else is wrong this is going right.
"Did your parents like him?"
"Not even a little bit. Oh, if Via asks me about her parents one more time I'm going to scream. I'm just worried for the day when my stalling doesn't work anymore and she finds out they were shot down by Hound."
There's a tinkling sound; the sound of shattered glass being scuttled across the floor. Sophia and Leo snap their heads to where the sound came from and there's Via.
Via's eyes are wide and she's shaking a little. Her eyes dart from Leo to Sophia and back again. Leo steps towards her but she backs away.
"Via, what are you doing down here?"
Via looks right past Leo to Sophia. There's hurt in her eyes and her nose twitches a little, anger. "I should have stayed in that tower. You didn't tell me that I have been living next to the reason my parents don't know me for a month? I've been serving the country that ordered it for a month? I'm done trusting people who mess with my head. If I'm going to be surrounded by people that I can't trust I'd rather know from the start that I can't trust them." Via turns around and runs from the project room just as the sand in the hourglass stops.