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[amicably_absent]

Glitch wasn't entirely ready for this, but he didn't think he ever was going to be. You didn't get ready for someone doing a reinstalling transplant of your brain back into your head when you couldn't even actually remember having it taken out in the first place.

They had him dressed in a loose, open necked and shapeless shirt with similarly matched trousers, the theory being that he'd feel more comfortable and relaxed in calming clothes. And he knew that Wyatt and DG were outside the door, well, Wyatt, DG had been pale and struggling and she might have gone now that he was walking into the surgery and being helped to lie down.

"Just lie down, Ambrose, and we'll get you nicely under. You won't feel anything."

He lay down, a nurse looked at him with warm eyes as she stroked his forehead and hair, checking for signs of trouble along the zip. The doctor nodded, white lights being turned on and the mask over his lower face.

Glitch felt his heart start racing.

"All right now, Ambrose. Just count back from a hundred, ninety-nine-"

Glitch remembered nothing more. Certainly not flipping to his feet and off the table and definitely not barreling out of the surgery doors, through the waiting area and out of the hospital entirely at a flat sprint that he never would have credited himself as being able to do.

Comments

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

It was a glitch, but a tiny one and it hasn't repeated.

"You didn't have to. I appreciate it though. Thank you. I think waking up alone would've been horrible."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"It's what people do for people they care about."

He sets the tray down, squared and de-cored apple quarters all done. "Here. Have some."

And he'll steal one, because Glitch isn't the only one who's hungry.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"I know." Glitch catches Cain's hand as he moves the tray over. "Thank you."

Then he takes a piece of apple and nibbles at it, swallowing with a contented sigh. "That's good. I haven't had an apple that good since... since, well whenever it was."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

Their eyes meet. It's all Cain can do not to let the relief get the better of him. He nods. Looks away.

"No problem. And I think it was one of those dinners we shared. So I could reclaim ownership of my hand. ...do you remember?"

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Glitch sinks back into the pillows, then reaches up to start poking at his zipper, feeling along it with the familiarity only years of living with it can bring.

"The tags gone. And... is that stitches? Huh?" He looks back up to Cain, to his hand and then nods, starting to smile. "Yeah. My hand. You're just keeping it safe."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"Uhuh." He nods again, agreeing with the slightly unnerving exploratory comment. Stitches keeping the zipper shut. Good thing, but a morbid idea.

"I was hoping you'd have forgotten that detail." He almost grins. No, scratch that. He does.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Glitch laughs softly, mindful of the sleeping princess. "I don't forget what's mine. My coat. My marbles. My hand." He ate another bite of apple.

"You should smile more."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"You remember..." His voice is filled with wonder, and he sits back slightly. He can't believe it's gone this well, and so soon after surgery. He just can't. But seeing is believing, and he can see it in Glitch's eyes. No longer filled with faded memories that are just out of reach, they seem brighter, somehow. More alive, yet just the same as he remembers Glitch on a really good day. Full of spark.

"Do I, now? Well..." He chews another piece of apple thoughtfully, brushing his hands together. "I'll see what I can do. I'd better be smiling on our wedding day, huh?"

Turnabout's fair play, but Cain's always liked a bit of good-natured cheating.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"Some things, yeah." Things that have been bouncing without the outlet of his full mind to reconcile and sort out and be remembered.

He has just taken a bite of apple when Cain drops the wedding bombshell.

He chokes, sitting up and coughing until he can breathe again. "Our what?"

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

And Cain, being the good man he is, reaches out to pat Glitch on the back to help with the coughing.

"Something you said when you woke up after surgery. You were pretty out of it, and said something about me being here when you woke up, or the wedding's off."

There's a world of smug gloating in his eyes, and he's grinning like it's second nature. "This is payback for DG asking me wedding related questions for ages afterwards.

"'Can I be your maid of honor, Cain? What color will our dresses be? Ooh! We'll need to get you a suit!'"

It's uncanny, his mimicking the princess. Really.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"I- what, really?" Yes, of course really, he doesn't think Cain would make that up. "I said that? Huh. Fancy that."

But he dosn't care if he gets some ribbing and teasing over it, because Wyatt's grinning and it suits him so well. "Well, being as how you were good enough to be here, I suppose it would be terribly cruel of me to cancel the wedding at this point..."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"Uhuh." No, he really wouldn't. Chances are it wouldn't even cross his mind.

He shrugs, helping himself to another piece of nice, juicy apple. "Not to mention it'd be a sore disappointment to our friends and family." He tilts his head back at DG. Still snoring.

"Did you sleep well? You were actually playing the piano for a while, there." :3 He makes a gesture of stroking keys in the air to further facilitate things.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Glitch follows his gaze back to DG, still sleeping peacefully curled up in ehr chair.

Still snoring. For a princess, she was amazingly inelegant at time, especially with her mouth near hanging open. Glitch chuckles and shakes his head.

"I don't remember anything from sleeping. Just... I had to recite the periodic table and then I woke up and you were here." He cocks his head. "Do I play the piano?"

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

The periodic table. Cain nods with approval. Good nurse, that one.

"I have no idea. Seemed like you knew how, though," he says, pausing to scratch his cheek. Time to shave again.

"Not as if you've pretended to play in front of the mirror. Like you actually knew it. Muscle memory."

Haven't they had this conversation before?

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"Huh. Maybe I do. I don't remember knowing how to play the piano. I knew how to hotwire a car though. And strip and rebuild an engine." He sighs and closes his eyes, then reaches blindly for his drink again.

"At least I know who you and the princess are this time."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

He chuckles - the sound is enough to startle even him in the silence of the room. How to hot wire cars. How to strip and rebuild engines... No, neither of those quite fit with Cain's picture of either Ambrose or Glitch. But somehow, they seem just perfect. Everyone should have their quirks.

"...you know, Glitch?"

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Hot wiring a car is just an extension of stripping and rebuiling engines. Tiny mechanisms involved in a greater whole.

"Hm?" He looks up to Cain. "What?"

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

Makes sense, even if Cain will always associate crime with the first.

"I think I'm gonna miss calling you Sweetheart every time your synapses go misfiring."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"You don't have to wait for me to glitch to call me 'sweetheart', Tin man." Glitch smiles slightly. "And I'm still going to glitch and stuff. Just, hopefully not so bad that I cna't stop it and go off and forget who I am and who everyone near and dear is."