I read to Corax te into the morning. He never moves the entire time, but I hope it helps. The only reason I stop is because of a knock on the door.

  I put down the book gently and give a comforting pat to the small lump of bnkets that Corax is hiding under.

  “I’ll be right back.” I whisper to him before getting up and opening the door.

  “You would not believe how hard it was to get the color right.” Ivy stands in front of me with a bundle of deep red hair in her hand. In the other sits my clothes, as vibrant as the day I first saw them, and she’s even repaired the holes. It’s as if she took the blood from my clothes, and put it into my new hair.

  “Thank you.” I carefully take my clothes from her and put them on. It’s nice to be covered again, to pretend to be just a little more human. “Is this real hair?” I ask her, gently taking it from her hand.

  “Mm hm. Told you it wouldn’t be hard to find someone.”

  It feels like silk in my hands, somehow even smoother than the hair Kara gave me. I can’t believe someone would want to cut off this much. Although I guess hair isn’t as meaningful to humans as it is to me.

  “Has Cassie’s surgery started yet?” I ask.

  “Not yet. She’s with Vince getting prepped in the infirmary.”

  “Ok.” It should be ok to get started on installing my hair then, I’m too excited to wait for the surgery to finish first. “Thank you again.”

  “Let me know if you need anything else.”

  “I will.” I close the door and turn back to Corax, climbing onto the bed and pcing my hand gently on him. “Hey, do you want to come help repair my hair?”

  “No.” Comes his muffled response.

  “I think it will help.”

  “No.”

  I’m sure I could get him to, I’d just have to tell him it’ll make up for his mistake. I can’t do that though, he didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not about to manipute him to make my life easier in the short term at the expense of his long term confidence.

  “Alright. I’ll be back in a little bit. If you need me, just hit the intercom and ask Hummingbird to notify me.”

  Corax gives me no response, and I give him one st pat before heading downstairs.

  The compound is already busier than yesterday. A slow, but steady trickle of scrappers are making their way home. At least with everyone focused on unloading cars, almost nobody pays attention to me as I make my way to the workshop.

  I interrupt Sonia preparing her operating table. A few of her surgery tools are glowing red hot in her forge, and she’s wiping down surfaces with what must be some sort of disinfectant.

  “Blue?” Sonia asks, her voice making her confusion clear. “I’m operating soon.”

  “Cassie said she was ok with me being here.”

  Instead of a response, she shrugs and gets back to work.

  I grab a few pairs of fine tweezers and find a seat at a table as far away from the operating table as possible. I remove the skin ptes that make up my scalp and get to work.

  It’s a very slow process. A few strands have to be fed through a nearly invisible hole and then tied into a mesh on the bottom of the pte. And that simple task has to be done thousands of times.

  I’m not even close to done when the garage door opens. Vince, along with a few doctors, wheel Cassie in on a bed. She’s still awake and alert, wearing a light gown designed to be easily removable. Numerous IVs and uncountable wires snake underneath it.

  “Cassie, are you ok with the bot doing some repairs?” Sonia asks. The nurses and doctors don’t know what I am.

  “It’s fine.” She responds dismissively with a wave of her working hand. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  “Do you want me to move you?” Vince asks her quietly.

  “I got it.” Cassie stands up, careful not to disturb the endless sensors attached to her.

  She carefully ys down on the surgery table and the doctors spring into action. Wires are hooked into monitors and machines, and IV bags are hung in the rafters above. All the while Vince holds Cassie’s working hand. Once they’re done Sonia hands Vince a syringe.

  “I’ll be there when you wake up.” Vince tells her gently.

  “You better be.” She responds with a small smile.

  Vince connects the syringe to a port on one of her IVs and pushes down the plunger.

  “See ya in a second.” Vince stands there holding her hand until a few seconds after she falls unconscious. Even after she’s fully gone, it takes a few seconds before he ys down her hand. He steps back and walks over to me, taking the seat next to me. “Hey Little Blue.” He says quietly enough for the others to not hear. His voice is barely hiding his worry.

  “Is it ok for us to talk?” I whisper to him without moving my mouth.

  “As long as we’re quiet. They’re too focused to notice.” He reassures me. “Anything I can help with?”

  “I think I’d rather do it myself, sorry.” I’m sure he would do an ok job, but it’s my hair. I have to make sure it’s perfect. I don’t want to waste a single strand of what Ivy gave me.

  “That’s alright.” Vince stares in Cassie’s direction. The doctors and nurses are surrounding her, preventing us from seeing more than small fshes of skin.

  “She’s going to be ok, right?”

  “Yeah. I can’t remember the st time Sonia messed up.” He says without taking his eyes off of her. “That doesn’t make it less scary though.”

  “I wish I could help.”

  “Me too, Little Blue.”

  It’s not long before the surgery begins properly. It’s weird knowing Cassie is being cut into so close to me and not doing anything about it. Against my better judgment, I can’t keep myself from looking. Bright red blood covers Sonia’s hands, and my mind screams at me to help her, to stop her from being hurt, to fix it. It takes me a few long seconds to settle my panic.

  Just focus on my repairs. If anything goes wrong, Vince will see and take care of it. Me watching isn’t going to help anything.

  Things get worse when a high pitched whirr starts, followed by a spinning bde meeting flesh, followed quickly by bone. I instantly shut my ears off, but the echo remains bouncing around my mind. I’m ok. Cassie’s ok. This is good for her.

  I tap on the table to get Vince’s attention. He’s reluctant to tear his eyes from the surgery.

  Hear. Off. I signal to him.

  Ok. He gives a short signal back before returning to watching Cassie.

  After three hours of focusing exclusively on my scalp, I’m interrupted by a tap on my arm.

  Hear. Ok. Vince signals to me.

  “Is something wrong?” I turn my ears on to a mostly quiet room. Cassie is being gently moved to a bed on wheels. A shining metal arm has been seamlessly attached to her, held tight to her chest by a cloth sling. Skin melds into steel as if she was born that way.

  “They’re done. Come on.” Vince says quietly.

  “Did it go well?”

  “She’s safe, and that’s what matters. We’ll see if she can move her arm in a few days.” Vince waits for me to stand before making his way to Cassie. I scoop up my hair and my tools and follow, but at a distance. I don’t want to get in anyone's way.

  The courtyard outside is packed with people unloading cars. Even though it’s busy, the sea of people part for us.

  I follow everyone into a small, mostly barren room on the first floor of the compound. They wheel her bed against a wall and put her IV bags on small hooks above her. The nurses do a few st checks on her before leaving us alone.

  “Just call if you need anything.” The st nurse says before closing the door.

  “Shouldn’t a nurse be here with us? To make sure she’s ok?”

  “I’m more than qualified if something goes wrong.” Vince reassures me.

  “Ok. How long is she going to take to wake up?” I ask once they’re gone. Finn did put a few medical textbooks in my mind. I’m not sure how useful they would be though, I can’t imagine they use the same anesthesia they did before the world ended.

  “A few minutes.” Vince grabs one of the chairs in the corner of the room and sits just beside Cassie.

  I stand next to him and wait. I’m gd they put Cassie’s gown back on and covered her with a bnket. Even if I don’t really get it, I know humans can be picky about nudity.

  Sure enough, a few minutes ter Cassie begins to stir. Her head flops to the side and her eyes struggle to open.

  “Vince?” She struggles to speak. “You made it.”

  “I sure did.” He responds with a chuckle. “How do you feel?”

  “Uh.” She shakily lifts her working arm, and lets it flop onto her new metallic one. “I can’t feel it.”

  “That’s ok. It’s off until you heal.”

  “What? Why?” She sounds offended.

  “So you don’t hurt yourself.”

  “Oh, right.” She spends a few moments running her hand across the metal. “Is it too big?”

  “No, it looks great. Sonia adjusted the size, remember?”

  “Oh. I forgot.” She seems enraptured by the feeling of steel beneath her hand. “I had a really funny joke, but I don’t remember it.”

  “What was it about?” Vince asks.

  “Something about costing an arm and two legs.”

  “I’m sure it was hirious.”

  “It was!” She puts effort into defending herself, even going as far as trying to push herself into a sitting position. She quickly falls back, exhausted by her effort. “Sleepy.” She turns to me for the first time. “Hey Blue. Can you read to me again?”

  What does she mean again? Vince raises an eyebrow at me, and I shrug back. A few threads of thought connect deep inside my mind, uncovering the answer. She must have been listening while I read to Corax.

  “Uh, sure.”

  If she’s been listening, anything I read from my memory would be something she already heard. Finn didn't put anything nonfiction in my head, and I can’t imagine she wants to listen to dry lectures about computer science. Although maybe she wants something familiar?

  I begin reciting the beginning of the book she just gave me. Within minutes she’s once again unconscious, gently snoring in her bed

  “She didn’t sleep at all st night.” I whisper to Vince once I’m sure she’s asleep. Hopefully she’s too tired to be woken up by such a soft sound.

  “I’m not surprised.” He responds, equally quiet.

  “I hope she won’t be angry about saying that ter.”

  “I’m sure she’ll pretend to be.” He responds with a small smile. “Did you know Silver used to read her to sleep every night?”

  “Really?”

  “Mm hm. Even I could probably recite that book from memory at this point.” Vince spends a moment staring at Cassie, deep in some memory.

  He stands up with a sigh and walks over to the intercom on the wall.

  “Hey Hummingbird?” he says into it. “Could you tell Ivy, Lucas, and Silver that Cassie’s alright?”

  “Silver already knows. Ivy’s on her way and Lucas says he’ll be by ter.” Hummingbird responds a second ter.

  How can she have multiple conversations at once? Maybe Trochilidae did some of them?

  “Thank you.” Vince returns to his seat.

  JanePtinum