The Immortal Rules

Story 15

Claire was off in a corner and Sam knew from experance that bugging her was not a good idea. So instead he moved away, tiptoeing in the direction of the stairs. It had been so many months since their very first meeting and Sam was good with staying out of her way when she was working. Plus, though there had been good times between them there were still those two times that hung over him, bringing him embarrassment. He grabbed his coat off the back of a chair in passing, intending to go walking outside for once. It was almost evening anyway and the sun would be going down.

“Hey, Sam, wait a second,” said a voice and Sam froze, looking back at Claire. She’d shuffled around, spinning a rob between her fingers. It was about the length of a pencil. When she saw she’d gotten his attention she tossed the rob in his direction. “For you.”

Sam looked down at what he’d easily caught, surprised. “Um … what is it.”

Claire mimed that she was still holding the rob and seemed to press something at the top. Sam looked at the top and was a bit surprised that a button did seem to be located there. When he pressed it, there were some faint noises and movement to the rod. It took a second for him to place it but … “Heartbeat?” His eyes knitted together. 

“More like a radio,” said Claire. “But I noticed that you hadn’t figured out how to cause your heartbeat to work.” It was a bit more of a perceptive assumption than Sam was at first comfortable with. That she’d noticed the lack of it in his own body had made him uncomfortable. He knew that the radio, as he pressed the button again, was probably the main point to the whole thing, but he was just a bit touched that she’d wanted to give him anything at all, no matter what it was.

He smiled a bit lopsidedly at her and nodded his thanks before tucking the pencil length thing into his pocket and turning back for the direction of the door.