Page 29 of I Dated the Lost Song

She looked at Kritz. “Open com?”

“I thought it would help her to hear it. She’s upset.”

“Yes. She’s upset at my pain. That is fucking weird, Kritz. I envy her way with people, and she envies the way family abused me because it looked like caring. I have had therapy. She should invest in some.”

Kritz blinked. “I think you might be right.”

There was a squawk. Kritz spoke to Arcady. “Every time the attention is on your sister, you interrupt and play cute or cuddle up next to her. She isn’t trying to take attention; she is just getting medical treatment. Any other patient or client and you would never behave the way you have been.”

Silence.

Kritz sighed. “We will discuss this when I get home.”

Cadence said, “I am up for a joint viewing session if she wants to know how things feel to me.”

There was a small murmur.

Kritz nodded. “She agrees.”

“I think that the therapists at Z-Corp can make the arrangements. Or we can just ask Zera for an active who can exchange sensory information while remaining distant from it.” Cadence smiled. “Helen is one that springs to mind.”

Zera nodded. “When do you want to do this?”

“Sooner rather than later. She seems to have built a construct where the entire family was against her, but that wasn’t me. That never could be me. I just wasn’t allowed to speak.”

Raek said, “I will come with you. Kritz can run me through his machines again.”

Im-bar came in, and Raek caught her up. She nodded. “Arcady’s behaviour was very much that of a child trying to keep attention, which must have been awkward for Cadence as I was giving her a very delicate and potentially painful insertion.”

Kritz said his goodbyes to his wife and said, “Arcady can’t directly have children, and my sperm are being difficult. We can’t get a living embryo.”

Cadence looked to Raek. He answered, “Show her the files. She can help.”

Kritz paused. “What?”

“When we are at your lab, give her an egg and a sample to work with and see what happens.”

Zera blinked. “What can she do?”

Cadence sighed. “Harmony, but I have to be naked while I work.”

Raek chuckled. “Her pulse will make the sperm behave and make the egg receptive just as she did in your lab the first time. I watched the footage.”

Zera blinked. “Is that why the other attempts didn’t work?”

Cadence looked to Kritz. “Is your semen silver as well?”

He nodded slowly.

“I should be able to manage it, but it will risk an egg. Did you have any left from the first collection?”

“We still have ten left. Arcady has named them all.”

“If she will risk one, I can try and work with it.”

Zera blinked. “You will lock them together?”

“No, I will slow one and speed up the other until they are working at the same frequency. They will be compatible from there.”

---