Forgotten by Kailin Gow

well.
                Yet it has cost us too. The guards lead us back to the apartment space I shared with Grayson, pushing us inside. Hammond is there, his arm around Johnny’s small shoulders.
                “You’ll be safe and comfortable here,” the senator says. “So long as you don’t try to escape again, you can even stay together.”
                Beside him, I see Johnny’s lips move. The words are easy to make out, because there are only two of them. “I’m sorry.”
                I’m not sure what to think. What do those words mean? Do they mean he betrayed us? Or is he just sorry that he wasn’t able to do anything to help us escape? Maybe it’s something else completely. Whatever it is, we won’t find out any time soon, because the door to the apartment slides shut behind us.
     
     

THIRTEEN
     
     
     
     
    A lmost as soon as the door shuts, Jack turns to me, looking me deep in the eyes.
                “Shall we start by getting those cuffs off you?”
                “What did you have in mind?” I ask, and I get an answer almost immediately as he kisses me, his mouth moving passionately on mine. “Mmm!” I manage to say before melting into his kiss.
                I feel the flash of energy rising up inside me in response to Jack’s kiss, the touch of his hands on my face. It burns up through me, and it takes an effort to send it down through my hands, because right then, all I can think about is Jack. I do it though, and I feel the pressure of the cuffs on my wrists fall away as they melt.
                “That’s one way to do it,” I say, when he pulls back.
                “One,” Jack agrees, “but I could have done it plenty of other ways. I kissed you because I wanted to, Celes.”
                “Well, I didn’t think you’d done it just because it was the best way to generate heat between us.”
                Jack smiles. “I think we generated plenty of that. I missed you in the time it took to get back and put the mission together. I wanted to show you how much I missed you.” He’s holding my face between his hands, and leans in to kiss me again, so thoroughly my toes curl and I kiss him back with everything I have.
                “You weren’t gone that long,” I say pulling back for air.
                “Maybe not long enough,” Jack says, looking serious for a moment or two.
                “What do you mean?”
                “Maybe if I’d stayed away longer, I could have planned the rescue in more detail. I was in such a hurry to get you out of here after seeing you and Gray together in that video that I just grabbed the first Faders I could persuade to help and came over. That isn’t how you mount a mission in a fortress like this if you want it to succeed.”
                “You got to me,” I point out, but there’s something about the way he said it that’s worrying me. “You do think the others got out okay, don’t you?”
                “You mean Grayson?” Jack asks, just a little bit sharply. The trouble is, that’s what I do mean. Grayson went with the other Faders because that was meant to keep him safe. What if it has put him in more danger, though? I know I can’t say that to Jack.
                “About the pictures Senator Hammond sent you,” I say instead.
                Jack turns away from me, stepping over to the apartment’s small kitchen. “I don’t want you to remind me about that, Celes. If I do, I can’t focus on what has to be done. I know you were with him before you were with me, that you really didn’t break it off with him because of your fading, but it still feels like I was punched in my guts. It still hurts. And the worst part is that I’m still drawn to you regardless of it. I can’t help it, whatever time period we’re