Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Are you fucking serious, V?

Shut up, Johnny, I’m trying to work.

No you’re not, you’re gawking at the hot cop in this politician’s BD.

You think he’s hot, too?

Jesus fucking Christ, V! Seriously, just scan the rest of the BD already!

Johnny, seriously, shut up so I can think.

That’s the problem, you’re NOT thinking. You just about orgasmed all over this politician’s car.

Someone’s a drama queen today.

No, only right now. You don’t act like this for anything. At first I was kinda impressed you broke all the rules at once for top secret jobs, working with politicians, and talking to police. But this? The hots for a BADGE? Why am I not surprised little Corpo brats dig cops?

Johnny, seriously, I’m trying to listen. It’s honed in on the audio frequencies, can’t you tell?

No, the EDITOR is honed into the audio. YOU’RE stuck on the visual.

Johnny!

Spare me your hormonal urges and take Vik’s pills already, will ya?

Her eyes almost hurt adjusting to the normal world again. V blinked a few more times as she climbed out of the car. She took only a second to compose herself, then went to Peralezes at their AV and held the braindance shard out to Mr. Peralez.

“That was quicker than I expected,” the Night City Mayoral candidate told her. “Did you find anything unusual?”

“Your instincts seem right on target,” V told him. “The timing was too perfect. Any idea how that cop got there just in time?”

Of course you asked about the cop.

Johnny!

“Detective River Ward?” Mr. Peralez tucked the braindance shard back in a protective case. “Not a clue. But I’ve worked with him before, top of his game, good man. Reliable, and more importantly, honest.”

V studied the politician. “Good enough to know to be there right when the killer arrived?”

Mr. Peralez’s head tilted in thought. “If anyone has more information, it’s gonna be him.” The pupils of his synthetic eyes glowed blue. “Sending you his info now.”

Oh, great. That’s JUST what I need, you calling some cop you can’t wait to throw your panties at.

Shut the fuck up, Johnny.

“Appreciate it.” V took out her phone to make sure the text went through. “I’ll let you know as soon as I find something.”

V watched the Peralez’ drift off in their spotless, top-model AV before turning with a sigh and checking her phone. For the first time since moving to Night City, she hesitated.

Johnny hadn’t exaggerated during the braindance edit. From a distance like a pixelated, old school video game character, that cop hadn’t been anything special other than his timing. But when she’d switched back to the security guard’s perspective to try to read the cop’s face, her insides froze. A tough facade magnified by maintained muscles and rough cybernetics, determination like a barreling train… and the kindest look she’d ever seen in anyone’s eye. Honesty. Someone who intended to save.  Of course his physique was attractive, but appearances to V were little more than a work asset, the body a thing to modify for greater advantage; a sentiment the cop appeared to share. But the look in his eye…

She’d never seen that anywhere.

A deep sigh rose and sank her chest. V wet her lips and dialed the cop. It would be easier to talk if he was an asshole with a deviate facade. V had never known kind people. Even Jackie had been more like the friend of a brother with cold honesty; nice most times, but he had his own agenda and own life that often didn’t involve her. She didn’t know how to talk to kind people.

“Detective Ward,” he answered. V’s cybernetic eye projected a realtime hologram of him. “Who am I speaking to?” His demeanor so far wasn’t what she expected from the braindance.

Oh, Jesus, now you’re trying to convince yourself he’s not cute? Take the fucking pill already, V. Don’t make me experience your cop crushes.

Johnny was right again. That same look was in the cop’s eye now, and his whole face reflected it.

“Name’s V,” she answered. No one but her family had permission to call her Valerie, and she didn’t consider anyone family. “Do you have a moment? I’m looking into Mayor Rhyne’s death.”

The hot cop scoffed. “You’re a PI? Sorry, but I don’t work with private detectives. Like ‘em about as much as I like the scop at Caliente.”

Oh, no, he doesn’t like you. Whatever will you do?

V wet her lip and fought an eye roll. “I’m not a PI, I’ve just been hired to look into the case. What I have access to doesn’t add up. Can we at least meet up?”

The detective sighed. “Fine. I’m on lunch, headed to Chubby Buffalo’s right now, by the overpass.”

“See you in five.”

And he hung up without so much as a goodbye.

V sighed and tucked her phone away. “Johnny, for fuck’s sake!” she said through her teeth.

Traffic was slow that hour. It took V a little less than three minutes to cross The Glen, even at the speed she went; she was not comfortable driving. Slowing her motorcycle near Hanford Overpass, V pulled and parked at Chubby Buffalo’s; the chain had pretty good barbecue. A car was parked along the road, with a truck and a car in the parking lot.

Not very crowded. It’s going to be easy for everyone to hear your private investigation.

Well, I’ll deal with it. Unlike you, I know how to be quiet.

V’s heels clicked onto black and white tile as she stepped through the doorway.

FYI, you look out of place here. You’re dressed like you should be at ‘Saka Tower, not trudging through the little people at some corner BBQ joint.

Johnny, PLEASE give me ONE HOUR of silence today. PLEASE? I need to concentrate.

If the braindance hadn’t been stirring enough, the second the detective glanced around did. No denying it was him. The instant their eyes locked, the world drowned out around them. His eye followed her as she walked through the diner, something unseen spilling out from his gaze. V felt a physical pull in the air on her skin; was there something to that aura stuff Misty always went on about? His coffee remained stuck like he’d forgotten he’d meant to drink. There was something different in his eye this time. Kindness, yes, but also hope.

Admiration.

V couldn’t look away. She had never seen anything more beautiful than Detective River Ward.

Are you fuckin' kiddin' me?! Who the fuck falls in love at first sight?!

“Looks like you have a visitor.”

V didn’t realize she hadn’t been breathing until a gasp filled her lungs.

You gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me. NO FUCKIN' WAY. You are NOT in love with that badge. You are not making ME love that badge. Fuckin' hell.   

The Asian fellow in sunglasses threw a nod to River, who only broke his gaze because V’s lungs forced her to. “You sure you want to work with a merc?”

River swallowed and shoved his coffee to his mouth. “I haven’t decided anything. She’s just here to talk.”

“You know who I am. Do I know you?” V asked the man wearing shades indoors.

“Nope, and I don’t want to. Call you later, Ward.” The old man grabbed a trench coat and scooted out of the booth. “He’s all yours.”

V watched the old man exit the building before looking back to the Detective. Just like that, the magnetic pull returned with the pool of warm air.

River forced his gaze away with a gesture for V to sit. “That was my partner, Detective Han. You… have a reputation at the PD.”

V groaned. “You gotta be kidding me. Don’t tell me I have a warrant.”

NOW what’d you do?

Johnny, not now.

“No, no.” River assured, shaking his head. He took another drink; his coffee was cooling faster than expected. “V as in Valerie Donahue, right?”

V held up a  hand. “Just V, please. Out here.” She gestured in and out of the diner.

“V, then. We have a protocol for when we run into you. Strict orders not to shoot unless you intentionally shoot at us first. Your name comes up a lot in our system, all the Dispatch calls you respond to. Only two others have that same protocol. It would seem you’re all but a badge away from part of the Force.”

Don’t look now, V, but I think your boyfriend is mocking you.

“No offense, but you can keep your badges.” V stopped a passing waitress, “Can I get a coffee? Four cream, two sugars, splash of vanilla.”

River’s chest rose and sank deep, still staring at V. “So… V…Why are you interested in Rhyne’s death?” he asked.

“I’ve been asked to look into it. My client suspects foul play.”

“Who is your client?”

V shook her head. “You know better than to ask that.”

River sighed and leaned forward. “I gotta cover my own ass,” he lowered his voice, “especially since Han knows I’m talking to you. I won’t talk unless I know who hired you. If you know something, I’ll help. But if whatever you’re doing goes south, it’s my job on the line.” Words to protect himself around nosy ears.

 His stare spoke different from his words, though. Soft, kind, longing. V’s arms and hands tingled to touch him.

You know, if you had a cock, it would break this table in two right now.

Johnny, Jesus fucking Christ. V turned her head with a sigh, hoping it looked like she was giving in rather than arguing with a voice in her head. She glanced around, then nodded. “Scoot over,” she told the detective.

River could only watch her as she slithered out of her seat and into his. Right up against him. Legs touching him, facing him. She met his eyes and leaned forward… and River all but froze. So close her breath warmed his skin. A hand bracing his arm, the other draped around to the back of his head. It felt like her lips would push against him any moment.

The name in his ear wasn’t what he expected, though: “Jefferson Peralez.”

River sank deeper into the seat with a sigh. “Figures.” He watched as warm arms released him and tucked back up against V’s body. It would look strange for her to move seats again. “Probably wants to use it as political leverage over his opposition.”

V shook her head. “I got the impression they just want to guarantee their own safety. Wife’s more worried than him.”

River sighed again. “My truck’s outside. Let’s talk there.”

Just great. If you take off your pants, you better pop Vik’s pills first.

“Keep the coffee, my treat,” Va told the waitress, eyes lighting up as she paid her bill.

“You didn’t have to do that. I already paid,” River said, holding the glass door for her.

“I paid for mine,” she clarified.

“Yeah, so did I. It was easier.”

V paused. “Oh. Well… thank you. Next time, I’ll take it with me.”

V hesitated again when River held the passenger door to his truck for her. “First the coffee, then the diner door, now this. Are we on a date?” she asked, sliding into the seat.

River caught her gaze. That wasn’t hard to do, though. It was harder not to stare. “You’re wearing a dress and heels,” he pointed out.

V slipped a small smirk. “These are my work clothes.”

“Right.” River glanced around, ready to close the door. His was the only vehicle in the parking lot. “Where’s your car?”

“I bought my motorcycle.” She gestured to the parking lot on the other side of the diner. “Can’t see it from here.”

He met her eyes again, this time perplexed. “You ride that in a dress and heels? How?”

V couldn’t help another smile. “It’s startin’ to feel like a date.”

Don’t you fuckin’ dare.

“Right.” River dropped his head in a sheepish nod and shut the passenger door. And there she was, caught his eye again already the second he opened the driver’s door. Trying to pretend he couldn’t sense the attraction, he turned on the truck and cranked on the heater. “This is not a date,” he muttered.

From the corner of his eye, V’s lips stretched till dimples formed. “Who exactly are you trying to convince?” she asked.

River met her twinkling gaze. He couldn’t do less than smirk. “Who do you think? I’m not the one dressed like that.”

V pursed her lips. “It really is a work outfit. I need to look professional.”

“With tall blue and green hair?” River teased as he pulled onto the highway. He wasn’t complaining. It brought her blue eyes out like gems.  

“And make a statement. I don’t want to be mistaken for some common gang member.”

“Smart,” he approved. “That’s more or less how I expected you to look, actually. Like some Sixth Street Gang member.” River felt her eyes on him as he drove. “So about your investigation,” he began.

She took a deep breath. “Peralez had me edit the braindance of that security guard you saved. Something doesn’t add up.”

River did his best to look at her and keep his eyes on the road. “The Peter Horvath case. You think it’s connected to Mayor Rhyne’s death?”

“Yeah. I think Rhyne was the intended target, but you and that security guard were in the way.” V shook her head. “That Holt character left seconds before you stormed in with Horvath right behind you.”

“Holt….” River muttered, the cogs in his mind turning.

“Yeah. Who is he?”

“Deputy Mayor.”

“And there it is.” V sighed. “It’s always down to political gain.”

“When is it ever not?” River replied. “I had a feeling something wasn’t right with that case.” He shook his head. “But it was decided, closed. Don’t know by who. We were told it was pointless to reopen a solved case.” He glanced over.

Damn, she looked pretty in his truck. Sitting there as if he would pull up to a fancy restaurant or jazz hall and lead her by the hand. He wasn’t so sure she didn’t dress up for him. The way she looked at him…

“Ever hear of the Red Queen’s Race?”

“No. Some gang thing?” he guessed. It was hard not to look at her. She kept staring. Something River might do if he wanted to memorize something.

“Rhyne had an appointment there the day he died. Holt was the one who arranged it, even. A room. Sounded like a regular thing Rhyne booked.”

“A club, maybe?”

“One only the Mayor, his second-in-command, and their security detail knew about. Peralez hadn’t heard of it until I edited the BD, not even his own security mentioned it. And his wife guessed same as you.”

You know what? Just tell him to pull over and get it over with. I’m tired of sitting here with your ovaries screaming. And thanks to you, I actually know where those are now.

Johnny, give it a rest. I know how to be professional. You saw me at Clouds with that Angel Doll. I didn’t give in then.

Yeah, but you didn’t think that guy was sexy. Your whole damn body is droolin' for this cop. It’s nauseating.

Do NOT make me throw up, Johnny.

“I  have a guy who might know.”

“I’d like to talk to him, then,” V said.

“We can head straight there. I also think it’s worth tracking down Horvath’s boss.” He glanced at her again. “Horvath’s the cyberpsycho.”

“We?” V echoed.

Here we fucking go.

River shrugged. “We can knock out your investigation and my suspicions at once. But I understand if you don’t want to tag along with a cop. Especially in your line of… work.”

“My line of… work,” she echoed, narrowing her eyes a little, looking out the dash window.

“I’m trying to be polite,” he insisted.

V returned her eyes to the cop in the driver’s seat. The red light gave him a chance to stare back for a moment. A small smile tugged at her pretty lips. “Lead the way, Officer.”

Oh, come on.

River felt his own smile tug. “Yes, ma’am.” The grin broke free when V turned her head away, biting her lips, and pink blossoming on her freckled cheeks.

Give me a fuckin' break please.

Johnny, literally nothing is happening.

Uh-huh. Flirting is nothing? Hey Mrs. Love At First Sight, tell that to Mr. Love At First Sight.

Chill. Just let me enjoy the ride, please?

I know exactly what you want to ride.

Johnny!

It wasn’t long before V began staring again. It was different than everyone else staring at him. On any other occasion, people stared to try to provoke a cop or because they thought he was an Animal gang member out for fresh blood, or it was a joytoy looking for hard eddies. Not that River would mind if V wanted a little fun, but that’s not how she stared. That wasn’t the atmosphere in his truck right then.

“You know, it’s not exactly easy to drive with your eyes on me the whole time,” River admitted.

V’s head flew away and she took a deep breath. Wide eyes blinked and tried to focus out the windshield. “Sorry. I… god, this sounds stupid. I can’t … uh… nevermind.”

Eloquently put, V. Mwah.

Johnny, shut up! 

River stole another peek, then forced his eyes back to the road. “No need to explain.” It seemed to be the very thing he struggled with since she walked into the diner. “You got a burning question I can answer for you?”

Her mouth hitched a little with held breath and she dared to stare again. “No.”

“I mean about the case. Mayor Rhyne,” he clarified.

“Oh.” V turned her head, more embarrassed than a moment ago.

River couldn’t help the smile, though he tried to keep it to the side of his face she couldn’t see. “Would it help if I talk?”

I can already tell you: NO. Fucking Christ, it’s hard in your body, V.

“I don’t know.” She paused to bite her lip and try to look out the window again. But her gaze returned before a few seconds could pass. “Are you normally chatty to strangers?”

“Strangers?” He glanced at her.

Yes. Yes, you are. Stranger Danger, V! STRANGER DANGER!

I am sooooo thankful no one else can hear you.

“ … Maybe not strangers…”

River took a full breath. “To answer your question, no. I tend to only talk when I need to.” He glanced over as he took a right turn. “That said… how long have you been a…?”

She looked at him in question. “A criminal?” she guessed. “That’s what cops like to call me.”

“I was going to be nice. Mercenary,” he insisted. “I did say there was a protocol for you,” he reminded her. “You’re a city asset, crim- uh… mercenary or otherwise.”

“Uh-huh, okay,” she chuckled. “Well, I’ve only been in this field for a few years.”

“Hm. Explains why you don’t look like one. What did you do before?” he asked.

Hearing his voice didn’t help. Appreciation and adoration swelled from V’s chest so strong it almost hurt. His voice was the best sound she’d ever heard. She felt less anxious of the road,  felt calmness wash through her. A sense of peace. Maybe Misty was onto something with all her frequencies and aura stuff. And it did not help that he was funny when he meant to be polite.

“Uh…” V let out a little laugh with a small smile and looked away for a second. “I worked for Arasaka. Corpo-rat to the letter.”

“Yeah? How’d you get in there?”

“I was born into it. My parents both worked for them, my mom wrote cyberware programs and my dad was the west coast liaison. They had spotless records in the company, so when I was old enough to work, there were high expectations on my head. I hated it there, though. It’s a rough and… lonely, anxious life. Always under someone else’s boot.”

“Rougher than life on the streets?” River doubted.

“In a lot of ways, yes. At least out here, I say who I report to and why. My job security depends on who I want to say yes to.”

“When you put it that way, Arasaka sounds like the NCPD.”

V shrugged. “At least you save lives sometimes. Right? At Arasaka, there are only ever victims.”

River glanced over. “And what do your parents think of you ditching the family business?”

V huffed. “They disowned me. They were never around, anyway, though, and I was an only child. It wasn’t exactly a family.”

“That’s rough,” he told her.  

“Seems the norm for Night City, though. My parents definitely fit in here.”

“Not in all parts.” River took another right and slowed his truck to a stop across the street.

“What, you grew up with parents around? Must’ve been nice.”

River met her eyes in hesitation as he shut off his truck. “I’m… not ready to talk about that yet. Sorry, V.”

“No worries. I get it.” Her gaze drifted to the road.

This time, River stared. This wasn’t a business call at all. It was like catching up with an old friend. Not sure what lines were safe to cross, but familiarity. He didn’t feel like he owed her any explanations. And she respected his boundaries.

“This where your guy is?” Her eyes looked up at the neon Eighteen Plus sign, head leaning.

River looked over. “Oh, yeah.” Damn, he’d already forgotten why he’d stopped driving. “He works here.” V met his eyes again. “Uh… you’ll have to talk to him,” he said. “Neil White. He’ll run if he sees me.”

“Oookay…” V looked up at the blaring Eighteen Plus sign again, then hopped out of the truck.

River rolled down his window as she walked around the truck. “Tell him Igor says hi.”

V searched his face. “Igor. Because of your eye?”

“Nah, how my jacket sits on my shoulders. He thought Igor would insult me.”

V tried to peer at his back through the window. “He couldn’t see how ripped your back is through all the leather, huh?”

River didn’t mean to smirk. “I’m glad you noticed.”

Equal parts pleased with herself and embarrassed, V turned with a violent smirk of her own and left the Detective to watch her walk away.  

Are you happy now? You got him wrapped around your finger.

Johnny.

How the fuck you did that without suckin’ him off first is beyond me.

You know, Johnny, some people just understand each other.

Right. He understands you want to have his baby.

V tried not to grimace as she walked through the store. Sex sold everything anymore, and sex shops were on almost every block in commercial zones. She never knew a time when -sex didn’t sell everything. She always thought sex should be private because it posed an obvious vulnerability. But to the masses it seemed as necessary as food and water. V never saw the appeal. Sex was everywhere, displaying it had without a doubt replaced every signifier for feel good and for personality for most people. It was annoying.

Yet there she was, following a lead in a sex shop. And the informant behind the counter couldn’t have better matched the description of a sex toy fanboy.

V leaned her forearms on the counter and slapped her palms to the glass. “Hi,” she smiled, big sweet, making sure to crinkle her eyes to give the impression her friendliness was genuine.

Guess you can’t take the Corpo out of the rat after all.

Lucky you.

“Welcome. You look like a woman who knows what she wants.” Neil White even sounded like a sleazeball.

“You could say that.” She turned her hand and admired her nails for extra effect. She’d gotten them done the day prior, and it had been eddies well spent. “Igor says hi.”

Neil’s face paled and his face fell. “Oh shit.” Instead of trying to talk his way out, Neil threw open a door and bolted.

“Goddammit. RIVER!” V yelled and hopped over the counter. She yanked open the same door and ran, vaulting through an open window. Landing on her heels in a slide gave V the momentum to jump back into the chase without pause. But as she sprinted past the dumpsters to catch up, she realized she hadn’t needed to.

River stopped Neil dead in his tracks by turning the corner. The Detective locked his eyes on the informant and kept walking till Neil backed up. “Hey, Neil, buddy!” River grinned. Unlike when he looked at V, River’s eyes were empty for his informant.

V slowed to a stop, impressed River knew the exact place to be.

No, V, that wasn’t sexy.

Johnny, you have no eye for beauty.

Neil tried to bolt, but River braced his ground. “Oh no, you don’t!” He grabbed Neil with a grunt and shoved him against the wall with his shoulder.

V’s breath caught, brows arched, unable to hide her intrigue.

Christ, V, THAT wasn’t sexy EITHER.

Kiroshi optics registered it that way to my brain. Blame it on them.

River glanced at V, a glint of recognition in his eye that matched what V felt from his show of strength and control. Arousal, and no mistaking it for anything else. He hesitated to release his informant so he could take in V's curves.

Neil tried to pry River’s arm off. “Jesus, man, are you gonna let me breathe?”

“Don’t be such a baby.” But at last River stepped back, drawing his revolver to keep Neil there. V stared only a second longer, then followed his lead and leaned against the brick wall on her side. Hiding the road from Neil, V’s arms crossed and a long, bare leg stuck out as either allure or a clear sign running wasn’t an option.

Neil tried to keep his cool and not panic. “What do you want now? I don’t owe you shit, Ward!”

“Hard day, huh?” V stared at Neil like she understood his struggle. “Don’t worry, we’re just here to talk. You have time for that. Right?”

Ugh, V. Definitely proof you can’t take the Corpo out of the Rat.

Neil shook his head and threw his hands up, pacing in tight circles where they let him. “Not like I have a choice, do I?”

V continued staring like she sympathized with Neil. “That’s not true. You can always refuse to help. But the problems with that are there are two of us to one of you, this cop’s a pretty big guy, and I ran after you in heels and kept pace. So you could refuse,” she prompted.

Neil sighed. “Fine. Fine, I’ll help. I want to help. What do you want to know?” It was obvious the man’s day couldn’t get much worse.

“It doesn’t sound like you want to help.”

Neil glared at her, then let out a laugh in disbelief. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I’m just stressed today.”

V nodded with a long blink. “I feel that, choom. But I bet you know how to unwind, huh?”

The informant scoffed. “Just tell me what you want already! I don’t have all day.”

V’s entire facade hardened and she braced the wall near Neil’s head so hard she almost punched it. Neil jumped in start, hitting his head against the brick wall. “Mayor Rhyne and the Red Queen’s Race. No excuses, no lies, or you’ll wish I’d let Detective Ward deal with you. What, where, when, now.”

River watched V from the corner of his eye. He had not expected this side of her at all. Her wardrobe started to make sense, as well: no one expected physical aggression from someone who looked Corpo. Her method was effective. No wonder there was a protocol for her.

“Ow, geez.” Neil rubbed the back of his head. “Some club run by Animals. That’s all I know. But it closed recently.”

“Before or after Mayor Rhyne’s death?” River demanded.

“Uh, after, I think. I’ve never actually been there, okay? I just hear things. It’s in some Animal warehouse,” Neil caved. “Near a junk train yard. I heard them say it’s near a commuter stop. But it’s invitation only.” He looked from V to River, more wary than when he first ran. “Why do you want to go there, Ward?”

V stepped back, pupils aglow.

“Woah, woah, what the fuck? You’re hacking me? I already told you what I know!”

“Not hacking. You’d already be shorting out if I had.”

River scanned V, curious; he hoped hacking people wasn’t a habit of hers. His head leaned to better look at her. She was paying the coward.

Neil’s eyes grew. “Holy shit. Two-k? What for? Come on, I don’t wanna owe you!”

The glow waned from V’s pupils. “For cooperating.” She shooed Neil away like a mangy stray. “Scurry along, now,” as if talking to a child.

River and V watched Neil sulk back into his shop, then looked at each other.

“Nicely done,” River said the same time V spoke: “Well, well, Detective.” Neither could help a smile, and both tried to hide it.

“Why’d you pay him?”

“In case I ever need to squeeze info out again. Money moves mountains for people like him.”

‘Unlikely,” River said, holstering his revolver. “You should have seen what he tried to sell me the first time I questioned him.” V snorted, recalling the multitude of sex toys on display.

V looked out the window of Detective Ward's truck as he drove. “You know, I’m not sure what I’ll do after this investigation is over. I hate driving. Nice change for once.”

“How do you get around if you hate driving?” he asked.

“Walk, mostly. Or run, when I have to chase people. I even learned to run in heels. Hence -” she clicked the heels of her pumps together.

River gave her a double-take. “Even at night?”

V looked at him with high brows. “You ever seen anything scarier than a woman in heels in the dark who packs like Militech?”

River chuckled. “Yeah, that would be terrifying.”

“So… who’s next on the list? Horvath’s boss, you said?”

“Yeah, Christine Markov. She runs a junk booth.”

“What did she say when you guys first questioned her?”

River shook his head, keeping his eyes on the road. “We never did. Case was closed with no investigation.”

V cocked her head. “Hm. Effective.”

“Yeah. I said the same thing.”

“So do we know what this Markov looks like? Or are we just going to wander the market looking like out-of-place undercover cops?” She looked at him. “I don’t exactly blend in on the streets.”

River met her eyes as he pulled the truck to a stop outside the market. “Out-of-place undercover cops,” he said.

They each took a side and made their way around the stalls. They must have looked a lot like undercover cops from the resistance they got. Most said I don’t know who that is or plain refused to answer. River found only one cooperative person. And it was crowded that day, which meant talking over noise with inferior communication.

When at last V found the Detective again, she was starting to lose her voice.

“What?” River yelled over the noise, searching her eyes as if that would let him hear better.

“I’m losing my voice!” she tried to say. “I couldn’t hear a damn thing!”

“Hold on!” Or it’s what V thought River said from the way his lips moved. River’s eye darted while he filtered through his cyberware programs.

“Did you find her? Where do we need to go?” she asked.

River mouthed something that V couldn’t hear, and an incoming program came through with a warning flash, like all transfers did.

“There.” River’s voice echoed in V’s head, all other noises around them muffled.

“So much better. Wow.”  A noise reduction program, and those weren’t sold to the public. Only cops and the military were allowed to use it. At that moment, it felt worth whatever legal action that might await her for having it installed. She even heard her own voice again, and without a doubt she was losing it. “Thank you. I couldn’t hear anyone. Did you ever find Markov?”

River took her by the shoulders and spun her around. His cybernetic hand pointed straight ahead of her. “We should be able to hear her well enough, now, too.”

The Detective leaned against the counter on one elbow, facing V. As with the informant, River let her do most of the talking. V had a way with words that so far affected citizens, and River didn’t discount it was on account of her being female. Next to men as large as River, women looked harmless, plain and simple.

A couple men dressed like stereotypical Tiger Claws caught River’s eye. As long as they weren’t committing an immediate crime, he was keen on letting gang members walk free, moreso if they had low bounties like the two nearby. But these ones looked like they had an agenda. They picked V out of the crowd like she was a neon sign in a dark, empty alley, looking her up and down and leaning close to talk. Their eyes never left her. It wasn’t hard to guess they thought V was a Corpo lost in the crowd; easy money, no doubt complete with a sexual assault. They were so focused on V that they never noticed River watching them.

The two Claws went to the stall next to them, and River did the only thing he could think of that wouldn’t cause a scene. He reached over and pulled V close to him by her hip.

So close, so fast that V put a hand on his chest to brace for whatever she thought was about to crash into her. She glanced behind her, then stared up at River. It wasn’t until she took a deep breath that River tore his eyes from the Tigers.

It was intimate, far more than he expected. He hadn’t given it much thought other than making sure V wasn’t kidnapped. Now that they stood so close, even River wasn’t sure it was just about protecting her. He was well aware that he still held her hip. And with her staring at him like wildlife in headlights, River didn’t want to let go. A quick glance to the Tigers beyond, who walked on but kept glancing back, then River pulled V in closer and held the small of her back. It only drew their eyes back to each other.

V did her best to keep talking, but her gaze never left River’s eyes or lips. And the Markov lady was so preoccupied with her sorting that she never noticed the Merc and Detective staring like they would give into passion any moment.

There was no question. They wanted each other.

V, seriously, take the damn pills already.

River walked a little closer to her after that, even though the Tigers were nowhere to be seen.

But it wasn’t so simple as tricking Tigers. River should have guessed as much. As soon as they cleared the busy stalls and River’s truck was in view, they both sighed.

“Well, that might be a record,” V tried to joke. “We were gone how long, and someone only now tried to mess with it?”

“Let me handle it, please.”

“Yessir, Officer.”

V remained behind him at the corner of the old stall. River rolled for intimidation and passed with bonus luck: he had dealt with one of the two Claws before. It gave him leverage to deescalate the situation and turn them away.

It didn’t stop them from eyeing V and whispering to each other as they walked around her. V watched till they were out of sight, then met River at his truck.

“Anything busted? Or missing?” she asked.

“Doesn’t appear so.”

She hummed. “Think you were lucky. Usually they slash tires and scratch crude words into the body.”

“Thanks for not killing them. I… know you handle most of the dispatch calls about them. But this way, less paperwork for me.” River leaned backwards against the old building and exhaled deep, holding a blink longer than was safe in that area.

“Eh, I didn’t feel like getting bloodstains on this skirt. But you know, I’m starting to think it’s dangerous to walk the city with you,” V said.

River peeked at her to find her standing in front of him, arms crossed at her chest, smirk at her mouth. She kept weight on one leg just so that it drew his attention to her hips. He didn’t bother trying to hide the fact he was admiring her curves. “You attracted that trouble, you know.” At last he moved his gaze to hers.  

“Oh, it’s my  fault.” She tried hard to suppress a grin that it dimpled her freckled cheeks.

River nodded. “They were about to pounce at Markov’s shop. It’s why I kept a hold on you. You look like a tasty Corpo snack in that market.”

Her expression changed in thought. “Huh. Okay, maybe it is my fault.”

He shook his head. “Don’t change the subject.” Her hard smirk of satisfaction returned, and River couldn’t help a grin.

Val didn’t realize she kept moving closer to River until Johnny’s voice resounded in her head in disgust. River noticed her moving closer, though, and he couldn’t help surveying her up and down. His eyes landed on her lips. All too easy he pictured himself pulling her in for a kiss, pulling her dress up over bare thighs to feel those curves against him again.

It took more self control than either expected to keep focused on the case and get back in the truck.

Don’t you dare fuckin' make me kiss him.

Dude. Privacy.

River parked his truck a block from where the club was supposed to be. He sat silent for a moment, then got out and paced hard. He wasn’t sure there were any other options. If this went south and they were interrogated, River would lose his job, and it was not just him who relied on his income. What would happen to his sister and her kids if he couldn’t send them money each month? He hated that he was forced to choose between his family and a girl who felt more family than a stranger.

He only stopped to face V when she scanned the blinking, buzzing street lamp and adjusted the clips in its circuit box.

“Good ol’ city budgeting,” she said, closing the box up tight.

River watched the light stabilize, then stood with his arms crossed so tight his fingers almost hurt. To say he was anxious was an understatement. “I don’t have a warrant. I can’t go in… unless you’re in danger.” At that moment, nothing was more troubling. Almost all members of the Animals gang were twice as large as River, and that was saying something. V wasn’t petite, but she wasn’t close to a bodybuilder either. She wouldn’t stand a chance against more than one Animal at a time, and that was dependent on whether they had those massive hammers they favored.

“So I gotta in alone?” Val searched his eyes. “With all of those… inhumanly large beasts? You already kind of broke the law earlier by sharing that program in the market. You can’t break the law again now?”

“That was different. It’s not illegal for the public, it’s just… dangerous for citizens to sell them because Militech has strict control on distribution and they enforce that with violence.” He shook his head, sighing under his breath. “I’m sorry.” River watched her pupils glow as he rang her phone for an open connection. “But I’ll be there as soon as you need me.”

V sighed. “You’re the only honest cop, you know that?”

He nodded. “It’s possible.” He looked toward the Animal warehouse. “I’ll hear if you’re in danger.” He met her eyes again. “I won’t leave you to face them alone if the worst happens.”

V sighed again, then held River’s arm for balance while she took off her heels. She tossed them in the back of his truck and took a deep breath, wiggling her toes on the pavement. “I’ll make too much noise with them on,” she said as he stared back. From the look on her face, his face drowned in worry.

“Good luck,” he told her.

V nodded again, then took slow steps with careful bare feet. Walking barefoot in Night City was almost as dangerous as getting jumped by a gang. With luck, she'd make it there without stepping on broken glass and leaving a blood trail.

River’s nerves were already making him antsy, and she hadn’t left yet. She didn’t even make it out of reach before River grabbed her arm. “V-” He didn’t know what to say. He wanted to say Don’t go, they’ll fuck you up. But face-to-face with his worry mirrored in her expression, he didn’t know what to say that she already didn’t know. “Be careful,” he told her.

She held his gaze, her expression was tell enough they were of the same mind. All she could do was promise to try, but some things couldn’t be controlled. It sounded pointless for such a small woman to promise to not die up against over a dozen Animals.

Sneaking through the compound didn’t go as planned. Val thought she’d found a quiet way in, and she took down a preoccupied Animal. She crouched behind a van and peered out enough to disable the visible cameras, but as she hacked one Animal to reboot his optics and sneak past, another - larger - Animal spotted her. The massive human charged with a  yell and heavy stomps.

“Fuck!” she yelled. She fired twice at the Animal’s feet, but it didn’t slow him.

“V?” River stood alert. He’d taken to pacing around the corner of the block the compound sat on. He wanted to be near in case, and his instinct was proving right.

“I’ve been spotted!” She yelled over the noise of gunfire. “I’m blowing the fuel tank!”

“Goddammit! V!” River sprinted to the easiest entry and vaulted over the barrier.

“Huh? Hey! What the fuck are-” But River’s revolver cut off the gate guard with a bullet to the face as he ran past.

“V!” River yelled again, climbing over a car to get to her. A heavy machine gun fired up ahead through the blaze of the blown fuel tank and the van and cargo it had exploded. V was cornered, nowhere to run except straight into the gang. An Animal thundered at her, heavy feet shaking the ground and a massive hammer in his hands. River fired at the back of the Animal’s head, but not even four rounds got through those monstrous cranial muscles. Damn things did little more than stumble him, and the Animal swung his hammer. Val flew into pallets at the fence with a curse River heard even over all the guns.

River bolted passed the hammer and its wielder. He tossed V his revolver and grabbed a power machine gun off a fallen Animal, and he turned to let bullets fly at every gargantuan human charging them. He backed up towards V so the gang had to go through him first. V regained her balance behind and took over with River’s pistol.

V was no match for those assholes, but with River doing the heavy hitting, she could focus on hacking the remaining Animals. It meant the detective could finish the rest off with fewer bullets.

When they finally cleared the cargo yard, V slumped with a sigh against a stack of crates. “I fucking hate those guys.”

River only dropped the machine gun when his scans showed no more signs of life. He went straight to V and evaluated the damage. He lifted her arm and  peeled back splitting cloth to see a violent bruise already forming at her ribs. “Jesus.” He pulled out a MaxDoc and injected it right over her broken ribs.

“Ow!” Val winced, her body trying to turn away from the pain.

“Sorry,” he said. “You should be okay in a few minutes, though.” He took her bruised arm and injected another MaxDoc.

Val reached up to feel her bruises with a wince. “Ah, shit. Uh… thanks. I didn’t expect you to charge in like that for… you know, me.”

River turned her head to make sure her implants were still in place. A quick scan said she was otherwise okay. She was lucky. Few her size would have come out so well from an attack like that. “You didn’t think I would help?”

“That’s not how it works for a mercenary. Especially the solo type.”

River cleared his throat and released her face to check on her ribs again. “I’m not about to let you die, V. Don’t worry.”

She looked down, then held out the revolver River had thrown her. “You gun packs a good punch,” she approved.

“It better. I’ve worked on it over the years.” River holstered his revolver and stepped away. “Where’s yours?”

Val looked off to her left. “It flew over here somewhere.” She turned with a wince but breathed through it. “Hopefully the club will be easier to get through than this.”

“Let’s hope.” River ripped the minigun off the turret and prepared himself for another round with that hideous gang.

Getting through the club was easier with the minigun. The Animals boxed them into the entry, and at the same time made themselves easy targets. Glass exploded and flew, the minigun tore through seats and stairs, and half the well-stocked bar shattered. When they at last cleared the club, Val gave a sigh and looked up and around.

“Shame,” she shook her head.

“Yep. And careful where you step,” he warned his barefoot partner.

“Yeah.” She climbed on the back of an intact booth to avoid broken glass. “They had a good thing goin’ here.”

“Don’t tell me you feel sorry for these hulks.”

“Hah, no. But at least we have some good tunes to listen to while we search and loot. I kinda expected the Animals to listen to, I dunno, that Body Heat radio station.”

River grinned. “You mean like Us Cracks? Actually, yeah. It does seem like something they’d try to hide in a secret club.”

V nodded. She tiptoed around bodies, still barefoot, picking up weapons to examine in better light. “Uh… can I pay you to take their guns to my apartment? When we’re all done,” she elaborated. “Or would you have to write up a report that some chick paid you to take her home from the club?”

River couldn’t help but chuckle. “Lucky for you, I’m off the clock as of…” He checked the time on his phone. “Sixteen minutes ago.”

She shot him a cute crinkle of her face. “You like to work off the clock? For the PD?”

River shrugged, scanning the room to try to find traces of an office. “Not normally, no. You make it an exception.”

Come on, seriously, don’t fuck this badge. Especially not now.

“Officer, are you flirting with me? Will I need to write that up? Hopefully Peralez doesn’t want to know every detail.”

River’s grin was lopsided from embarrassment... and pleased as hell that she liked flirting with him. “You don’t need to pay me to take the haul back.”

“You know, you’re not bad, for a cop.”

“And you’re not bad for a merc.”

Normally I’d say get a room, but…

Johnny, that is enough.

V picked up a data shard and inserted it. Her eyes moved as she read the logs, then they flew wide. “No time to get a real workout in, just five-hundred push-ups?” she read aloud in incredulity. “What the fuck is wrong with these people?”

River chuckled. “Hence why we call them Animals.”

“More like monsters created in a lab.”

River nodded. “Also accurate.”

There was far more to that club than they had imagined when they walked through the shipping container entrance. V scoured the upstairs rooms while River poked around the main floor. Bead doors clanked in faint cascading chimes with each booth V searched. And though they were there on business, the music was a nice change from the gunfire minutes ago.

River walked into a kitchen to find V hacking an access point, singing along to the rap song on the club’s speakers. She couldn’t seem to rap, but the pace was slow enough for her sultry voice to keep up. Her feet and shoulders teetered to the beat as she sang, stopping only to hiss in triumph at a successful hack.

River knew he should be scanning, looking for computers. But she was so different from anything he knew. If for nothing else, then she was a breath of fresh air for relishing the good of a pretty shitty situation so far. She wasn’t something River saw in his line of work.

“You go to clubs a lot?” he asked her, running his hand along the walls for any cracks that might lead to a hidden room. All he saw through the open doorway so far was the VIP area or a kitchen area. “Or you just like this song?”

“I just like the song. I mean, I work with Fixers at Afterlife sometimes, and I’ve met clients at Lizzy’s, but I don’t go there for… club stuff. I usually stay at home and tinker with the radio blaring, when I have free time.” Val peeked over at him. “Do you go to clubs? For… club stuff?” When River met her eyes, a hard twinkle lit her face. She meant to tease him.

River smirked. “No.” He poked his head through the door leading into a VIP area. “Hey, stairs in here. Could lead to an office.” He waved her over. He felt her stare hard as he ascended the steps in front of her. “Actually, when we leave this place, you’ll be the first girl I take home from a club.”

Goddammit, V.

“Would… it be inappropriate to thank you, afterwards? After you help me carry all their gear up to my place?”

River met her eyes as she reached the top step. He knew he was not discreet in surveying her shapes through the dress. His gaze returned to hers. “We’ll see.”

He would not object to an evening in bed with that woman. But… he could talk to her. She didn’t judge him. She appreciated him, and not because he could get her out of a bounty. That kind of person wasn’t easy to find in that city. Not in his forty years.

Finding security footage of the Mayor's death shattered River's reality. Clear on camera, his own partner Detective Han agreed to cover up the death, as if agreeing to a casual gathering. A hard enough blow that it overpowered the silver lining River had found with V in that club.

 “Hey, isn’t that… oh damn,” V said. She looked up at River in question, and apology. River stared at the screen, not knowing whether he felt more angry and betrayed or in shock. Han had been his partner for almost a decade, his friend. He’d invited River over for barbecues, they went to the shooting range together.

What a surprise his partner’s covering it up.

Johnny, not now.

“River?” V searched his face.

River couldn’t look at her. It took hard effort to keep his blood from boiling over in that situation. “I’ve seen all I need to see,” he muttered. “I want to get out of here.”

“I need to look around more. Make sure we didn’t miss anything. You can stay here. I know that was a lot to process.”

River nodded. “Putting it lightly.”

“Hey.” V touched his shoulder. “We both saw that. We’ll get to the bottom of this,” she assured.

What are you, his wife? It’s his own damn problem.

Johnny, seriously, SHUT THE FUCK UP.

River nodded, and she disappeared from his peripheral. Too much damn data at once. He had no idea how he’d confront Han, but he needed to. And he knew it would not go well.

V ducked through more beads into another booth. Empty drug containers strewed over the back of the seat, a couple empty needles. Not out of place in a club, a braindance headset rested on the seat. “What do we have here?” she asked out loud. She turned it around to check for damage or a shard. “Still got a BD inside… Huh.” She hesitated, then brought it to her head.

Not a good idea to put on any random BD you find lying around, V.

What are you, my mom?

Might as well be.

The Mayor died in this room. There might be something here.

V secured the headset on till it was snug in place.

V, I got a bad feeling about thi-

River snapped out of his boiling stew as V cried out in pain and something heavy dropped in a nearby room. “Shit. V!” he yelled, colliding with the doorway as he sprinted out. On the floor of the very room Mayor Rhyne was murdered in, V convulsed, electricity crackling at a braindance headset clamped at her temples.

River ripped off the headset and propped her against the seat, holding her head up so she could breathe easier. Little crackles of electricity still swam around her facial implants and through his hands.

“V?” River asked, searching eyes that couldn’t focus. “V? Can you hear me?” He patted her face. Scans didn’t show anything abnormal other than a short circuit, but that didn’t always mean it wasn't serious.

A quaking hand found his wrist. “They spiked the fuckin’ brandance. Jesus…”

“Are you okay? Can you see alright?”

V nodded and closed her eyes, shallow breath. “I’ll be fine. Just… gimme a minute.” She groaned and brought her knees up to rest her elbows on while she held her head.

“Try not to check out on me again. Okay? You scared the hell out of me just now..”

“You and me both.” She groaned again and leaned her head back, adjusting her jaw. “Ow.” 

“Hey, you’re still here. That’s what matters right now.” River got to his feet and helped her stand. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll bring the truck around and load up their weapons while you recover in the cab, okay?”

River helped V through the broken glass on the club floor again, then ran to get his truck. He threw handfuls of weapons into the bed, then hopped in and started his truck back up.

V sat stiff in the passenger seat, leaning to one side. When the truck leveled on the road out of the warehouse, she winced.

“How are you holding up?” River glanced at her. “Do I need to stop? Call Trauma?” he offered.

She shook her head. “Well, it’s my head. My ribs still, too, a little. They don’t exactly heal up like a papercut.” She winced, then sat quiet for a moment. “Thank you. You know, for… saving me. Twice. In an hour.”

“You don’t need to thank me for that.”

“Just doin’ your job, huh?” she looked at him..

“Not at all. Cop or not, if I didn’t want you alive, V, I would have left you for dead. I’ve… done it before, to people who deserved it.”

Val nodded. This was the hard part. Sure, Jackie stood up for her against thugs when Val was first thrust into the streets, but he’d never been there for most her jobs. No one to watch her back, let alone take on over a dozen massive Animals to save her. One slip up, and that gang could have killed the Detective, too. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, then wet her lips. “Uh… Valerie is… fine.”

River glanced at her a few times. “You sure? Not worried about the streets hearing  a cop call you by your name?”

She glared at him, shaking her head a little. “Don’t make me regret you saving me twice in an hour.”

River grinned, eyes on the road. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Valerie.”

She smiled before inhaling another pain shot. “Likewise, Detective.”

The drive back into town reminded River he had to confront Han before he took the new findings beyond the brass. And meeting Han was no better. River had hoped Han would give him a good reason for covering up a planned death of the Mayor, like a threat to his daughter that Han couldn’t refuse. But Han admitted he'd agreed on his own accord, and he told River to ignore it. Han drove away warning that River would be in someone’s crosshairs if he didn’t drop the investigation.

River went to the viewing wall and leaned on his arms before rubbing his face. Almost twenty years in the Force, and he’d hit a wall he couldn’t punch through. And his own fucking partner was in bed with the corruption.

“River?” Val leaned forward on the wall and looked at him.

“Sorry, Valerie. I’m not going to be the best company right now.”

“I understand.” She hesitated. “But what are you going to do?”

River took a deep breath. “Take it to Internal Affairs. I don’t see another option. I became a cop to stop corruption like this, to stop higher-ups from paying cops to turn a damn blind eye, I--” He broke off with a sigh, shaking his head.

Valerie nodded, looking over the water. “It might get messy at the top.”

“I know.” River stood up and looked at her. Nothing about her right then was a stranger who’d only needed his help solving a mystery. She stood as a friend worried he could keep a cool head to make the right decisions. “Listen… can I bring the guns by later? I need to mull things over. Alone, for a while. I’m sorry.”

She nodded again. “No rush. Just... be careful. Okay? You can call me if you need anything. I slipped up at the Animals compound, but I can get stuff done in secret. I can make sure that footage gets to people who’ll do something about it.”

“I appreciate it.” He looked around. “Is your motorcycle still here?”

“No, it would have driven back to the garage. I can call a Delamain, though. It’s no problem.”

River watched her walk to the Delamain cab, heels in hand swinging by her side. She paused at the back passenger door to look back at River. A pretty smile and a small wave just for him. River couldn’t help but smile back.

He often had shit luck at work, like that entire case. But it looked like his personal life was starting to turn around. He just hoped it would weather the storm he expected from work.

Chapter Text

Early afternoon the next day, River’s phone lit up with a text from Valerie:

Hey, how did it go at work?

River hung his head before replying: Not good.

Shit, I’m sorry. Are you still on shift?

No. Took a couple days off.

It wasn’t the truth. The suspension from work was shaming. River had poured his sweat and often his blood into making sure evil saw justice. Now he was being punished for doing his damn job.

I got paid way more than I expected.* Feel up for drinks? On me. We don’t have to talk about the case, I know that was probably hell to deal with. Or we could shoot shit. Valerie followed up a second later: And by that I mean the range. There’s a good one in my building. You know, whatever helps take your mind off it?

River hesitated. He still needed to drive the weapons to her place anyway. He already knew she was a good distraction. Yeah, sounds good. See you soon.

Valerie answered her door to see a huge box in front of her face.

“Hey, where do you want this?” River looked at her as he walked in.

“Uh, anywhere is fine.” She watched him.

River set the box down on the floor at the wall with a grunt, then looked around. “Nice place.”

“Thanks. Uh… it’s boring. I don’t do anything here but tinker and sleep and shower.” She shrugged.

“And… wardrobe changes.” River looked her over. A baggy tank top and loose sweats held up with a tight drawstring. “Your hair looks nice,” he complimented. No longer tall and bright, now it fell loose around her head in shades of red and gold. “Better,” he emphasized.

Val smiled wide, bashful. Sweet when she met his eyes. “Thank you.”

They continued their staring round again as if a day hadn’t passed. “So what do you have in mind?” River asked her. As tense as he had been since he discovered Han’s part in corruption, being with Valerie again made him feel at ease. Content. He might not mind nothing but staring at her all night.

“Well…” Valerie took a deep breath and her eyes drifted in thought. “There’s a bar a couple floors down. They have good pizza there, too, if you’re hungry. Or I have tequila here. Or if you need to blow some steam, there’s the shooting range, or I know of a couple places the Tiger Claws hang out that are too thick for me to thin alone.”

“Quite the choices.” River stared at her a moment longer before looking around again. Nice long couch, king bed in the opposite corner. Private. As much as he wanted to… River met her eyes again, after giving her cleavage a good study. “Maybe just a couple beers while we walk around. I know what will happen if we drink here.”

Oh no you don’t. You take those fucking pills, V, you hear me? Take the Omega Blockers, V. Take them now!

Johnny, chill. I’ll take them in a sec.

Valerie stared back before nodding. “Yeah, you’re probably not wrong.”

Being around her lightened the weight from River’s shoulders. He didn’t want to screw that up. He had nowhere else to turn for what she did just by being there. “You might want to grab a jacket. It’s a little chilly out. And… maybe not heels. Not that I doubt you can run in them, but…” He felt a little silly bringing up her walking attire.

Valerie grinned. “I’ll wear something less frightening, don’t worry.” She ruffled through her closet for a moment before shoving on sneakers.

“Don’t forget a gun,” he reminded. He didn’t know how she survived walking at night in heels in this city.

Valerie held up fists as if to box and blades shot out of the back of her forearms.

River felt his brows hitch. He gave a nod, impressed. “Mantis blades. That answers my question. Not sure I expected anything different, actually.”

A smile pinched one side of her cheek harder, showing a dimple. River couldn’t help but smile back. Valerie retracted the blades and wove her arms through the jacket sleeves. She stopped at a shelf with supplements and popped one before washing it down. “No one suspects someone who’s not in the Tiger Claws to have them. They’re pretty fun, you should try ‘em. Messy and up close, but fun.”

“Hm.” River followed her out the door. “Expensive?” he guessed.

“No more than a car.”

“That is ridiculously expensive.”

Val chuckled. “I saved up, trust me. It took awhile.”

Chapter Text

River stood leaning out of his apartment window the next morning, coffee in his hand long grown cold. He had two things on his mind, and they were both heavy enough to sink a Militech freighter. The first was work, a problem way above his reach and meant to humiliate him into submission. The second… had long legs, blue eyes, freckles, and his attention since he first saw her.

The only thing that came to mind was love at first sight… But he had never been the one to believe in that. Was it love to feel like you didn’t have to prove yourself to someone? To have to fight the urge to touch them because you didn’t want to know what it felt like to to never be able to again?

River looked down at his cold coffee, then tipped the cup until nothing was left but a last few drops.

He wanted to kiss her yesterday; shit, he’d wanted to the day they met, too. Wished he had. She hadn’t taken her eyes off him once their entire… date. She admired him more than anyone he’d ever known. She looked at him, and she looked happy. No one had ever looked so happy with him before.

River pushed away from the window and grabbed his phone. A deep breath, then he texted her: Hey, do you feel up to lunch? My treat.

Not a couple seconds later, a reply sped his heart up. Love to. Where do you want to meet up?

River hesitated. Can I pick you up? I know you don’t like driving.

That would be amazing, thank you. I’m not at home though, are my work clothes okay? Followed by a selfie of her in front of the Kabuki Circle cherry trees, lips pursed to the side, in teal and gold with gold aviators. Her hair wasn’t as tall as the day before, but the colors matched her dress. Two fingers made a peace sign below her pretty face.

River couldn’t help a smile. Dresses and heels that accented her curves? He would never say no to that. It’s  perfect. I’ll see you in about five.

River glanced down at his sweatpants, then texted her again. Make it ten, is that okay? I need to shower first.

He showered as fast as he could, splashed on cologne, checked the selfie she’d sent so he could find matching clothes, then grabbed his key cards . And River almost skipped out the door.

River hung up his phone when she turned to see him arrive. Her whole face changed, a little awe, a little arousal, and great interest. Valerie even took off her shades to get a better look at him.

“Oh wow. This is definitely a date,” she decided. River grinned, a little shy; he hadn’t dressed up in years. But her reaction was satisfying. “You even matched me.” Her eyes crinkled with the smile that etched dimples in her cheeks. It seemed she had to fight her eyes for where to look. Her admiration of his body in a button up shirt and slacks didn’t wane even when she met his gaze. “Where are we going?”

River apologized with his expression. “Nowhere near so fancy, unfortunately. Uh… I’ll tell you why when we get there.” He held out his arm, and she all but melted. He felt her pulse radiate before she even took his arm.

She was shy when he climbed in the driver’s seat. “Um… even if we don’t end up going anywhere, just.. meeting like that…” Valerie looked away with a deep breath a nod. “Made waking up today worth it.”

River smiled at her. “I wanted to surprise you. You always dress up.” He took advantage of the break in traffic and pulled out back toward the highway southward. “Even if it doesn’t mean much to you, I like that you’re always dressed up. And I didn’t want you going to lunch with someone who looked like they crawled out of bed.”

She was radiating at him again. “You’re pretty amazing, River. You know that?”

More than anything, he loved that was how she regarded him.

Valerie looked at him when he pulled into the same Chubby Buffalo’s they met at. “This your favorite place to eat?”

“No.” He hesitated, admiring her for a moment. As cute as her selfie was, it didn’t do her beauty justice. “I’ll tell you inside. I think… if I tell you in here, we’ll never make it in to eat.”

Valerie knew what he meant. “Ohh boy,” she breathed. “One of those talks. Yeah, okay. Good idea.”

Valerie thanked the waitress when their coffees arrived. “Are things any better at work? Or are you still on vacation?” she asked River.

River took a deep breath. He was still ashamed to tell her. Well, part ashamed that he was suspended, and the rest livid for why he was suspended. He didn’t want that to ruin their date. “Yeah. It’s complicated. And messy. I hope you don’t mind if I save that for another day?”

“No worries, I get it. Sometimes work sucks.” She stirred in creamer and sweetened her coffee till a sip made her sigh.

River made a mental note: four creams, two sugars, extra vanilla. “But how’s your day been?”

“Uh…” Valerie gave a quiet huff with a sheepish smile. “I was supposed to track down the… woman who hired me to… steal a datashard. But it’s been frustrating so far. The only person I know who can contact her thinks I botched the job intentionally and that I want kill her. She won’t talk to me over the phone, but I don’t really want to deal with her shit in person.” She nodded at him. “So I was really, really glad you called.”

River made a noise in thought. “Would you like some backup for that?”

“Can you be my backup when you’re on vacation?”

“I wouldn’t be doing this as a cop. Just supporting a friend,” he told her.

She smiled for him, a sweet sparkle in her eyes. “Then I would love backup." Then her smile fled and she sighed. "Otherwise I may slaughter someone. I’m getting too old for people’s shit.”

River chuckled. “You and me both.”

She shook her head. “And I’m only twenty-three. That’s horrible.”

They stared at each other again for a moment. Then Valerie took a sip of her coffee, and asked, “So… why did you want to come back here?”

River filled his chest without noise. “Well… I enjoy this place, sometimes come here twice a week. But everything the last few days has… gone to shit. Knowing what Han did, knowing he sat here pretending to be my friend while lying to my face for who knows how long... it ruined it for me. And it's pretty much ruined the entire career I've worked so damn hard at. You know? I just want something good to happen for a change.” He glanced around, then River stirred his coffee for something to look at while he bared this part of his soul. It wasn’t easy being so personal, even with the only family he had left. But he wanted to for her. He wanted to show her he could be vulnerable with her. To River, it was a show of trust. “I wanted to make a good memory for change with someone I can trust. I want a good memory here with you, rather than look back on the first time we met in regret because my backstabbing partner was in the picture.” River might have been out of a job, and he still hadn’t told her. But she was still there despite the rest of his world falling apart. She’d been his only support through the shitstorm he fell into by trying to uphold the law at work. “You’re the only person I can trust right now.”

She was quiet far longer than River expected her to be. He held his breath and met her eyes, and found a better reaction than he hoped for. The self-control Valerie demonstrated was almost inconceivable. She looked like she wanted to throw herself at him and make love right there in the diner, smother him in kisses until they suffocated.

After a long moment, she took a shaky breath and turned her head to dab a napkin at the corner of her eyes. She gave a small, sad, yet appreciative smile. “The only people who call me reliable are the ones who want to hire me for illegal shit.” She gave a quiet sniffle and met his eyes. “Never for… you know, this.” 

River reached over the table and squeezed her hand, smiling for her. He made plans then and there to take her out every day, if they could help it, even a walk along the pier. Anything good. Replace as many bitter memories with happy, peaceful ones, for both of them. 

Chapter Text

A strange event happened that flipped River’s life around. He was still suspended from work, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have contacts or know how to get around certain blocks. He could still access the computer files at his work desk, and from the comfort of his favorite couch at home.

It wasn’t the files he managed to download, though, that changed River’s life. NCPD dash cam footage aired on the local news channel of a known kidnapper dubbed Peter Pan, shot when trying to run from a crime scene. In Peter Pan's car were clothes with the DNA of multiple other young men. And River recognized the shoes he’d bought his nephew not half a year ago; expensive, imported sneakers not sold in the Americas. Peter Pan himself wore his nephew’s sneakers.

That was what flipped his gut. His nephew had been gone months. Now, it looked like a kidnapping. Or worse, with Peter Pan wearing those shoes. God, he hoped it wasn’t worse.

He didn’t have access to the Peter Pan case, though. In fact, his chief had slapped a restraining order on him from ever laying eye on that file because River’s nephew fit the profile of Peter Pan’s known victims.

Fuck. River sat rapping his fingers and feet a good minute before he realized he knew someone who could get those files for him.

Without a second’s hesitation, he dialed up Valerie. She could get through and to property that River could not.

“Hey, River. What’s goin-” Valerie gave almost a growl of annoyance at some noise in the background. “One moment, please,” she feigned a good mood.

But even muffled, River heard her voice directed at someone else: Will you fucking shut up?! I’m on the goddamn phone! NO, Palmer, this ISN’T my problem! This is YOUR entire clan being TOO CHICKEN SHIT so you brought ONE girl from the fucking city to fix a problem YOU instigated! I don’t HAVE to do ANYTHING for you! The only reason I agreed is because Saul will keep YOU in check!!”

An un-muffled deep breath, then Valerie sighed into the phone. “Sorry about that,” she apologized.

“Ohhh, what happened?” River asked, now invested in her situation. That wasn’t a normal, casual get-together.

He could almost hear her shake her head. “Search and rescue for the Aldecado leader. Apparently I’m the best choice for this. I don't even like the lady that called me.” She made a noise. “Listen, do you think you could meet me here at the Aldecado camp in like, two hours or so? I’ll call if I’m done sooner.”

“Wait, search and rescue? Who are you up against? How many? Alone?” River asked.

“Uh, Wraiths, like twenty or so, and yes, alone because every single Aldecado is a coward.”

River grabbed his jacket and key cards and rushed out the door. “I’m on my way.”

She sighed in relief. “Thank you. Seriously, River, thank you.” She sighed again, then paused. “Oh crap. Did I forget something? Like, dinner, or coffee, or something?”

“No. I need your help with something. But I have to get you out of there first. So I guess we have to save the Aldecado leader.”

“I’ll probably be gone when you get here. Idiot Palmer wants me to take like three hours sneaking through with stealth kills when a fucking dust storm is blowing in, so sneaking is the opposite of what I need to do. I’m going in guns blazing with as many grenades as I can carry.”

“Oh, geez, Valerie. Please wait till I get there. Goddammit.” River took the steps as fast as he could; the elevator to the parking garage would take longer than he had.

“I’ll send you the coords. Some Wraith base. I can take the ones outside on my own, I think.” She paused with background noise. “Gotta go!”

“No, wait! Val, keep the line open!” But River said it too late. “Shit.” A set of coordinates came through, though, from Valerie’s cyberware signature; way out in the Badlands; of course.

Dust flew behind his truck as River pulled up to the coordinates Valerie had sent. He’d sped through the city, almost botching a turn, but he was glad he did so. The Wraiths gang were brutal bastards. They must have thought themselves invincible against one woman, though, because bodies littered the only entrance straight to a warehouse. Guns blazing had been accurate.

River yelled for Valerie, checking the bodies through the warehouse as he scanned around. His phone rang, and Valerie’s face popped up on his holo. “Downstairs,” she said. “Straight from the front gate, there’s kind of a wall. Red lights down here.”

“Who the fuck are you talking to? Who just pulled up?” another woman asked.

“Who the hell is that?” River asked, annoyed already by the tone. He followed Val’s directions down the stairs.

“Palmer, shut up, he’s not here for you!” Valerie snapped.

“V, if he get’s Saul killed-”

“Oh my god. Saul’s literally alive, I can see him right now.”

River hurried around a corner and almost tripped over a couple dead Wraiths. He caught up with Valerie past a few more dead bodies and double doors. She grunted, trying to pry open another set of doors.

River took over for her, and as soon as he cracked the door, he shoved a foot in and threw his whole weight on it. Standing before the Aldecado leader, Valerie sighed and holstered her pistol, and made sure he was well enough to walk.

“I’ll pull the truck up,” River told her.

“What? No! I have this! V, who is this guy?” the screechy woman demanded.

 “You might be here, Palmer, but he and I are more efficient.” Valerie then disconnected the other lady from the call. She nodded at River, so he retraced his steps back up and out to drive his truck through the yard.

The passenger door opened and Val plopped on the seat, scooting into the middle to make room for the stern, weathered Aldecado. “River, Saul. Saul, River. Please be nice to each other, Panam’s screeching gave me a massive headache,” Valerie said.

The men tossed each other brief nods. Saul looked beat to high hell, bruised and winded, even after Val administered a Maxdoc. River, still not sure what was happening other than a rescue mission, drove without words.

It wasn’t a minute after that the sandstorm caught them. River kept his eye on the GPS screen because it was the only way to tell where the road was. In that weather, he’d never see a boulder or cluster of Joshua trees until it was too late.

A strong gust shook the truck, forcing them off the road and making GPS flicker out to black screen. “Shit.” River’s truck slammed into cacti and young, scattered Joshua trees, jerking and turning them further from the road each time. He flicked the wipers on in hopes it would clear some of the debris from his only line of sight.

“River! House!” Valerie clutched the dash.

“Fuck! Hold on to somethin’!” He slammed his foot on the brake, scattering more dirt up around the truck. His Thorton lurched to a stop right as it made contact with a porch rail.

River looked over to make sure Valerie and the Aldecado were alive, then he sank into his seat with a loud sigh.

Valerie’s head turned, and River met her eyes. She nodded and closed her eyes, letting her head drop behind her. “Thanks, River.” She patted his hand.

“Yeah.” He gave her hand a squeeze to return the gratitude.

The Aldecado recognized the house. Abandoned when Corps bought out the farmlands in the area and never repurposed. They fought the storm again to get into the house, then the three of them plus the other female sighed in unison.

“It’ll have to do till the storm passes,” Saul decided.

“Fuckin’ dark in here though,” Valerie muttered, looking around. Her optics glowed a little as she scanned the room.

“Look around for a breaker for the lights, will you, V?” the other woman said. “I’ll see if I can turn this heater on.”

“Why do I have to go tripping through the dark house?”

“Because the lights will be on faster than if you just stand around.” The lady knelt at the heater.

Valerie shook her head, eyes wide and brows high in disbelief. River frowned at the woman, then looked at Val. She might have been slapped. “Hey, relax,” River told the  Aldecado female. “We all just got in from the storm. No one’s being lazy by taking a moment.”

“But do we need the lights on or not?”

“Panam, chill. Okay? Just give me a fucking minute,” Valerie said. She sighed, but started through the house anyway. River followed close behind.

Val poked her head in the only room that wasn’t the bathroom or family area, then sighed again. “Here.” The room was dark, but the faint orange glow from the sandstorm blasting around the window gave off enough light to see bunk beds, a dressor, a desk, and a ciruit box.

When Val sighed again, staring at the breaker box without moving, River closed the door. “Valerie?” he kept his voice low.

“I’ll be fine. I just… was already have a hard day when she called.” Another deep sigh, then she opened the box.

River went over and held up his phone for some light.

“Thanks,” she mumbled.

“She the one you were yelling at when I called?” he guessed.

Valerie nodded, flicking switches. “Yep.” She unplugged a clip, twisted the wires back together with a hiss, then set it back in place and flipped a couple more switches.

“Why take the job if you were already overwhelmed?” River asked.

She huffed. “Because stupid Palmer would have gotten the entire clan killed if I’d said no. Saul’s the only thing keeping the Aldecados alive. That last thing I need right now is the extinction of the Aldecados weighing on me.”

River shook his head, frowning. “Don’t do that to yourself. If that was her fault, then you can’t be blamed.”

“Yeah, try tellng that to Palmer. I told her I got my own life and death shit to deal with, and she accused me of letting Saul die.” Another sigh, one last clip in place and a dusting of the circuit board, then the lights came on with a last switch. She closed the breaker, and for a moment didn’t move.

Valerie sniffed and blinked again and again, then ducked her head to try to hide wiping her eye as she turned.

River put his phone back in his pocket and stopped her. “Hey,” he said. Before she could protest, River pulled her close and held her against him.

Valerie’s deep breath trembled against him, then she buried her face in his shoulder and grabbed his back to keep him there. Cool tears soaked through is shirt with a gasp that shook her again, and River held her tighter. He cradled her head and tucked her under his chin.

“Take your time,” he told her. “They’ll survive without us for a while.”

Not a couple minutes later, Panam yelled for V to help her with the heater. This time, River sighed. The impatient woman couldn’t give Val five damn minutes to rest.

Valerie pulled back and wiped her eyes, smearing her eye makeup. River held her chin and stretched his shirt up to wipe the black and blue smudges away so she wouldn’t look so beat up. Val searched his eyes while he wiped, fighting another long pout. Too drained to even breathe unless her body forced it through gasps every few seconds.

“Don’t let her get to you, okay?” he said. “I’m here. She can kiss my ass if she wants to beat you down.”

Val almost choked on a weak laugh. “I don’t want her doing that, either.”

River couldn’t help a smile. “I mean it,” he told her, “if it gets too much, just… I don’t know, look at me, or squeeze my hand, or something. You don’t have to say anything to her.”

Val nodded, this time breathing deep to prepare for stress. “Okay. Thanks, River.”

“Took you long enough.” Panam didn’t notice or didn’t care that Val’s eyes were red, or that Val and River had gone together to be alone. To anyone else, both scenarios would suggest something private had taken place.

Saul did a double-take at Valerie’s red eyes. Far more receptive than Panam. “Hey, kid. Didn’t get a chance to thank you, yet,” Saul told Valerie. Maybe it was a man’s instinct to protect that they saw one woman’s defeat when another woman would not. Or Panam was so lost in her me me me world that she couldn’t view any other problems as worse than hers.

“Yeah. Anytime, Saul.” Val even sounded worn down.

“Hey, V, come look at this heater, would you?” Panam said, oblivious of everything happening around her.

Valerie narrowed her eyes. “Why can’t you? You’re already there. I just fixed the lights.”

“Because I can’t get it to work! Oh, even better! Can you check the breaker? The one for the appliances should be outside.”

“Woah, that is a terrible idea,” River cut in, shaking his head.

“Outside. In the sandstorm that almost made us crash into this place because we couldn’t see?” Valerie asked in doubt.

Saul shook his head. “Panam, that stupid idea of yours is going to get someone hurt.”  

“How? It’s right behind the house,” Panam said, hands up in question. “I saw it when I pulled up, she couldn’t miss it if she tried.”

“So you do it since you know where it is,” Val told Panam.

“Oh, come on! This is is going to take two people, and I’m already trying to fix this end. Can’t you just help?”

“I already did.” Val shook her head, “I’m dealing with enough right now.”

“But without heat, we’ll freeze all night!” As if Val not agreeing would be the cause of their deaths.

Valerie breathed deep, her brows deep, on top of still recovering from tears in the other room. “Panam, why should I, a person smaller than you, be the one to fix anything and go back out in the sandstorm when it means you get to sit cozy on your ass inside, out of the sand, out of the storm, right after I just gunned down a shitload of Wraiths to save Saul?” she asked. River put a hand on her back to remind her he was there for her. It was clear to him that she was falling off her tipping point.

“Panam, let it go,” Saul advised. Clear to Saul, as well. Panam was refusing to acknowledge Valerie's overextension.

But Panam laughed, almost hysterical. “You mean after you fucked up the rescue mission by bringing in this guy and whisking Saul away before I could so it looked like I didn’t help at all?”

“Watch it,” River warned, stepping ahead of Val.

“You owe me for that, V!”

“Jesus, Panam!” Saul muttered. “No one does that out of spite. You’re talking out of your ass.”

“I owe you?” Val stared back like Panam had turned rabid; she might as well have. “Panam, you’re the one who owes me! I am dying and your fucking EMP shit almost killed me then and there! Then you tried to blow up the AV Hellman was on when you knew I needed him alive to fix the fucking shard that’s killing me! After I fucking got your truck back for you!” Val shook her head, unable like the rest to see how Panam sourced her reasoning. “I am literally dying,” she all but spelled it out, “and the only reason I even saved Saul was because you will get every last Aldecado killed if you run things.”

River couldn’t tear his eyes from Valerie. She hadn’t told him she was dying. He hoped she was exaggerating to make her point.

Panam huffed and gestured like something was obvious. “But that literally did not kill you, you’re fine! You’re just hellbent on fucking up good plans!” 

Valerie yanked out her pistol and aimed at Panam’s face, beyond her wit’s end. It wasn’t hard to see why she hated Panam. “You think I can’t be dying because what, my insides aren’t trailing me everywhere?” she said.

Panam laughed that hysterical, shrieking laugh again. “Saul, are you just going to sit there and let her do this to me?”

“Just shut the fuck up and be grateful Saul’s safe!”  Val screamed back.

The Aldecado leader stood and put a gentle hand on Val’s pistol until she lowered it. When Val met his eyes, Saul nodded at her, then faced Panam. “I’m grateful for the rescue, Panam, but she’s right. She’s done more for the tribe in days than you have your whole life. Now shut up and get some sleep, and not another word about how lucky we were today, because I could’ve died and she is dying.” Saul gave Val’s shoulder a squeeze before excusing himself to the bedroom.

River and Valerie trudged back through the sandstorm to sleep it off in his truck. For a moment, they sat quiet. Valerie was so over her brink she could only stare out at the sandstorm. Breathing on auto-pilot, almost not blinking. A shell of the woman River had gotten to know the last week.

River watched her for a few minutes. “You’re dying? A shard is killing you?” at last he asked.

It was the weight that broke her. Val put a hand to her eyes and crumpled there on the seat. She nodded, unable to stop tears that seemed long overdue.

River felt like a dick. He hadn’t meant to make her cry. “Come here.” He scooted closer and pulled her in his arms, letting her cry on him. Without looking up, she sent a file transfer, and without speaking, River opened it and watched the playback.

It was a brutal set of memories. River recognized Goro Takemura, bodyguard to the Arasaka patriarch Soboro, and the Arasaka heir. He watched Yorinobu strangle Soboro, and how Val and her friend Jackie fell hundreds of feet through glass, hitting beams and rails, until they landed hard. Val and Jackie fought through Arasaka soldiers, Jakie bleeding out the whole way with a new datashard in his head. In the escape in the Delamain cab, River watched through Val’s eyes as Jackie died seconds after transfering the shard to Val’s head. Inside a grungy, run-down motel, the bodyguard of a well-known criminal beat Val to the floor before handing Dexter Deshawn a gun. Deshawn fired a bullet point blank at Val’s head.

 Jesus Christ. River’s arms tightened around her, trying to protect her from something that already happened.

Her memories continued, the screen playing back nothing but a system reboot for a long moment. Then Val’s eyes opened and she had to push her way out from under heavy rubble. The recording kept glitching like her optics and cyberdeck had forced themselves to work under strain. Static, uneven images that distorted line of sight. Val’s memories took River crawling through muddy trash; the fucking dump, Deshawn had shot her in the head and threw in the dump. Takemura entered the frame with Deshawn, where he blew the fixer’s brains out. Val’s memories kept blacking out, waking up after time passed, blacking out again, returning to consciousness. Takemura stabilized her in a car with the guidance of a Delamain AI, and Val blacked out again, only to wake up a brief few times in a Ripperdoc clinic. The final memories were of the Ripperdoc telling her she only had a few weeks left to live, and a thin woman with big hair handing Val pills to suppress or bring forth the destruction from the shard in her head.

River’s heart sank with the tears seeping into his shirt. Only a few weeks left, but he’d only now found her. “Jesus, Valerie…” he whispered. He didn’t know if words existed to comfort the fact that she woke up to learn she was almost a walking corpse.

There weren’t any words to comfort the fact that he only had a few weeks left with her.

They only just fucking met. It wasn’t fair. It couldn’t be real. River didn’t want it to be real.

In time, her cries turned to sniffles in the silent car with sand storming around them. After what felt like an hour, Val sat back, wiping her eyes. “Shit, you needed my help. Goddammit. I’m so sorry.” She fought off more tears with shaky breath. “God, this day sucks so bad.” 

“It’s okay. You needed my help.” He supposed that was all he could do from now on, help her. “My thing can wait till tomorrow. I hope.”

“You hope?” she looked at him.

“We aren’t going anywhere in this storm. We might as well try to sleep.” He moved the seat forward and laid it down, where it hooked into the back seat like a bed. River pushed his shoes off and laid down, then motioned for Val.

“You’re not mad at me? For not telling you sooner?” she asked.

River shook his head. “Upset, yeah. Not as much time as I wanted with you.” Val’s eyes leaked all over again, and she wiped a hand across her cheeks. “But not mad. It’s… heartbreaking. I get it. I’d try to ignore it, too.” He nodded. “Come here,” he patted the space next to him. “We’ll find a way to fix it, okay? I promise. For right now, forget about the shard and that asshole inside the trailer, okay? It’s just you and me out here.” As soon as Val laid down, River wrapped her up tight and lay his jacket across like a blanket.  “Just us,” he assured.

Chapter Text

River smiled when Val stepped out of the shower in his clothes. She might as well be swimming. Damn if that was the cutest thing he’d ever seen, though. “Want me to run to your place for clothes?” His place was closer from the Aldecado camp. It had made more sense for them to take a breather at his place when they needed an out from the badlands chaos.

“It’s okay for now. I’ll need to if we expect trouble, though. Not going to do me any good if I need to fight or run but your pants are down at my ankles.”

River chuckled. “I don’t know. That’d make me pause.”

Between showers, River driving to Valerie’s to fetch her work clothes, coffee, and bringing her up to speed on why River needed her help, they didn’t get going until much later than planned. But it was luck that a lead they needed to chase was closing for an audit not long after they woke up. The grabbed more coffee to make up for the poor sleep in the truck, grabbed breakfast to go, then sat in River’s truck a block away from the Crime and Testing lab.

“So… we’ll go in together, but… I need you to find a way in.” He met her eyes as they finished their breakfasts. “Back door, or utility door. Something.”

Val looked at him, her eyes lit up like a child with new toys. “Oooh, we’re gonna break the law? Together?” She whispered, unable to hold a grin and an impish glint in her eyes. He knew already she never let him live that down.

River tried not to smile. “Stop that.”

Val stared at him while she finished her coffee, eyes still twinkling. She was trying hard not to tease him, it was all over her face. “You sure you’re okay with me breaking us into a city building? An NCPD Lab of all places?” she asked. She checked the time on his truck radio screen.

“I don’t have a key, so yeah. I can’t let that stop me from finding Randy.”

“Okay.” She nodded, serious again. “Just don’t arrest me.”

“Well, today’s your lucky day.” He still hadn’t told her he’d been suspended. But if they managed to find his nephew, the NCPD could kiss his ass.

The lab was full of disturbing, yet useless data. Too many rooms full of irrelevant nothing, until they came a cross a room that stood out among all others. Toys, books, gadgets: a  room designed to keep a kid distracted. For a lab, it looked like more than a room to study a child.

“They actually keep children here? Make them live here? Fucking sickos.” Val shuddered, then joined River at the file cabinet in that small, disturbing room. She opened the cabinet next to him and tilted her head. “What’s the name again? Harris?”

“Anthony Harris.”

“Found it.” She pulled it out.

“Let me see that!” He hissed. He slapped the file open and found the photo. “Yeah, this is Harris’ all ri-”

“River? What are you doing here!” A female voice said in surprise. River and Val spun towards the only door out of that room.

“Yawen!” River stood taken aback. Shit. The lab should have been empty for another hour at least. “Uh-” He held the file behind his back, hoping Val could slip it somewhere without Yawen seeing. Fingers grazing his at the manila folder told him Val was of the same mind.

“And this isn’t a social club, River! You know you can’t bring people here! Let alone be in here!”

“Valerie Donahue, Private Investigator,” Val cut in, flashing a card too quick for Yawen to read, all a sudden Corpo again. It wasn’t hard to flip that switch when you were trained from birth to get what you demanded.

“A PI? What are you doing here? And with him? River, you were fired!”

River took a deep breath and released a silent sigh. Dammit, that wasn’t how he’d planned to tell Val. “Suspended, actually,” he corrected. “I’m just here for information,” he assured.

“I’m calling the actual police!”

“Woah, wait a minute,” Val rushed. “Give us a minute to explain.”

“Then you have one minute!” Yawen snapped.

“That patient of yours, Harris? He kidnapped my nephew. I need to see where he’s been, Randy could still be there!” River kept his voice down.

“I need his braindance. Something I can trace back to a source,” Val clarified.

“Do you have a warrant, Private Investigator?”

“No need, I’m not a cop.” Val shook her head. “PIs don’t need warrants to investigate.”

“We still have protocols. Private Investigator or not, you can’t just break in and steal confidential evidence.”

“Protocols my ass. You run a Crime Lab, not a therapy office. Doctor-Patient Confidentiality doesn’t apply here. Do I need to raise charges for abetting a kidnapper?” Val threatened. River glanced at her. He wasn’t sure how serious she was.

Yawen stood taller with her hands on her hips, trying to appear unbreakable. “This is an ongoing police investigation. I could lose my license if I let you walk out of here.”

“This isn’t about you, this is about a child’s life. A life that might end if you keep stalling us because the NCPD refuses to solve this. We’re trying to save a life,” Val insisted.

“No. And that is my final answer.”

River couldn’t believe Yawen. Was everyone who worked for the city corrupt? How did he never see it before? “Who the fuck do you think you are? It’s my nephew’s life at stake! I need this data, Yawen! Don’t make me pull out your cards, I know you haven’t forgotten I have serious evidence against you.”

“You think you can blackmail me?” she hissed. Her eyes flew to Val. “And you, Private Investigator, I suppose you’re just like him? Always taking, never giving?”

River was too incensed at Yawen to flinch when Val’s pistol flew into view. “I’ll say it slowly this time: This. Isn’t. About. You. I am trying to save a child’s life. Whatever disagreements you have with River aren’t relevant. Let us leave with the file, braindance included. You can scrub the security footage as soon as we leave.”

Yawen fumed at Val and River, but only when Val’s finger found the trigger did the doctor cave. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t. There’s no braindance because he’s not dreaming.”

River looked at V, who hesitated to lower her gun. “What? Why not? What did you do to him!” he demanded.

Yawen sighed and walked to the other room, and River and Val followed. “I did nothing. A bullet damaged his frontal cortex. There are only dissonant flashes.”

“So try audio-visual stimulation like on all your other patients,” River urged.

“We’ve never done that procedure on an adult.”

Val laughed, drawing both sets of eyes. “I can assure you adult brains react to audio-visual stimulation just as kids do. It’s a human reaction, not an age reaction. I edit enough braindances to prove that.”

“I know the similarities! But unlike both of you, clearly, I have actually gone to medical school, so I-”

“You don’t need to go hundreds of thousands in debt with school loans to know how the human brains reacts in real time and memory recollection. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. As humans, we’ve all experienced it. Give us what you have, I’ll piece it together myself.”

Yawen shook her head. “I can’t, don’t you understand? There’s nothing to piece together! You think I wouldn’t have tried?”

“You wouldn’t if someone higher up in your chain of command told you not to. And you wouldn’t be the first to suppress information that could save a life.”

“There is nothing to piece together, we don’t even have his preferences-”

Val shook her head. “I don’t need a complete recording, I don’t even need preferences. Just give me what you have. I’ve worked with less. It’s what landed me here in the first place.”

“So he hired you.” Yawen gestured to River.

“Oh, no.” Val shook her head. “River’s saved my life twice and he’s been there when I couldn’t rely on anyone else. I’m here to repay his friendship.”

River stared at Val, appreciation surging through him. Yawen looked at River, then Val, then back before finally sighing with a wave of her hand.

“If you can find me an audio-visual stimulation specific to him, then I will do what I can,” the doctor agreed at last.

River opened his mouth, but it was Val that spoke. “Thank you. We’ll be in touch.” With a flick of her eyes and a nod to River, Val turned around and began walking out.

River didn’t need to be told twice.

Outside, River all but fell against a wall in relief. Valerie’s sigh said she was also grateful to be out of the tense encounter.

“I could fucking kiss you,” he told Val.

Val looked around herself, then at him. “I’m… right here,” she invited.

“Please don’t tempt me until we’ve found my nephew. After that, though?” He waved her to follow as he started across the street. “Tempt me all you want. Please.”

I fuckin’ told you.

Maybe I want him in my pants.

As if the whole world can’t tell.

River climbed in the driver’s seat… and his shoulders fell with a sigh of defeat. “Go ahead. Get it out,” he allowed Val.

Val looked at him in question. “What? Inadvertently taking me to meet your ex?” she guessed.

“That… should not have happened.” River sighed again and started his truck. “I meant… my suspension. That I’ve been… lying about it.”

“Oh.” Val’s head rose and fell in a deep, single breath. She shrugged. “Well… I just broke into into a police crime lab and demanded evidence at gunpoint. I’m in no position to judge you for not having a badge.”

River looked at her. “Really?”

“Really.” She nodded. “If in a year I’ve done nothing illegal, maybe then I’ll be in a position to judge.”

River sighed long and full. “Thanks, Valerie. I honestly thought you’d be pissed.” He glanced out at oncoming traffic. "Especially since you kept asking how work was."

“Nope. Kinda fun that you were willing to break the law with me, actually,” she teased.

He didn’t mean to smile. “Let’s try not to make that… too much of a habit.” He pulled out into the road and headed east.

She nodded slow and long, holding back a grin. “Too much. Sure. I can handle breaking the law only a little, I suppose.”

River sighed. “I’m never going to hear the end of that, am I?”

“Nope.” She smirked hard, looking ahead as he drove. “Officer,” she teased.

River glared at her, but he was too amused to be annoyed. Valerie could only grin from the other seat.

“Sooo…” she said as River turned onto the road that would take them out of the city. “Where are we going?”

“My sister’s house. Joss. She’s Randy’s mom.”

“You think she’s got info on Harris?” she asked.

“No, but Randy might.”

“Might?” she echoed.

River shrugged. “It’s the only lead I have right now. That I can access,” he clarified.

“Right,” she said. “Well, if Randy was in contact with Harris, I should be able to trace something.”

River slowed at a stop sign. But when he didn’t drive again right away, Val looked at him.

“River?” she prompted him.

“If we find him, Valerie, and I forget to thank you…” He turned his head to meet her eyes. “Remind me of right now when I promised to make it up to you all night.”

Val searched him a few seconds before her pretty mouth stretched in a small smile. “I’ll hold you to that.”

River nodded with a deep breath and drove on. He only hoped there was something to work with.

Val followed close behind River as he walked into his sister’s house without knocking or announcing himself. The woman in the kitchen glanced up when River walked in, turning to face them. As many times as she had broken into places, Valerie now felt like she was invading. She stood in the doorway until River motioned for to join him.

“River.” The woman didn’t sound happy to see him.

“Hey, Joss.” He paused, then glanced at Val. “This is V-”

“V?” Joss ehcoed in doubt.

Val got her act together and stood straight. “Valerie Donahue” she introduced herself. “V is a … street name.”

Joss’ brows raised. “A street name?” It wasn’t hard to guess she thought Val was a joytoy.

“Valerie is a m-”

“Private Investigator,” Valerie cut River off. He met her gaze. She was trying to sound professional… or impress his family.

“Private Investigator?” Joss echoed again. Her whole facade changed. “Wait, so you’re here about Randy?”

Val looked to River for help, and he sighed. He hadn’t wanted to bring up the kidnapping, but now it might actually help them find his nephew. “I think Randy’s been kidnapped, Joss. I need to-”

“Kidnapped?” Joss asked. Her eyes went out of focus with worry. River helped his sister to a chair.

“We’re trying to find him,” Val insisted. “But-”

“But what?!” Joss stared at them both. “What’s stopping you? Why are you here if he’s been kidnappped?”

Val took a long blink and a deeper breath. “We need your help finding him. Clues, anything,” she said. “Anything he metioned that was out of place, or maybe a new hobby he never seemed interested in before he disappered. Does he have a computer we can look at?”

“What? No, nothing. He- didn’t have many friends. He’s always been…Oh my god, Randy!” She began rocking back and forth, hand on her mouth.

“Joss.” River held her shoulders. “We need to look through his things. Please.” As soon as Joss nodded, River took Val’s hand and rushed out of the house.

“Uncle River!” simultaneous young excitement came barreling at him.

“Oof!” River grunted from the impact of his niece and nephew, grinning from ear to ear. He hadn’t expected the kids to miss him so much. “Hey, guys!” he laughed. “How ya been?” He glanced over to find Val staring like he and the kids were the sweetest thing in the world.

Great. Now he’s good with kids. This just keeps getting better for me.

Johnny, come off it already.

“Do you wanna play a game with us?” Dorian asked.

“Uh, I can’t right now, guys, I’m kind of here for work. But next time, okay?” River promised.

Little Monique gasped at Val. “Is this your girlfriend?” Stars in her large eyes.

“Good question,” Valerie encouraged, nodding. Her smirk said mischief, but her eyes sparkled at River.

River felt his cheeks flush with a smile he could not contain. “Uh, she’s just a friend, sorry guys."

Valerie wasn’t embarrassed though. Surprised River even more when she beamed as if he’d just handed her a bouquet of roses.

River nodded toward Randy’s trailer for Val to follow.

“Cute kids,” she said when the door shut behind them. “They sure seem to miss you, Uncle River.”

“I used to come here every weekend. It’s been awhile.”

“Randy’s siblings?”

“Yeah.”

“Do they know he’s missing? I mean, were they told Randy ran away?”

River nodded. “I’m pretty sure Joss told them Randy ran away.”

Val glanced around with a deep breath. “Okay. Pressure’s on, then, and the clock is ticking.”

Nothing they found around Randy’s trailer seemed to hold significance. Random keys, vinyl records, typical food in a young man’s cupboard. River went through every paper and every bit of trash, while Val scanned around for things only a netrunner could pinpoint.

“Uh… River?” she called from the bedroom.

“Yeah?” He crossed the house in no time.

“Joss said Randy doesn’t have a computer.” But she pointed at a laptop peeking out from under the bed. “Did he have a job?”

River frowned. “No.” He yanked the computer out and opened it. Locked. “Dammit.” Then his eyes flew to Val. “Can you crack this?”

She looked at the computer in interest. “Let’s find out.” She set it on the desk and sat with a deep breath and wiggled her fingers above the keyboard for a second. Then she set to work hacking. Her eyes flew everywhere like she was speed reading an entire book.

“Shit, Val. Hurry up. Please,” he urged as the timer turned to red.

She hit enter and the entire block turned green, and Val sat back with a long exhale.

“You’re the best, Val!” He dropped to a knee and started clicking on every file on the desktop.

“River, something’s wrong,” she said.

“What is?” he asked, eyes on the screen.

“Does he code? Or hack?”

“Randy can barely read, unfortunately. He dropped out of school some time back, and… well, you saw the pills in the bathroom. He’s messed up some of his motor functions. Pair that with depression and loneliness…”

“Okay, then someone helped him secure this computer,” she said. “I’ve only seen a  handful of timers go that fast for such a long hack. I think someone’s been here with him.”

River met her eyes. “You don’t think it could have been delivered like this?”

She shrugged. “Wouldn’t be a subtle package, though. These aren’t exactly lightweight. Wouldn’t Joss have seen?”

They stared a moment longer, then Val jacked into the computer and took over.

“Dammit.” 

At least a dozen hidden files appeared as Val took admin control, things that weren’t accessible to prying eyes. She opened everything she could find, even managed to restore some deleted files. A couple disturbing poems written by Randy, one poem about watching his mother die, a couple saved texts from a female friend. All disturbing in their own ways, but no obvious connection between Randy and Harris.

Val moved the mouse. “Here. This is playable.” She clicked on video file and hit play.

It took only a second to see how disturbing the video was. A cartoon of two farmers with a cow hooked up to a milking machine…. which fed right back into the cow’s mouth.

Val sat back from the computer and held her hands up, as if it would stop the video. “What the fuck is this?” she breathed, so unsettled out she sprouted goosebumps.

“You ever see that before?” he asked. He didn’t want to watch it anymore than she did, but if it held clues to where Harris kept his victims, River couldn’t afford to stop playing it.

“Never. But why’s it on there? Randy’s got nothing about farms or cows or milk in this house, not even a cowboy hat. There internet here?” She peered closer at the taskbar icons. “Yeah. Okay, uh…” Her eyes darted again until she located the Net browser. “Do you know if he has social media? Somewhere people can message him? What about email?”

River nodded. “Should have a messenger through that, too. Can you hack into that, too?” he asked.

“It’s why you asked for my help, right?”

“Partly.”

Hacking Randy’s email went quicker. Val winced a closed mouth. “See? Who the fuck puts an Arasaka-level security encryption on the laptop yet the email could be cracked by a child?” She shook her head.

River pointed. “There. Messages.”

Those were worse than the disturbing cartoon. Emails and instant messages from Harris himself. He stalked Randy, gained his trust, sent him gifts, made Randy think he had no one but himself to rely on. Peter Pan fucking groomed River’s nephew.  

“Ohh I’m gonna be sick,” Val said as read.

River reached over her and clicked a previous message again. “What was that? Click on what page?”

“Some secret message or something. There!” She stopped him from clicking one down too many. “Click on the image on the website,” she read aloud. “Okay…” Her eyes darted again as she navigated the home page. River’s gut flipped when she clicked the photo.

“A secret website. Fuck. That’s how he lured them in. Goddammit.”  River took over the mouse again. “Media?” He clicked on the tab. “Shit. Deleted. Looks like he suspected someone would catch on .”

“Wait wait!” Val’s other hand tapped in the air as she took the mouse back and browsed the files in the computer again “I saw that name on a file. Att card video, att cart vid…” Her eyes busied as she browsed through the computer files as fast as she could. Then her breath caught. “He downloaded it, River.” She clicked on the same name. The sickening cow cartoon. Way worse than thinking it might be porn.

Their eyes met, then River shot up to his feet and pulled out his phone. His adrenaline was running so fast his finger shook and had a hard time pulling up Yawen’s number. “Can you send that to my phone? Please?”

A couple clicks, then Val jacked out and her pupils lit up. “Done.” Glowing pupils met over his phone as River received the video file.

River sank to the bed with a sigh of relief as soon as the file sent to Yawen. It wasn’t the definite answer he needed, but it was a huge step closer.  He rested his chin on his thumbs, elbows on his knees, trying to focus and breathe.

Another file transfer lit his cybernetic pupil, and River looked at Val. “You got the IP address.”

Valerie nodded. “It still might help to watch his dreams. But if nothing else, it should help. Won’t be accurate, but we could split up if we needed to.”

River didn’t know what to say. He wanted to kiss her, wanted to hand her the reins to his life, he wanted to stand naked and vulnerable before her to prove he trusted her with everything. Whatever they felt when when they met didn’t erase the fact that they hadn’t known each other long. Strangers by most accounts, yet here she was busting her ass to help him find his kidnapped nephew - while she was dying.

He wasn’t sure he deserved her.

River secured Randy’s trailer for Valerie for the night, then he tried to sleep in his room in Joss’ house.

But he couldn’t sleep. He was wired, anxious, restless. He paced through the living room for awhile, thinking it was far enough from the other bedrooms, but after awhile Joss said his stomping kept her up.

River tried to sit still, but couldn’t. Couldn’t stand still. Couldn’t lay down. His nerves were flying all over the place. He’d never had such bad anxiety before.

When Joss told him to stop a second time, River left her house and made for Randy’s place. Val had let him be as he needed prior, so maybe she wouldn’t mind his pacing. He walked into Randy’s trailer and shut the door as quiet as he could... only to find Val still up herself, sitting at the table staring into oblivion.

They looked at each a moment, then River tried sitting by her. But he could not pause his nerves. At least Val didn’t say anything about him bouncing his feet to high hell.

Val poured a shot of tequila and set it in front of River. Not a single word spoken yet, just two people so disturbed they couldn’t sleep. River tossed back the tequila, but a moment later he shot back up and returned to pacing.

“It feels like time is crawling by on purpose,” he said.

Val nodded. She tried to take a shot of tequila herself, but the strength puckered her face and jerked her head in sharp shakes.

“It feels like we need to be out there looking,” he insisted.

He didn’t know how long he paced for. After some time, Valerie caught it like a bug. Her feet bounced and her long nails tapped on the tabletop. Faster and faster as River paced, until she gasped hard and shot up.

“River.” She took his face in her hands to stop him, keeping him low enough to look in her eyes. “I need you to stop, please. My nerves are on edge, too. But we’ll find him.”

He searched her eyes, holding her wrists. “I know, I know. I’m sorry. It’s just-” he sighed and shook his head, still in her hands.

Val pulled him in for a tight hug, trying to hold him in her small arms. “It’s okay, River. We gotta give Harris time to dream. We’ll find Randy, I promise.” 

At first River didn’t want to stand still. But as he let himself stay in her arms, his pulse began to calm and the urge to pace or hit something faded away. River sighed with the warm calm washing through him and hugged her tight.

“You’re seeing all my worst damn moments with this case,” he muttered, holding her there. A moment ago he couldn’t stop moving. Now he was afraid to let her go or anxiety would drown him again.

“You’re doing what you can to help your family. That’s a good quality, River,” she assured. He buried his face in her neck and squeezed her as tight as he could.

“Thank you for being here, Val. I meant it. I would’ve lost my damn mind already without you.”

“Yes, yes, it’s already established you’ll pay me back all night long when this is done,” she tried to lighten the mood. River let himself laugh a little.

“Thank you,” he repeated. It just felt like he wasn’t saying it enough.

For who knew how long, they stood there holding each other. It was so calming that when River laid his head on hers and closed his eyes, he even thought he could sleep. He led Val to the bed, stripped the bedding, and dressed it in clean sheets and a clean blanket. Then he tried to lay down, this time with her body in his arms and her scent right where he needed her.  

But now with stillness, darkness, and silence around him, anxiety began creeping up again. He rolled over, rolled back over, but only grew more restless. River got out of bed and went to the kitchen for a couple more shots of tequila, hoping that would do the trick. But nothing. He took to pacing again, but picked up so much speed while the shots were kicking that pacing made him dizzy.

He downed a glass of water and sat with his head in his hands for a few minutes before rejoining Valerie on the bed. This time, he laid his head on her breast. Something had to work.

Still he could not get comfortable. He tried moving to her chest, hoping the soft rhythm of her heart would put him to sleep, but then her buttons were in the way. So he unbuttoned her blouse and nestled in again, this time his ear sat right over her heart.

“What do you need me to do?” she mumbled.

“Nothing. This.” River draped her arms around him and focused on her beating heart. The warm wash of her skin against his, her heartbeat in his ear. He didn’t know if it was the liquor was kicking in at last or the warm, rhythmic pounding beneath him. But at last his eyes felt droopy.

A text and a file from Yawen at the crack of dawn shot River out of bed so fast it woke Val with a yelp. She took a moment to wake herself up with cold water while River searched Randy’s desk drawers for a datashard to download Harris’ brandance on. As soon as River was ready, Val was ready too.

River watched from the computer as Val navigated through Peter Pan’s memories. Even as a child, he’d liked that disturbing cartoon. Abusive father, abusive teachers, bullied at school and home. His father had him convinced he killed his own mother. So worried he’d kill his cows like his mother that young Harris began over-supplementing the livestock, leading to the death of what he meant to nurture. Somehow, that distorted childhood reasoning translated into doing the same to boys who also grew up with abusive fathers. A fucking memory of Harris hobbling over to stop a boy from crawling to safety.

River was so worked up watching the torture he almost broke the computer chair. But he had written down every possible clue Valerie found, and by the time she got her braindance headset off, River had already cross-referenced dates and times with the IP address she’d pulled last night.

“Edgewood Farm,” he said, staring at her eyes.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He nodded.

“Okay.” She nodded too, standing with a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

So worked up with hope that while Val buttoned her blouse back up, River took her face in his hands and kissed her, lingering, trying to be sweet and soft. “You are the best, Valerie,” he told her. He kissed her again, then helped her finish dressing so they could leave faster.

In the truck as River sped along the dirt roads, Val grew more anxious by the second. “You okay?” River asked, glancing at her as often as he could to assess.

Val stared straight out the window, starting to rock. “Drive fast. Please. I got a really, really bad feeling we gotta be there, like, yesterday.” 

“Me too.”

Her gut feeling only validated his. River shoved on the gas pedal as fast as he was comfortable. GPS said the farm was almost an hour away from Joss’, but River made it in just under half. Val didn’t complain once about his reckless speeding.

He stopped his truck only for a second. “Hold onto something,” he told her, and shoved the gas down till it was hard to steer. Ramming the gate slowed the truck enough to slam on the brake before they hit a tree.

Val didn’t wait for him. She threw the door open and jumped out, and almost fell trying to stop. “Jesus, River!”  She caught herself on the open door, stopping River as he ran to help her. “Don’t! Look!” She turned his head toward the faint blinking of an armed landmine not far from where they stood.

“Don’t-- don’t move,” she breathed. She scanned the mine to disarm it, only for her breath to catch and her body freeze. “Ohhh fuck,” she breathed. She grabbed him as she climbed backwards into the truck, sharing the ping with River. Her grip said she feared he’d explode if she let go. Right then, such a wild fear was valid.

“Oh, god.” Horror took over River’s face as he looked around. Armed landmines only two feet apart all over the damn property. “Can you disable them?” He scanned the yard as she began disabling, only to duck and pull her head down with him. “Fucking turrets too?” he  hissed in disbelief, peeking around the open door.

“River,” she whispered, disabling as many nearby landmines and as many turrets as they could see. “He meant to keep them here. Forever. There’s no way any of those boys could have escaped.”

“Yeah, I’m trying not to think of that.” He studied the house and what he saw of the barn. “Can you disable enough to get us to the house?”

Valerie wasn’t sure how to breathe right anymore. “Yeah, enough to get us to the barn, too. But it’ll take all day to disable all of them.”

“It’ll do. There’s gotta be a security shut off somewhere.”

As normal as the house looked at first glance, scattered around were datashards for manipulating people. Teens, people with addictions and depression, people hard on luck, how to gain trust with words. Harris hadn’t just groomed boys for capture, he fucking studied for it.

Val found a secret door that led to a security room, and as soon as she shut off the other turrets, they ran for the barn. They had to climb the roof and drop through an open window to get in. Landing in the cattle pens was worse than seeing it on Harris’ braindance.

The sight alone made Val nauseus. “Oh, fuck me…” Knowing what the tools were for made it worse.

Hooked up like in the braindance, heads covered, tubes sticking out, more sickening in person, horror beyond anything Val had ever handled before. Her stomach churned at the sight and she had to grip the catwalk railing to balance.

She took a deep breath, then sucked it up and jumped down after River, who was already on call with Dispatch. Val scanned the boys while River ran around checking every filled pen.  

“Just fucking get Trauma here NOW!” River yelled at dispatch. He hung up his phone. “Valerie! He’s here!”

The actual rescue was almost as chaotic as watching the braindance. Val ran to find the master control panel, then she ran around trying to free the other boys. So many dead, only two alive. Two out of eight hooked up. Val had never heard of those boys before, but right then it incensed her, it scared her. Sick fucks out there willing to torture kids and never let them see the light of day again. Steal them from loving homes, brainwash them. She now knew why River was so passionate about correcting crime, why he felt it was his duty to protect the people. Someone had to. It might as well be them.

Randy made the third boy left alive. When they at last freed Randy’s restraints, River stood panting, relieved under the strongest damn adrenaline high he’d ever had. Hope and determination had fucking paid off. Val elevated Randy’s head, trying to stimulate Randy’s body to breathe on its own again by gently blowing on on his mouth and nose. When Randy gave a hard gasp and his chest moved again, River almost cried. He ran his hands down his face with a deep exhale to try to cool down, shaking from the massive adrenaline explosion.

Val’s eyes were glossy when she looked up. “We did it, Riv. We got him,” she whispered. River’s relief came out as a nod and a smile. He just hoped it wasn’t too good to be true.

Outside the barn, Trauma worked to stabilize Randy and the other boys. The landmines had been mass-disarmed by an NCPD Netrunner. The sun was shining bright, and lives had been saved. After so much chaos, the change was promising.

River looked over, then went to stand with the woman who helped him save his nephew. Val sat against a concrete barricade drinking coffee the Trauma team offered her.

“I can’t thank you enough, Valerie.”

“You don’t need to thank me for this, River. I’m just glad we found your nephew in time,” she said.

River kept his eyes on the Trauma team for a second, then turned his back to them and faced Val. “I’m gonna kill him. Harris,” he kept his voice low. He shook his head, too livid at Peter Pan to look look at even Val. “Snap his fucking neck. And I want to make him suffer first.”

“You don’t gotta do that alone either, Riv. I’ll help.”

River met her eyes.

“I can make sure the cameras don’t see you. If he has implants, I can hack them.” She nodded. “He’ll suffer. A lot. I want his blood on my hands, too.”

“I need to do this, Val. Bastard made it personal. No one will notice me, I promise. Perfect time to do it, all the chaos with the boys there. The Press, the families. The parents will probably try to take revenge, too.”

Val nodded. “If you change your mind, just call. I’ll be there, whatever you need.”

River could only stare at her. This woman had his back for everything. She was more amazing than he knew anyone could be. He wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve her.

He wondered if she knew how far he’d fallen for her. Wondered if she knew what he felt when they met was nothing to compared to how he felt for her now.

“Are you coming? We need to get him to the hospital,” a Trauma responder asked.

River glanced back. “Yeah.” He put his keycard in Val’s hand . “Will you take my truck to the hospital, please?” The Trauma AV would get him there faster. If Randy regained consciousness on the ride, River needed to be there for his nephew.

Val nodded.  “Absolutely.”

River leaned down to kiss her goodbye. He didn’t know how else to show his appreciation. Words were not enough for what she had done for him.

Chapter Text

River watched Valerie join him at the seats. She had run into Joss in the Emergency Room lobby and offered to sit with the kids so Joss could see her son. River had stayed with Joss until Randy was declared stable in Intensive Care, then found Val and the kids. She tried to teach them to solve the puzzle cubes, but she could never get it, and the kids laughed their heads off. At least the kids were happy.

“Hey,” Valerie greeted him, quiet and tired like River was now that the raw energy and chaos had dimmed. “How’s Randy doing?”

River teetered his head. “Well enough, considering what we pulled him from.”

She paused. “It’s kinda crazy. I keep thinking if we left even five minutes later, we wouldn’t have made in time.”

“But we did. And so much of that was you, Val,” he told her. “I could not have done this without you.”

She gave a small smile and a small shrug. “You set it all in motion, River. I just helped.”

“But it mattered, Valerie. I mean it. What you did made all the difference. The smartest thing I’ve ever done was ask for your help.”

A small pause this time. “You know, I think that, myself. When I called you about Rhyne. I did myself the best favor that day.”

River stared back for a moment. There was no doubt in his mind, she was right for him. They were right for each other. 

“Do you need to be anywhere?” he asked.

“Just wherever you need me to be.”

Goddamn emotional day was testing his will to stay strong and not cry. River could only nod. He opened his arm and motioned her over, and as soon as she sat, he pulled her against him and rested his head on hers. She had been his backbone during the entire investigation; shit, since they’d learned his badge partner betrayed him. She’d stayed through his worst, and in doing so became the best part of him.

Val stayed with River that night. They took the kids back home so Joss could stay overnight with Randy, and so Val and River could catch up on sleep. Trying to find Randy had been so stressful that it felt like ages since either of them rested.

River took Val home after lunch, then brought the kids back to the hospital so Joss could get home and eat. And River stayed to check on his nephew.

Randy was in rough shape. Blocks of his memory were missing, and the kid greeted River like he was six instead of sixteen. River couldn’t look at his nephew now without still seeing all the tubes and bars where Harris had abused the boys.

There were brief moments Randy remembered recent events. He cried, angry and scared when talking about Harris. River had no clue how to console such a horrific memory. The boy would live the rest of his life with post-traumatic stress, which would only make it easier to fall back on substance abuse. River could only promise to help him recover and overcome.

River knocked on Val’s door that evening, and he smiled when she answered. Dressed up as always, but… different. Soft, more casual than the Corpo Bitch look she went for with work. This time, the dress hung loose around her legs, her blouse showed just enough skin, and her strawberry-blonde locks tucked behind her ears. The epitome of the girl next door from those old movies.

She was beautiful.

She searched his eyes when he stepped inside. “You see Randy?” she guessed.

River nodded. “Yeah.” He must have looked worn down if she saw it right away.

“Is he doing any better yet?”

“Physically, yeah. But I don’t expect him to ever get over what Harris did to him. It’s unfortunately going to haunt the rest of his life.”

Valerie paused in thought. “You know, I still have my old life coach in my contacts. He might know someone who specializes in PTSD recovery. I’ll call him in the morning,” she offered.

“Might be worth looking into. All those hormones messed Randy pretty bad. Brain can only handle so many hormones before it shorts out, you know?” He said. “Oh, and I have something for you.” He pulled a small card from his pocket and set it Val’s hands.

“What’s this?” She glanced up while opening the envelope.

“It’s from Randy. He vaguely remembers someone with red hair and he had the feeling that person was being nice,” River relayed. Valerie smiled at the simple bouquet on the front of the card. “He lost a lot of strength and motor functions, lying there so long,” he said when she opened it up. “But when I told him that redhead was my best friend, he wanted to say thanks.”

Val’s eyes glossed quick and thick as she looked at the squiggly, unsteady Thank You. Blinking pushed the tears down her speckled cheeks, and one splashed on the card. Val wiped it away and wiped her cheeks, blinking to try to keep the rest of her tears at bay.

River cradled her face and wiped her tears away. It had been the most emotionally taxing case either of them ever had, even the good ending.

He kissed away a tear at the corner of her eye, then kissed the pout from her soft lips. Then River squeezed her tight in his arms. He wished he never had to let go.

“Thank you for being my anchor through all this, Valerie. You held me together through all of it.” He kissed her head, then just hugged her. “You know, after everything,” he admitted, “I don’t know if I can do this without you. Anything without you.”

They never made it outside for their coffee walk along the pier. Kisses of gratitude became kissing to kiss, to breathe the other in, to taste each other. It became kissing to touch, explore, kisses driven by passion with an itch that kissing couldn’t scratch. Kisses with tongue and teeth and thirsty hands that peeled off clothes and squeezed  and tugged on bare skin. Lips and tongues strayed to taste the bodies they were already addicted to. A long, breathless kiss when he breached her core and she locked him inside. A breathless kiss after she climaxed around him, and another interrupted by shallow, choppy breath as he drove hard to finish inside her.

A long, tender kiss as she lay wrapped in his arms.

A kiss to send her off to sleep.

Chapter Text

River sat on the edge of the bed with his coffee while Val drank hers still wrapped in the blanket.

“We need to start chasing down those leads today, Val,” he reminded her.

She sighed deep. “Yeah, I know.”

River switched his coffee to the other hand and reached over to rub her back. “That lead you were chasing the other day, when we went to Chubby’s, was that for the shard?”

Val groaned. “Yes. Oh man, I got to deal with them again.”

“Deal with who again?”

“The tech specialist at Lizzie’s Bar and her Doll who gave me the job in the first place.”

River raised a brow in interest. “Lizzie’s Bar and Dolls, huh?” he teased.

Val shot him a playful glare over her coffee cup. “Yes, you’ll have to trudge through mostly-naked dancing women. Poor you.”

River grinned at her. “What are we waiting for?”

“Very funny.” She leaned into him, nestling her head at his shoulder. “Doesn’t even open till the evening, anyway.”

“Hm.” He put his lips to her forehead. “Didn’t you say she hung up on you? ‘Cause she thinks you’ll kill someone?”

“Yeah. I got squat out of her.”

River hummed in thought again. “Want me to call her? She might be willing to talk if I act like it’s an open investigation.”

Val looked up at him with high brows. “Actually, that might help a lot.” She sat up and looked around. “I think my phone’s by the computer,” she said. “Judy Alvarez.”

River grabbed his phone. “It’s not quite seven. Think she’ll be up?”

“Early doesn’t matter to an investigation, does it?”

“So much for being polite,” he joked. River balanced his coffee to get up from her low bed, then went to Val’s computer desk. “Do you want me to be sympathetic to her?” he asked, punching Judy’s number into his phone.

“Nope. I wanna hear your Officer Ward voice.” Val lay on her belly, watching him with an eager spark in her eyes.

River grinned. “You want me to turn you on when I’m the phone? Doesn’t seem quite fair.”

Val rested her chin on her palms and kicked her feet behind her, waiting to be entertained. River shook his head in attempt to hold off a grin. He would not be able to look at her during that call.

Judy’s phone rang. “Evelyn Parker, right?” River looked at Val. She nodded. Judy dismissed the call, but River called right back. Another dismissal. He scoffed and shook his head, but River had practice in hang ups. No one could ignore a call forever. He dialed her number once more.

“Who is this!” Judy answered at last.

“Judy  Alvarez?” River asked, putting the Detective back in his voice. He walked around Val’s apartment, keeping his eyes unfocused.

“Who wants to know?”

“Detective River Ward, NCPD. I’m investigating the disappearance of one Evelyn Parker. I understand you’re familiar with her.”

From the corner of his eyes, Val’s head cocked and brow raised in interest. River had to keep his toward the ceiling as he walked to avoid catching her gaze and breaking his facade.

“Who told you I’m familiar with her?” Judy challenged.

“Can’t answer, that Miss Alvarez. Do you have time to meet in person to go over some questions?”

Judy scoffed a laugh. “I’m not going down to the PD if that’s what you’re asking!”

“I can come to you. Wherever you’re most comfortable,” he added. Judy hesitated. “Miss Alvarez, we can’t proceed with this case until we cover all the basics. If we don’t know where she habituates, we won’t ever find her.”

Judy huffed. “Someone really cared enough to write a missing person’s report, huh? Can you at least tell me who?”

“Afraid not, Miss Alvarez.”

Judy was silent for a few seconds. “Fine. But I don’t want to meet alone. Meet me tonight at Lizzie’s. And don’t come dressed as a badge, you’ll never make it past the door. Just… dress like a customer, or a delivery boy. My office is downstairs. I’ll let the girls at the door know."

“Lizzie’s Bar? Or is this a friend of yours?” River knew, but he had to play the angle right.

“The bar, yeah. Opens at five,” she said.

“I’ll be there at eight-fifteen,” he told her.

“Uh… why the specific time?”

“So you’ll know it’s me. Until then, Miss Alvarez.”

River paused when he hung up. There was no doubt his Officer Ward voice aroused Valerie. She popped an omega blocker, her pupils dilated and breath more shallow than usual. "When we get there, you should arrest us both. Me and Judy," she said, never leaving his gaze. "Then kick Judy out and dock me right there on Judy's netrunning chair."

River grinned with a quiet laugh and pushed his pajamas pants to his ankles. “I could just jack in here.” He joined her in bed, kicking the pants off behind him. Val turned over, propping up on her elbows as she watched him crawl to her.

“Afraid to dock in a public place, huh? Is that illegal? If you don’t arrest me, I could snap on anyone. I’m out of control,” she played, fighting a grin, pupils still blown.

River couldn’t stop his smirk. “I’m not going all the way back down to my truck like this just  for handcuffs.” He took her wrists and pinned them above her head. His tongue at her neck drew a sigh of pleasure from her. One hand restraining hers, the other untangling her from the sheets, and River began playing her where she couldn’t reach. She was his instrument, and he would make her sing.

Chapter Text

“Miss Alvarez?” River called out when he and Val stood at the open double doors in the Lizzy’s bar basement.

Noise from around the corner, then a Hispanic woman in loose overalls came into view.

Judy Alvarez took one look and Val and shook her head, backing up. “Oh fuck no!” She rushed behind a chair, glancing back to see if they’d followed. River and Val hadn’t moved from the doorway.  “What the fuck is this? You couldn’t get to Ev through me so you bribed a fucking cop?” Judy stopped at the edge of a second desk, hand on a pistol that lay there.

“Jesus, Judy, I just need to talk to her,” Val insisted.

Judy laughed but her eyes were unwelcoming. “Yeah right. Is there even an investigation to find her?”

River gave a small gesture and shrugged. “Unofficially.”

“What, you just want to find the whore so V can fuck her up like she fucked up that heist? And she pulled a heist on Arasaka but the cops are still helping her, huh? Fuckin' figures."

Val sighed, annoyed. “Okay, hate me all you want, but you could be nice to him at least? He’s helping me,” she said. “And I kinda have a really, really, really huge crush on him.”

River raised an eyebrow at Val. “You’re only saying this now?” he teased. “Coulda told me earlier when we were alone.” In part, he was changing the mood of the room so they could get Judy’s help. The other part was raw satisfaction knowing she wanted him.

Val’s face fell flat on River. “Like you can’t tell.” River couldn't argue that if he tried. They’d spent the day in bed playing around and learning each other’s bodies, and she was very vocal. No hiding she really really really appreciated what he did to her body. River's smile pinched into a hard smirk.

Judy stared at them like something couldn’t be more wrong. “What the hell is going on? Why the hell are you dating a cop after all the shit you’ve done?”

River shrugged. “She’s hot. Why wouldn’t I date her?” Just to troll the resistance. Judy rolled her eyes in disgust.

“Judy, what the hell do you think I did?” Valerie asked.

Overalls stared at her in doubt. “It was all over the damn news. Arasaka Tower ring a bell?”

“Would you like the truth? I’ve an hour-long file you watch that proves all I did was steal that damn shard. Or would you like to keep believing what Yorinobu Arasaka tells you to?”

“And you said all the women in my life have character,” River teased Val.

Val grimaced with a sigh. “Yeah, the ones in my life are way worse.”

Judy at last moved her hand away from the pistol and walked closer to face them. She folded her arms over her chest and studied them each. “Then why come here?” 

“Because you’re the only person I know who knows her and I can’t get ahold of her, but I need to. The shard-”

“Look, I can’t get ahold of her either. But even if I could, I wouldn’t tell you. So if you’re here to finish her off,you go fuck yourselves.”

“I just need to find out who hired her. That’s all I need from Evelyn.”

Judy paused. “That’s it?”

“Yes. Jesus Christ. Why is it so damn difficult to get the simplest info from everyone?” Val asked the void.

“Now you know what it’s like to be a Detective,” River told her.

“Still don’t know what a cop sees in someone like V.” Judy gestured to her computer desk. “She went back to Clouds. Smoke case has the addy.”

Val snatched the cigarette case off the desk and read the sticker. “Megabuilding H8?” she read aloud.

“I know where that is. Japantown,” River said. Val did a double take at him, her brows creasing in curiosity and accusation. River gave into a smile. “Nope, not for that reason.” He turned around and started walking. “Nice to meet you, Judy!” he called back.

“Wait, V!” Judy stopped her from leaving. “Listen, if you find her… Let me know she’s okay?”

Valerie wanted to retort. Instead, she sighed. “Yeah. Give you a call.”

River stared at the entrance to Clouds. He wasn’t keen on going inside.

“What’s wrong?” Valerie asked him. She glanced over the entrance, but nothing looked out of place. She’d never visited, but the outside looked no different from any other intimate services boutique. At least Clouds had a visual warning with their Eighteen Plus sign and the holographic dancer.

River sighed, then met her eyes. “I don’t go to clubs or places like this. You know I’ve been to three since we met?”

Val grinned. “Come on, never? Not even in your twenties?” she teased.

River shook his head. “Never. Until recently, I’ve been focused on saving Night City, remember?” He glanced at the holographic dancer. “Why, you ever dance at one of these?”

She laughed like she didn’t mean to. “Me? Have you seen me dance?” she asked.

“Not yet. I’d like to someday. Just… maybe not somewhere like this.”

Val shrugged. “I actually like to dance, but I don't think I'm very good. And I’m usually too busy. Always need new parts for upgrades.”

“We could always dance at home. Your place is spacious enough,” he suggested.

“That sounds better. I don’t like clubs either. I drank and danced at one once with Jackie to celebrate our first big job, but that was it. I puked half the way home and couldn’t eat for three days. Still can’t drink more than half a beer.” She shrugged.

River smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you’re a lightweight.” He thought it was cute, though.

“Appreciate it,” she chuckled.  Her eyes fell on the holodancer again. “Shall we get this over with?”

They wished they hadn’t got it over with. River almost checked out altogether not a minute at the lobby desk.

“Nooo. I am not here on duty,” he said when the receptionist said cops couldn’t enter but she could call down the manager. The last thing River needed while his two-weeks notice processed was the Chief calling him to ask why he went to the dollhouse as a cop.

Valerie beside tried so hard not to smile that her lips turned white in their purse. River hoped he hid his own smile. He failed when he slapped her ass and she made a noise.

“In that case,” the receptionist smiled, “Clouds has a range of selections, including individuals and couples sessions.”

Val all but malfunctioned next to River. “Cup - couples sessions?” she echoed.

River felt his face inflame. “OohmygodValeriedon’t,” he breathed.

“Uh, okay, we’re not customers,” she tried to explain, “we’re here to-”

“Very inspiring,” the receptionist nodded at them. “A lot of our guests are first-timers. The process is simple, don’t worry.”

“No, no, you misunderstand,” Val shook her head. “I need to see Evelyn Parker. Is she here?”

“Hm, no, Evelyn isn’t working tonight. But not to worry, the system will match you up with exactly what you need.”

“Oh god,” River muttered. “We’re not here for the Dolls, we just need to talk-”

“Once you both jack in, we can complete your profiles, and you’ll be matched up with someone who understands your needs. Sometimes we all just need someone to talk to, and our Dolls are excellent listeners. We don’t want you feeling uncomfortable with anything, which is where the profile matching comes in." The receptionist kept that sweet smile on her face.

“No, we need to interrogate her,” River insisted.

“Ah,” she nodded like she understood. “You’re in luck, then! Our newest Couples Package includes a variety of role-playing starters and costumes.”

“Okay, this went funny to irritating real quick,” Val said almost under her breath. She leaned on the counter with both hands. “Listen. We’re not here for the Dolls. Evelyn hired me for a job but it busted and now-”

“Oh - ah - I’m not at liberty to discuss client's sessions outside of the Doll’s rooms, I’m so sorry, but like I said-”

“It’s urgent,” Val said, “My fucking brain is trying to kill me because of her!”

“The best I can do right now is continue your last session with Evelyn on another Doll,” the receptionist apologized. “Or I could put you on Evelyn’s waiting list, and we’ll give you a call when she’s back in.”

Val’s jaw clenched and the Mantis blades shot out from her arms, but before she could move, River whisked her back out through the corridor.

Val retracted her blades and fell against the wall with bulging eyes. “Oh my god, I was about to kill her. How is someone that naive?” She sighed deep. “Thanks for pulling me out of there. You always know when to save me, you know that?”

“That is my secret power,” he teased, and River tucked her hair behind an ear. He trailed his fingers along her jaw to her chin to tilt her head for a kiss. “Now it’s time to work your magic,” he told her, gesturing toward the side of the dollhouse where construction catwalks and ladders awaited the next day’s work.

Val’s eyes narrowed in playful suspicion. “You like breaking the law way too much. How were you a cop for so long?”

River couldn’t help showing how much he adored when she teased him.“I was waiting for you.” He winked, then started off to the side of the dollhouse to help his girlfriend break in.

River understood Val’s frustration with chasing her leads. Each one only led to another, which led to another, and another, and they all had their own set of obstacles to overcome. The more leads, the easier frustration became anger, and that led to killing first then digging for data. There were never answers, which contradicted the point of chasing leads. Valerie did not have the time for that. At that rate, she would die before she ever got close. River did not blame her for trying to distract herself from the problem. It might even be why she focused so much others’ problems.

Tracking down Evelyn led to Fingers, a scumbag excuse for a Ripperdoc who installed faulty implants on girls he knew had no eddies, so he made them pay with sexual favor.

There were few people who downright deserved death. But Fingers was one of them. River didn’t object when Val shot the creep point blank, splattering his brains across the television. It helped that Fingers had a three-star bounty. River wasn’t sure how many lives Fingers’ death would impact, but it at least meant one less sick fuck in the world.

Saving Evelyn didn't prove any easier than chasing lead after lead to find her in the first place. Judy was not happy V’s Cop was tagging along, and she made a point to remind him every few minutes. Another frustrating third wheel they couldn’t get rid of, though more tolerable than that Aldecado. River didn’t doubt Judy’s intention to find Evelyn Parker was genuine, but a little civil, equal teamwork now and then wouldn’t hurt Val’s associates.

River observed how much colder and impersonal Val was with everyone else. Even those she was familiar with like Judy. Val distanced herself, kept thick barriers up, and it showed. Her talent to kill and sabotage cyberware disturbed whatever company they found themselves in. River had first thought it habit from working the streets so long as a solo mercenary, but now he understood. And River appreciated Val that much more knowing she was vulnerable with him and him alone. The confusion from others when Val flirted with River in public was proof of her tall barriers.

Judy joined them when they’d cleared the warehouse of Scavengers and descended to the basement. It took no time to discover corpses of joytoys stripped of their implants. Some bodies remained on tables where their deaths had been recorded for fiendish braindances. After the fourth dead body and a prison cell with blood-stained mattresses and handcuffs, the when to find Evelyn Parker became if.

“You know, you have a habit of search and rescue, babe,” River told his girlfriend, trying to lighten the macabre mood of that entire basement. Something to dampen the overwhelming death till they found the exit. “With this Evelyn, you’ve found more missing people in one week than most officers do in a year.” He grimaced at another dead girl left to rot with the trash in a dead end room.  “The NCPD does not have a gracious enough protocol for you.”

Judy scoffed. “I still can’t believe you brought your cop. What the fuck were you thinking?” she hissed.

“Really? You don’t think we should have brought more than one?” Val hissed back

“I’m not her cop,” River told Judy. “But I appreciate that you think so. Maybe that will stick onto her reputation.”

Val’s teetered her head in consideration. “Okay, that would make a great action figure, though,” she played along with him. “Edgerunner V: complete with functioning mini netrunner ice bath and interchangeable cyberware. Personal cop included.”

“Not going to lie, that sounds pretty fun,” River said.

“Right?” Val glanced at him. “Be even more nova if there was a set. Collect ‘em all,” she whispered.

Judy hissed in annoyance. “You and your cop are ridiculous. No wonder crime isn’t under control.”

“Can’t argue that. I’ve stopped more crime since I met V and left the Force,” River agreed.

“That, I believe. Now shut up, both of you. If they hear us, they might move Evelyn.”

The deepest level of the basement was worse, and more populated with Scavs. Even more gruesome braindance filming rooms, and there, it wasn’t enough to remove cybernetics on film. The proof lay in the corpses robbed of their organs. One corpse had been strung up and strangled with its own intestines. Judy rushed from that room to vomit. The stench of internal organs never left the memory, though. It reminded River why he’d wanted to be a cop in the first place.

Valerie threw sneaking to the wind. Mantis blades out and ready for the kill, she was done. Done with the gore, done with the corpses, done with the fact that the three of them were the only justice for the victims there. River shared her sentiment. Even if they could not save lives, they could prevent the murderers from killing again.

Judy kept telling Val to get down, she didn’t want to get swamped with Scavs. But that was as annoying as the Scavs themselves. After Judy’s third hiss to get down, River sighed.

“My girlfriend’s doing fine, let her do her thing,” he told Judy.

Judy scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Like letting everyone know she’s your girlfriend, huh?” As if it would make him feel bad about it, a red flag to watch out for.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” River retorted.

Judy huffed. “Sounds like a confidence issue.”

River pried a door open so they could continue. “Nope, just proud. I love her a lot.”  

Val spun him around and shot to her toes in a hard kiss. “I love you too!” she breathed. Her arms flung tight over his shoulders, and River couldn’t help a smile, or stalling for another kiss.

At least there was a silver lining in that horrible place. One good memory to drown out the bad when they looked back in the future.

“What the fuck, guys!” Judy scoffed through her teeth. “We’re here to save Evelyn! Save that shit for later!”

The last of the Scavs were easy to finish off. Val lured them to the forge by hacking into lights and alarms, and Judy set the furnace to explode. The combined stench of a barbecue left on too long and decaying corpses made all three of them nauseous.

Evelyn Parker was the only living victim. Paralyzed in a braindance recording, unable to move even when they unhooked her. Bloodied and bruised, no doubt molested live as well.

“We need to get her out of here,” Val said. MaxDocs were useless on the limp woman. Serious, permanent damage had occurred to Evelyn’s cyberdeck.

“V, can you carry her? I’ll get the elevator running so we don’t have go back through the stench. Oh god, Ev!” Judy tried hard not to panic.

“No, let me.” River crouched to pick up the unconscious woman.

Judy tried to stop him “No! She’s delicate right now. V’s a woman, she actually knows how to be gentle with another woman! You’ll fuck her up and- and-” she stuttered, on the verge of overclocked worry.

“Judy, it’s fine, River can get her out faster,” Val assured.

“No! Men did this to her! The last thing she needs is another man dragging her somewhere else! V, you can carry her! You do this stuff all the time! Don’t you?”

River looked at Judy, in disbelief of her panicky misandry. He understood her position, but causing unnecessary delay in a rescue only increased the chance of death. “No,” he asserted. “You’ve got a pretty skewed idea of men if you think all of us are like the assholes we killed here.” He stood and began carrying the wounded woman away. “And you don’t get to ask V to carry the dead weight of a woman her own size. I’m tired of everyone demanding she do all the heavy lifting.”

Chapter Text

Valerie walked out of her little armory and… stood. River looked up for the tablet he’d been reading from to watch her when she didn’t move. If not for her eyes moving and the occasional wetting of her lip, River would suspect her cyberware was malfunctioning.

“Val?” he prompted.

She looked over in question. “Yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Just thinking. Piecing stuff together in my mind.”

“Yeah? Like what?” River set the tablet down and patted the couch cushion next to him.

“Uh, scopes. For Crash.”

“Ah. So you’re saying my gun isn’t good enough,” he teased.

“No way I said that. Have you actually fired that thing?” she asked, plopping down next to him.

“Hard to believe, but yeah, I have. Like, for ten years. It even helped me stop a few criminals.” He grinned. “Modded it myself a few times, too.”

She turned further in toward him, feet dug into the couch and knees against him. River draped an arm over her legs and squeezed. “Okay, so, I know we meant to take the day off,” she began.

“But… you need more materials,” he finished for her.

She bit her lip in apology.

River couldn’t help a chuckle. “All right. What do you have in mind?”

“Hitting some dispatch calls,” she said.

River thought about for a second. “You get paid for those, right?”

“Uh-huh,” she nodded. “As much as you love to tease me for being a criminal, the Dispatch calls are my main source of income." Her other main source was modding or building new guns from disassembled gang weapons and selling them through gunshops. For how much street credibility she had, her criminal specialty was hacking.

“No, actually I was thinking about me. I put in my two weeks almost… a week ago,” he said. “So if I clear the calls with you, we’ll both be paid… I wonder what the Chief will say.”

“I’m betting he’ll be pissed that he’s still gotta sign your checks.” She sat on her knees, face aglow. “They’re gonna have to write a protocol for you, just like they have for me.”

River grinned. “Like a slap in the face.” He almost wanted to see that.

“Oh, damn, wait. What does it mean if you fight crime to spite the cops?” She met his eyes in question. “What would that make you?”

“Hmm…” River rubbed her smooth, bare leg while he thought.

“A vigilante, maybe?”

He laughed. “To spite cops? No.”

“Then what? Vigilante sounds pretty badass. Like a superhero.”

He nodded at her. “It does. But I don’t know. I guess… it would make me Valerie Donahue’s boyfriend.”

Val’s expression softened almost that instant. She searched his eyes; always looked at his outdated cybernetic eye like it looked real. Then she pushed her lips to his. “Always gotta ruin a fun moment with your romantic shit, you know that?” she teased.

River grinned into her mouth, pulling her on his lap. “You better punish me, or I might be tempted to do it again.”

River dumped a large, beefy Tiger Claw body in the trunk of a car on Val's command, then slammed the lid. “So you’re why we kept finding bodies in trunks,” he teased. Her reasoning made sense; she was waging war only for their guns. But it was still strange.

Val faced him with sass in her eyes and a hard smirk. “Why? Are you gonna arrest me?”  

River’s brow raised in consideration. “I could. I still have handcuffs in the glove box.”

Val made a show of eyeing him up and down. A certain hint sparkled in her eye clear as the midday sun. “The rough, metal kind with a key that’s easy to lose in the heat of things?”

River shook his head. “Nope. The fluffy, purple kind that will keep you around my neck until I’ve had my way with you.”

She looked him over once more, then started off, heels clicking on the asphalt. “Truck. Now,” she said.

A hard smirk spread into a grin, and River did as he was told. “Yes, ma’am.”

Chapter Text

River smiled at the woman triple-checking her outfit in his bathroom mirror.

“Are you sure this is okay? I mean, it won’t offend anyone?” Valerie turned to look at her backside in the mirror, smoothing her already smooth skirt again.

River chuckled. “Cowboy boots and a cowgirl vest in a trailer park? I think you’ll be all right. You look amazing, Val, I promise.”

“But you always say that.”

“Because you always do.”

Joss had invited them over for dinner. It was her way to thank Val for helping save Randy. Even though River would be cooking; his sister’s cooking would scare a way a starving rat.

Val took a deep breath, then tore herself from the mirror. “We better go. Otherwise I’m going to be there all night changing outfits. You sure my skirt’s long enough?” she looked down.

River gave a soft laugh. “You’ve met Joss and the kids before, remember?”

“Yeah, but this is different,” she said.

River grabbed her hand to get her to the door. “How’s that?”

“We hadn’t confessed our love in a dark basement full of dead bodies yet.”

River laughed. “True, my romantic timing is unparalleled,” he joked.

“Are you sure I don’t need to bring anything?”

“I’m cooking,” he reminded her.

“But like, a dessert? We can grab a cheesecake or something on the way.”

River stopped walking to push his lips to hers. “Just you, babe,” he assured, holding the small of her back. “They already love you for saving Randy. You don’t need to worry.” He kissed her again. “I promise.”

Valerie stared from the pan to River in doubt. “You want me to cook?”

“Yeah.” River shrugged, grinning.

“River, I can’t cook,” she reminded. “I’m gonna burn this.”

River laughed. “All you have to do is stir.”  He wrapped his girlfriend’s fingers around the wooden spoon and pointed to the pan of sizzling meat and marinade. “Stir, before it sticks.”

“Yessir, Officer,” she said, far less confident than the sass of her words.

She watched River chop veggies, his back to her.

“Stir please, love of my life,” he requested, unable to wipe his smile.

Valerie’s cheeks flushed as she whipped her eyes back to the pan and stirred. “You aren’t worried I’ll mess this up? You’ve seen me try to cook.”

River turned with a grin and scraped chopped onion into the pan. “I’m here, and I cook all the time. You won’t mess anything up,” he assured.

“But what if I accidentally poison your family?” she whispered.

River laughed aloud. “You couldn’t if you tried, there’s nothing to undercook. Relax, Val. And stir.” He pointed with a hard smirk before turning around to dice bell peppers. “Ever had jambalaya before?” he asked.

“A long time ago, like when I was sixteen or so.”

River glanced back at her. “That’s a long time. Didn’t like it? Stir, please,” he reminded, gesturing with the knife.

Valerie stirred and stirred and stirred. “I think it was okay. I don’t really remember it. It was at a restaurant.”

“Hm, well I bet you’ll like this one. I do,” he told her.

Val stirred again when River turned around with the last of the vegetables and can of tomato paste. “This some ancient Ward family secret?” she teased.

River met her eyes with a smile. “It happens to be, yes.” He took the spoon from her and scooped the tomato paste out, and stirred that in till it formed a smooth sauce. “Can you hand me the….” River glanced around. “Shoot, I didn’t bring it out.” He met Val’s eyes. “Will you get the rice from the kitchen, please?”

Val hesitated. “I… can just walk right in?” she asked.

River laughed again. “Yes, just walk right in.”

“Ookay…”

Val stepped inside the open door. Nobody around. She knew the kids were outside. “Uh… Hello?” she called out. A glance back at River caused him to shoo her on with like she was being silly. Go, he mouthed at her.

She was pretty lucky he thought she was cute.

“... Joss?” Val called out.

“In the kitchen,” a woman called back. Val took a deep breath, then followed the voice.

“Hey, I’m glad you could make it,” Joss said, tossing a phone on the counter.

“Uh… hey. Yeah, thanks for inviting me.”

“You nervous?”

Val huffed a laugh. “Is it that obvious?”

Joss smiled. “I don’t think you need to worry. Have you seen the way my brother looks at you?”

“Uh…” Val was sure her face was red. “Yeah. He’s… a pretty great guy. Um… River says he forgot the rice?” she said.

“Oh.” Joss turned to the shelf by the window. “It’s there. You tried his cooking yet?”

“Actually, yeah. He’s a helluva lot better cook than I am,” Val smiled, crooked in her nervousness. People she knew she’d never see again? No problem. People she’d see more than once and maybe once a week because they were her boyfriend’s family? Terrifying.   

Joss laughed a little. “Just his luck, right? I can’t cook either. I try, but River got all that talent.”

“Well, he made me stir, a minute ago. It was… terrifying,” Val admitted. Joss laughed again.

At least his family thought she was funny.

River did a double-take at Val’s face when she returned with the box of rice. “Uh-oh,” he predicted. “What did Joss say?”

“Um…” Valerie met his eyes in expectation. “Joss thinks... you have a crush on me.”

“Does she?” He stared back, trying not to smile. “Strange. Wonder where she got that idea?”

“She asked if I’ve seen the way you look at me.”

A violent smirk took over River’s face. “And have you seen how I look at you?”

Val pretended to think for a second, then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I think so, a couple times maybe.” She stared back. “You think I should have asked her to be more specific? Like when you keep trying to watch in the mirror when I’m right there?”

River laughed. “To be fair, you look good in the mirror. Doesn’t matter what position we’re in.”

Val bit her lip, shoulders shaking with a silent laugh. She held up the box of rice. “This what you wanted?”

“Yep. Go ahead and pour in two cups, please, ma’am,” he instructed. “Measuring cup is there,” he pointed with his free hand.

“Just two?”

“Yep.” River watched his redhead measure and pour the rice in. “Very nice. You are a natural at cooking,” he teased, stirring the rice in with the sauce and meat.

“Stop it,” she whispered a laugh, grinning so hard her dimples returned.

River grinned back and set the lid on. “And that’s it. We let it simmer for about half an hour.”

“So… half of cooking is… not actually cooking?” she deduced.

“Yeah, it sounds pretty dumb when you put it like that. In that case, I’m a expert at doing nothing.” He smiled for his girl and gestured to the porch. “Do you want to share a beer?”

“You only want half a beer today?” she asked. He usually went through a few with not so much as a buzz because he was so large.

River shrugged. “You never drink more than half. I’m okay with that.”

Her sweet smile returned. “Sure.”

“Make yourself at home. I’ll be right back out,” he promised.

“It’s nice out here,” Val said when River returned with a couple beers.

“It’s quiet,” he agreed, popping open a bottle. “Milady,” he said, sliding the cold beer to her.

“You are such a precious dork sometimes, you know that?” she said.

“Only for you,” he teased. “I was never like this at the precinct, you know.”

She grinned with the bottle to her mouth. “I love it, I do. That precinct has no idea what it missed out on.”

River reached over and draped one of her legs on his lap. “You really like it out here?” he asked.

She nodded, another drink before handing the beer over. “It feels like I could actually get a decent night’s sleep.”

“You don’t miss the sirens, screaming neighbors, or gunshots, huh?” he teased. The cold beer did wonders for combating the afternoon heat.

Val’s scoff became a giggle. “Not at all.”

“And… what’s Johnny think? He trying to make trouble?”

“No. I took the Blockers just in case.”

“In case?” River  watched her sip the beer.

Val nodded, but before she could answer, River’s little niece and nephew ran over.

“Uncle River! You wanna play with us?”

“You said you would! Please?”

River laughed and moved Val’s leg off his lap to stand. “All right, all right, I’m comin’!” He looked down at his girlfriend and held out a hand. “You wanna play?”

Valerie looked from the kids to River with a smile in question. She took his hand and followed him. “What are we playing, Uncle River?”

“A very exciting, very important game,” he assured her, leading her to the table with the game gear. “Just pick a set and put it on.”

“Yeah? Okay.” But when Val put the headset on, her jaw dropped in stolen breath. “Oh my god, are you kidding me?” She turned her head to look around at the darkened world of the nighttime criminal chase sim. “You guys had Big Trouble In Heywood here this whole time?”

River grinned at her. “If I had told you sooner, would you have been ready quicker?” he teased.

“Heck yeah! You know how many times I begged my parents for this game as a kid? I was the only kid in class who never played it. Oh wow,”  her interest locked on River in his virtual police uniform. “Lookin’ pretty sharp, Officer Ward.”

River crossed his arms at his chest. “We have to in this town,” he played along with the sim.

“Yeah, or El Chamuco Endiablado and his goons will get the jump on us and this city will fall to ruin,” little Monique said.

“Oh, woaahhh!” Val grinned at the adult projections of Monique and Dorian. “Oh, man, this is so cool!”

“Keep it together, Officer!” Monique said. Val grinned and bounced like she was trying to hold in excitement.

River could only admire his girlfriend, even in the cheesy police uniforms the sim projected. He was glad she was having fun.

After a quick runthrough of the rules, the game began and the four of them started off around the park. Valerie stopped River as the kids went ahead. She couldn't stop her smile, all but dripping of honey and adoration.

“He’s wearing your jacket, Uncle River,” she whispered, biting her smile like she thought it might break off her face if she let it spread. Touched and flattered on his behalf. “That's not part of the game, is it?”

River couldn’t help his own smile. “No. He figured out the game can’t code over it.” Val’s head fell to the side with a hand at her mouth like it was the most precious thing. “Feels pretty good he thinks his uncle is the coolest thing on the planet.”

“He’s not wrong.” Adoration for him now, love.  She paused, glancing at the kids. “Is it okay to kiss you here?”

River grinned and leaned down, planting his lips in hers. Then he gave her ass a gentle swat. “Now get out there and help those kids, Officer,” he played. “Do you want those bad guys to take over the town?”

The sweetest grin and giggle spread on her beautiful face and she kissed him again. “Yes, sir.”

River watched her walk away, affection surging in him. He wasn’t just at his sister’s house playing a game with his niece and nephew and his girlfriend. River was there with his family. 

Right as it was time to face the evil boss El Chumaco Endiablado, Joss cut the game short to announce dinner was ready.

“Aw mooom!” Dorian whined. “We almost had him!”

“He was right there! Oh, we coulda taken him!” Val said.

“Kicked his butt outta California,” River agreed.

Joss laughed a little at River and Valerie having as much fun as the kids. “All you kids will get him next time,” she teased.

“Awww.” Val took off her headset anyway.

Joss laughed again and turned, gesturing them all. “Dinner’s getting cold, guys.”

River stalled his girlfriend to plant a tender kiss. “I’m glad you had fun, babe. And thanks for letting the kids win.” Another kiss, then he led her to the table.

“So Valerie, do you get out here often?” Joss asked, scooting her chair in. “Past the city, I mean.”

“Not usually, no. I’ve dealt with the Aldecados, but I don’t really know the area well,” Val said.

“How do you like it this far out?”

“It's nice and quiet out here, I’m enjoying the change. You would not believe the noise in the city.” She paused to take a bite, and winced. “Mmm. This is seriously good, River.”

River smiled for her. She had loosened up a lot since they arrived. He was glad she relaxed and let herself enjoy the night.

“These crickets?” Val gestured around with her finger. “You can’t hear ‘em in the city all.” She looked up at the darkening sky. “Or see the stars. I’m tempted to pop a tent and sleep out here.”

Joss popped the lid on a soda can. “You ever thought about moving away from all that? Starting a family, or whatnot?”

Val and River stared at each other for a moment, before Val bit her lips and gave a shrug. Shy again. “I didn’t use to.”

“No? What changed?”

Val shrugged again. “I met River.” River stared at his girlfriend, unable to hide how he felt about her. From the corner of his eyes, he saw his sister look from him to Val, and back and forth. Val stirred her jambalaya and took a bite. “Um…” she gave a laugh of embarrassment. “You probably would have laughed, too. I pretty much stopped functioning when he turned around and looked at me, when we met. I have no idea how I didn’t end up on my face.”

“That’s because I caught you,” River teased. He grinned and winked at his girlfriend when she met his eyes. She shone at him with every bit of adoration he felt for her.

Little Dorian giggled. “You fell on Uncle River?”

River and Valerie laughed and giggled. “Yeah, pretty much. In front of a whole restaurant, too,” Val said. Her cheeks were pink, but she was grinning ear-to-ear and having the time of her life.

“It was a mutual falling,” River said. “We tripped pretty bad. I spilled my coffee all over her dress, too, it was horrible. And then we ran after bad guys,” River embellished a little.

“Oh, barefoot, too,” Val recalled, still beaming. That broke the kids. They giggled so hard they couldn’t eat, throwing out imaginative ideas about Uncle River tripping over bad guys without shoes.

River couldn’t stop smiling at his girlfriend. When he’d told her about dinner, he never imagined it would lead to loving her more.

Joss looked between them gaping. “I - oh my god. You guys are already dating. I’ve been sitting here trying to encourage it, but you’re already a thing?”  Joss smacked River’s arm with the back of her hand. “How come you didn’t tell me?”

River shrugged. “You know now. What’s the big deal?”

“I would have planned something for the whole night, put on a movie or got the board games out,” Joss said.

Val shook a hand a little. “This has been… perfect, Joss, thank you. Really. I don’t have family, and... not really any friends, either. Really, thank you,” she insisted.

River stared at his girlfriend for a moment, before pushing his seat back to stand. “Are you done? I want to show you something,” he told her.

“Uh… yeah. Okay.” Valerie looked down at her almost empty plate, then pushed back her chair and caught up to River.

“Sorry about that,” he told her.

“Don’t be,” she said. She glanced back. “You know I don’t have family. And… you’ve seen how people treat me. It’s been nice being treated as other than some asset. Like…”

River squeezed her hand and leaned to kiss her while they walked. “Like one of the kids?” he teased.

“That was way fun,” her eyes almost glowed. “Seriously way fun. I kind of want to ask if I can come back every weekend to play, but… eh, that might look weird.”

“Not if we both come over. It was fun. It’s good to see you loosen up.” River looked up as they neared the water tower. “Here we are,” he told her.

Val looked way up. “Uh-huh. You take all your dates here?”

River checked the gate door, looking her over. “Just one.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Yawen?” she guessed.

He laughed. “You,” he said. He tugged on the door again. “Ah crap. Eh… hold on.” River rammed his knee into the lower half of the door, then yanked again.

“Open sesame, Officer,” Val said in the tone she always used when turned on by his strength.

River’s brows arched as he gestured in. “After you.”

Chapter Text

“What are we gonna do up here?” Val asked. Her boot heels clicked against bar after bar of the long ladder up to the platform of the water tower.

“Oh, you know…” River admired the curve of her ass as she climbed above him. Her skirt was loose enough to leave a great view at that angle.

She huffed a laugh. “Don’t tell me you brought me up here to dock. You? Won’t people see us?” She leaned down to look at him. Her eyes narrowed when she realized the reason he had her climb first was to stare at her ass. Sass played on her face in a smirk.

River tore his eyes to hers and gave his best innocent smile. “Your underwear’s cute today,” he teased.

“Stop,” she giggled. Her skirt bounced the entire way up.

“And no,” he said as he reached the top. “We are not here to dock. At least not with so many residents still awake.”

“Ah, so you do want to try it in public one day.” She’d suspected as much.

River thought about it. “Maybe. Later,” he admitted. She let out a quiet giggle. “But right now, let’s just… enjoy the view.” He sat on the edge with a sigh and looked over the park, and beyond at the city. River patted the spot next to him. “Sit,” he requested.

“You come up here a lot?” Valerie took off her boots before planting her bottom next to his.

He nodded. “It’s beautiful up here. Just far enough from the city and the people below that I can be alone, but not so far out that I feel isolated.”

“What do you do when you’re up here? Just sit?”

He nodded again. “Sit, think.”

“About what?”

“Everything and anything. Sometimes, I’d come here to imagine I’d brought a beautiful woman with me. Someone to make memories with.”

“And… is that working out for you right now?”

River met her eyes. “One-hundred percent,” he assured. His heart sighed when her lips pushed against his. River propped back on one arm and cradled her with the other.

There was nothing better than sitting there with the woman who adored him.

Valerie snuggled deeper into him. “Being up here reminds me of Joss’s questions at dinner. If I ever saw my self moving out of the city.”

“Yeah?” He rubbed her arms. “Do you think you could?”

“I think so. If not to escpe the chaos, then… you know, for the family stuff.” She hesitated. “You guys made me feel part of something for once. Like I’ve never missed out on a family.”

River held her tighter and kissed her head. “As long as you need me, I’ll be as much family as you want. You can even borrow my sister and her kids, if you don't mind the noise.” He brought a hand up to run his fingers through her hair, and Val snuggled in closer. “Do you think your parents ever look for you?”

“Not that I know of. If they did, it was probably to see if I was a bum on the streets. Stuff they could gossip about.”

“You ever think about changing your name?” he asked her. “It might help forget ‘em, if they were that miserable to you.”

Valerie was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know. Never really thought about it before. I was so focused on survivng for a long time, then when I got past that, it was… just how many eddies I could make.”

“Well, what would you choose if you had to change your name today?” he asked.

Val paused and sat up. “Oh, man, I don’t even...” She shook her head. “I like my first name okay. But my last name has always sucked. I don’t know any last names. What the heck kinda last names are there?” she asked.

River smiled for her. “You know one last name,” he suggested, insinuating his own surname.

Val’s expressioned softened as she stared back.

“Oh, three actually. Mine, Takemura, and Silverhand.”

“Valerie Takemura? It sounds more like reason to start a war.” Her nose crinkled in disgust, and River laughed.

“Can’t say I’m not glad for that reaction.”

“Valerie Silverhand isn’t any better. It sounds like a BD pornstar name,” she said.

A loud laugh burst through River’s throat.

A moment of thought drifted her eyes and smiles softened. River reached up to move hair off her neck and touch her face.

“You know, you like a Ward to me,” he told her, the same time Val said: “Valerie Ward has a nice ring to it…”

Her kiss had a different feel to it now. Still sweet and wanting, but more. Whole. River knew right then she had made up her mind. As long as they found a remedy for that shard, she would always be at his side. She would choose to. Arm around her tight, River laid her down, no intention of leaving her tender lips.

He broke from her lips to gaze. Propped up on his elbow with the world's most beautiful lady on his arm. He couldn’t help touching her face. “You look pretty darn cute, laying there like that.”

Val’s cheeks pinched into dimples in attempt not to grin. “That supposed to be a pick up line?”

A husky laughed rolled through River’s throat. “You’re expert in pickup lines now, huh?” he teased. Val nodded, almost shining with adoration. “Okay, then,” he played along, “what’s a better pick up line than that?”

Val’s eyes twinkled. “Are you a utility belt? ‘Cause you’re everything I’ve been searching for,” she said.

River grinned. “You said that to someone?”

“Nooo. Got hit on at that one club me and Jackie went to. It was so bad I still remember it,” she chuckled.

River nodded. “Yeah, that’s pretty bad. Mine was still better.”

“Huh. Better than Call me a proton, because I’m positive you’re the One?”

“That is really bad,” River laughed. “So which ones did you actually fall for in the past?”

“Oooh boy,” she giggled. River grinned in anticipation. “Uh, there was one when I was still at Arasaka, he ended up being super sleazy, but his pickup was pretty good. I was never good at trig, but I could study your angles all day.”

River raised his brows, still grinning. “You fell for that?” he doubted.

She shrugged with a laugh. “It was so stupid and out of place that I thought it was cute at the time.”

“Okay, okay,” he chuckled. “Any more that worked? Or that you wished I had used?”

“Uh… no, you had a pretty good one,” she said.

“What?” River grinned again, trying to remember. “I never used any pick up lines, did I?”

She nodded. “Yep. You said I don’t work with PIs.”

River laughed. “Right, that one.” Blue eyes sparkled back at him. “Naturally, you had me at I’m not a PI. I remember thinking damn that’s hot.”

Val’s laugh rang around him, soft arms pulling him down into her. “If I’d had known that worked on a cop, I’d have made a scene at the station till you cuffed me.”

River pushed his lips to her neck. “And what if I’d arrested you?” He parted his lips to taste her skin, squeezing her waist. “Interrogated you?” he prompted. He lay his tongue just so and sucked, bit, drawing a breathy whine from her. “Cuffed both hands to my desk so you couldn’t move, couldn’t touch.” River wet her neck and kissed where his teeth had been.

His tongue along her collar bone made her shiver. She held his head there. “Anyone else there? Or just us?” she breathed.

“Everyone’s around. But you want out of those cuffs.” River slipped his hand under her shirt and squeezed her breast. “And you want payback.”

Her breath shook as he rolled her nipple between fingers, and she gripped his wrist. “I’d hack the fire alarm, to clear the room, and turn off the lights. Turn off ev-” Her hips reached for him when River pinched her nipple and pulled. “Fuck. And every computer except yours, so all we could see is each other. Is the key in your hand?” she asked.

“No. Threw that away when I cuffed you.” River watched her face while he unbuttoned her cowgirl vest. He bent his head, catching her nipple with his tongue.

“Then I’d move in my chair, squirm, unt-” She gasped with another arch of her hips as he clamped his mouth around her breast. “Till my skirt was up and my panties were down.”

“I cuffed a leg, too.”

She gave a breathless laugh. “I can undress with one leg. Done it before. I’d have my panties off and on your desk before you knew it.”

“Chief just walked in to see why the lights are out.”

Her head fell back as he suckled. Her hips rocked unending, an itch needing scratched. River reached down and slipped his hand under her skirt. “Wipe his memory,” she breathed, “turn on an alarm in the holding cells. You’d reach for my panties, but my toes are already on your thigh.”

Shit, it was hotter than he imagined. River reached down to adjust the crotch of his pants, then squeezed her thigh all the way back under her skirt. He found her clit through her panties and pushed with his thumb. Hips wiggled under his hand like an earthquake.

“You’re just staring through the dark,” she continued, “looking down at my toes but your eyes find me, let me know you know what I’m doing.”

“If I’m caught, I’m sacked,” he played on. He dipped his fingers under her panties and pulled, trailing his mouth from one breast to the other. Long legs bent to help him free her of her underwear. He didn’t look where he tossed it.

“As soon as they stop one alarm, I turn on three more, across the station and outside.” Her nails on the back of his head and down his back made him shiver. River had to adjust his pants again. “Your brow hitches,” she breathed, “when I rub your cock over your pants, and you tilt your computer so it shines on my foot. It doesn’t take long to get you hard when you know everyone can walk back in any minute." River watched her face again to sink a couple fingers inside her. “Shit!” she gasped, looking down.

He shoved his mouth to hers. “Not done yet,” he murmured. “Lights come back on, but we’re still alone.”

Her lips quivered, gaping, as she watched his fingers disappear inside her. Her hips kept arching higher and higher. “I- I unhook your be-bellllooooooooh,” she mewled as he pinched her clit and rubbed hard.

“Footsteps down the hall.” Goddamn this was hot. River hadn’t done this before. He rubbed with his thumb and shoved his fingers back inside. Plucking her clit with his thumbnail twitched her thighs.

“My RAM is spent,” she gasped. “You have to get up, lock the d-door. Turn the lights back off.” He curled his fingers up into the cushion inside her and thrust, and her grip tightened. “River!” she whined through her teeth. “Unbutt- unbutton your pants and shove them when you come ba-back,” she hissed. Another hard push on her clit till her thighs trembled again, and Val yanked him back up, shoving her tongue inside his mouth. Her hand found the bulge in his pants and a noise escaped River’s throat.

Her thighs squeezed him to her core, hands trying to fumble at his belt with little room as he rubbed against her.

Someone whistled from below, and River’s head flew. A couple of teens walking past the street lamp hollered in approval.

Val heaved hard beneath River as she peered at the teens. “Shit.”

“Bed,” River breathed.

Val nodded. “Yeah.”

River helped her up, adjusted his crotch again while she buttoned only enough to cover her breasts, and they climbed back down to Joss’.

The house was silent, Joss and kids sound asleep already. River put a finger to his lips as they passed the kids’ room, tiptoeing through the hall. Not even through his door and they were already locked in passion again.

Val's fingers tangled together, torn between his belt and his shirt, while River tugged at her skirt. He hit the desk so hard it thunked against the wall, and an empty beer bottle clanked to the floor and rolled. With the house so still, it resounded loud. They froze, holding their breath, staring at the bottle, expecting someone to trudge in half asleep. River sighed when the house remained still, but Val’s hands remained clenched at his shirt, eyes wide in anticipation. He turned her head back to him and tasted her tongue. But tiny coughs sounded from the kids’ room, drawing their gaze back to his door.

River nodded to the bed, then tiptoed to the door. He listened for a moment, then shut the door with the knob turned, as quiet as he could. And locked it for good measure. When he turned around, Val lay on her side, bare from head to toe. As River liked her best. A smirk danced at her pretty mouth, daring him to pounce.

River couldn’t stop his spreading grin. He stepped toward her, pulling off his shirt, and she got to her knees and yanked him over by the waist of his pants. Warm hands cradled his sack as his pants fell, drawing a noise from River’s throat. He leaned down to meet her lips, and Val pushed him down to the bed and straddled him. He loved when she took control.

Eyes rolled when she slid down over him, and her first tug made him groan. River squeezed her ass, keeping her there; as if she’d stop so soon.

He let his gaze fall to the mirror on the back of the door. Little compared to watching her reflection ride him. A firm hand on his jaw turned his head back toward her, exciting the moment more; half the time he stared at the mirror so she’d jerk him around. She kept his gaze a moment longer before she rode him faster, putting her weight on his chest to angle herself so he went deeper. Wet thighs slapped against him as she bounced, adding to the noise they meant to muffle. She ground her hips on his, hissing in gasps as it let him hit angles he couldn’t get on his own. Faster, River’s breath picked up with grunts from her friction. A hand slapped on his mouth and River’s eyes flew back to hers. She rode him harder, belly curling her in towards him as she neared her orgasm.

She clamped tight, and River’s grunt broke through her hand. He sat up, keeping her on his lap, till he had control. Grip on her back and hips, pressing to keeping himself deep inside. River locked her breast in his mouth and sucked, flicking his tongue while he thrust, and this time she slapped a hand on her own mouth.

He got to his knees, wincing as he pulled out; dripping with her juices; and turned her around. River pinned her hands to the window. He held her hips and drove deep as he could. Val’s whines grew louder, steaming up the window, his balls slapped against her with an echo. His own grunts were becoming harder to quiet.

The toilet flushed from the other end of the house, whipping their heads. Frozen in the moment, stuck in the shove, her hands still pressed to the glass, they stared toward his locked door. A cough, the water ran, then silence again. Safe. River waited a second more before he pulled out and thrust again with a hard hand on Val’s ass.

She fell into the window with a loud, high gasp, tightening around him, her fingers turning white on the pane for something to grab onto. Noise spilled from River’s throat in appreciation, and he paused to pull her back into position. He pushed slow and shallow, squeezing her breasts, planting his lips on her back. Another hard thrust that made her voice sing, then River turned her around.

She was a sweaty, hot mess, but fuck if she wasn’t the most beautiful thing like that. He braced the window with his mouth to hers, bending to keep her attached while he picked her up. Her arms clasped around his neck, brows upturned and mouth hung while her tightening core pumped him. Fuck he needed to cum.

River laid her on the bed, holding her gaze as he bent to taste her clit. Sweet and salty, raw, used sex and fresh ambrosia. So oversensitive already, every drag of his tongue made her whimper and squirm. She gripped his head and tried to pull him up, but River stayed to finish her. Wet his mouth with her juices before pulling her clit in with his teeth and flicking with the tip of his tongue, reaching up to tumble his fingers in her mouth to quiet her. He didn’t stop till the violent quivers of her thighs waned.

River came over her once more, pushing her thighs up around him so he could shove himself to the hilt. This time he thrust for himself, needing release so fucking bad after all that play. Hard, driving her so fast the bed began thudding on the wall and she couldn’t stop her voice. Her nails dug into his shoulder and chest, pushing him over brink. Faster, deeper, until his balls clenched and pressure rose through his shaft and locked him in ecstasy with a grunt he was sure woke the house.

A  moment frozen as he finished spilling inside her, then River took a deep breath and collapsed next to her. A delicate hand cradled his face as he recovered.

Chapter Text

Valerie’s eyelids took their time opening. The bedroom door was cracked open, and the scent of fresh coffee drifted in. At first she didn’t recognize the room, but as she looked around, she remembered it was River’s.

Her eyes closed with a sigh as she recalled everything in that room and on the water tower. What a night. She felt herself smile, and she couldn’t stop it for her life. She, out of everyone in the world, ended up with that man.

But River wasn’t in bed. His face wasn’t on the pillow when she looked over.

In place of his head was a ring.

Val stared with caught breath. A ring? River left her… a ring?

With hesitant hands, she reached over and tried it on, then took it off with a gasp and shot up to her knees. A perfect fit.

He planned this.

She slid the ring on again, then off, and on and off once more to make sure she wasn’t imagining things. Ohmyfuckinggod he left her a ring!

Val looked around the empty room, catching her breath. Now where the heck was he?

She scrambled out of bed and grabbed the doorknob, only to notice her nude reflection in the mirror. Right, the mirror. River liked those. Her clothes were... scattered and wrinkled after their long night, so Val dug through his dresser for something to wear. She threw on a pair of his sweatpants and a tank top, and then left to find the man who’d left her a ring.

River was in the kitchen, humming with his back to her. He didn’t seem to notice her. Val didn’t know what to say. She just stood behind him, staring at the ring in her hand. What if it was an accident? What if he didn’t mean to leave it there? What if it had been his mom’s and it fell off of a necklace or something?

River paused when he felt something almost pushing on the air around him. When he turned, Valerie stood there holding the ring, holding her breath, unable to take her eyes off it. River smiled at his girlfriend and leaned back against the counter.

Val’s hand started to shake, and at last she took in air. “River?” she breathed in question. Hope, and fear of rejection. “What…?”

River took a deep breath. “That is… a ring,”  he teased. “They come in various sizes, some hold keys, some hold cargo to boats or AVs.” He chuckled when Val’s face fell flat and accusing. “That variety fits on a finger,” he continued. He stared for a second longer, then pushed away from the counter and went to her. River took the ring from her palm. “Specifically, this one goes… here.” He slid the ring over the third finger of her left hand. Hope and fear still emanated from her face. “I know it’s only been a couple weeks since we met. But I loved you the second I saw you,” he told her. “Would you still like to be Valerie Ward?” he asked.

A deep, shaky breath glistened her eyes. Val nodded and threw her arms around him, pulling him down for many sweet, breathless kisses.

“Morning. Hope I’m not interrupting anything?” Joss said. Without a doubt River’s sister knew she interrupted.

Val spun around with wide eyes, “Shit! Oh my god, I’m so embarrassed!” she muttered, burying her face in River’s shoulder, hands squished to her face.

River chuckled. “It’s okay, it’s only my sister,” he teased.

Val raised her head to accuse him with her eyes, and he cradled her and kissed her head. “That’s exactly why it’s embarrassing. And it’s her house.”

“Oh, kissing me is embarrassing in her house. Just kissing?” He adored how pink her face got when she was embarrassed. It almost made her freckles darker. Val moved two fingers to glare at him with one eye, and River gave a soft, rolling laugh.

“Can I grab a cup of coffee real quick?” Joss asked, apology on her face.

“Yes.” Val looked mortified yet relieved, and she hurried back into River’s room. River stared toward his open door a moment, smiling after his woman.

Joss filled a mug with coffee beside him. “Do you think you could fix the generator before you leave? It keeps sputtering.”

“Yeah.” River finished his coffee, then set the cup in the sink. “I’ll fix it in a few.”

He closed his bedroom door behind him, and Val looked up at him from the foot of the bed with a deep sigh. Her hand, glistening with the new ring, sat out in the air in front of her, still shaking a little.

“So,” River held her gaze while he locked the door. “Was… that a Yes?” he hoped.

Val froze, her own hope filling the room. She nodded. “Even though I’m --- got him in my head?” she whispered.

“Johnny, I can deal with it. I’ve even met him twice.”

Her face fell in defeat. “Oh god. I thought that was a dream!”

“I didn’t want to worry you,” he apologized. “It was civil. Besides, we’re doing what we can to stop it from…” He didn’t want to think about losing her. But if they couldn’t fix it… “I’d rather know I didn’t waste our time together.”

Trembling hands went to her face, then she took a deep breath and flung herself in his arms. “Yes, River! Yes yes yes yes yes!” she said between kisses.

He smiled at his fiancee. Fiancee. River picked her up and brought her to the bed, ran his hand over bare skin to take his clothes off her body. Eager hands removed what little they wore, desperate lips tasted to memorize, and River made love to his future wife again. To the woman who made him whole.

Chapter Text

Valerie held her hands up when Takemura drew his pistol at the sight of River. “It’s all right, Goro! He’s with me.” It had only made sense for River to join Val at night. Takemura was almost begging for danger by meeting so late.

“He looks like law enforcement. I do not trust them not to hand us over," Takemura said. The men had not met, but Val had told River about him, and he'd seen her memories. River had no reservations as long as Val accepted Takemura.

Goro’s eyes work after all.

Oh, NOW he’s Goro. Because he, too, doesn’t like the cops because of the Arasaka warrant?

No. Because Goro’s more fun to say than Takemura. And easier.

Cute, Johnny.

“Ex-law enforcement,” River clarified. “Got the boot for trying to uphold the law.”

Takemura holstered his gun. “So you are… what is the saying… same boat as us.”

Nevermind.

“In a sense. I’m just here for backup. This city isn’t safe at night.”

“Fine. But please wait in my vehicle until my contact leaves. I do not want him to think we are here to blackmail. We need him on our side to enact justice and ensure V survives her ordeal.”

River nodded, arms still over his chest. “I understand,” he said. “I’ll stay tucked away on coms till I’m needed.”

You seem to have a type, you know that?

Johnny, what are you on about now?

First you wanted to kiss Goro. Now you’re fucking the cop. For someone in your line of work, I think you’ve lost the plot. Corpos - bad. Cops - also bad. Remember?

And ex-corpos and ex-cops? That doesn’t count for anything, huh?

Not a bit.

I’m ex-corpo, too.

Yeah, but I didn’t know you till you had beef with authority.

Hm, and now I have authority beef.

Fucking Christ, V.

And for the record? I don’t want to kiss Goro.

You realize you can’t lie to me. Right? I’m literally in your head.

Johnny, there is a huge difference between thinking someone is handsome and nice, and wanting to fuck them. Goro is a genuinely nice guy who just needs someone he can trust. I’ve been there. You weren’t here for that, but I’ve been in Goro’s shoes before. Now shut up, his friend is here. I need to not argue with myself in front of him.

River climbed in Takemura’s van and listened in through Val’s holo. Their guest was not as Goro made him sound. Prideful, stubborn, yes, but not willing to listen. Even when Valerie cited unspoken Arasaka rules about duty and how honor mandated those rules. But the man spat insults at both Valerie and Goro, and refused to allow the transfer of Valerie’s memory file from up in Arasaka Tower.

Whatever Goro hoped to happen never did. River heard no new information. One more lead that led nowhere, nothing more. It was the story of Valerie’s life.

River waited until Takemura’s old work pal drove away before exiting the van.

Val looked at Takemura as Oda drove away. “Sure we can trust him? He didn’t like being reminded of company policy.”

“Oda and I have had many opportunities to kill each other. I trust him. You have given him something to think on. He will not have a clear conscience until he does, which he will not allow. Oda would not allow himself distraction when he must ensure Hanako’s safety.”

“Some people don’t care about a clear conscience, Goro. They do what they want to believe is good for them regardless of who gets hurt,” she reminded him.

“I am aware. But Oda is not like that. Please trust me on this.”

Val stared as Takemura paced in thought. “Did it bother you? Goro? When he said you were unreliable because you look like a thief?”

Takemura frowned at her. “Oda is free to judge how he wants. That should not deter him from the truth.” He continued pacing. “Besides, it is not all bad. I blend in like this. I am freer to do as I please without being hunted.”

Val looked to River for help, but River had no clue how to respond. Val was also wanted by Arasaka, but her reputation on the streets was protection beyond what River knew from his time as a cop.

“Where have you been sleeping?” Val asked the destitute Arasaka soldier.

“Where I can.”

“Goro.” She sighed, then her pupils lit up and she dug through her key cards.

Takemura stopped pacing, and his head jerked for a second. He looked at Val to see her holding out a few keycards. “What is this? What did you do?”

“I added you as an authorized user to my apartments. I’ve got like, six, but I only use one.”

River frowned a little. “You have six aparments? And we only use one? Isn’t that expensive? Rent’s not cheap here. Do you store stuff you smuggle at the others?” He’d become more curious about less-than-legal activities since he met her. She encouraged it, though. She was a curious person that did not fit the mold of the standard shady mercenary.

“No.” She frowned at the thought. “I don’t smuggle. Never needed to.” Val shrugged at him. “I have them for the lofts and views. And more places to park all the cars I don’t drive. You get a lot of free shit doing exactly what the Fixers want.”

“And… you want me to live with you?” Takemura stared with a frown of confusion.

Val gave a quiet laugh. “No. You can use them. There are plenty, if you really need to move around. There should be a few rolls of hard eddies in at least one of them. I’ll take out more cash when we go see Wakako. The keys should work for my cars, too. Use whatever you need, as long as you need. I promise I don’t need it. If for nothing else, than to prove to people like Oda that you are not what Yorinobu says you are.”

Takemura paused, humbled beyond doubt. He already had not expected to find a friend in Val. He never expected such additional kindness from her. Goro dropped his head to her a bow. “Valerie-chan, hontou ni arigatou gozaimasi.” Thank you truly, good friend.

“Oh fucking hell,” Valerie muttered, turning her head to try to hide watery eyes. “Don’t make me cry, Goro, please. Not when we have to go talk to one of my Fixers.”

River followed Valerie through a sniper scope to watch her back; at last a use for all those rifles she never used. She made her way into the Arasaka compound as unseen as possible, and so far so good. Somewhere inside the warehouse, she needed to sabotage the float for the upcoming Arasaka parade. When she found the float, she would call with Takemura’s cue to sneak into the security center and disable communication. Until then, River watched alongside Takemura.

Takemura held a single hand scope. “Am I correct in assuming you are not simply V’s bodyguard?”

River did not look up. “Good observation.” He zoomed in closer on a guard who’d stopped to look down at something. “She’s my wife.”

“I did not know she was married. That was not in her file when she was recovering at the Ripperdoc.”

“It’s… recent.” It wasn’t grand or spectacular. They went down to the Mayor’s office and signed papers. It was good enough for River and Valerie.

“I see. This is good. I am hopeful she can be saved. V is a good woman. It is good that she will not be alone should… the worst happen.” Takemura knew her name yet still called her V in front of others, only using her full name during a moments of deep respect. Val wasn’t just some tool to Takemura, and it showed.

It made River respect the man more. “She is a good woman, and she won’t be alone.” River adjusted his arms to ease the rail digging in. “Her situation’s so fucked up it’s unreal. Like something out of a movie. Hopefully the risk of pissing off Arasaka again will prove worthwhile.”

“I am confident that it will. If we can be there in person to convince Hanako, to show her V’s evidence of the what Yorinobu did to their father, I am positive she will help us.”

“Hanako, maybe. But that bodyguard of hers didn’t seem too fond of Val. Going to have to put some safety measures into place to ensure that guy won’t off Val. He didn’t want to hear the truth, remember? I will kill him if he hurts my wife. Val’s safety has to come first. That’s the whole reason we need Hanako’s help.”

“If we pull this off without flaw, then perhaps no lives will need to be lost to enact justice.”

River nodded, readjusting the rifle to follow V as she sneaked across behind shipping crates. “That’s always the hope. Doesn’t always turn out like that, but God, I hope it does.”

Chapter Text

Valerie unlocked the megabuilding apartment and River followed her in. It was a last stop after visiting her other apartments and stocking up for Takemura to use. River had liked the apartment at  Corpo Plaza best, but Valerie preferred the one she’d lived in for years. So instead of breaking in the bed at each apartment, they switched off between his place and her favorite.

River was glad to rest, though. Val always needed new weapons to disassemble or mod, so more often than not, going anywhere meant responding to police scanner calls.

River paused at a hanging photo near her computer. He pointed to it and looked at her, head cocked in confusion. “You put a pin-up of me on your wall?” he asked.

Val laughed. “It’s not a pin-up, it’s just you with your shirt off.”

“Uh-huh.” He let himself grin only a little. He’d teaser her forever for it, but he was pleased as hell that she loved how he looked that much.

She shook her head. “I’m not taking that down. You’re just going to have to deal with your half-naked self on my wall,” she smirked.

River left his boots by the door and draped his jacket over the computer chair, glanced at his pin-up again. “Was that at Joss’s?” he asked, setting his keycards down. “Looks like her kitchen.”

“Yeah, the morning we woke up there. After the water tower.”

The morning he proposed her.  

“Oh, baby …” River went to her and wrapped her up tight. Her lips found his, soft and sweet as ever. Of all the things she wanted to immortalize. River picked her up and carried her to the bed. That sort of worship deserved extra love.

River looked over at Val, leaned back, rocking as much as her computer chair allowed. “What if the answer’s been here all along? For the shard,” he clarified.

Val looked at him. “What do you mean?” She sat with a collection of handguns, scopes, and muzzles. There were already half a dozen pistols with new scopes in a box River would need to take downstairs later.

River still rocked in the chair, ticking a pen between his fingers. “What happened when you put the shard in your head? What if something’s been there all along but you couldn’t see it because at the time, you’d just fallen from the Penthouse and your friend died?” River didn’t want to miss any possible leads. He wanted to have her longer than a couple weeks. She was already on borrowed time thanks to Viktor’s Omega Blockers.

Val stared at him. “You think a vital component came off? That's why it's not working right?”

“Function damage caused by the physical damage,” he suggested. “Or, the shard was manipulated before you found it, and maybe the fall compromising its integrity set off a scripted chain event. Sort of like a self-destruct button sequence, only it needed to be able to do what it was designed for so it wasn’t meant to kill you right away. You said your friend was dying when he put the shard in his head, and that was after the fall.” He stared back, ideas swarming his mind. “Would you be up to editing those memories in a braindance? I’ll watch from the computer to help you find points to focus on. Might be good to have Goro here, too, he might know more about security measures for Arasaka tech at that level.”

Val’s eyes moved in thought. “It’s worth a shot. But if it turns out something broke off, I still can’t remove it to get it fixed or I’ll die, just like that. Worse if it was re-coded to act a certain way upon taking damage.”

“A good Netrunner can repair the damage, though,” he told her. River was far from a hacker or coder, but he knew the theory. “Well, so-to-speak. If a vital component broke off in the fall, they can construct a virtual component, and the original functions can operate from that so they don’t strain the physical ones meant for supporting the other exective function. Your Ripper said Silverhand’s engram didn’t recognize you in your own system. That shouldn’t have happened even if something was just loose. Which brings me back to my other suspicion… that Silverhand’s shard was altered in secret to work like it has been. Modified, like a self-destruct sequence if the shard took damage. Most robots have those protocols in place, especially Militech. It could be Yorinobu was planning to force it on his father and blame it on the company, or use it himself for sabotage; we already know what he’s capable of. Either way, there has to be some way to fix it.” River shook his head. “I refuse to believe there’s not. That shard is already unique because it was designed for Silverhand. That means they had some failsafe somewhere to fix any problems they expected from Silverhand’s engram, considering the person he was in life. We can find a Netrunner who can repair stuff like that, even if we have to go overseas.”

Val held her breath.

Huh. Cop’s actually makin’ some sense.

“With Jackie already dying when he put the shard in, Johnny’s engram could have taken that as a trigger to prepare for deployment. Like it expected an empty vessel? …Shit.” Val sank deeper over her knees, eyes wide and darting in thought.

River nodded. “Could have been a couple chain of events that started at once, when they weren’t supposed to. Trigger sensor could have been damaged. Either way, it would have taken a while to boot up after you slotted it in.”

Val shook her head in disbelief. “Enough time for Dex to shoot me and drive out to dump my body.”

River nodded. “Re-routing your entire brain is one thing, and I still hope that’s an option… but at least we can try this.” 

Val nodded. “I’ll call Judy. She could turn my memories into a braindance.”

It took a couple days for Judy Alvarez to turn Valerie’s memories of Arasaka Tower into a braindance. It was raw, but Val could edit as needed. River and Val drove to the apartment at The Glen to meet Takemura, and while Val sat with her braindance headset on, the men watched her memories from the computer.

Takemura wasn’t sure what to look for in regards to engram shards, but he could point out security flaws if Yorinobu had left holes open on purpose. River’s theory that Yorinobu modified Silverhand’s engram for use as a weapon intrigued Takemura.

The problem with editing a traumatic event, however, was the post-traumatic stress. While Valerie was safe on the couch, she started to twitch and tremble when her memories played her walking into the No-Tell Motel. River knew what event was next. He sat next to his wife and held her to make sure she didn’t hurt herself trying to escape the memory of being shot in the head. Goro synced the computer to the large television screen, then sat on the other side of River to watch.

It broke River’s heart watching Dex shoot Valerie in the head again, watching her wake up in the dump and crawling through filth to survive. “Jesus, honey,” he muttered, letting Val squeeze him in her anxiety. That never got any easier to watch. River hoped in time, they could forget that ever happened.

A memory full of optic glitches showed Takemura approaching Valerie after he’d shot Dexter Deshawn. River didn’t recall seeing it before, but from the optical damage, a guess was it was something Judy had pieced together from scraps.

In that new memory, Valerie choked out for help, but Takemura’s response had been a cruel smack across her face to knock her out.

River frowned. He’d not heard about that. When he looked over, Goro’s head and shoulders hung low. In Shame?

“I apologize for my actions then, Valerie-chan,” Goro said. “I did not know the truth, then. I had thought you to be Soboro’s murderer.”

Val sat silent for a moment, watching Goro look at her in disgust in a car and tell her she smelled like shit. “I didn’t know that happened till now.” Her voice didn’t have its normal confidence, though. Goro sat guilty, but Val had not remembered a time when he’d been so cruel to her. She considered him a friend, even a good one. In some ways, it must have been as hard a blow as being killed. “So… I guess… no hard feelings, Goro. You know, I got that picture hanging up in my weapons room in Watson,” she said, trying to sound like she wasn’t upset. “Of you killing Dex. Pretty badass move for someone who wanted me dead.”

Goro looked at her. Val could not see anything but her memories. “You took photographs while you were dying?”

Val huffed. “Yeah, when you put it that way, pretty gonk move. I was just glad Dex got what he deserved.”

The next memories held Val’s attention like little else but her guns and River. Val listened and zoomed in on Goro’s interaction with the Delamain cab while he resuscitated her, so long that Goro and River got up from the couch for drinks. River made lunch, and Goro paced around the apartment. Val scanned anything and everything she thought held importance, and again for her memories in Viktor’s clinic.

She zoomed in on Viktor’s scans, then sat up straighter. “Uh…”

River watched her as he swallowed his bite of sandwich, standing at the kitchen bar. “What do you need?” he called over.

“Uh, nothing. I’m looking for a number.” A brief pause, then she said,“Hey, Del, how’s it hangin’?” Pause, and a deep nod. “Figure of speech, Del… Yeah, do you have recordings from when I was being patched up in your car? With that Japanese hombre who was almost as bad off as I was?”

River rolled his eyes. Leave it to Val to refer to blend the cultures.

“Yeah, I’m going through my memories right now, trying to figure out what’s causing what. I just want to cross-reference,” she said.

“I think she is talking to the cab,” Goro told River, his face skewed in confusion. He sat on a stool, leaning on the bar while he ate.

“Wouldn’t be the first time. She does that, makes friends with AIs.” River shoveled another large bite in his mouth.

“Peculiar thing to do with so many people around.”

“Maybe. You met her talking pistol yet? Skippy?” River kind of liked that one. It made darker aspects of combat easier to handle. It also never shut up when held, which meant sneaking was out of the question. It was easier to leave home sometimes.

“Bum bum be dum bum bum be dum bum,” Val sang from the couch; Skippy’s upbeat song. River grinned through another bite. “Awesome, thanks, Del. You’re the best.” Pause. “Yeah, sure thing. I’ll stop by tomorrow.”

River washed down his sandwich with a beer. “So we’re hanging out with the cab tomorrow, huh?” he asked.

“Delamain has a problem he needs help with.” She rewound her memories back to Vik’s scans during surgery, and zoomed in, playing the memories back slower than usual. “River?” she asked, her voice no longer chipper. "Can you come look at this?"

“Yeah, babe.” He was already heading to her. He’d seen it, tiny dark marks on Silverhand’s shard. “What is that? Scorch marks?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” She rewound again and zoomed in closer. “I can’t clear it up in this thing. The scanner just shows that there’s damage. But that’s inside my head.” Turning the scans didn’t help either.

“What about Viktor’s scans?”

“His screens are too small. I don’t know if he saw them. Could be the damage was too great that he didn’t see the point in mentioning it,” she said.

“Honey, go back to the Tower. Arasaka, when you guys fell.” River leaned over the back of the couch, eyes glued to the screen. “Play it back slow.”

And there it was. Tiny splinters of glass had slipped through the busted seal of the protective case, slivers they could only see when Jackie removed the shard to dock it into his head. Naked to the eye, but the editing scans picked them up clear as day.

“Hm.” Goro joined them in the sitting room. “I cannot picture Arasaka policies allowing for those circumstances without mitigation. Consider Smasher, Yorinobu's bodyguard,” he said. “He is no longer human, everything running from software and hardware. He is designed to take considerable damage. He would not be such a successful experiment if his hardware could not run without physical complication.”

Takemura was right, of course. The damage was minimal, nothing that would have made Silverhand’s shard behave the way it did. The physical damage explained why it prepared for upload when dying Jackie inserted it, and why it did not register it had been taken out and put into someone else’s head. The damage from the bullet should have impaired the self-preservation upload function, even registred some of Johnny’s memories as corrupted, unusable save data. It did not explain why the shard was killing Val and using her like an empty vessel.

It narrowed down what they did not need to do.

“That only leaves the shard’s intended function,” River concluded when Val disconnected from the braindance. “It means who ever modified it meant for Johnny to be a parasite.” He shook his head. “Because technology does not work like that, not even AI. It’s a move that suggests revenge.” He paused, staring at Val’s reflection in the window. “It means Johnny Silverhand was meant to be a weapon.”

Johnny inside Val sighed in disbelief, and Val saw him sink into a chair as clear as she saw River and Goro. Johnny removed his aviators, staring straight ahead, stunned from the hard blow of realization. Arasaka hadn’t only killed him.

Just like Adam fucking Smasher. Jesus Christ.

No, Johnny. Worse than Adam Smasher. It means what you remember is fake. They made you think you were Arasaka’s biggest threat.

That’s not what it means! I was their biggest threat! Everything they did, they did it to get back at me! My  actions!

It does  mean that, Johnny. It means it wasn’t about you at all.  Whatever they did to your engram was meant to piss somebody else off. Don’t you get it? They made you think Arasaka killed you. You  weren’t the  terrorist, Johnny. The program is, the engram,  and its target is Arasaka. You were just the face they used.

Johnny sat frozen, staring for a moment, before getting up and fading from sight as he walked away. Johnny was checking out.

Val leaned back, arms crossed, and her leg started bouncing. Johnny’s dark epiphany was making her anxious. She shook her head. “Johnny’s not thrilled with the idea.”

River nodded. “I figured as much. I’ll be here to keep him in check, don’t worry, honey.”

The problem now was finding a netrunner who could fix a sabotaged shard that could not be removed.

Chapter Text

Their revelation was another lead that led to another. Judy called to check how Valerie’s braindance held up, which led to recalling the data she pulled when they rescued Evelyn. The information Val had sought all along - who hired Evelyn to acquire Silverhand’s shard - hinted at the Voodoo Boys in Pacifica.

“Pacifica. Shit.” River was not keen on the idea.

“Right. Heavy gang activity.” Val didn’t fancy the idea either. The closest to law and order in Pacifica was the Voodoo Boys, but only because they were the largest gang in that district.

And Pacifica was not fond of outsiders. Not only were River and Val obvious shades lighter than most residents, but every eye glared like they were the Trojan horse. First a church, then a meat shop, then a scanner to prove Val was the mercenary the Voodoo Boys’ leader expected.  

When River and Val at last met Placide, he was not what they expected. Val watched the man cut the heads off real chickens and wrap them in papers. Dead, but real, with real feathers and real scaled feet.

“You guys raise your own chickens? How?” Val asked. “How do you do it without those diseases or Corpos bombing the place?”

“They are not food.” Placide still had not looked at them.

“I’m not judging,” she insisted, “and I’m not a snitch. I’m just curious. There aren’t even rats in Night City. I’ve never seen a… real animal,” she admitted.

The large man turned his head to look at last, and gave Val a long, thorough lookover. “You are V? Who is this? The Hands said only one." Placide frowned while scanning River. “Why is he flagged as NCPD?” Placide glared at River.

“I shouldn’t be. I resigned,” River said. “Over two weeks ago.” Suspended three weeks ago, but he put in his official notice when he found out Val’s problem with Silverhand’s construct.

Val frowned and scanned River, as well. “Weird. Yeah, they haven’t changed it yet.”

“He is not coming in. You, yes, but not NCPD,” Placide said.

“Not part of the deal. He's not a cop anymore, I guarantee that. He’s with me,” Val said. “He’s -”

“I’m her husband,” River challenged. He could take on Placide if he needed to.

“Naturally,” full of sarcasm. Placide glared back, trying to read River. “Why would a cop marry a criminal?”

“You’re the one with the bounty, here,” Val reminded.

“Why does anyone ever marry anyone?” River retorted.

“Cops do not fall in love with criminals,” Placide stated like he knew all of humanity better than any individual.

Val scoffed, annoyed. “What do you want to hear, that I suck dick so good that he married me? He’s my husband, and we work together because we make a damn good team and get damn shit done, end of story. Why he married me isn’t your business.”

Getting information out of Placide required patience Val nor River had. First the man tried force Val to jack into his computer, then he wouldn’t answer with context, making their end of the deal even more suspicious. All they needed was the what and how of the job Placide wanted them for. It seemed too much to ask for.

Val held off opening a communication channel with Placide. Her open excuse was to browse the Voodoo Boys’ cyberware since Placide had called hers insufficient. But out of sight from any gang members, Val stole a moment behind an old bus stop to adjust her cyberware.

“He fucking infected me,” she whispered.

“He what?” River wasn’t sure he heard right.

“Placide. He uploaded a fucking virus. And I can’t fucking scrub the thing. Jesus fucking Christ. This was not part of the deal.”

“So how we get rid of it?” he asked.

Val shook her head. “I don’t know. Fuck. It’s not good enough that he’ll get to keep track of me through the whole damn thing?” she hissed. 

“We’re supposed to call him,” he reminded. “Keep an open connection.”

“I know. God, that fucking asshole.” She sighed, then dialed Placide, and shared the live audio with River. River wouldn’t be able to talk with Placide, but he’d hear everything.

“What is taking so long?” Placide answered.

“I fucking used my legs. Sorry I left my teleporter at home today,” Val retorted, not bothering to hide her irritation. She squeezed River’s hand tight and continued toward the old mall, jaw clenched. “Almost there, though. Anything else you wanna tell me? Anything?”  Asking about the virus without asking.

“No. Just meet with my people. They are waiting.” If Placide knew she detected the virus, he didn’t care. It was more probable he thought Val too stupid to detect it.

“After all this fucking trouble, this better fucking be worth it,” Val warned.

“Do the job first. Then you see Maman Brigitte.”

“If you don’t uphold your end of the deal, I will kill you,” she threatened.

Placide hummed. “Good luck with that.”

Sneaking past the Animals was a long, anxious chore. They had no choice but to wipe memories and use Val’s camouflage cyberware. With River so much larger than her and without camo himself, they had to stall to improvise. They huddled in a dark corner where Val removed some of her cyberdeck mods and slotted them in River’s, so he could get through unseen while she shut off cameras and blended in. It felt like a whole damn hour before they reached the van Placide wanted Val to hack. And they still needed to find the netrunner that Placide suspected ran the show.

Proceeding to find the netrunner went too well. The halls were all a sudden empty, no signs of activity save for a few digital warning signs that could only be from the netrunner. Empty and well… until they reached an old concessions lobby for the theater.

The largest Animal either had ever seen argued on a phone, pacing about the room with heavy steps. The exit door was all the way across and there was nowhere to take cover. Val alone might have sneaked by, but River could not. They got to their feet and River stretched his neck and shoulders as quick as he could. At least it was them alone against that Sasquatch of a human. With luck, it would remain so.

Val hacked the Sasquatch to spread contagion and reboot optics, and River charged with his fists before the Animal recovered. He did his best to keep the Sasquatch’s attention, boxing her face and dodging, irritating her so Val could attack with mantis blades and quickhacks, rebooting optics. Anything to keep the Sasquatch stationary and not draw the attention of every single Animal on site. Hack after hack after hack to keep the Sasquatch alone and vulnerable.  

River threw his fist for one last punch. Already woozy from the contagion, Sasquatch swayed too far and hit the floor hard. Val shoved her blades into the beast of a woman’s chest and neck for good measure, then staggered back in disbelief.

“Fitting…” she caught her breath, bracing her knees for balance, “name, at least. That thing definitely isn’t human.”

River could only nod. Without his metal hand, there was no way he could have dealt damage to that beast. As built as he was, it would only help to grow more muscle in case another Sasquatch existed. “Let’s hope that’s the last Animal we ever need to fight.”

Netwatch was a questionable organization. River had no doubt the company policed the net and contained stray AIs that crossed the virtual border Blackwall. But Netwatch also did what it could to eliminate other netrunners, even harmless ones like Val. It was not a company to trust without proof of goodwill.

It was, however, familiar to Valerie, and more transparent than the Voodoo Boys. At least Val knew what to expect from Netwatch. It didn’t surprise River when she accepted the agent’s deal. And a welcome silver lining was not needing to deal with Placide in their ear for a while. The agent, Mosley, even removed Placide’s virus as a gesture of good faith.

River wasn’t sure he bought the gesture of good faith, but Mosley’s cooperation was good enough for Val, so it was good enough for River.

Valerie lingered to watch the old western film Mosley was projecting to the big screen. “Fan of the old days, huh?” Her voice was wearing down. River didn’t want to admit she was still dying, but in that lighting, it was easier to see: Val was tiring, more than she should be after one fight.

If the Voodoo Boys didn’t uphold their end of the deal, River would make their heads roll.

Mosley shrugged. “Why not? They’re a reminder of simpler times, when people lived in better harmony with nature. The movie may be fiction, but that lifestyle was truth. It’s a part of history I hope our species never forgets. If humanity isn’t careful, we could all end up there again.”

“Simpler times,” Val echoed, watching the cowboys on the big screen ride their horses past a clear, crashing ocean shoreline.

The Netwatch agent nodded, glancing at the screen. “It proves one thing, at least: good guy still wear badges.”

Val’s eyes reflected the light from the big screen, darting to follow the horses as they ran through a river. Water splashed up around the magnificent beasts, sparkling in the film’s sunlight. “Yeah. I think you’re right about that. I met my husband when he was a cop. Fell in love with him then, too. He’s a good man.”

Mosley nodded, intrigued. “Interesting that your paths are so different. I like to think that’s proof humanity is still capable of co-existing with itself, for all our differences.”

“It’s a nice sentiment, at least.” River stood right against Val, squeezing her hand. This particular Netwatch agent seemed cordial, but River and Val were still in unfamiliar territory, and who knew if the Animals would honor Mosley’s order to let them pass. River needed to make sure she got out of there alive with him.

Mosley noticed their hands, then caught River’s eye. “Was a cop?” he asked. The man didn’t miss a thing.

River gave a slight shrug. “Justice shouldn’t favor the highest bidder.” It was also a warning for Mosley and Netwatch not to betray their deal.

Val looked at Mosley. “Mind if we sit is the theater for a few minutes?” She gestured to the movie playing.

Mosley glanced again toward the big screen. “Be my guest. But I wouldn’t linger too long if Placide’s waiting. They won’t call off the entire gang for a Watson merc and a retired cop.”

“Yeah. Just be a few. They don’t play stuff like this in the other theaters here.”

“Well, here.” Mosley’s pupils lit up. River scanned the transfer to find it was a copy of the movie playing. Virus-free, even. “Now you can watch it at home.”

Val gave a small smile, the glow in her own pupils waning. “Thanks.” Even if they never got along with Netwatch again, it was a small shared interest, a personal connection outside any business dealings. A small proof that humanity could co-exist despite differences, like Mosley had said.

River followed Val to seats center to the big screen. River hadn’t been to a theater since he was a child, and he couldn’t remember what he’d watched. It hadn’t impressed him much. River still wasn’t impressed, but he was there for Valerie. He reached over and squeezed her thigh. “You okay?”

Val nodded. “Just need a moment. Tired of being played, you know? Just because I need someone’s help. That, and it felt like Sasquatch knocked a couple things loose in my head. The longer this goes on, retirement doesn’t look so bad.” She watched the movie, quiet for a moment. “Do you ever think about going back to your roots?” she asked. “Like what your ancestors did?” She meant River's Native American blood. River didn’t per se consider himself one, but his mother had left her tribal land for their father, who was half-Native himself.

“Like bows and arrows and wigwams?” He’d heard that word in an old song, once. Never got it out of his head, but always wanted to use it.

“Yeah. Living free, riding horses through the land with the wind whipping through your hair, answering to no one, needing nothing but nature,” she said. The movie reflected in her eyes as if it was instead a dream playing before her.

River couldn’t help a smile as he pictured Val riding a horse through glittering water, her strawberry-blonde hair waving wild behind her. “It sounds kind of good, doesn’t it? Refreshing, even. I wish that was possible. It’d be nice to live simple. No cares but whatever the day brings.”

They watched the movie for awhile, enjoying the moment of calm. River stood behind and rubbed her shoulders to help her relax, and Val’s eyes closed as she soaked in his massage. It was less about watching a movie and more needing reprieve. River gave her what he could given their circumstance, but after a few more minutes, he reminded her they had to get back to Placide.

Even stranger than sneaking through a mall full of Animals was the freedom to stroll right past them without conflict. Some even nodded and said stuff like “What’s going on?” and “Hey, you guys check out Roach Race in the arcade?” and “Robbie got the popcorn machine running, you guys want some?” As if they were all friends and had been for years. Though comms with Placide returned after leaving the theater, Val cut it again early on in the amiability to avoid more trouble. The last thing they needed was Placide hearing the Animals invite Val and River for popcorn.

Against the odds, Val and River considered staying there with the Animals and Netwatch than learn how bad Placide’s wrath was.  

With the Animals no longer hostile, it gave time to explore the old mall. Only a couple floors had opened, but there were enough old shops and stalls open. An arcade, an old restaurant, what looked like an old home goods store. The only thing the Animals used was the gym.

On their way toward the stationary escalators, Val recognized a song playing from the speakers overhead. A song she hadn’t heard for years, from way back in two-thousand-ten that used to play only on the Masterpiece Oldies station; it stopped airing years ago. Valerie hurried with a hack, shouting “MOSLEY! I’M TURNING UP THE SPEAKERS!” knowing he’d hear her.

Speakers now blaring, Val sang along to her old favorite. It had her turning and swaying, singing at the top of her lungs from the glass railing. Straining her rich, sultry voice out over the atrium like a living speaker herself. She didn’t care that the remaining Animals stepped out from the restaurant and gym to observe the noise. Val stood there bouncing and belting, “BUT DARLIN I’D STILL CATCH A GRENADE FOR YAAA YAAA,” Leaning over, gripping the glass railing so tight her knuckles were white. Not a thing in the world could have stopped her. River had not seen her lost in music before, and he loved it. He kept an eye on the Animals just in case, but he could watch the love of his life sing her heart out any day. When the song ended, a couple Animals even applauded, as did Mosley over the speakers.  

Not bad, kid. Crap taste in music, but you got some lungs on you.

Suck a dick, Johnny. I’m not starting a Samurai tribute band no matter how much you beg.

River left that old mall with a Valerie who could not stop smiling for the life of her. No matter how small, it had been a very good thing despite the Voodoo Boys trying to get them killed. It was a needed carefree recess from the shitstorm they’d already experienced on her journey to find a cure, and from the shitshorm they expected of Placide.

And shitstorm it was. Placide wasn’t at the desk when they returned, he was in the room beyond. Guards tried to keep them out, but Val shoved one off so hard he stumbled, taken aback.

“Care to finally fucking answer why you infected me with a virus that compromised my nervous system when the reason I’m fucking here in the first place is because the shard in my head is already fucking doing the same damn thing?” Val stormed through glass doors shoving aside equipment and gurneys.

“Watch it,” Placide warned.

Val was already fuming, though. “You’re fucking lucky I handled Netwatch the way I did, otherwise Brigitte and Neptune would have died already!”

Placide scowled and grabbed Val by her neck, lifting her in air.

River had his revolver aimed in a blink. “Let her go!”

He hadn’t needed to, though. Val drove a fist into Placide’s face, still dangling in the air. It was enough force for Placide to let go and stagger away. Before he could try again, Val threw her shoulder for a hard hook. Placide raised a fist, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him mid-swing.

A woman they could only guess was Maman Brigitte ordered Placide to stop, then ordered Val and River to stop.

“You want me to stop? When all I got for agreeing to save you was a fucking virus that had me ready to fucking sleep to death before I left that mall?” Val demanded. River glanced at his wife, still aiming at Placide. He hadn't know it was Placide's virus that made her weak. “I will leave here and now with Johnny if I see even one more dirty look! I am sick and tired of being fucking played and I never signed up to be infected with Voodoo viruses! All I fucking want is a way to remove Johnny Silverhand from my fucking head, and you people can’t even fucking try to help when you fucking want him!”

Maman Brigitte stared, analyzing or trying to keep her cool. “Is that your aggression, or Silverhand’s, I wonder?”

“Oh, you’d know if it wasn't me. Johnny would've run in here guns blazing till all that was left was blood and bits of bone!” Val shot back, glaring. So incensed her jaw and veins bulged. “You’re welcome for your lives back, now fucking uphold your end of the deal!”

Maman Brigitte looked Val up and down, then River, who had not lowered his revolver yet. “Placide, ready the catacombs.”

Placide scowled, still wiping blood from where Val last hit him. It was not hard to guess he’d rather kill Val than let her anywhere near whatever catacombs Brigitte spoke of.

Following Maman Brigitte into the dark crypt tunnels beneath their church didn’t ease nerves any better than knowing Placide had tried to get them killed. Brigitte at least seemed willing to work with Val, to scan the shard and determine if they could remove it. But she did not divulge anymore than she wanted them to know, and that wasn’t subtle.

Val’s breath came shallow in those old, dark tunnels. She kept a death grip on River’s hand the whole way, whispering the song she’d sung at the mall. “Me and Johnny have a horrible feeling,” she breathed to him.

River squeezed her hand. “I’m not about to let you go,” he assured.

Val and River looked up and around at the old subway tunnel the Voodoo Boys converted into their netrunning base. Deep below the city, below anything with modern technology. Otherwise untouchable by Netwatch or other netrunners.

River watched what Val and Brigitte experienced in the digital world, alongside the one netrunner not plugged in. A strange world that looked like a city made of pixels, nothing close to human life. From that digital abode, Maman Brigitte tapped into Johnny Silverhand’s memories. River had met Silverhand a few times when Val’s body was weak, but he knew little of the man’s life from before death. Grainy memories played of an old romantic fling of Silverhand’s, and of a failed rescue mission.

Val had not exaggerated when she said Johnny went in guns blazing. Val herself had gone in guns blazing to solve many problems. River now wondered if that had been Silverhand’s personality and methods bleeding with hers. Val was one of the most gentle people River ever knew; capable, but gentle.  It was beginning to look like Val’s aptitude for killing wasn’t her skill at all; she was a netrunner, after all.

Then came the confession from Brigitte on why the Voodoo Boys wanted Silverhand’s engram in the first place, and it wasn’t for the weapon theory. Maman Brigitte thought Johnny Silverhand was the key to unlocking access to Alt Cunningham, whose engram lived beyond the Blackwall. The Blackwall was the intangible border separating the living's Net and the untamed realm of artificial intelligence, where infinite chaos blossomed. The Voodoo Boys wanted Silverhand as bait to trap Alt Cunningham, and use her to wreak havoc across the entire digital web. They believed eventual havoc was eminent, and that with Alt under their control they would debut as the only victors of the cataclysm.

River tensed at the notion. There was no evidence a digital apocalypse would happen, but the Voodoo Boys were willing to induce one just to control the world; for whomever controlled the Net controlled the world. Val in the ice bath didn’t like the idea either. Her vital spiked, and the netrunner on watch had River check Val’s pulse and make sure she still had rapid eye movement. Her body was reacting to her aversion of the Voodoo Boys' plan.

Not long after Val met Alt in beyond the Blackwall, every netrunner in a chair seized with crackling electricity. Before the watcher could react, she, too seized and fell lifeless. River stood frozen, the only living body besides Val in the ice bath. If Placide or any other gang member came down to check on them, that old tunnel would be Val and River’s tomb.

The last thing on the screen was the projection of Alt Cunningham saying Netwatch’s virus broke through. She had neutralized the Voodoo Boys so Val and Johnny could escape to safety.

Val woke from the ice bath gasping and shivering. River pulled her out and wrapped his leather jacket around her.

“We gotta go,” River told her. “Alt said something about a Netwatch virus. These guys are going to be all over us in a minute.”

“I know,” Val shivered. “I know he d-did. M-Mosley. He did it when he got rid of Placide’s virus-s.” She couldn’t shake the chills from the ice bath. “I didn’t c-care. They- Brigitt-te only wanted Johnny. She would have killed us for it. Oh geez,” she shivered deep.

“Can you walk?” he asked her. If not, their escape was about to get harder.

Valerie nodded, her teeth still chattering. “Gotta. Placide’s gonna kill - kill us if we don’t leave.” She forced a deep breath, then stepped back and drew her mantis blades.

“Yeah, well, he can try.” River gave her his revolver for distance defense and grabbed guns from the fallen netrunners. Val was already starting off.

They found themselves once again in a fight to escape. Shooting when they could, slicing or punching Voodoo Boys that hid in shadows to ambush them. River took a knife in the arm to break a neck before Val was stabbed in the back. When Placide graced their escape with his presence, Val almost smiled. She still wanted revenge.

River shot the gun from Placide’s left hand, taking fingers with it. Val sprinted to close the distance, forcing Placide to ditch his other gun and use his machete. Smaller and faster, she sliced his side and arm. A large fist met Val’s face, and River fired a shotgun at Placide’s feet to distract him while Val recovered. Placide took a step toward River, right into one of Val’s heated blades. The Voodoo Boy grabbed Val’s arm, but River shot a gaping hole in Placide’s bulging tricep. Red hot mantis blades jerked out like glow sticks in the dark and Val shoved the pointed heel of her fancy shoes in Placide’s groin, then River fired the shotgun again, reloading quick as he could to keep the big guy from attacking. A glowing slice to his brawny neck, another shot, and Placide’s shin splintered in a messy shower of blood and bone. Placide fell into the wall and slid, smearing blood down old brick, no one to watch his back.

Placide stared up at Val as she stood over him, still fuming. She retracted her mantis blades, watching the downed man spit up blood with each gasp. Blood spilled out of each wound her blades created like they were nothing more than overflowing buckets. Weakened and almost out of limbs, Placide reached for his fallen gun, but Valerie pulled Crash’s trigger until the chamber emptied. What remained of Placide’s head jerked, then hung loose on his neck. The stench of brains and raw flesh filled the tunnels like a flood.

Val and River did not relax until they could no longer see the grand hotel the gang holed up in. While only on the seaside of the mall, it was far enough away for them. So much damn work to try to save Val’s life, so much damn fighting all the time. Their couple days of down time before driving to Pacifica had not been long enough.

The highlight of it all? Val fixing the roller coaster. River and Val, with Johnny in her head, ended the chaos of their mission screaming and laughing as the ride tore them through air and the wind whipped their faces, all over an amazing ocean view.

Chapter Text

River walked around while skimmed the news on Val’s tablet, sipping his morning coffee. He hadn’t bothered to put on clothes, and Val was still in bed with her own coffee, in no hurry to get up. They were taking a day off, and they deserved the break.

River set down the tablet and leaned out the window to gaze over Watson. The apartment was up high enough that the stench of the garbage below couldn’t reach, and the fresh air was welcome. While he couldn’t see down as far as her Corpo Plaza apartment, River still loved the view. The more they stayed at her place, the more he saw why she loved that apartment.

He turned his head when he felt eyes watching him, and River couldn’t help but smile. Valerie couldn’t have looked more in love. River half expected her apartment to melt to mush from it all.

“I have no idea how I got so lucky. Do you realize how breathtaking you are?” she admired him.

River’s smile grew. It was damn good to hear her say that. “Can’t get enough of this Private Dick, huh?” he teased.

He glanced at the mirror behind her, as well. She’d shaken her head and laughed when he brought it over and hung it next to her bed, but he caught her enjoying their reflections during sex just as much as he did.

She, too, glanced behind at the mirror, then shook her head at him. “Never going to get enough.” Val hesitated, then bit her lips, eyes closed, shoulders shaking with quiet laughter. “Could you bring the pills over, please? The omega blockers. Johnny is screaming at me,” she grinned, embarrassed and beyond amused. “He’s horrified we’re about to dock with him right here.”

River chuckled and fetched the Omega Blockers. “And how long until these kick in?” he asked. “’Cause he’s right. In fact, he’s lucky I even got out of bed.” River handed her the pills, then spread her legs and knelt before her bare body. “He’s very lucky. Especially now that I’m thinking about it.” He squeezed her thighs around him.

Val giggled, almost choking on the pill and water, and held up one finger. “Ten minutes.”

River grimaced with a noise of annoyance. “Ten minutes?” he pretended to complain. “That’s gonna take forever,” he joked.

Val nodded. “It feels like a fucking voyeur all the time. No fucking privacy. Window watchers got nothing on Johnny.”

River nodded. “Like having a toddler in the house. No such thing as privacy.”

Val laughed. “Johnny Silverhand my fucking toddler.” She bit her grin and shook her head.

Val sighed in relief when Johnny disappeared with the Blocker. River knew by the look in her eyes when she opened them. He grinned and leaned down to kiss her, ready for whatever Silverhand did not want them to do.

Her hands at his cock made him hiss with desire. River bit her lip, kissed her harder, shoved his tongue deeper in her mouth. The only thing better than her hands on his cock was when she made him cum with his cock inside her.

River pulled away and sat back, hooking his arms beneath her knees. Her breath caught in anticipation as he ducked his head between her legs, and River grinned. He made sure his tongue was nice and wet, and he wanted her to watch.

The first lick flexed her belly and dropped her head back. He ran his tongue long and slow, sucking the juices meant for his cock. Stretched his tongue and flicked the tip. Her brow pinched and mouth hitched, watching him beat her with his mouth till her thighs began twitching. River slipped his fingers in and flexed up against the cushion, pushing down past the head of her clit while he danced his way to her climax. He drew her swollen and overstimulated sex into his lips and sucked, then closed his teeth around her. Hands grabbed at his head like she sought hair to yank, and she squirmed to stop the quiver in her thighs. River pushed her legs back open and pressed his arms to keep her free to rouse. He returned to her clit, watched her face again as he bit, laughed with her in his mouth as she smacked the back of his head and tried to pull him up, but River kept going. Lathered her back up, still pinning her in place, and wriggled his tongue till she writhed beneath him and sang out for all to hear. River didn’t stop till she convulsed with the strain, her voice gave out, and she collapsed panting.

Her noises alone got him hard, every time. River raised her thighs up around him as he knelt. He grabbed his erection and teased it at her dripping core for a moment. Her hips couldn’t stop curling up, seeking him, aftershocks of pleasure overload. He raised his gaze to find her watching him tease her, mouth hitched, breasts trembling with shallow breath. Watched her as he pushed in and she curled in toward him, eyes rolled back, and River’s breath caught with a grunt.

He held her legs while he thrust, churning her, watching her face while he picked up speed. She kept trying to grab his hands, grab anything, constricting around him with each pump. The tighter she grew, the faster his hips drove. He paused to move her legs apart, push deeper, and she clamped so tight he lost breath. River almost couldn’t see straight. He let his hips take the lead, shoving so fast his senses couldn’t keep up and he fell on her. Took a moment to regain his rhythm so he wouldn’t blow too soon, but it was damn near impossible anymore. He braced his arms and ground his hips to hers, and the new angle locked her up, milked him till his own voice broke from his throat. With her still frozen in her orgasm, he thrust faster, racing to catch up before she expired. Hands with long nails squeezed his ass to keep him there and her teeth dug in the nape of his neck. The sensation rippled through him, testing his balance and driving his cock faster till the pressure inside erupted, drowning him in perfect delirium.

He had no idea what he'd done without her his whole life.

Chapter Text

The parade was breathtaking. Blue and orange giant koi swam through the air, pink cherry blossoms drifted without end, all holographic but magical all the same. The orange glow of round Japanese lanterns lining the streets as the holograms danced above only helped create the illusion that they’d walked into another realm, one too good for Night City. Valerie reached her hand out as if to catch a falling holographic cherry blossom petal. It felt like a fairy tale.

River and Val took a moment to themselves under the magical display. Smiling from how the holograms made them feel giddy and carefree, smiling at the happiness they shared. They took as many videos and selfies as they could to immortalize the moment; there would never be another, they knew that. Photos with the giant fish and petals and lanterns behind, photos kissing under the magic. Blending in with the local Japanese in yukatas, Val in a kasa to hide her bright hair, they could have stayed unnoticed the whole event. It would be all too easy to lose themselves in the festivities. Neither imagined they’d have a moment like that.

“Valerie-chan,” Takemura’s voice sounded in their ears. “The snipers are in position.”

River and Val sighed, disappointed by the interruption. But they had a job to do, an important one, and they’d known it going in.

They never expected the parade to be so fantastical, though.

“I see them,” Takemura continued. “And do not forget the netrunner. If any of them see me, I am done for.”

“We know. We’ll get it done,” River assured.

Val sighed, still in his arm. She took one last look up at the falling petals, tried to catch one again, then met River’s gaze. It was something they never wanted to leave. River recorded one last moment under the magic, hoping to look back on it for years to come. He wished he could immortalize the feel of her kiss in that moment.

The photos and videos would have to suffice. River was sure he could bribe Judy to turn this memory into a braindance for them. If all went well, they might even get to share this this magical moment with their children one day.

Sneaking through and past the crowd was easier than expected. Not a single eye was on them as they ascended maintenance ladders and catwalks. Not even the snipers had noticed them climbing up. The difficult part was what seemed like endless climbing.

Not a drop of trouble… until Val stepped into the room the netrunner was in. The door slammed shut before River could follow her in. Val killed the netrunner, but the door didn’t open. River tried to pry it open, but it wouldn’t budge, not even with his cybernetic hand. Goro had no idea what had happened.

A figure in a dark and a glowing red mask leaped out of the shadows and charged at Val with mantis blades.

“What the fuck!” Val scrambled away, ejecting her own mantis blades. “Goro, I think you forgot something!” She kicked off her heels to run better. “Who the fuck is this, Goro!” she demanded.

“This was not accounted for,” Takemura said. “What does the intruder look like?”

River yelled for his wife, trying to breach the door. No buttons, he couldn’t break the glass. “You’re telling me we didn’t fucking plan for this?” he yelled. Security be damned, he needed in that room! When his cybernetic hand couldn’t break the glass, he fired his revolver. Someone somewhere had planned for guns, even if Goro hadn’t planned for Val to get ambushed. Val sprinted to dodge another aerial attack from the intruder, only for the attacker to rush at her. They were lucky Val was versed in dodging the blades that she, too, favored.

“Valerie-chan! Can you scan him? Who is it?” Takemura asked.

“Are you fucking kidding?” River answered. “She’s getting her ass kicked in there, Goro! How the fuck do I get in there!”

The intruder camouflaged out of sight, prompting Val to do the same. A shimmering body disappeared in the shadows near the door River was stuck at, then a hard exhale.

“Are you fucking kidding me? Oda? After all that fucking shit in the dark on the fucking docks?” Val threw off her camo and her kasa, and stood with her arms wide open. “Come at me, mother fucker! Never expected to see me again, huh, Oda?” She kept her eyes peeled, no doubt scanning for her opponent.

“Oda?” Goro sounded surprised. “He has left Hanako alone? What was he thinking?”

“For fuck’s sake, Goro, he’s tyring to kill me, that’s what!” Val cried out.

“Watch out for his blades!”

As if it was cue, another leap attack landed Val on her back blocking Oda with her own mantis blades. “Little late for that, Goro!” she yelled. “Get off me, mother fucker! You’re lucky my husband’s not in here right now!” she said through her teeth.

Oda whipped his head toward River at the glass door.

“Val, his mask!” River tried again to pry the door open.

Oda looked back down in time to see Val ripping off his mask and a fist to his face.  Oda staggered back with a hand over his eye, giving Val time to hack his optics and infect him with a contagion.

“What is happening?!” Takemura asked.

“Just get your ass to Hanako, Goro! I kinda fuckin’ got this!” Val yelled back. “Don’t really have a choice!”

Oda winced and staggered under the contagion but tried to fight anyway.

Val laughed, egging him on, back on her feet. “Yeah, got your attention with that, huh? Bring it, mother fucker!” The poison failed Oda’s swing, woozy and staggering as if drunk. Val leaned into a hard kick right to Oda’s groin and hit him with another dose of contagion. Oda pushed through the pain and rushed to close the gap, but Val was there with her blades when he arrived.

Oda froze with Val’s mantis blades through his middle. From the shock on his face, he had not expected a besting. Hanako’s bodyguard gasped, staring Val in the eye as she retracted her blades. A single push, and Oda fell backwards to the floor with a jolt that pushed out blood from his wounds.

“Val, the door!” River pounded, still trying to pry it.

She turned long enough to hack the door open, then Valerie walked back over to stand over the dying Oda. She was still barefoot.

“Oda! What is happening? Is he still alive?” Takemura asked.

“Not for long.” Val dropped to a knee and grabbed Oda’s hair, a mantis blade at his throat. She sported a bleeding scratch across her cheek, a shallow slice at her hip, and her yukata and under dress had torn in the fight, but she fared far better.

“No!” Takemura protested. “Do not kill him! Please, Valerie-chan!”

“Are you fucking kidding? Goro, he tried to kill her!” River told him. “She’s got the wounds to prove it!”

“Oda is a good man! He only does what he thinks is right!” Takemura pleaded. ”If not for his sake, then for my sake. Please, Valerie-chan!”

Val and Oda glared at each other, both panting. Oda spat up blood with a  wheeze, closer to death than Val at that moment. “Do it, coward,” Oda told her, trying to mask his pain with ire.

Val stared at him with a deep frown for a moment, searching his dying eyes, before scoffing and retracting her blade. Oda coughed up more blood as he looked down at her missing weapon, only for Val to shove a potent MaxDoc in his mouth.

She released him and stood away, sharp, still fuming. “Goro, you fucking owe me for this.” River looked from her to Oda and back and cocked his revolver at the defeated Arasaka bodyguard.

Oda stayed on the floor on his own accord, though. The surprise on his face said he did not expect Valerie to value Takemura’s friendship so much that she spared her enemy.

Val took a deep breath, then slipped on her heels, fixed her hair back in a neat bun, and positioned the kasa back on her head. Then she jacked into the security system. “Goro, get your ass in there before I regret letting this asshole live.”

River kept his gun and his eye on Oda the entire time Val hacked into the security system on Hanako’s parade float.

But Takemura’s meeting didn’t go as planned. Hanako alerted security; unaware Oda was preoccupied. Takemura raised a pistol and shot her, and a hand slapped to Valerie’s mouth so loud it echoed in the room.

“What the fuck!” Val breathed.

“Goro, what the hell are you thinking?” River demanded.

But Goro never answered. Alarms blared outside, loud enough to hear for blocks. The whole damn district would be on their asses any minute.  

Valerie retracted her jack cord and turned, throwing her hands up in disbelief. “You know what? Fuck it.” She waved River away from the man on the floor. “Oda, you can go, I no longer want to kill you. I want to kill someone else now.” She breathed hard and deep, annoyed, and waved Oda off again. “Go on. Get the fuck out. I plan to do the same.” So done with the mission she even threw a handful of MaxDocs at him. “Goro, you’d better have a damn good explanation, and do yourself a favor and fucking delta.”

Oda remained on the floor, though. He propped himself up on his elbows as Val and River started for the exited. “Did he kill Hanako?” he asked after them.

Val waved a hand, walking backwards. She smiled empty and irritated. “No fuckin’ clue. If he did, I’ll kill him for you, don’t worry. But you might wanna clear out, too. You know, being her body guard an’ all and then… Goro fucking happens.” She waved again with another turn toward the door. “Have a nice life, Oda! Good to see you again! Sorry if I broke your mask! Send me the bill if you need it fixed.” Beyond annoyed and all fucks lost.

River just wanted to get out of there alive.

And the chaos wasn’t over. Of course it fucking wasn’t. Takemura called hours later, and Valerie about lost her mind. Right back to the mentality of no fucks given as when Takemura shot Hanako and ruined their plans. Goro told them to meet him at an abandoned apartment and knock four times, repeating the knocking instructions in text as soon as he hung up.

“What the fuck do I say to him?” she asked as they ascended dark steps of an old, run down apartment complex.

It was a rhetorical question. She’d asked it six times already. River wasn’t sure he wanted to know what had run through Takemura’s head when he shot Hanako.

“Four times,” River reminded her at the right door, just to tease her.

She glared at him. “Don’t make this worse.” She took a deep breath, then rapped her knuckles four times on the door.

Without other noise, the door opened and someone jerked Val inside, followed by River.

“Goro, what the fuck!” Valerie hissed. “What the fuck everything! Mind fucking telling me why you shot Hanako?”

“It is good to see you too,” Takemura kept his voice low.

Val sighed with a long blink. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Hi, Goro, how are you?” It was both rhetorical and genuine. She considered the man a friend, even if his actions during the parade upset her.

Takemura pointed to the corner of the apartment, where the silhouette of a stiff woman sat at a small table.

Val’s mouth remained agape a moment. “So… you didn’t kill her.”

“I only stunned her. I had no choice, she signaled security,” Takemura said. “I offered her tea. She politely refused.”

River sighed. “At least you’re a thoughtful kidnapper.”

“I think she will listen to you, V-chan. She no longer speaks to me. But she may to another woman.”

“Hold up, hold up.” Val put her hands up in a clear sign to stop. “What about Oda?”

“What about him?” Takemura asked.

“He’s alive, Goro. Remember? And he knows you shot Hanako.”

“Did he follow you?”

“I don’t know. But that’s not the point, he knows it was us. You, me, River, he knows.”

“But you spared his life, did you not?”

“Yes, but you think that matters? He tried to kill me!” she hissed. “You think he won’t rat us out when they question why he wasn’t there to protect Hanako?”

“Oda has honor-”

“Goro!” Val paced away. “He failed his job, he has to tell them why.”

Takemura hesitated. “If that is true, we will deal with him as needed. For now, please sit with Hanako.”

Val sighed again and looked over, then went over to the silent woman at the table. A deep breath, then she sat across from Hanako Arasaka. “Sorry we have to meet under these circumstances.”

Hanako moved her head but did not look at Val. “This is the second time I have heard that today.”

“Yeah, well, things would have gone a lot different if you’d just listened to the man your father trusted when he came to you for help,” Val accused. She might have worked for Arasaka at one point, but she no longer respected the company. Hanako was nothing special to V of Night City.

Hanako turned her nose up in the air again.

“I’m going to assume that Goro’s tried telling you the truth, and I’m also going to assume you’ve been sitting here acting like you’re better than him,” Val spoke again. “You have two options, Hanako. You can watch my memory of Yorinobu strangling your father as a file transfer, or you can watch it as a braindance. I have both. And that is more than enough proof that you need to do something about your lying brother before he ruins your father’s legacy - your livelihood.”

Noises from down the hall tore their attention, and River and Val whipped out their handguns. Goro stood ready, still clutching his machine gun. Only a few steps to the door, but in the time it took Val to peek out and turn around again, the windows blew open from gunfire bombarded them. A blinding light and a high pitch caught them off guard, forcing disorientation and a loss of senses. Val had the vague notion someone grabbed her, but she couldn’t see or hear for the life of her.

Vision returned in time for Val to realize what happened. Grenades had torn walls apart, the power cut and the only light came from fires. Someone was dragging her over rubble so fast she couldn’t get her bearings to fight back. She tried twisting to no avail, but it let her see her attacker.

Ara-fucking-saka.

A large body rammed into the soldier, loosening the grip on Val’s hair and collar. River, and he pinned the soldier on flaming rubble and drove his fist till the helmet shattered and soldier stopped moving. He got to his feet and stamped the soldier’s neck for good measure, then rushed to help Val.

No sooner than she was back on her feet did the floor give out below them. River and Val hit rubble and furniture over and over, until there was nothing left to fall through.

Get up! We gotta delta the fuck outta here!

Val’s entire body hurt. It hurt to breathe, to sit, her head was killing her. Without a doubt she had broken ribs. It was a miracle her optics stayed in place, but down that far, she almost couldn’t see a damn thing. The only light came from a fire through a doorway.

V, come on! We’re both dead if you don’t start movin’.

“River?” Even her throat hurt.

Just get the fuck up, V! We need to delta now!

I’m not leaving River.

“I’m here. Fuck.” River grunted as he pushed up. Whatever landed on him was heavy. It took another attempt before he shoved the debris off, then tried to catch his breath through the smoke. He felt around till he found Val.

Happy? Now get the fuck out of here or ‘Saka will turn us into another flaming pile of broken shit!

A hard cough lurched Val, but River kept a hold on her. “Fuck,” she groaned, wiping something wet from her mouth. She didn’t need light to know it was blood. “Where are we?”

“Ground floor maybe? Or the basement. Come on, we need to get out of here.” River kept a hold on his wife while they made their way toward the flames past the doorway.

Fuckin’ finally.

“Do you see Goro?” she asked.

Forget Goro! Unless you wanna end up dead like him! Now come on, this way!

Johnny, you don’t know he’s dead. He could still be alive.

Do you wanna die as some ‘Saka scop? ‘Cause that’s what gonna happen if you hike back through this mess.

Why do you want me to leave everyone behind?

I’m trying to stop you from getting killed, V! Just fuckin’ go this way and we can get the fuck out of here!

“Val, MaxDocs,” River said, grabbing a handful from a fallen first aid kit. But when he turned around she was ducking through a hole in the wall. “Where are you going?”

“Johnny wants me to forget Goro and go down that hall. So I gotta go this way instead!” she told him. But through the hole in the wall led to a smoke-filled room and flaming broken furniture. Val fell to her hands and knees coughing.

River bent to pick her up, but Arasaka soldiers cascaded in open fire. River injected a MaxDoc in his wife’s chest and stood from cover firing Crash. Val sat gasping for a second, wide-eyed from the healing stimulant, the scrambled to her feet with her blades out. While Crash was a powerful revolver, it didn’t do much against armor meant to withstand grenades and fire. River joined Val head on, ramming and punching till they neutralized the invaders.

Between the power outage and the smoke, it was damn near impossible to see. Val kept her thermal blades out, but it only let them see right in front of her. They could not see the soldiers until they were face-to-face or unless hungry fire lined the walls. They ran into another room only for River to pull Val back out and duck behind a flipped counter and fridge. So many soldiers fired at once it looked like strobe lights.

It was this very instance that made River grateful he spent so much time working out with the punching bag. He took a second to analyze the room, then timed the soldiers’ reloading with his fists, charging head first. And he was glad he’d worn his bulletproof vest.

It took River stopping an assault rifle with his cybernetic hand on the barrel for him to remember he had no pain receptors there. It surprised the soldiers, as well. One turned to fire at him while another turned on Val. He grabbed the AR and kicked the soldier away, then turned the gun on the other soldiers’. No sooner than he cracked a faceguard did that very soldier yank a grenade and pull the pin.

Fuck.

But grenades had a timer. River hoped he could pull this off. He shot out his hand, and the grenade slid across his metal fingers into his artificial palm.  

“River! What the fuck!” Val yelled. But River was already shoving the grenade in the cracked helmet of the soldier who threw it. He shoved his foot to stagger, then dove back over the rubble and onto Val to hide her from the blast. The detonation rumbled through the crumbled building.

He caught the motherfucking grenade and threw it back in their cunt faces. Your badge has been a badass this whole time and he never told us?

NOW who’s in love, Johnny?

River stared at the damage for a moment. Those soldiers were no longer a problem, and the one who pulled the pin lay strewn across the rubble in bloody, fleshy messes. “Holy shit,” he caught his breath. “I can’t believe that worked.”

“You’re lucky that worked,” Val told him, “otherwise your ashes would have been sleeping on the couch.” But appreciation glimmered in her eyes, magnified by the orange glow of flaming debris. In spite of the odds that he wasn’t hallucinating survival, River couldn’t help a laugh.

It was easier to fight through corridors. The Arasaka soldiers were forced to use glow sticks for light and had no room to throw grenades. A narrow stage for combat, but it limited what the enemy could do, as well. Val cut through the soldiers in the hall almost like butter.

As soon as they found Takemura, the three of them sprinted for the stairs. More soldiers, more running through darkness with Val in lead for the little light her mantis blades supplied. The whole damn building was crumbling thanks to Arasaka. If there had been any residents, they were now all dead or homeless.

River almost didn’t see the ambush in time. A soldier stepped out from around the corner with a katana. River yanked Val to his place; one more step and she would have been impaled. The katana thrust near his face and River shot his cybernetic hand up to stop it. The blade pierced straight through, sparking against metal as it shoved through. River glared at the blade, then the soldier; the repair bill for the damages to his hand were racking up. He grabbed the blade with the same hand it pierced till it snapped in two, jabbing his other hand into the soldier’s neck. While the soldier gagged, River yanked the broken blade from his hand, shoved the blade through the helmet, then snapped the enemy’s neck.

You know, V, I think I’m startin’ to like this cop.

“That turned Johnny on, too,” Val told River, her eyes large and dilated like always when he showed off his strength.

No it fuckin’ did NOT. Stop puttin’ words in our mouth.

It took River a second to process what she told him, then he shook his head and grabbed Val’s hand. “That was not for him.”

Chapter Text

The mission kept getting worse. River and Valerie were memorable together, both sculpted with precision and their shades and colors so different they stood out as a couple. But together with Takemura they were a blinking neon sign in a dark alley. Goro went his own way to draw less attention to them, and River and Valerie drove out to the Badlands. His sister was the only person River knew out there, but he didn’t want to put her at risk. So River and Val drove out to the Sunset Motel to wait. It was a sketchy place, the kind where it wasn’t wise to trust the bedding… or anything was clean. The kind of place illegal trades and sales happened. But the NCPD almost never made it out of the city, and the only news that happened there was what the bartender had on special that day. 

The Doll sent by Hanako Arasaka only made the night worse. They learned nothing except Hanako was now desperate for Val’s help bringing her brother to justice. But the fall and smoke during Hanako’s rescue by Arasaka soldiers left Valerie in less than favorable health and unable to get to a Ripperdoc. Not long after Hanako’s Doll left, Val grew worse, quick. She fell trying to leave the room and couldn’t do anything but cough up blood. Her eyes kept rolling back between bouts of coughing blood. Right as River was picking her up to get her to his truck, Val stumbled away and got her bearings back. 

River sighed. “Oh thank god. We still need to see your Ripper, though, babe. It’s not-”

Val stood up and stretched, and… reached down to scratch balls she didn’t have. She wasn’t standing like she stood, either. River cocked his head to get a better look, then sighed again. Fuck. It was hard enough wrapping his head around the whole Silverhand idea as it was. 

“Johnny,” River greeted with a grimace. 

“Hey, babe. What’s up?” Valerie’s voice, but not. Deeper, more guttural, like Val was pretending to be a man. Johnny turned in Val’s body, making her smirk on the side she couldn’t smirk on. It almost made River’s skin crawl. It was like looking at a distorted painting of his wife.

River smiled only to be polite. “Still need to get Valerie to her Ripper.”

“Ah, she’s fine.”

“She coughed up blood,” River reminded him. “That didn’t hurt?”

“Yeah, but she’s fine now.” Silverhand shrugged. The way he stood in Val’s body was all wrong. He made her shoulders sit back and up more than she did, chest pushed out a little more, arms and elbows out more. “Just glad she’s not on the rag again.” And that fucking wrong smirk.

River rolled his eyes with a sigh. “You can’t be a little modest? She is your host.”

Silverhand threw a nod. “Hey, start your car, babe. Got somethin’ I wanna show V.”

River rolled his eyes again. “Johnny, don’t call me that.” But Silverhand stopped him when he opened the driver’s door. 

“Ah -ah.” Silverhand shook Val’s head. “I’m drivin’.”

“My truck,” River reminded him. Valerie hated driving, it gave her anxiety. 

“But you don’t know where the hell I’m takin’ her,” Silverhand said.

“Is there a Ripper there?” River asked.

Silverhand shrugged. “Fuck if I know. It’s a place to fuckin’ lay low so ‘Saka doesn’t call up your old badge buddies and have them chase your tail.”

River stared for a moment, then stepped away with his hands up and a scoff. It was like trying to argue with a toddler. River walked around to the passenger seat and hopped in, only to stare at Silverhand in disbelief again. 

“The fuck’s she so short for? Just my fuckin’ luck,” Silverhand muttered, reaching around till he figured out how to move the seat forward. 

River shook his head. “ She’s a woman, Johnny. Women tend to be shorter than men,” he reminded, turning his head to avoid looking at that guy in his wife’s body.

“Hey, you got a booster seat?” Silverhand looked over at him. 

River sighed again. He hated how Silverhand made Valerie sound. “Second button toward the back of the seat, just below the belt.”

The driver’s seat gave a quiet whir as it moved. “Woah! Sweet fuckin’ Jesus, how come she’s never used this before?” Johnny really was like a child. 

River sighed again. “Valerie doesn’t like driving. Remember?”

“Oh. Right. Forgot about that. Kinda feels like she is all the time.” Silverhand ran Val’s hands along the steering wheel.

“Wonder why.”

“Hey, what’s that radio that plays my songs?”

River sighed again. He reached over and turned the dial until it landed on Morro Rock. 

“Yeah! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Johnny grinned with Val’s mouth. Her dimples looked out of place with his features poking through. “Oh, right. Thanks, babe.” The asshole did that to mess with River.

“John. Don’t.” 

“It’s Johnny. Get it fuckin’ right. Where ya keep the smokes, Riv?”

River sighed. “Don’t call me that, either. And neither of us smoke.” River shook his head. He hated how Silverhand was driving, too. 

“Fuck, you two are boring. Hey, there any faster ways to Pacifica from here these days?”

“Really?” River asked in disbelief. “Did you forget that’s not the safest place for us right now?” What remained of the Voodoo Boys weren’t bound to be lenient. 

“Like the rest of Night City is? I know a place, just chill.”

The drive and the destination made River want to check out. He couldn’t, because his wife was there and still needed medical attention. But Johnny Silverhand was busy and would not let Valerie back out. River paced around the long balcony of that old apartment complex for… however long. He only hoped Silverhand was done showing Val what he’d wanted to show her by the time River got back around. 

But around the other way was Silverhand smoking and drinking. Each drag made Val’s body cough, and Silverhand drank straight from a bottle of tequila. 

River glared and hurried over, and he ripped the cigarette out of his wife’s mouth. 

“Hey, what the fuck, man!” Johnny protested as River threw the cigarette over the balcony.

“Valerie doesn’t smoke. That’s not helping her right now.” River turned around to start pacing the other way, only to hear Silverhand chug the tequila like water. He sighed and turned back around, and River ripped the bottle and turned it over the balcony. 

“Fuck, man! Just let me have one fuckin’ smoke an’ a drink!”

“Valerie can’t handle half a beer. Chugging this will make her sick. I still need to take her to a Ripper. You are making her worse, Johnny.”

Silverhand tried to grab the bottle, so River dropped it over the edge. Then Johnny tried to push River. But the arms Silverhand had available were too small for what he wanted to do.

River stood firm, holding the wrists of his wife and staring in her eyes. He felt his brow sink deeper. The eyes were still blue, but those were not Valerie’s eyes. River couldn’t find a trace of his wife anywhere. It was obvious she was locked away like the Blockers locked Johnny away. 

Silverhand wasn’t giving up, though. He tried to ram a knee in River’s crotch, but once again was too small and too slow. 

River didn’t have to move far to stay out of reach of his wife’s knees. He took deep breaths, trying to remain calm and gentle so Valerie didn’t have any bad memories of him. “You’ve observed shit if you think you can provoke me into hurting the woman I love.”

Johnny scoffed with Val’s voice. “You’ve only fuckin known her, what, three weeks? She’ll change her mind in a month. You got your head wrapped around a fuckin’ idea! You got her head wrapped around it!”

“It’s not up to you what Val wants to do with her life,” River reminded Johnny. He took another deep breath, still holding wrists of the hands on his chest. “I understand it’s got to be frustrating as hell being trapped inside someone else’s body. And I appreciate you wanting to help her when she’s falling. But that doesn’t give you leeway to speed up her death by drinking and smoking when she can’t even handle that on good days.” He released the wrists of his wife and stepped away.

Johnny scoffed again and threw Val’s hands up. He leaned on her arms over the railing, shaking his head. “I actually fuckin’ know what she’s feeling, though. I fuckin’ know what she actually thinks about you. Pretend all you want, but underneath you’re still a fuckin’ badge and you still see a criminal.”

River shook his head. “What do you want me to say, Johnny? She’s not you, she’s not your kid, you have zero rights to her or her body. You happen to be stuck there, that’s all. Look, if you really know what the hell Val thinks and feels and if she really doesn’t want me, then fine, leave. Get her out of here. But if she wants to stay with me, then let her. If you actually care about her, then stop trying to fuck her up worse than she already is. Take the Blockers and give her a little more time. You didn’t even give her a chance back there, you just took over her body like a fucking invasion. You want justice? Start with the woman whose body you’re stealing.”

Silverhand fumed in silence for a moment. A long moment, looking at River in his peripheral like a toddler trying to give the silent treatment. A deeper frown, then Johnny sighed and closed Val’s eyes. And Val’s body dropped, hitting the rail and concrete wall. 

River caught his wife before she hit the dirty balcony floor. “Fuck!” He struggled with his jacket pocket until he wiggled a couple MaxDocs free, holding her up. “A little warning and a nicer place would have been nice, Johnny,” he muttered. 

Even with the medical injections, Valerie was too weak to stand on her own. She wasn’t even quite conscious. River picked up his wife and made his way back down to the truck to let her sleep until she regained strength, and… River sat. Waiting. Making sure the Voodoo Boys or Valentino strays didn’t try to hijack them. 

Johnny Silverhand was a piece of work. He’d been civil to River the other times they met. But he’d also never been out long enough to get into trouble. The guy - the engram, the idea of the memory of the guy - might like Valerie, he might consider her a friend. But when he was out long enough, he sure didn’t act like it. River couldn’t help but wonder how far Silverhand was willing to go if he got more time in Val’s body and River wasn’t around. 

It was nearing sunrise when Valerie awoke. She sat up, then put a hand to her mouth and almost didn’t open the truck door in time before she vomited. River sat rubbing her back while he recapped what she’d missed. 

Johnny was lucky Valerie hadn’t needed more serious medical attention. 

And it still wasn’t over. Johnny wanted her to go back up to that apartment. River wanted to go home, but he followed his wife up the stairs all over again. At least this time, she was herself. Johnny even wanted privacy with Valerie, but River didn’t trust the guy enough for privacy. He stayed on the other side of the open window and listened in. 

And River’s perception of the asshole toddler engram began to change. Valerie sat crying inside, a set of old rusty dog tags in her hand. River climbed through to comfort her, but instead of talking, she just shared a small memory file with him. 

Johnny sat backwards on a chair, little indication he wasn’t a physical person other than the static when he moved. “Been thinkin’ about our predicament,” Johnny said. “Wanna be clear: when the time comes, it’ll be my life for yours. I’ll agree to get wiped. Tags are proof of my promise.”

Shit. River had kind of been content on a love-hate relationship with the guy. He wasn’t a fan, but Valerie liked him, so River had respected that. Maybe Johnny really did feel like she was his friend. 

River just hoped it wasn’t a ruse. From how the dog tags affected her, a betrayal would break her to pieces. 

Chapter Text

The active hunt for Hanako Arasaka’s kidnappers made it unsafe to go home. River’s old colleagues would kill for a chance to arrest him on their patrols, and Valerie knew too many people in the street who’d turn her in for the bounty. As much as he didn’t want to put his sister and her kids at risk, River and Valerie had nowhere else to go. At least Joss took it well; if shock over Val’s situation and the warrants could be considered well. 

And Joss was kind enough to let them invite Takemura over, as well. Randy was still in the hospital healing, so his trailer was offered up. It was a good place to lay low. A quiet place. A place they could enjoy a much needed reprieve and Valerie could regain her strength. And River’s niece and nephew enjoyed having someone other than their mom cook for them again. 

Goro was most grateful. He had been on the run longer than Valerie, and he’d not had much time to enjoy her apartments before the Hanako incident. Goro expressed every day he was grateful for the hospitality. River and Val didn’t need to ask, but they knew he was glad he didn’t have to live like a bum on the streets. After a few days, he asked Valerie to contact her AI cab friend and have it deliver ingredients. He wanted to show his appreciation by cooking them an authentic Japanese dinner. 

Had Valerie not been dying, it would have been far too easy to forget a world existed outside the trailer park. They might have built a new life there altogether. 

About a week into their stay, River walked out past the water tower. Valerie was soaking in the late afternoon sun on the tiny hill holding up the tower, looking out over the red rocks of the desert. She had needed the break from life more than any of them. 

“Hey, baby.” River leaned down to kiss her, then planted his butt next to hers. “A Regina called me,” he told her. She frowned a little. “She told me since you keep ignoring her request, then for me to tell you to stop hiding bodies in trunks because the smell doesn’t come out.” River smiled at her while she pretended to not know what he meant. 

“You tell her wrong number?” Val smirked. 

“I… did one better. I told her no habla ingles,” River grinned. Valerie gave a quiet laugh. “I don’t think she bought it.” He brushed her strawberry hair off her shoulder and watched her for a minute. “Do you need to talk?” he offered. “About Johnny, what he’s doing to you?” She spoke about Silverhand sometimes, but never complained. River knew it wasn’t easy, moreso since it was a friend that was killing her.

“Maybe. That’s not why I’m out here, though.”

“Trying to get away from the noise?” he guessed. Joss and her kids loved Valerie. But kids didn’t understand personal boundaries well. 

“No. Just thinkin’,” she said, looking back out over the scenery. “Being here with everyone… I used to think how I made it was to become a living legend in the city. Like, up at the top where no one can…”

“Where no one can hurt you?” River watched her face.

Valerie nodded. “Yeah.” River pulled her in with both arms and kissed her head. She held his arm and nestled in till her head was just right. “Now I kinda… just want to live out here. In peace.” She reached out and held her fingers out in a rectangle toward the red boulders. “Maybe like there. I’m thinkin’ I need to find out the requirements for putting a house there.”

River moved his head to see her face. “You want to build a house here?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. If you’re up for it.”

River smiled and pushed his lips to hers. “Of course I am.” He kissed her again. “Question is, where are we gonna put the pool? It gets hot out here in the summer.” 

“Hotter than it is now?”

“Oh yeah. We still got four months till the hottest time of the year,” he reminded her. 

“Hm.” She snuggled in and held his arm again. “Maybe stuff to do inside, then.” River chuckled and held her tighter.

She wanted a fish tank, and flowers. She wanted plants all over the house, like she’d seen in magazines of the rainforest. A few bean bag chairs and a reading nook sounded good as well. The more she spoke, the more River got ideas of his own. He wanted a big jacuzzi tub, and an herb garden. He wasn’t sure how much they could get away with growing out there in the Badlands, but if they grew most their plants inside, he hoped it would be fine. She laughed when River said he wanted mirrors all over their bedroom, and he held her closer and kissed her smile. He wondered if they could grab enough small palm trees from Pacifica’s long beach to bring home. If they transplanted them right, they would grow into great shade trees to help keep the house cool. A little workshop, a patio facing the direction they sat now. Some comfy chairs and a table with an umbrella they could relax under during the day. A couple lounge chairs to gaze up at the stars at night. And definitely a pool for the hot summer days.

By the time the sun fell, River didn’t even want to go inside. He wanted to stay out there and keep dreaming with his wife. They knew they had to take care of Silverhand’s engram. But they had an enormous incentive to now: they had a whole life awaiting them.

Chapter Text

Johnny wanted to talk to Rogue, the Fixter at Afterlife. He thought iRogue could get Valerie into Arasaka Tower to Mikoshi, to fix her. River sighed the second Val said it. It meant Johnny would take the driver’s seat, and River was there the last time Johnny took it. Only a couple shots’ worth was enough to make Val sick. But Johnny was asking to take the reins in a bar where everyone smoked. There was no way  that could end well. 

River insisted he tag along, but Silverhand convinced Valerie that Rogue would not talk with a cop there. It didn’t matter that River had resigned, he was still flagged. Val didn’t like the idea either, but they were running out of options. The Voodoo Boys couldn’t help them, and trying to get into Arasaka Tower solo to find Mikoshi was a suicide mission. 

River mulled over the idea for a day, researching what he could to find better options. In the end, he agreed. He made Johnny swear to stick to the plan -  in, talk to Rogue, out - then drove Valerie back into Watson. River made sure she knew where he’d be if things didn’t go according to plan, then he kissed his wife, watched her take the pill to let Silverhand of the cage, then watched her disappear down the dark steps into Afterlife.

River drove to check on his and Val’s apartments and grab clothes, he made a quick grocery run for Joss to replace the food they’d eaten… then he waited. It couldn’t take more than a couple hours to convince someone to help. Right? River drove back out to his sister’s with the groceries, then back into Watson to wait. 

But a couple hours turned into a few hours. River didn’t think much when Valerie didn’t answer her texts; bars were noisy. Then the sun began to fall. Then Valerie dismissed his call to her holo. 

Johnny Silverhand dismissed River’s call. 

River seethed and his gut sank. He slammed the door on his truck and almost ran down into Afterlife. The bouncer hadn’t seen Valerie for hours. Rogue’s personal bodyguard hadn’t seen Valerie in weeks. River’s cybernetic hand almost broke the bar when the bartender said Val kept drinking so much she got sick but didn’t let that stop her. It only stuck out to the bartender because everyone knew V didn’t drink. Emmerick, the bouncer, had escorted Val out hours ago. 

Johnny had tricked them. He’d tricked Valerie.  

River ran back out to his truck and sped back to Joss’ to get Goro, then the two of them split up to find Val. Neither man could get her on the phone or holo. Joss also tried with no luck. River called that Fixer Regina who’d once called and tried to have her reach Val, but no luck. He and Gro hit every bar and club but couldn’t find her, but everyone had seen her face. She’d made messes, started fights, even took a dancer from her shift and fondled her till their car crashed. Silverhand forced her body to perform acts she would never do on her own because Valerie didn’t use substances and wasn’t attracted to women .

And always no Valerie. It was like Silverhand was a step ahead of them all damn night. River and Goro met up every other hour to compare what they’d learned and grab more coffee to stay awake. But nothing. And that one night became three. 

River’s holo rang at last. He spilled his coffee and ran into people on his way back to the truck. Three fucking days later, and Valerie was a disaster. The holo showed enough. Bruised, crying, and hoarse. Valerie’s call was interrupted by bouts of vomiting, and after so long, she crumpled against a wall and sobbed. River’s cell got a call from Rogue, who told him where to find them, and when River arrived, Rogue was livid. She’d already taken Val to her personal Ripperdoc, but Val was in no condition to have her stomach pumped. Rogue had administered airhypos, but that was all she could do. 

Valerie was out on the balcony, still crying and shaking. Rogue didn’t know what all Johnny made her ingest but the guy had gotten high off everything he could fifty years ago. She theorized the only reason Valerie was still alive was because she had so much cyberware. Silverhand even got a fucking tattoo, Johnny + V wrapped in a heart with an arrow through it; as if a loving memento. Between that and the bruises and god knew what else Johnny made her do, Valerie was a traumatic mess.

Rogue was disgusted that Johnny behaved like he had. Everyone knew V didn’t drink. She glared at River. “You keep a tighter cage on that bastard because Johnny doesn’t know what it’s like to be raped. That’s exactly what he did to her.” Even more disgusted Johnny came to her bragging what a good friend Val was. 

It took over a day for the alcohol and whatever else to pass through her system. River did his best to keep her hydrated and ease her ordeal. It would be a very different situation if she was known to party and did it to herself. But she wasn’t used to anything stronger than coffee. 

When she could sit up and move and drink without retching, Valerie huddled under the biggest blanket River owned. She felt used. Violated. She cried all over again recalling everything Silverhand made her do. It wasn’t just one dancer he made her fondle. Valerie could only watch like she was stuck back in a glass box and couldn’t break out. When she woke up in the driver’s seat in the motel, she knew it hadn’t been a nightmare. She was angry and didn’t want to speak to Silverhand ever again. But there were only so many Omega Blockers, and if she used them too quick then there would be none when she needed them most.

So far, Johnny hadn’t tried to talk to her yet. But Valerie didn’t care. Her closest friend had broken her trust and violated her. 

River didn’t know what to do. He held his wife, assuring her he was there now, he wouldn’t let it happen again. 

He’d never met a rapist he couldn’t throw behind bars. 

They spent a couple days at home in the city, then Valerie asked to go back out to Joss’. River packed their clothes, then took his wife back out to the Red Peaks. And River didn’t want to address it, but if Silverhand didn’t stop damaging Val before they secured a cure, Joss’ trailer might be where Valerie spent her last days. 

But they had a needed recess out there. There were no pressures; other than River researching when Valerie slept. No demands. It was a place to heal from trauma. A place for smiles and hugs. For love. River couldn’t ask for anything more for his wife until they found help removing that shard.

Hey, V. 

Val sighed. It had been such a wonderful week without him. She tried to ignore the voice in her head. She couldn’t afford to pop a Blocker every time he showed up.

Got a sec?

When Val didn’t reply, Johnny sighed.

Come on. Just a sec?

You don’t deserve a sec. 

I’m sorry, okay?

No you’re not. You WANTED to fuck me over.

Will ya just fuckin’ listen? I AM sorry. 

People who are sorry don’t talk like that.

Johnny scoffed, then sighed. Valerie frowned when he materialized on the other side of the porch. 

Go away.

I get it, I’m a scumbag. Now will you listen to what I have to say?

Valerie got to her feet and pulled River’s shirt tighter around her, and walked out into the sun. Since Johnny’s rampage, she never seemed to warm up all the way. She walked out past where River kept his truck and past the water tower. Johnny was going to talk anyway. She didn’t want anyone seeing her argue with herself.

Bein’ in your head, it made me realize somethin’. 

What, that you can’t be trusted?

… Yeah, kinda.

Val didn’t know what to say. Johnny wasn’t the type to admit he had shortcomings. 

And the asshole projected himself walking alongside her. Kinda thinkin’ everyone I thought was my friend, before… maybe they never were. Rogue wasn’t happy to see me. Thought she would be.

Yeah, well, you brought that on yourself.

Figured that one out the hard way, he said. Made me realize some shit about myself. 

Valerie still didn’t want to talk to him. His voice in her head reminded her of everything when he’d fucked her up.

You don’t even care?

Not anymore.

Johnny sighed. Well, I’m gonna tell ya anyway ‘cause you’re provin’ my point. And my point is, until I screwed up so bad, I was surprised you didn’t hate me. You actually seemed to like me, which was fuckin’ weird. But I only fuckin’ realized it when I - Johnny broke off it a heavy sigh and tried to kick a rock. I broke your trust, and the kicker is I never knew I had it till I fucked up. When you woke back up, I felt it all.

Karma. 

Fuck yeah it is. But that’s not my point, V, just listen. My point is I didn’t fuckin’ know what I had until I lost it. ‘CAUSE I felt it. It made me realize only someone who really cared about me would hurt so bad from what I did. That’s why I kept a low profile. I KNOW I fucked up. But I’m askin’ ya to give me another chance.

Val didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to talk to him. She couldn’t be sure he was genuine. He’d seemed genuine before, with the dog tags.

And not just ‘cause I got no other friends. Rogue’s pretty pissed at me for what I did to ya, but she was always mad at me. You’re the one I gotta see every day. 

Hm. But as she looked down, she saw glimpses of that stupid tattoo when the wind blew her open sleeves. That stupid permanent tattoo Johnny got that looked like it came out of a vending machine in an arcade. 

The memory of when Johnny got it was just as stupid as its stupid design. It looked like Johnny had drawn it on with a marker while drunk. But he and Cassius had been drinking. 

I liked it better when you liked me, kid.

He screwed that up himself. He hurt her more than any gun or knife ever did.

I KNOW. That’s why I’m tryin’ to make this work, V. Make US work. 

Valerie frowned. She hated that she couldn’t hide her thoughts from him.

She moved the sleeve up her arm to peek at the tattoo. “She’s gonna love it!” Johnny had been so proud to get that stupid thing. Looking at it sober looked like a prank someone would pull just to be a dick. 

But… maybe Johnny really had felt so drunk in her lightweight body that he’d done it out of affection. Some stupid love language thing that only a stupid, drunk, high, egotistical rockstar would do. 

So do I get another chance? I honestly thought you merely tolerated my presence, just like everyone else did when I was alive. 

I’m not about to let you out again. You almost KILLED me, Johnny. And it FUCKING HURT, okay? Not the fucking crash, either! 

Johnny walked in silence beside her for a while. His head hung toward the dry ground. He tried to kick the rocks and brush, but his digital boots didn’t touch anything. Of all the people I’ve met, you’re the only one I ever felt guilty over, he admitted. It’s shitty enough now, V. I don’t wanna know what it would be like if you hated my guts. 

Valerie turned her head to look at him at last.

Chapter Text

Johnny seemed to know Valerie’s time was running out quicker than before. He wanted to take over again. This time, he wanted to take Rogue on a date to make up for being so shitty to her when he was alive, and for disappointing her all over again when he fucked up Val. 

But Valerie didn’t trust him enough to hand over control again. He had seemed genuine the first time, and his apology had seemed genuine. But the first time proved he was little more than a good actor. She was still too hurt and wary from last time. She was trying to be friendly, but she could never forget. Whoever coined Forgive and forget had never been the one hurt. 

Johnny was disappointed but settled for Valerie apologizing to Rogue for him. Yeah. Don’t blame ya, V. I wouldn’t trust me in your body, either.

Rogue at least listened to everything Johnny wanted Valerie to say, even took it with grace. And Rogue had felt sorry for Val because of what Johnny had done and what his engram still did. Said it wasn’t right or fair that Johnny was murdering Val as slow as he could. She believed everyone should get to choose how they lived, and living according to the engram’s timeline wasn’t a choice. In the end, if Valerie wanted to get into Arasaka Tower with Rogue’s help, Rogues only stipulation was to let her have Adam Smasher.

Johnny’s next request was to meet Kerry Eurodyne, the other singer and guitarist for Johnny’s old band Samurai. Valerie didn’t want to give up control for that, either. At least he was coming to terms with the fact River would always be at Val’s side. Johnny said he just wanted to make sure Kerry was okay since the media said he struggled with depression. 

They agreed to try to talk to him. The guy was a millionaire who lived on lush grounds with a mansion. It was easy enough shorting out his robot guards to reach the door, but not long after River and Valerie knocked on Kerry’s massive door and pushed it open than a gun cocked against Val’s head. Her shoulders fell in a deep, weary sigh, and Valerie chose to take Misty’s pills to let Johnny out. 

River stayed at the other end of Kerry’s mansion while Johnny and Kerry caught up. He reminded Johnny by brief holo call that Valerie was a lightweight. And that time, Johnny stuck to his word. Only one shot with Kerry, only one drag of a cigarette, and Johnny spent the rest of the time there recalling their old band’s good times. He even told Kerry to go easy on the kid because he, Johnny, had done a number on her when she didn’t deserve it. 

Johnny had one final request: to take over for just one hour to give Kerry closure with a final Samurai gig. It was a hard decision to agree to. The result of Misty’s pills caused more damage faster than the Blockers could prevent. In the end, Valerie agreed, and only if River could be there in case Johnny got any bright ideas.

Kerry put Valerie in touch with Samurai’s old keyboardist Nancy, who took a few days to arrange the gig. And the day it arrived came with unstable nerves, and not just River and Val.

As soon as Misty’s pill kicked in and Johnny saw River, Johnny grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the women's restroom. “Need to talk to you.” Johnny locked the door then jerked  River around and shoved him up against the wall. River was so shocked at small Val’s strength he couldn't respond for a while.

River understood at last with a sigh: it was not Valerie, it was Johnny. Val couldn’t lift River’s weight if her life depended on it; she’d tried. He pried Johnny’s hands off. “Silverhand,” he greeted. “I don’t think Valerie’s going to be too happy with you when she wakes up.”

Johnny tried to stare at River eye-level but was too short in Val’s body. “I’m only going to say this once: If you fuck up my girl, I’ll fuck you up.” Even stranger hearing it from Valerie’s voice.

“Your girl?” River asked.

“Yes, mine. Are you fuckin’ deaf? Just don’t fuckin’ break her heart.”

“Where’s this comin’ from?” River stared at the face of his wife. Johnny wasn’t just in the driver’s seat. Val’s entire set of facial muscles were under control and they kept her face flexed in ways Val never looked. For all her freckles and red hair, Val looked like the old photos of Johnny Silverhand. He shook his head with a sigh. “Jesus, you make her look so different.”

Johnny in Val’s body paced for a moment. “She doesn’t have a lot of time left. Okay? She’s fuckin’ slippin', and givin’ me control for this gig ain’t helpin’. I owe her big for this. So don’t do somethin' stupid and make her cry in her last days. You got it?”

“You realize I married her, right?”

“That doesn’t mean shit. You know how many marriages end in divorce ‘cause the husband is an abusive shithead?” Johnny made his point.

River massaged where his brow met the bridge of his nose. Concern was one thing, but this was ridiculous. “Weren’t you there when I met her? We kind of committed to be there for each other that day. And you know, the marriage license took that further to a legal arrangement. It never included abuse.”

“Oh Christ, just give me a fuckin’ promise, Ward!” Johnny said. He made her voice so damn different, deeper, rougher. She even talked slower.

River had never had this type of conversation with Johnny before. Before, Johnny wanted to drink and smoke and River had to take the drinks and cigarettes away because Val didn’t smoke and couldn’t handle alcohol.

“I promise to not break Val’s heart,” River said. It had already been a legitimate personal vow. For whatever reason, Johnny needed to hear it out loud.

“Good.” Johnny stopped pacing to look in the mirror. “Now how does she look? She’s gotta look like a rockstar.”  

“Val looks great. Even in your clothes,” River assured.

River sat at the bar while Silverhand’s new Samurai played. He couldn’t help his growing frown with each song. Johnny might have good intentions toward Valerie’s relationships, but he was overtaking her entire being. Val could sing along to the radio, but that was the extent of her musical talent. The woman on stage in replicas of Silverhand’s clothes, with Silverhand’s guitar, was not Valerie. Not even counting the fact Johnny had to cut Val’s nails to play the guitar. Her body moved to every beat; Val was not a dancer. Her fingers slid up the strings of the guitar and played chords that River knew she did not know. Val’s actual talents were rebuilding and modding guns and making personal modifications to her cyberware. But the woman on stage played like a veteran musician. She played a solo as if she’d practiced every day. Her husky, sultry voice even added a depth to Samurai’s music that no one knew was missing. 

The person up on stage ripping on the guitar was not the woman River had fallen in love with. It was Johnny Silverhand reincarnated. If he never gave back control, Valerie would be lost forever. 

River had never been so relieved to see a nosebleed. He hadn’t seen Silverhand take the Omega Blocker, but Valerie went limp at the bar while talking with Eurodyne and her head hit the counter. River tended to his wife and cleaned her face, never more glad to see her than he was right then. 

River held her tight, cradling her head under his. He didn’t care the bar was still full. “That is the last time,” he told her. It had taken longer than usual to stop the bleeding this time. They couldn’t afford another hour of Johnny in control. “He understands that, right? Never again.”

“Yeah.” Valerie held River just as tight. She didn’t care about onlookers either. After a moment, she sighed a scoff. “Fine. He says, But it was good, right?” 

River snorted. Had that been Val up there playing, he’d say yes. “I’ve seen better.” Payback for all those times Johnny called him babe.

Like hell he has. Bah. Hubs got no taste for art, V.

Chapter Text

Time did not progress well for Valerie. That last hour with Silverhand in control did too much damage. River and Val made a permanent move into Joss’ house so her last days would be a time of rest, of family. And she grew weaker every day, worse every day. She grew more quiet as the days went on. Never complained about aches, but she went through over a dozen pain pills each day. Her nose bled at least twice a day. Coffee never did its job, and it didn’t matter what she ate. She could never seem to warm up, either. She had only two Omega blockers left and her Ripper could not get another shipment in for months. They were saving the last two in case a miracle came their way.

She sat in the sun every day, trying to warm up. She’d found her ancient oldie Grenade song and listened to it more, as well. She was in the sun that day, listening to her song. The kids had tried to get her to play, but she had no energy to. River brought out refills of tea water for her, then resumed his seat next to her.

River was a mess inside behind a tough mask as he cared for her. It was not what he’d wanted for either of them. But he didn’t have the skills to fix her problems. He regretted not going to school for tech and bioscience instead. 

He fixed her blanket tighter around her and pulled her against him with his lips at her head. “You know… I’ve been thinking…”

“What about?” 

“Is there…” River breathed through the swelling behind his eye. He’d never imagined he’d have to watch his better half die. “Anything you want to do before… you know….” He couldn’t even say it.

She didn’t answer for a long while. The only way River even knew she was still alive was because her whole body moved each time she breathed. He nestled in and rubbed her arms.

“Maybe… one last heist,” she said at last. 

River pulled back a little to see her face, and Valerie sat up. “Okay. What do you need me to do?” he asked. Anything to spend her last days with her.

Val hesitated. “Hold Yorinobu Arasaka hostage,” she said. “He’s in Japan until June. So we need to take a flight.” When she met his eyes, River nodded.

“Just us?”

“Just us. I’ve got some questions for him.”

“Okay.” He nodded again. “I’ll go get the laptop. Hopefully we can find a flight tonight.”

The plane ride wasn’t any easier than sitting at home. Valerie watched out the window at the world shrinking below the plane, then rested in River's arms. Arriving in Japan, and then at the Arasaka estate wasn’t much different. At least her weakness meant she could not make noise to alert security. Even hacking wore her out. First she cut the power as she and River sneaked through the grounds, then the power to the entire estate and kept it on auto-shut each time someone tried to turn it on. She hacked security’s cyberware, disabling any night-vision modifications or heat sensors… and River and Valerie walked right through estate. 

When the power came back on and Yorinobu escorted to his quarters until security did a clean sweep, Val and River were there waiting. On top of the lockdown put in place by his own security, Val shorted out the door’s circuitry so it could not open and hacked Yorinobu’s cyberware to act like a barrier stood between him and every exit. 

They could hear Adam Smasher and security outside, trying to open the door. Yorinibu ran around the room, but the lockdown included window barricades. He tried without avail to step through Valerie’s invisible barrier at the door, asking if his sister sent them. Yorinobu remembered he had a gun in his desk, but as he pulled it out, Val overheated it till it glowed and began to smoke and the Arasaka heir dropped it. 

Yorinobu gave a sigh of defeat and sauntered to the couch in front of where River and Valerie sat. “Just get it over with,” he said. It was clear by his fall face that he expected an execution.

“I don’t want you dead. I’m here to talk,” Valerie told him. It was hard hiding how weak she’d grown. Even having taken her last Omega Blocker, she was already too far gone. “Goro doesn’t know I’m here, either. Depending on how this goes, he’s going to be pissed at me.”

Yorinobu searched them. “So what do you want? Who even are you?”

“Valerie Ward, this is my husband River Ward. I was Valerie Donahue when… your father was poisoned in Night City,” she emphasized. “You blamed it on me, then labeled Goro Takemura a traitor.” She paused. “What were you planning to do with Silverhand’s engram? Who was it meant for?”

Yorinobu froze for a second, realization painting his whole body. His posture even perked up. “You still have it.” The hope in his voice was unexpected.

Val nodded. “But there’s a problem. It was damaged in our escape and I needed to stabilize it in my head. The Fixer who hired me to steal it shot me in the head, further damaging the shard, and now… I can’t remove it or I’ll die.” She paused. “Who were you going to insert it into? Who did you want to become the Terrorist? And why?”

Yorinobu tensed again. “How did you know about that!”

“We figured it out,” River said. “Did some thorough examining. Normal engrams aren’t supposed to take over the body the way Silverhand’s has. And Johnny’s memories don’t match up with what his old friends remember. It wasn’t hard to guess his memories were altered to serve a specific purpose.”

“We know it was physically damaged, but I’m a pretty decent Netrunner,” Valerie nodded. “The physical damage Johnny’s shard sustained wasn’t the kind of damage that caused it to act like a parasite out for revenge. The only reasonable answer is that it was modified, reprogramed. And I think you used Johnny because he already had a hatred of your father’s company. We assume you meant to use Johnny against your father. But not who you intended to become Johnny.”

Yorinobu hesitated to answer. He stared at them a long, silent minute. “If I tell you, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.” Val’s gaze dropped, then she forced herself to look at the Arasaka heir. “I’m dying, Yorinobu. Johnny’s engram is killing me. The program you re-wrote for Johnny’s original engram could not sustain the physical damage. I need your help removing it, but also I need to know why you did this. If I accept Hanako’s help, she wants me to repay her with service similar to Adam Smasher’s. Anders Hellman thinks it’s best if I just go to a Swedish Clinic where they can ease my suffering in my last days. Alt Cunningham’s solution from beyond the Blackwall is to kill me with Soulkiller and then re-upload me back into my body, even when she says I won’t really be me after it. But I don’t want to die, and I don’t want to end up a slave. I just want to retire with my husband and start a family. So please. Why did you modify Johnny’s engram, who was it meant for and why, and how do I remove it without dying?” she asked. She had teared up, but she was too weak for her eyes to push the tears down.

Yorinobu’s eyes darted and he breathed into his hands. “I need a guarantee that you will not kill me. I want my freedom, too. It’s the whole reason I did what I did.”

Val gestured to the table in the dining area, and Yorinobu looked to see a pile of weapons including knifes. “I have Mantis Blades in my arms, but otherwise we’re unarmed. We didn’t come here to fight. I’m too weak for that anymore. I can barely walk, Yorinobu. I just need answers. Please.”

“You are… a thief? By trade?” Yorinobu asked, studying her.

“Thief, merc, netrunner, private detective of sorts. I try to live by the law, but doing so hasn’t always put food on the table.” She said. “If it’s any consolation, my husband used to be a cop, he got fired for trying to uphold the law, and he still fell in love with me.” It was a good enough example of her character.

Yorinobu took a deep breath and looked down at his clasped hands. “Very well.”

Yorinobu spun a tale of growing up terrified of his father. Horrific stories of child abuse anytime Yorinobu did anything a normal child might, curiosity, running, playing, laughing in the house. Fright that showed itself as anger when he spoke of Soboro abusing people, terrifying them, blackmailing common folk who had no money and nothing to fall back on if Soboro fired them. He said Soboro stripping other public measures so the little common folk lost more and more until they were forced into complete dependency on Arasaka. It wasn’t just Yorinobu that Soboro scared, but the entire families of most his employees, robbing good people of their homes and food to take over with Corps contracts. “It all boiled down to power.” It was why Yorinobu ran away and started a a gang. He was tired of being scared all the time and watching others live as scared. “As contradictory as it sounds, being in a gang was less frightening than living with my father,” he admitted. While he was gone, he met a netrunner who learned how to modify engrams and sold them on the blackmart as braindance material.

“Silverhand was meant for my father, but not by him. I… had planned to infect Adam Smasher with Silverhand. You must understand I have lived my entire life in fear. All I wanted was to live on my own terms. Silverhand already hated this company-”

“Ironically, for the same reasons you do,” Val said. Yorinobu met her eyes. “I can see him, and we have conversations all the time. Right now, he thinks you are trying to buy time so Adam Smasher can come kill us.”

Yorinobu’s brows shrugged and he nodded. “Well… at least he is working as programmed. Yes,” he said, “Silverhand already hated this company and was paranoid about it, so he was the perfect engram to modify. He would not question the idea that my father’s company was out to eradicate him.”

“And… did Adam agree to Johnny’s engram?”

Yorinobu shook his head. “No. He doesn’t know anything about it other than I had it. He doesn’t not care for the reasons of us mere mortals,” there was bitterness in his voice.

“And once Johnny took over Adam’s body, what next? What did you expect to happen?” River asked. The more he heard, the more he sided with the man. 

“Had everything gone as planned, Adam would have killed my father, then my sister. The last two people standing in the way of me bringing this company down to ashes.”

“Hanako,” Val said. “And why did you think she sent us?”

“Because she intends to use our father against me. In me. She plans on putting him in my head,” Yorinobu said. It wasn’t anger in the man’s voice, though, but fear. “Him, the man who terrorized me my entire life. She wants me stuck as nothing but the host for that monstrosity.”

Val frowned. It’s what Johnny was doing to her, but with Soboro it would be intentional. It would be murder.

“But how? You killed him, Yorinobu. I was there, remember? How can Hanako turn you into your father?” Val then sighed with a troubled face without needing an answer. “Shit,” she said. “Your father’s on an engram, too, isn’t he?”

Yorinobu nodded, not looking at them. “The body is nothing but a tool to my family. Hanako has been planning this for weeks. Since the parade. She does not know I discovered her plans.”

“Jesus,” Val muttered. “Okay. So. Can you fix what Johnny’s shard is doing to my head?”

Yorinobu studied her for a second. “I may. Honestly, I don’t know. He wasn’t meant to be removed from Adam. I meant to deactivate Adam entirely after he worked as Silverhand.”

“Really?” River frowned. “You didn’t put any failsafes in place?”

“It wasn’t something that required failsafes. It was designed for one use only. Like a bomb, but not at all like one. But,” he emphasized, “I may be able to recode it from completing its task.”

Val stared back for a while. “Will you look at it? Right now. To see if it’s possible to stop.”

Yorinobu nodded. “Yes.” River stood to help his wife stand and cross the sitting area. “If,” Yorinobu began, “I find I am able to stop the engram from killing you… would you be willing to help me destroy my father’s legacy?”

Johnny’s image digitized on the coffee table in front of Yorinobu. It was still only Valerie that could see him.

We have to be dreaming, V. An Arasaka of all people…

Val smiled a little. “Johnny would like you to pinch him awake. He’s been hellbent on a suicide run to destroy Arasaka since I woke up with him in my head.”

Stop putting words in my mouth, kid.

Yorinobu gave a small smile, then extended his jack cord toward Val’s head. “At least the program is working correctly.”

“It came with mixed blessings,” Val said.

River scanned from the other couch while Yorinobu looked through Val’s systems. The Arasaka black sheep did a double-take at River, then shared what he was seeing. “You could have asked, you know. You didn’t need to spy from a distance.”

“Just making sure you’re not hurrying my wife’s death,” River said. He watched the scans alongside Yorinobu anyway. Most of it was over River’s head, but Yorinobu was courteous enough to explain out loud what he was observing.

After a few minutes and saving a copy of his scans, Yorinobu disconnected from Val’s head. He sat silent for a moment, then met Val’s eyes with a deep breath. “May I put my terms on the table?”

“Terms?” Val echoed. “So… you can fix me? You can keep this from killing me?”

“Yes,” Yorinobu nodded. “It will take many hours, and I will need to replace parts of your brain and nervous system. But it can be done, and the chip is not damaged enough. I will need to write more code to upload to it, a cease function command. That should take no more than a day or two.”

River sat on the edge of his seat. “She’ll live? Longer than another week or two?”

Yorinobu nodded at him. “Yes. Much of her brain has begun decaying. But it will buy you at least ten years. In the works now, not an Arasaka company,” he clarified, “there are projects that aim to recreate the entire neural pathway with artificial elements in the human brain. Once those are complete, I would be willing to help you acquire such a transplant.  But,” he said.

Val nodded. “Your terms?” she prompted.

“Kill my sister,” Yorinobu bargained. “And allow me to recreate Silverhand’s engram so I can use him for what I intended: to bring my father’s empire crashing down.”

Chapter Text

Yorinobu gave Valerie a caseful of powerful stimulants to get her through their plan. Similar to that Black Lace drug Maelstrom sold, but it lasted hours with gradual healing effects. She took the first dose there in front of Yorinobu as he escorted them out of his estate, and in an instant she looked and felt better, alert. Alive again. Adam Smasher stood in reluctant submission as the intruders were treated as guests, and Val, rejuvenated and peppy, grinned to show her dimples. 

“‘Sup, choom! Long time no see!” she said. If Smasher had eyebrows, he would have glared. She even leaned back to wave at him before they left his line of sight. 

The hard part was over. River was glad to have back the Valerie he fell in love with. Val now meant to say goodbye to Takemura. It would not take a prodigy genius to guess the man’s reaction. 

Valerie went up to the Glen apartment alone. River knew what would happen if he joined her. Men took their anger out with their fists. 

To say Goro took her decision unwell was an understatement. He was incensed she would come so far only to side with Soboro’s murderer, even after Val told him why the man was killed. But she left nothing out. She even told him she intended to kill Hanako and why. 

Goro paced in the living room wringing his hands. His face was fixed in a constant scowl. “And you tell me for what, to antagonize me?” he almost spit at her. “You knew how I would feel!”

"Because I want you to have a chance at life the way you always wanted. Not some life you were forced into. No matter how good Arasaka's benefits were, it was still decided for you. You finally have a chance to use information your way. You could even kill me,” she offered. “Or you could start a new life. Fall in love and settle down. Pick up hobbies. Find friends. Start a business you‘ve always wanted to see.” Val stood from behind the couch, watching him pace. When Takemura stopped pacing to face her, Val’s head dropped and she stared at her hands. “You have every right to be angry with me, Goro. But I consider you my friend. You deserve to know my choice because you’ve helped me so much.” She looked up and blinked to keep tears away. “I just want you to know what freedom is. True freedom. I’ve, uh..." Val blinked back more tears. Christ, this was hard. "Transferred the deed to this place to your name, and it comes with eddies. Do what you will with it all. Live like you want for once. Please, Goro.” She met his eyes, but it only made her eyes push out more water. “I’m moving out of the city, so I don’t know if I’ll see you again. But if you feel like coming to dinner sometime in the next few years, I think you know where I’ll be.” She hesitated, then nodded and went to the elevator. 

She stopped only to change the digital photo in the frame to photo she took of Takemura killing Dex. It was the day Goro saved her life. 

“Sayounara, Takemura-sama. Saikō datta.” Goodbye forever, honored one. It was the best.

Chapter Text

The assassination of Hanako Arasaka was a public event. It was what Yorinobu wanted, and he spared no expense to get Valerie and River where he wanted them. In heavy field gear to make it look like another Militech attack, Valerie walked through the shadows of Hanako’s home while the Heiress gave a live broadcast. She cut Hanako open, removed identifying cyberware, and inserted enough grenades to level Hanako’s estate. She’d already armed landmines throughout the long hallway. River had Oda - that slimy bastard that tried to kill Val during the parade - in chains in a car outside the estate, forcing the bodyguard to watch the live broadcast. 

Valerie emerged at full sprint as the house exploded behind her. If River had not seen her dress up, he’d never know it was his wife.

She panted only for a moment, leaning against the car. River, in gear that concealed his own identity, aimed an assault rifle through the back window at Oda’s head. 

“You have two options,” River said. Even his voice was distorted. “Submit to Yorinobu, or-”

“I would rather die!”

Valerie shrugged inside her bulky armor. So River shrugged inside his bulky armor. A choice was given, and a choice was made. He squeezed the trigger, and Sandayu Oda’s head exploded inside the car. Valerie tossed a grenade in through the window, then she and River took off down the hill. The news would be all over the fires any moment. 

Yorinobu even had a convincing replica Militech AV pick them up for extra measure. 

Then it was time for the Tower. Yorinobu secured a potent blocker for Valerie. It would keep Silverhand silent, and it would aid the healing properties of the previous drug he’d already shared. And Yorinobu had a secret army, a project from his time in his gang. The gang members themselves plus a few combat bots stormed through the grounds of Arasaka Tower, escorting Valerie and River to ensure they made it inside. Once there, the gang would disperse to finish any Arasaka agents still on the premises or arriving, and Yorinobu would send in Adam Smasher. It was his alibi, making it seem like Smasher would take care of the intruders. 

In truth, Adam Smasher was there for reassignment. But he didn’t know that. And Yorinobu had provided electric shock bullets* to help Valerie and River weaken the metal beast.  

Valerie removed her combat helmet and tossed it. “Hey, choom. You look like a bunch of fuckable rods,” she greeted Smasher with a grin. “Are you?” she asked the man who gave up the pleasures of flesh to live as a killing machine.

“Do I know you?” Smasher began towards her, evaluating before he made his first move.  

“You know part of me.” Val shoved Johnny’s aviators on her face, then raised Crash and Johnny’s Malorian, and River primed the machine gun. “Johnny says hi.” Bullets began to fly, and Adam Smasher dove behind cover.

They almost didn’t need to fight him. The bullets Yorinobu provided exploded with electricity upon impact, which worked against Smasher even when they hit the floor. Six shots around him in a rough circle to keep him from retreating, and a full magazine from all three guns. It was Smasher’s only weakness; and an unfortunate one. 

As soon as Smasher’s heavy body fell with an echoing clunk, they ran over. River threw his helmet off to see better and yanked the body out of fading electrical charges, and Valerie jacked in and hacked his system. She uploaded a shock resistance program to stabilize him while River chained the massive cyborg’s arms and legs. The program would prevent Arasaka soldiers from stopping him later. They rolled Smasher to his side and inserted the replica of Johnny’s engram into his head. Val’s eyes zipped as she monitored the upload. Mouthing the countdown became the muttering and tapping, only adding to the anxiety of waiting. 

“Now!” She yelled, yanking her jack out. River removed the chains, then they scrambled back to give Johnny room to acclimate. 

The massive metal body stirred and clanked against the floor. Smasher’s voice groaned and grunted as Johnny got used to the slower movements of such a large body. 

One look at River and Val, and Smasher’s face grinned. “Good to see ya, kid. Fucking hell, I sound like him. Goddammit,” Johnny complained in Smasher’s voice.

Valerie’s eyes glistened and grinned up at Adam Smasher’s body. It felt like she was seeing an old friend for the first time in years. She hadn’t known Yorinobu transferred Johnny’s friendship with her to the new engram as well. “You look like shit, too, not gonna lie.”

Johnny grinned wider and pulled Val in and rubbed his metal knuckles on her head. “Ow! Johnny!” but Val laughed, her face squished against him. “Not with Smasher’s hand!”

The first hug Johnny had been able to give the merc he considered his girl. He knew he’d screwed her over, but she became his friend anyway. His girl. Maybe - no, not just his girl. If he could do life over, he’d be her dad. He'd make sure of it. Even if nothing could come of that idea because he was nothing but a fake memory and fake personality, that was his daughter. Johnny wouldn’t hear otherwise. He let go of the kid, but didn’t leave quite yet. That moment was his last chance with his only friend where he wasn’t limited to her head. “Damn am I gonna miss you,” Johnny said. 

Tears pressed through Valerie’s eyelashes and she wiped her hands across her face. For all their disagreements and differences, he was still her closest friend. He literally knew her inside and out. “Gonna miss you, too, Johnny.” 

Johnny stepped back in Adam’s huge feet. “I got one last gig to play, kid.”

Johnny’s last attack on Arasaka. He would connect Smasher’s body to Mikoshi and the mainframe that ran the entire company, including Soboro’s Soulkiller program, every Arasaka satellite, the command centers for the extraterrestrial colonies, even the command center tech at the Crystal Palace. It would all explode, and Johnny would be the bomb. That copy of his engram would cease to exist. Arasaka would come crashing down, as Johnny and Yorinobu wanted all along. 

Val would see him again only for a brief moment in the digital realm while Yorinobu worked on her far down below where a secret Arasaka vault was hidden from all company access. It was to be an emergency command center should the headquarters in Japan fall, where even Mikoshi was monitored. They would be safe in that secure bunker while everything else of Arasaka’s fried to cinders, whence Valerie and River could escape unseen miles away from the Tower.

Johnny lingered Adam’s rough gaze on River for a moment. When Johnny didn’t speak, River understood. They’d already had this conversation; Don’t fuck up my girl, you hear? Or I’ll take the wheel and fuck your shit up so hard you’ll forget your own goddamn face. This time didn’t feel quite so brash. It rather seemed Johnny sought a promise. The guy had been a dick at times, but after all that time in Val’s head, she was important to him.

River nodded. “You got it,” he told Silverhand.

Johnny gave him a nod, then looked to his exit route. “See you on the otherside, Valerie. Promise.” One last look at Val, then Johnny turned away in Smasher’s body to end his final run, singing Val’s favorite song in Adam’s voice with each stomp: “I’d jump in front of a train for ya, you know I’d do anything for ya…”

Val’s knees gave out from a sob right where Johnny said goodbye.

Chapter Text

Down in depths below even Izanagi, the Night City access point of Mikoshi, lay an emergency bunker. River and Valerie had arranged for her Ripperdoc, Viktor, to assist Yorinobu in the procedure. His job was to keep Val alive while Yorinobu worked on the engram and replaced her pineal gland and nervous system with artificial parts. 

Viktor smiled as Val and River joined them. “How ya doin’, kid? Nervous?” He and Yorinobu were already prepped for the extensive surgery.

Val nodded. “Sounds silly, but… I’m actually gonna miss him bein’ in my head.”

“For all the trouble it caused you,” Yorinobu said, pulling on sterile gloves, “I am glad something good came from it.”

Val gave a saddened smile. “Don’t be me wrong, he was a pain in the ass sometimes, too.”

Johnny chuckled inside her head. I get that from you.

Valerie undressed and laid on the operating table on her belly, and Viktor began her anesthesia. She turned her head to see everyone as Yorinobu covered her with a privacy sheet. River smiled at his wife. He would stay for the entire procedure, and he would get her home when it was time.

“Will I have time to say goodbye?” she asked. “To Johnny. Before he’s gone forever?”

“Of course,” Yorinobu told her. “We cannot rush the surgery. You will have all the time you desire.”

The anesthesia kicked in quicker than Viktor could even tell her to count backwards from ten. Since Yorinobu could not remove the shard until the physical damage to her brain and nervous system was repaired, Val’s experiences in the digital world played out on a screen. It would help Yorinobu figure out where any problems were, if any arose during the surgery. So far so good, though. As soon as Yorinobu finished uploading the re-coding program to the engram, it would start prompting her body to produce the right hormones to replace the damaged tissue. What the shard could not prompt, Yorinobu would replace. 

River watched from a screen off to the side, out of the way of operating table and supplies. Pixelated versions of Johnny Silverhand and Valerie reunited in the digital world.

“Love ya, kid. I’m damn proud of you,” a digitized Johnny said. “Take care of yourself for me, ‘kay?” 

It even swelled pressure around River’s eye. It was like watching his wife say goodbye to her dying father.

Small beads of tears welled at the corners of Val’s sleeping eyes. “Love you too, Johnny,” her digital self replied.

NEWS UPDATE: YORINOBU ARAKASA THE SOLE SURVIVOR AFTER TERRORIST ATTACK ON ARASAKA TOWER IN NIGHT CITY. THE LONE REMAINING HEIR HAD THIS TO SAY DURING A PRESS CONFERENCE THIS MORNING:

“I am grateful for my life, as so many are no longer with us today. After so many attacks, so many attempts, the flow of the world is telling me something that my father did not want to see: The time of the Corporate reign is ending. It is clearly the will of the people. I am sworn to make the world a better place, and thus it is not my right to judge or determine the fates of so many who have clearly suffered under Corporate control. I realize now that too many lived in fear of my father’s dream, and because of that the Arasaka legacy must end today. It is time to let the People of this world code their own lives.”

Chapter Text

Valerie woke up feeling like she’d partied for once. She hadn’t done that since she let Johnny loose to “talk to Rogue,” and before that, when she first fell into Night City. But ugh she felt awful. Groggy, drowsy, her eyes couldn’t focus well. At least she wasn’t nauseous, though.

Large hands squeezed hers. “Hey, baby,” a familiar voice said. Val turned her head, and the world spun with her. It took a moment for her eyes to focus even a little. River smiled at her, warm  and relieved. “How are you feeling?”

She made a noise. “Like I let Johnny take over again.”  River laughed a little and squeezed her hand again. Val tried to focus her eyes beyond him. Pale walls she didn’t recognize in a room with a door and windows she didn’t recognize. “Where are we?”

River smiled wider and leaned over to kiss her forehead. “I finished the house,” he told her. “Our house.” It was a simple house, little different from the trailers in the park. But it was what Valerie wanted, and River didn’t mind. He’d put in the deck they’d talked about, made a little area for grilling, and was waiting for the pool to be delivered. He’d even readied their new bedroom. But right now, Valerie was in one of the unused rooms on a hospital bed. She had been put in a medical coma for a week while her body adjusted to the new nervous system and new parts of her brain.

Yorinobu and Viktor had give her eight-plus years to live - on the safe side. But the more realistic number was well over ten years. In that time, with new technology already in development, her life expectancy would increase. And as promised, Yorinobu kept them updated on the advancements on artificial neural receptors. 

It only took hours for Valerie to recover once the medical coma had been lifted. Yorinobu was even at their door that night to check on her in person; they’d expected an email, if at all. And he’d bought a gift to thank them for helping him accomplish what he could not alone: terrariums and seeds so they could grow their own food. Real food, not synthesized nutrients in synthesized plant particles. They’d have to grow food inside for now, but only until Yorinobu tore down the rest of the Corpo conglomerates. From the way stock markets kept dropping since Johnny blew up Mikoshi and everything on Arasaka’s network, that day would arrive sooner than later. 

And they continued receiving shipments, from the latest implants to plant seeds to pure, clean water. All anonymous other than a simple Y on a blank business card in every box. Never-ending gratitude that at last his nightmare was over and the rest of his father’s terrifying global influence was dying. 

Three years had passed. River, Valerie, and their two-year-old daughter walked down off the porch and out to their picnic table in the shade of the red boulders behind their house. River pulled his wife in for a kiss with his arm around her shoulders. 

Yorinobu had gone above and beyond his word over the years. He’d sent vials of nanites for Viktor, Val’s Ripperdoc, to inject every month to help synthesize natural repair as time progressed. He’d sent the latest cyberware to replace flesh body parts should the worst happen. As soon as the synthetic brain tissue hit the market just five months past, Yorinobu modified nano technology to replicate that brain tissue with extracellular matrix molecules when injected into the human brain. In other words: nanties that regrew and replaced brain cells and receptors sites as they died, in time creating an immortal brain. Yorinobu visited again two months ago to deliver it himself, and he administered it himself in Viktor’s clinic. Valerie’s projected lifespan was now at least thirty more years. It was the final stage of their agreement, but Yorinobu insisted he was forever grateful. If for some reason the new tissue did not hold and the nanites stopped working, he would return to oversee an entire brain replacement himself. 

It had been news worth celebrating, and it had conceived their second child. They’d learned earlier that day Valerie was pregnant, so they were celebrating again with their daughter. And with Johnny, in a way.  

Like every time Valerie took time by herself out there, she set an open drink near the empty chair closest to the painted rock wall. Then she set out the snacks for her husband and daughter.

Little Brook, after her father River, pointed to the paint on the boulder shading them from the hot afternoon sun, “What’s that?” Her favorite words for everything. She had not been out there since Valerie finished the little memorial on the rock.

“That’s Johnny’s place,” River told his daughter, tucking curls behind her tiny ear. With dark hair, blue eyes, and a freckled face, Brook was the perfect mix of her mom and dad. River adored it all.

River thought saving a seat for an imaginary personality that no longer existed was a little silly. But it made his wife feel better, so he didn’t say a thing against it. He even went and bought the paints for her little memorial. 

“Why?” Her other favorite word.

“He was mommy’s friend when I didn’t have any,” Val told their little girl.

“Why? Whassit say?” Tiny hands shoved a grape in her mouth.

“It says: Here Lies Johnny Silverhand.” Val hesitated, looking at her memorial to Johnny. She wished she’d had skill in art, otherwise there would be more than just an image of a tombstone to look at. At the least, if this next child was a son, Johnny would live on in his name; Jonathan Silver Ward had a nice ring to it. But she wanted a second son to name after River, too. Val continued with a small smile and her eyes began to gloss. River reached over and squeezed his wife’s hand. “The guy who saved my life.”