//CELLULAR|FAILURE

 he  turned  his  head                the  briefest  twitch  of  his  brow  .        ❝  okay  …  ❞        now  that  that  threat  was  over  ,    richard  could  easily  return  to  his  previous  calm  ;    if  only  because  his  natural  shock  wasn’t  all  that  high  in  the  first  place  .    he’d  known  somewhere  in  the  back  of  his  mind  that  they  wouldn’t  be  back  .

 ❝  one  of  the  bots  malfunctioned  at  work  today  .  ❞        coming  from  him  ,    that  statement  might  be  parsed  as  a  lie  .    but  he  could  swear  it  on  his  entire  career  it  wasn’t  .    it  was  funny  ,    that  was  what  it  was  .    𝐰𝐡𝐨  𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫  𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝  𝐨𝐟  𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐬  𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠  𝐚𝐭  𝐚  𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥  𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐢𝐝  𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬  ?    his  lip  twitched  ,    and  he  took  a  moment  to  pause  ,    to  try  and  contain  his  laughter  . 

 he  couldn’t  .    when  he  looked  at  lydia  ,    he  just  couldn’t  .    which  was  ,    in  fact                   ❝  i’m  serious  about  this  ,    okay  ?    one  of  the  bots  malfunctioned  .    and  they  had  to  take  it  away  .    wheeled  it  right  out  .    in  a  stretcher  ,    lyds  .    can  you  believe  that  ?    pretty  sure  they  could’ve  just  wheeled  one  of  steve’s  chairs  in  .    be  a  lot  faster  .  ❞                 what  made  calls  with  her  so  much  better  than  …  the  rest  of  his  life  .

the way he told the story, in particular the fact that he couldn’t tell it without immediately bursting into laughter made her calm demeanor shift to amusement almost instantly. her smile cracking wider until she was laughing right along with him. since she worked from home, she didn’t have to deal with the bots that also took calls, she had no real opinion on them like he did. but his disdain for all things AI was charming, in a strange way.

by the time he made it to telling her about the gurney, she had her head thrown back and her arms holding her ribs because they hurt so bad. but all the rumbling laughter quickly shook the tickle in her lungs, and she was leaning forward to let a round of cracking coughs loose, one hand covering her mouth, the other bracing herself on the couch to try and stay steady.

the constant tickle that had plagued her lungs for, well, forever now, constantly pulled at her mind. it took everything not to just sputter sometimes, she didn’t want for him to see her like that. to think something was WRONG with her. to see him so distracted was a little more than frustrating. was it so hard to make the same effort?

you know damn well he can’t do that if he doesn’t know, the voice in the back of her mind chastised. she set her jaw against making a face so he wouldn’t see. as if the cough isn’t bad enough.

brow raised, she didn’t let herself get sassy, and she’s glad, because then he mentioned what a long day it’s been, and she sighed. her body slumped as she gave in to her own fatigue. giving up on trying to look well postured and pretty so she could relax against her pillow. “yeah, I hear that.” the idea that he might abruptly hang up (again) if someone came home lingered as sadness in the back of her mind.

*chinhands into the void*