Chapter Text
"Do it.” His voice was solid, his face stern.
V blinked, still trying to process what she had just heard from Alt. Her mind reeling as blue lines of code made strange shapes around them, “Wait, Johnny—“
“Wait, what?” He interrupted, flashing her a look. “This is what we wanted, right? A way so we can both make it out of here. Alt just gave us that.”
She struggled to find the right words, “Do — do you even know what you are agreeing to?”
“Yes,” He replied immediately.
“No,” V put a hand onto his chest, looking up at him through her lashes. “Do you really know what you are agreeing to, Johnny? Linked psyches? You’ll never be free of me. We’ll be —“
“Together.” He finished for her. “In our own bodies even.”
She tried to stay pragmatic, not letting herself get lost in the idea of that word. Together. “Who still share all their pain, and emotions —.”
“Together.” He interrupted her again, his voice more of a growl this time. His organic hand grabbed onto hers that was still planted to his chest. He intertwined his fingers through hers, noticing them shaking. “Why are you so afraid?" When she didn't answer, he kept going, "You just stormed into Ara-fucking-saka's tower — alone. No one in this city could do that. I couldn’t do it, I had a crew. But you, you did that for us — to give us a chance. This is the answer we wanted."
“You’ll—” Her smoky voice cracked as her throat suddenly felt thick with emotion. “You’ll get bored of me. You’ll miss the freedom. You don’t want to be chained to me, to this.” She looked down at herself, brows furrowed. “You’ll resent me. You’ll hate me.”
“I don’t hate you. I won’t hate you. I could never.” Johnny’s usually gruff voice had turned soft, almost a whisper. His metal fingers gently moved some of the hair out of her face.
V looked back up at him, her light eyes studying his dark ones. She gulped at how intensely he was staring at her. She couldn’t hold his gaze and glanced back down. “You’re basically signing up to serve a life sentence with me. It’s — it’s till death do us part.” She choked out, a hard lump forming in her throat as she tried her damn hardest to keep her tears at bay.
“I do.”
“What?” She asked breathlessly, blinking in confusion.
Johnny took his metal hand and placed it gently under her chin, forcing her to look at him. “I do, V.” Curling his fingers forward he moved her face to meet his.
V took in a sharp breath before his lips crashed onto hers. His mouth pressed against hers, carefully at first as he waited for her to kiss him back. A low noise escaped Johnny’s throat as he felt her lips press harder against his, deepening the kiss. V didn’t want to admit to herself how long she had wanted to do this. How she wished she could have figured out some glitch with the Relic weeks ago. So she could have reached out and touched him. Kissed him. Comforted him. And from the sounds Johnny was making, his grip on her, it seemed he did too. But here in Mikoshi...
“We are running out of time.” Alt’s robotic voice echoed, snapping them back to reality.
Johnny kept his forehead against hers, both hands on either side of her face, “You trust me?”
She nodded into his hands, “Yeah.”
“Till death do us part.” He said in a low voice, only for her to hear.
“Till death do us part,” V whispered back.
“Do the damn thing, Alt.” Johnny stepped away before looking up to the hovering AI, his voice commanding. He squared his shoulders, but his hand found its way back to V's.
“Commencing breach of protocols.” Silence filled the room, the blue lines of code suddenly turning red to match Alt — V and Johnny didn’t even dare to take a breath. “You will have twenty minutes once you wake up before Arasaka’s net ceases to exist. You have twenty minutes to get out of here alive.”
“See you on the other side Princess,” Johnny squeezed her hand before stepping in front of her protectively. Alt’s monstrous figure loomed over them for a moment before a burst of yellow light erupted from the floor below them and engulfed them whole.
At first, there was nothing.
Freezing cold — all sense of feeling completely gone.
Numb. A prickling. Like the feeling of touching the screen on the old TV in his grandma’s living room back in Texas. Tiny static shocks across his fingers that left them tingling.
V?
His mind reached for her. Like it had every day for weeks. It was a reflex at this point — seeking out the now familiar comfort of her mind. Panic rose in him as he didn’t feel her reach back.
Then fire.
Everything was on fire, scorching his veins, running deep into his joints and chest. His eyes were still shut but he squeezed them harder in pain, clenching his jaw and fists in agony. This is it, he thought to himself. It was over. After all of that, after everything — Texas, the Corpo wars, ‘Saka Tower, Mikoshi twice.
No.
V. Where’s V?
He needs V.
Wake the fuck up, Johnny. He thought to himself. Johnny was a lot of things, but a quitter he was not. He wasn’t going to go down without a fight. How many times had he cheated death at this point?
He wondered how many of his 9 lives he had left. What about V’s — surely she had used up a few by now?
Then it stopped. No fire, no ice.
But it wasn’t nothing.
Living?
God, he hadn’t felt this way in so long he had forgotten what it felt like. Instinctually he sucked in a long deep breath, and sweet, cold air filled his lungs. He took another breath for good measure, and his lips twitched because it felt so nice.
His eyes were next — opening slowly, wincing slightly at the blue lights surrounding them. He blinked a few times, trying to get them to adjust faster.
His fingers twitched at his side, he felt the cold grate floor below him. Looking down, Johnny stared at his body — his naked chest moving up and down slowly as he breathed, his legs were covered with a pair of simple pants — wearing whatever the lab tech in charge of throwing his dead ass on ice all those years ago was decent enough to put him in. He wiggled his bare feet, stiffly at first but then they started rotating fully.
It didn’t feel as foreign as when he took over V’s body. But it still felt weird after almost 60 years of being a floating soul.
V.
Johnny craned his neck to find her still floating in the coolant below him. “V?” His voice was scratchy, a whisper. He let out a gruff cough, before speaking again, “V?”
Rolling onto his side, he made to move closer to her. The jack at the nape of his neck pulled painfully. “Agh,” He grunted, pulling it out with a quick jerk. With some difficulty he rolled over until he was able to place his organic hand onto her shoulder, shaking it slightly. “Princess…”.
Still no response.
Letting out a pained grunt, he pushed himself up onto his knees so that he was hovering over her. V's eyes remained closed as she floated eerily. Fear crept in again as he took in her seemingly lifeless form, his hand moving up to her neck.
A memory ripped into his mind, of him scrambling over Alt’s body in that fucking netrunner chair in this same tower. Trying to feel her pulse, clinging onto the idea that she was still alive.
History was not gonna repeat itself today.
He let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding when he felt the faintest pulse. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
Suddenly a wailing alarm started blaring into the room, followed by flashing red lights. Ramifications for whatever the fuck Alt was doing he imagined. Johnny realized he had no idea how long it had been since Alt’s original twenty-minute warning. “Fuck," He looked down at V’s unconscious body. He dipped his hands into the freezing coolant, gently wrapping his hands under her, before attempting to pick her up.
His muscles strained, but not from her weight. The relic had turned her into a bag of bones, so her tiny frame shouldn’t be an issue for him. But his muscles hadn’t been used in decades, sitting on ice for fifty-four years. Johnny already felt winded, still on his knees with V cradled in his arms. Sliding one foot out, he let out a low scream as he pushed through the pain radiating throughout his joints. “Come on you piece of shit,” Johnny said out loud to himself as he unfurled and was finally standing. He looked down at V — her silvery-white hair was stuck to her forehead and neck in a mix of the coolant and sweat. Blood was trickling out of her nose. She was freezing — her drenched clothes clingy to her skinny frame, huge goosebumps all over her arms. He saw this smallest flutter of movement behind her eyelids. “I got you V.” He curled her closer into his body, before attempting his first step.
His entire leg almost buckled. God, he was like a fuckin’ toddler but they couldn’t afford for him to get used to being back in his half-thawed body right now. But with each step he forced himself to take he felt the shaking start to subside. He leaned against the door frame for a moment, catching his breath before stepping out into the corridor.
It was still empty. He assumed anyone still left in the building was either running for their lives or being dropped by Alt with a quick shock to their central nervous system. He moved steadily down the hallway, his bare feet avoiding the pool of red on the white tiled floor. His eyes followed the stream of blood, to a body lying face down. Holes riddled the massive frame. “Rot in hell, you fucking robo-trash.” Johnny spat at Smasher’s mangled body as he walked over it. He would be in debt forever to V for what she had done for him today. But her killing Smasher in his name, with his gun was the fucking cherry on top.
Once they got into the elevator, Johnny used the sturdy metal walls as support — leaning against it gratefully as he tried to catch his breath. The wailing alarm and blaring red lights were starting to get to him — a pounding beginning to form behind his eye. This was a pretty rude awakening for his senses after years of nothing — but he shouldered it as the elevator doors opened. He could see the exit to the tower now — him and V were almost home free. Before stepping out, he grabbed his Malorian from the back of V's leather pants — gripping it tightly in one hand under her before stepping out.
Maneuvering through the bodies littering the front foyer, Johnny’s stomach formed into a tight knot. At the beginning V was so careful — she almost never shed blood, unless absolutely necessary. But in these past few weeks, they were stepping over more and more dead bodies. Johnny knew that was his doing — his rage seeping into her, the black and white turning more grey. Better them than us, he thought to himself. Better them than one of our friends. He was more grateful now that V had pushed him on not bringing Rogue. He didn't want to even imagine her being one of the bodies littered on the floor of this godforsaken tower. Or Panam. He knew V would have never forgiven herself if they asked her to come.
Besides, V did more damage to Arasaka in 45 minutes alone than he or Rogue could have ever imagined their whole lives. With no bombs, no helis, no crew. Just an orphan girl from Heywood who learned how to do the most she could with almost nothing.
They were so close — it was almost over. He held his breath as he crossed the threshold of the large glass doors of the tower, stepping outside into Night City. The pavement outside was freezing against Johnny’s bare feet. He just stood there for a moment, getting his bearings — gripping onto V a little tighter. It was pouring rain now like the skies had opened up just in time to bless Night City with a summer storm after weeks of dry heat.
He could vaguely remember where V dumped her truck a couple of hours before — they had both been a jumble of nerves as they got closer to City Center, feeding off of each other's nervousness as they tried to not think about how badly this was gonna go. They had both gotten shivers as Black Dog came on the radio — another fateful sign that this was exactly what they were supposed to be doing maybe? Johnny had watched as V sang along, her smoky voice pairing well with his over the car’s speakers. She was always embarrassed when he mentioned her singing — but he really did like her voice. “Black dog in my head, guiding me to the end,” Her eyes had found his as she repeated the lyrics over and over, and it gave Johnny that sharp feeling in his chest again. Without thinking he had reached out to squeeze her knee, a motion he had done a thousand times before, always forgetting that he wasn't really here. But his hand hadn't passed through that time, instead resting on her knee gently. They both stared at his hand on her leg, before V had just simply placed her hand on his and continued driving. It probably had meant they didn't have much time left at that moment — the Relic was almost done its job. But Johnny hadn't been able to focus on anything other than despite the weird static feeling, how soft and warm her skin was against his.
He let out a sigh of relief as he spotted her Thorton Mackinaw — tucked in a nearby alley across the street. Throwing open the passenger seat, he carefully placed V inside. He gently moved all of her limbs into the vehicle, before propping her head up against the seat rest. The rain had at least washed the blood off of her face. He ran his palm over her wet hair, before placing a quick kiss on her forehead. Whatever Alt did, it had knocked her the fuck out. Moving quickly to the other side, Johnny climbed into the driver's seat.
Throwing the truck into drive, he started racing away from the City Centre. He could see 'Saka Tower through the rearview mirror — its usually intimidating shape not having as much of an effect on him. Pulling his dark eyes away from it, he focused on the sleek roads ahead of him. Watson wasn't far from here, and he knew how to get there with his eyes closed. V's muscle memory stayed embedded in him, the route she took home all this time was etched into her brain and now his. He had also literally taken her this way that very day, as he had taken control one final time and dumped himself into Vik's chair.
And that's where they were headed now.
Johnny wasn't sure where else to go. He needed someone to look at V, fix her fast so they could get the hell out of here as soon as possible. Alt's twenty-minute window was enough for Johnny to get out of the tower, but they were going to have to hope Arasaka would be distracted with the collapse of their entire net long enough for them to find some hole to hide out in. He knew he should call Rogue — if anyone in this city could get them hidden fast it would be her. But he didn't want to bring 'Saka troops to Afterlife's front doors. They had kept her out of this mess for this long.
Pulling the e-brake, Johnny slid the Thorton next to the back alley leading to Vik's. He had barely cut the engine before he was already hopping out of the vehicle and running to get V out of the passenger seat. He realized he didn't even know what time it was — the pouring rain had made it pitch black outside. The flickering streetlamp illuminated the alley just enough for Johnny to find Misty's shop's back door. He had scared the living shit out of her last time he came through as V — he was sure this time wouldn't be any different when she was greeted by the ghost of terrorists past. He readjusted V in his arms, her drenched clothes and his wet, tired forearms were making her harder and harder to carry. But he grit his teeth and clung to her tighter. She had carried him around for weeks, he could do this now. Maneuvering his metal arm, he banged it loudly against the heavy door with two thuds. "Misty!" He shouted over the rain, before saying a silent prayer in his head that she was still there.
He waited a moment before his ears perked up at the sound of movement on the other side. The door slid open and Misty was standing in the door frame, looking out cautiously. "Johnny?" The woman blinked in amazement, her heavily jeweled fingers coming up to cover her mouth. But her eyebrows furrowed as she looked down into his arms, "Oh my god, V! What happened?" Her fingers went for V's face, twitching at how cold she felt.
"We need Vik again. Now." He let out in a low growl, his muscles straining with fatigue. Misty squeezed past them in the door frame, running in the rain to the other side of the alley and down the few cement stairs leading down to Vik's clinic. The metal door was closed and locked.
Misty shook the rain out of her hair before she knocked on the clinic door, "Vik, it's me. Vik!"
Nothing.
"VIK!" She cried out, her fist hitting the door with more force than Johnny was expecting from her.
"Fucking christ —" A voice grumbled on the other side, "I already told you, Misty, I'm not ready to talk about her— holy shit..." The Ripper stood open-mouthed, his eyes immediately snapping to V's crumpled body in Johnny's arms. Before his eyes locked onto the Rockerboy, his mouth forming a hard line. "Inside, now."
The trio hurried inside, the metal door hissing closed behind them. Vik rushed into the clinic, flicking off the boxing match still playing in the background whilst turning the lights in the clinic on. He ushered Johnny over to the lab chair, helping him place V gently on it. He snapped on a pair of gloves before immediately jacking her in and inspecting her.
Johnny suddenly didn't know what to do with himself, his arms feeling so empty. His mind started reeling, searching for any way to help, "She — She's still breathing. I felt a pulse before," Johnny offered, but Vik's glare at him made the rest of the words die in his throat. He winced as Vik injected a large needle into her chest, the Ripper's eyes moving back and forth between his monitor and her quickly.
"Misty," Vik called, waving the woman over. She snapped into action, the two of them communicating silently as she grabbed him supplies. Johnny wondered how many times they had done this — midnight emergency patients. Specifically, how many of those times were on V.
The room was dead quiet for several minutes as they hooked V up to machines with tubes and wires. The only sound was their beeps. No one dared to make a peep.
Doc finally broke the silence as he pulled his stethoscope back from V's chest, "Well, her heart's still beating." He wrapped it back around his neck, letting out a big breath. "And she's not fuckin' brain dead, so that's a relief." Vik stood up, his stool rolling away from him. He threw his disposable gloves into a trash can nearby. The man chewed his lip harshly, before turning on Johnny, "Mind tellin' us what the fuck is going on?"
"Vik —" Misty stood in front of him, putting a hand on his chest.
"No!" He shouted at her, stepping away from her touch, "No, this isn't a time for being fuckin' zen and calm Misty. So tell me, how the fuck you are standing there and why V almost died in my chair for the second time in one god damn day?"
Johnny looked at V still laying in the lab chair — she looked more peaceful now, instead of lifeless. "She's gonna be okay?"
"Don't act like you fuckin' care about her,” The ripper spat, taking another step towards him, “Answer my fuckin' question."
"Vik! Enough!” Misty cried out, putting herself in between the two men, “We are all in this room because we care about V. Why would he bring her here if he didn't care?"
"I just want her to be okay." Johnny raised his hands in front of him, trying to show no harm. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know, just please make sure she's okay."
The ripper sized him up for a moment, before letting his shoulders relax. "Running tests on her software and the relic right now. Needs a couple of minutes."
"Johnny... What happened? When you guys were gone off the roof, I thought — I thought it meant we were never gonna see V again." Misty’s voice was soft, her eyebrows meeting together in a pained expression.
"We — V found my body, in 'Saka tower. Corpo fucks have been keepin' it on ice this whole time.” He chewed the inside of his cheek before continuing, “She fought through hell to keep us safe, to get us to their net. Then we got the engram - me, separated from V and shoved back into the right body. And now we're here."
The pair looked at Johnny like he was batshit crazy.
"Look, it's more complicated than that — but netrunner shit, that's all V. Not me." He paced over to her, moving her sticky hair off of her face once again. "Can you tell what the relic’s doing now?"
Vik watched Johnny touch her, before getting back onto his stool and rolling over to monitor. His fingers flipped through screens studying them before sitting back a little deeper, looking slightly stunned. "It stopped progressing."
"What?"
"This was it at the beginning of the night before V hopped outta my chair." He pointed at the screen, images of V's brain filling it. "Versus now. There was slight growth since she was gone, but with how fast it was progressing before — I figured it would have fully consumed her by now. But, it — it just stopped."
"What's that?" Johnny pointed a silver finger to a large dark spot on the image.
"You. Or the engram, I mean — eating away at her."
Nausea rolled through Johnny's entire body, seeing the evidence of what he had done to V displayed before him. As if watching her retch up blood and cry herself to sleep from the pain wasn't hard enough to see before. Not able to do anything but bullshit with her for comfort. He was sure those images of her would plague his nightmares for years to come.
But they still had years to come — right?
“What—what does that mean for her?”
“I mean, this is all completely new territory. But, I’d assume this is the aftermath of the relic overriding pieces of V to be more like you. It’s — it’s in the frontal lobe. Could be affecting her decision-making? I see some shadowing near the cortex, could be affecting long-term memory?” He hesitated before continuing, “I mean — we won’t really know until we talk to V.”
Johnny’s body suddenly flashed hot, and he felt a roll in his stomach. Oh god. He spun on his heel, almost sprinting out of the clinic before doubling over himself and retching all over the cracked cement outside. It was a weird, white slime — nothing in his system to spew out really.
He stayed there on all fours for a moment, spitting out the taste in his mouth. What Vik told him wasn’t new information — they both could see it happening. See V slowly turning into him, adopting his mannerisms, some traits. Johnny will never forget the look they shared when she picked up his Malorian for the first time — spinning it in her hands like she had done it a thousand times before. Watching her slowly start to rely more on her left hand. Her new smirk — Rogue mentioned that one, how much it had reminded her of Johnny.
He had gotten so swept up in Alt’s option for them — he just assumed that V would be V. He would be him. Them staying linked — they would figure it out. But he didn’t expect parts of himself to still linger within her. To replace parts of her? Even now, in separate bodies.
He heard footsteps behind him, he expected Misty coming to coax him back in with her soft voice. “Should head back inside, I’ll check you out,” Vik said. Johnny didn't hide his surprise as he turned to the man lingering on the stairs. The ripper's voice was still a little gruff but the hostility from before was gone. Maybe he realized Johnny actually did care about V. Or he was just a good doctor with half-decent bedside manner. “Misty is upstairs grabbing you some clothes, you’ll get sick if you stay like that.”
Johnny realized he was still barefoot and shirtless — his skin red from the cold rain and concrete. “Right.” He let out, before wiping his mouth and standing back up.
Once back inside, the Ripper pointed at another stool near V. Johnny sat down under the bright light, shivering slightly as a drop of cold water fell down his back from his drenched hair.
Vik sidled up next to him, gloves back on as he rolled a table with tools on it next to them. He did basic tests at first — using his stethoscope to listen to his breathing, waving a light in his eyes that caused Johnny’s migraine to flare angrily. When Vik had asked for him to jack in, he had let out a small chuckle. “Wow, haven’t seen a port like this in a long time.”
“It’s from the 20s, it will do okay.” He grunted out.
“Okay, old man.” Vik went back to his monitor, “Just making sure no viruses got in from the net.” Johnny liked the way he talked him through what he was doing to him and V. It was comforting.
“So you had a tracker.”
“What?!” Johnny blurted, ready to jump out of his seat and get as far away from them as possible.
“S’okay — It’s deactivated.” Vik grabbed onto his shoulder, pushing him back onto his stool. “But it’s still in you.”
Johnny’s face twisted with disgust, “Well, get it fucking out then.”
Vik grabbed a small tool from the tray, using it to scan over his body. It beeped angrily when he hovered over Johnny’s silver arm. “It’s not in your prosthetic,” Vik reassured him when his dark eyes went wide, “But you should think about replacing it.”
“Fuck no.” He growled.
“There’s a lot of better—“
“I said no.” Johnny didn’t even let him finish.
“At least let me tune it up, once things calm down?”
He let out a grunt, before responding, “Maybe.” The device went off again on Johnny’s organic arm, near his wrist. “Those fucks. Get that shit outta me.”
Vik grabbed some supplies quickly, before motioning for Johnny to place his wrist on the metal table on wheels. “I’m a bit low on supplies — but I can numb the area, and give you a bit of the hard stuff?“
“Don’t have time for that, just get it out.” When the doctor hesitated, Johnny barked at him. “Do it.”
Vik shook his head, before cleaning the area. “What kind of ripper did you go to?”
“A good one. If you won’t do it, I’ll do it myself.”
“And risk you getting it infected and being right back tomorrow? I’ll do it. Just find something to focus on then.”
Johnny’s eyes instantly fell back to V — she still had her eyes closed. But her chest was rising more noticeably now, and color was flooding back into her cheeks. His silverhand reached for her fingers laying open at her side, and he brushed them with his own.
He took in a deep breath as he felt the scalpel break his skin, hot pain spreading in his wrist. He bit down on his back molars but kept the rest of his body as neutral as he could. He’d been through worse.
“You know she can sing?” Johnny asked, distracting himself from the pain as he felt Vik digging into his skin with tweezers.
“V?”
“Mhmm. Smoky, low. Reminds me of old stuff — music my mom would play.”
Vik let out a sound — he wasn’t sure if was sad or something else. “V has a way of being really good at everything she does. Survivor in her—“
“Never had a choice to be anything but?”
“Yeah.” The ripper agreed, frowning.
Seemed like Vik almost knew V as well as Johnny. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
Johnny heard different sounds of metal hitting metal as Vik picked up and dropped new tools. Tugging at his skin caused him to set his jaw once again, focusing harder on V — studying the exposed tattoos he could see from here, memorizing their lines.
“Done,” Vik said, and when Johnny turned back to him he was holding the black tracker out for him to see.
Taking it, Johnny stared at it between his two chrome fingers before snapping it in two pieces and placing it back on the table. “Thank you.”
Misty floated back into the room in that mystical way she does, a bundle of clothes in hand. “I think these should fit. At least they are dry.” She offered them to the Rockerboy, pointing behind him to the bathroom.
Johnny changed quickly, not wanting to be away from V for too long. She’d given him a black shirt and jeans. The shoes though, were black converse that were a just bit too small. But they had made Johnny nostalgic for a moment — he had a pair just like them when he was a kid, he had worn them so much there were gaping holes in the soles. Wasn’t his favorite look, but at least he wasn’t running around half-naked anymore. And he and V needed to get the show on the road sooner than later if they wanted to escape Saka’s grasp.
When he got back in the clinic, Vik was hovering next to V again. Misty was sat on the vacated stool, chewing her thumbnail nervously as she watched him. The ripper looked up as he heard footsteps approaching, “I eased the anesthesia off, so she should wake up soon.”
“Where are you guys gonna go?” Misty asked, her eyes wide and doe-like.
“Not sure yet,” Johnny lied. He knew exactly where they were gonna go, but the fewer people who knew the better. Even if ‘Saka did find out they came to Vik’s at least they won’t know where they went from there. “Still got V’s truck, so probably just driv— Fuck.”
“Fuck what?”
“The cat.”
“Huh?” Vik’s eyebrows furrowed so deeply they almost joined in the middle.
“Nibbles, the fucking cat. V will kill me if anything happens to that cat.”
“I — uh, I actually got him.” Misty spoke up, “I went and got him when I realized V left without saying goodbye. I thought it meant — well, I hope she won’t be mad.”
“No, no that’s good. Thank you.” Johnny was pretty sure he had never said thank you more times in his adult life. The war and Night City had drained almost all that Texan charm out of him years ago. But he was eternally grateful for the pair's help.
“Johnny?” A quiet voice asked behind them.
He whipped around, moving to the chair under the bright spotlight. “Hey, hey,” He grabbed onto the slowly waking V, who was blinking in confusion, “I’m right here.”
Her blue eyes found him finally, and her expression relaxed. She let out a steadying breath as he stroked her hair. “Where— where are we?”
“Back at Vik’s,” He explained, “Whatever Alt did it really took it out of you.”
“You’re okay?” Her face filled with worry, her closest hand grabbing onto his bicep.
That was so V — chick had almost died twice in one day, still covered in her own blood and she wanted to make sure he was okay. “Yeah Princess, I’m okay.” He gave her a smile, before noticing Vik standing awkwardly behind him. “Vik’s gonna check on you, okay? But we gotta get going soon, just in case—“
“‘Saka right…” V let out a groan, going to shift in the chair as she tried to get up.
“Whoa, whoa. Let him do his doc thing, we need to make sure you’re good first.” Johnny pushed her gently back into the chair, as Vik slid back in on his stool and rolled it closer to her. V's fingers wrapped around his own before he could pull too far away, keeping him close to her.
Vik's eyes flashed to their intertwined fingers before he looked back up at V. “Hey, kid." His voice was much more gentle with her than with Johnny. "Let’s start with the basics, yeah?“
“Vixen Volkov. Night City. July 17th, 2077.” She rolled off of her tongue like she'd done it a million times before.
Vik did similar tests with her as he did with Johnny, shining his black flashlight in her eyes, making her take deep breaths as he listened through his stethoscope. “Okay, sit up slo—“
“Slowly. Got it.” She finished for him, reaching out to grab the ends of chair arms. Johnny unconsciously grabbed onto her elbow and small of her back as she leaned forward. An ache radiated through his lower back as he grabbed her though. He furrowed his brow, shrugging it off before he felt it again. With confusion, he looked down and saw the giant, black-blue bruise that had formed along V’s lower back and along her hip. Probably from when Smasher had grabbed her and flung her into the hard metal column. His fingers gently glided over it, and both of them winced at the same time.
“You feel that too?” V asked, her blue eyes looking up at him in concern.
“Yeah, but s’okay.” This shared senses thing — something they were gonna have to get used to for sure.
V gave Vik her prosthetic next — letting him tinker with it as he ran diagnostics on her again. Even though it was just from her elbow down, V’s arm had more components and abilities than Johnny’s could ever handle.
“Any malware in my scans? Viruses?” She asked.
“No, one of the first things I did. Scans are clean, couple of your ‘netics rattled loose but got them back in order. This —“ Vik pointed at her bandaged side, “Needs to be cleaned daily, change the bandages, take antibiotics, stitches will dissolve on their own.” He raised up a clear baggie with supplies, “Same goes to you, bucko.” He pointed at Johnny’s bandaged wrist from where he had removed the tracker.
“What happened to your wrist?” She asked, her brows furrowed.
Johnny just gave her a small smile again, shaking his head, “Princess, focus.”
Vik continued, “And the relic…”
“What about it?”
“When things cool down, we gotta get you back in here so I can get a better look at it. With the engram gone — with Johnny back in his own body,” Vik corrected himself, “It seems like the relic has stopped in its tracks. But we still need to see how far the damage has progressed, see if we can get the biochip out…”
“Right.”
Johnny started tapping his foot next to them, itching to get out of here. “I don’t want to rush, but we gotta delta soon.”
“Okay. Take this,” Vik handed a pill over to her. “Pain killer, that’s all. You took a beating V."
She took it from him gingerly, staring at it for a moment before dry swallowing it. “Thank you. Again.“
“Gotta stop scaring us like this kid.” He said in a low grumble, scratching the back of his neck.
“Yeah, working on it.” V looked down guiltily, “Won’t be causing trouble for a while. Promise.” She winced as she swung her legs over the side of the chair.
Johnny helped steady her for a moment before she gave him a nod. He let her go, but he kept his hand near the small of her back just in case.
“My holo’ll be off for a while, it might be a bit—“
“We know.” Misty stepped in, giving her a gentle hug. “We’ve got stuff covered here.”
“Right,” V nodded, suddenly looking emotional. She blinked away tears, “Sorry —,”
“Go, kid. See ya later.” Vik squeezed her shoulder, before swallowing and looking away.
Johnny grabbed onto her elbow, giving the other two a nod in thanks. They walked out into the rain, Johnny holding V close trying to shield her from some of it. He helped her get into the passenger seat, before hopping in himself.
He immediately turned on the heating, trying to stop V’s chattering. He reached out and rubbed her bare shoulder quickly, trying to warm it up with the friction. He suddenly realized how easy it was to just reach out and touch her, to comfort her. Like he’d been doing it all his life.
“You alright?”
V screwed her eyes shut for a moment, thinking about it. “I don't know, it’s just —"
“A lot?” He offered.
“Yeah." She let out a heavy sigh, "This is all just, just so fast. I feel like 5 minutes ago we were with Alt—"
Johnny cut her off, squeezing her knee. “You don’t got to justify anything to me, Princess. I know.”
Her breaths came out a bit calmer after his touch. “We leaving NC?”
“Sorta. I figure we will hole up in a couple of places, keep moving — see what happens.”
“I’ve got some supplies packed in the back, from the Nomad camp. Apartment isn’t safe anymore, so can’t go grab —,”
Johnny sensed V’s next thought, even without the ability to hear them anymore, “Misty has Nibbles.”
“Oh,” She let out a little sigh of relief. “Good.”
Putting the truck in drive, Johnny sped away from the back alley and out onto the wet streets of Night City. The rain was starting to fade into more of a drizzle now, the moonlight starting to peak through the clouds. V was watching the neon lights blur by before they disappeared and they started turning into drab concrete as they got closer to the city's borders. There weren't many cars on the road, but as they merged onto the highway they almost completely disappeared.
As they got onto the long stretch road, V started taking large gulps of air, her eyes closed and eyebrows furrowed together. She grabbed onto Johnny's thigh, using it to ground herself. Was she having a panic attack? It was starting to feel like his heartbeat was climbing up his own throat.
"Pull over," She croaked out.
Johnny felt a wave of nausea come over him — but it wasn’t his own. “Johnny, pull over.”
With no one behind them, he slammed on the brakes and quickly veered off to the shoulder of the highway. The truck had barely finished moving before V was throwing the door open and pushing herself out of the vehicle.
Johnny scrambled to put the car in park and stumbled out after her. V was folded over herself, leaning over the ditch as she dry heaved. He placed one hand on the small of her back, the other brushing back the hair from her face. He was relieved to see she wasn’t puking up blood like usual.
Johnny felt his mind spin as mixed emotions rolled off of V.
Guilt. Relief. Pain. A glimmer of happiness? He didn’t know one person could feel so much at once.
She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand, giving him a sheepish smile. “Sorry,” Her voice coarse.
“Don’t be. You okay?”
Her expression wavered for a moment, her bottom lip shaking as she fought tears back. He watched her take a big breath of air, before blinking fast. “Just — just all came up at once that’s all.”
“We’re almost there. We’re so close V.” Johnny wasn’t sure if he was talking about their destination, their fresh start, or what.
V startled him with how fast she threw her arms around him. He knew she was strong — but with her frame, it still took him by surprise and knocked the wind out of him a little bit. She buried her face into his chest, her hands clutching onto the back of his borrowed shirt. He wrapped both arms around her, his ‘ganic hand resting on the back of her head — somehow pressing her into him even more. He relished how she felt — how warm she was, how she was smaller than he thought she would be. Smelling the top of her head, a hint of her shampoo somehow still lingering after the hell she had been through that day. The sensation of her holding him back, her soft flesh fingers gripping onto him just as hard as the metal ones. A few choked sobs escaped her, the sound muffled from being buried into him. But he still felt his heart break at the sound, wanting to do anything to soothe them away.
He wasn’t sure how long they stood there like that — but he didn’t really care. For the past months, they both had learned how to comfort each other with only words, side glances, and looks. But as cliche as it sounded, they both knew they just needed a fucking hug. To just be held for a moment.
Two lonely idiots they were.
It almost took every fiber of his being to pull away from her, but they couldn’t stand on the side of the highway forever. “Let me get you somewhere safe, hey?” He pulled back to look her in her blue eyes. He carefully rubbed away the lingering tears from her freckled cheeks. "I got an idea where we can go for the night."
She nodded at him, studying his face for a moment before biting her lip. "Okay."
They crawled back into the still running Mackinaw, adjusting themselves before turning back to each other. They stared in silence for a moment, before Johnny finally broke the silence. "V - can I ask you something?"
"'Course," She mumbled, eyes pinching slightly with anticipation.
"Can I please bum a fuckin' cigarette?"
The laugh that roared through her was like music to his ears.