"You`ve got to be the luckiest girl on the planet to have a friend like me&"

　　"I`m still mad at you."

　　"I`m sorry."

　　I`m sorry, but I am literally carrying Karina like a princess up the stairs to my apartment, so she can`t be too upset at me.

　　I won`t get into any of the stupid hijinks we got to in our return trip back from R8PR`s hideout, but I will say that running into not one, not two, but THREE muggers is so statistically unlikely in modern-day Atlanta that I feel that the technological dieties are looking down at us with revenge in their hearts. I did not want to get in so many fights when all I wanted to do was get home and get some sleep&

　　With a special maneuver that I dub the "Can`t wait to get back to the room," I continue to hold Karina in my arms while, with just my hands and the twisting of my legs, I manage to grab my house keys out of my pocket, and insert them into the door.

　　To say I have mastered this technique would be an understatement. I pioneered this technique.

　　"Here we are," I tell Karina after I push the door open with my shoulder. "I`m letting you down now."Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

　　"Wait, not yet&"

　　"Oh, fine." I walk further, into my bedroom, where I set Karina down gently and put a pillow under her head. "Here we are, Ms. Kodama."

　　"Thanks, Harding." She looks at me, reaches out to me. "Are you coming to bed yet?"

　　"Oh, I was just going to sleep on the couch tonight," I say.

　　She giggles. "No you weren`t. Come on. You`re as tired as I am."

　　"Well, yeah, but&" It doesn`t take more than a second of hesitation before I climb into bed next to her. I put my head against her back and put my arm around her.

　　 I don`t even have the energy left to change into pajamas&

　　"I care about you a lot, Karina. And I`m sorry for everything I did." I whisper it, even though we`re the only two in the whole apartment. Even though we`re right next to each other.

　　"Me too. I`m sorry. And, Morgan, with all my heart, I just want to say that I&"

　　"That you&?"

　　She doesn`t respond, because she fell asleep mid-sentence. I remove her glasses and place them on the nightstand, and then take off my shorts and throw them in a random direction.

　　Karina Kodama. A lifesaver, a brilliant mind. Stubborn as steel. My best friend.

　　She`ll be leaving Atlanta in a couple weeks, going so far away I`m not sure how we`ll ever communicate. What she`s going there for, to see her grandmother probably for the last time, is very important. I still have a tinge of sadness inside me, but I know that`ll pass. It doesn`t matter how far apart we are, or how long we might be separated; Karina and I are a dynamic duo. And nobody can take that away from us, but us.

　　We`ll find Jones together. We`ll discover the Ascendants together. We`ll save Atlanta together, and we`ll have a buttload of fun. doing it.

　　With every fiber of my quasi-human being, Karina, I care about you.

　　And then I fall asleep with you in my arms.

　　B強