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Carmen's eyes shot open and she let out a gasp, feeling cold sweat soaking her back. Gray leaned over her, stroking her hair.

"Shhh, calm down. You're safe, I'm right here." he soothed her. Carmen closed her eyes, allowing Gray's touch to calm her frantic breathing and heartbeat. She reminded herself that she wasn't in a Buglarian alleyway, but rather the back of a V.I.L.E. jet, flying to someplace she didn't know. Slowly, Carmen sat up, pressing her back against the plane's wall.

"Bulgaria." she said after she had regained control of herself. She kept her eyes closed, unable to meet Gray's gaze. "The bearded man."

Gray's hand tensed as he understood what she meant.

"I'm a monster," she whispered, feeling tears spill out of her eyes.

"That wasn't you," Gray said fiercely. "Carmen, that wasn't you."

He pulled her into a tight hug, wrapping his arms around her. She buried her face in his shoulder.

She remembered the same conversation in the hospital five months earlier. Graham had held Carmen and told her it wasn't her that had tried to kill him. He had wanted her to forgive herself, but she couldn't. She still couldn't. Not when every night since she regained her true memories, she relived V.I.L.E. Carmen's exploits in nightmares, reminding her of all the terrible things she had done.

"Carmen, please, I'm begging you, stop blaming yourself," Gray told her, his voice intense and sincere. "You have no idea how much I want you to understand that wasn't you. It's all V.I.L.E.'s doing, all of it."

After a few moments of silence, Gray said quietly, "You need to let it go. The nightmares won't stop until you do."

Carmen lifted her face to look at him. He sounded like he had experienced this crushing guilt firsthand.

His next words confirmed her guess. "I had nightmares too, after I got out of the hospital," he admitted. "All of the things I did..." he sucked in a sharp breath. "It was so much worse, because unlike you, I had a choice. I chose to rejoin V.I.L.E. I stole objects and lives, acting all on my own free will."

A long silence followed his words, and a shadow crossed Gray's face.

"But I realized that I had a choice now, too," he continued eventually. "I had a new chance at life, whether I deserved it or not. Dwelling on all of my past mistakes was only throwing away this chance. After a while, I realized I couldn't let the guilt chain me down. Instead, I used it to push me to do better. To be a better person." Gray's steady gaze seemed to reach into Carmen's very soul. "You're already an incredible person, Carmen. But if you let the guilt chain you down, it will eventually blind you to every good thing around you. And trust me, that's no way to live life."

Gray smiled at her, and Carmen felt warm to her core. She found herself captivated by his sparkling brown eyes. Before she could say anything, Gray leaned in close, and suddenly, Carmen found that he was kissing her. It was a sweet kiss, gentle and affectionate. She could feel her heartbeat speed up slightly to match his. Carmen's brain literally froze, suddenly unable to think or process what was happening.

How long the kiss lasted, Carmen couldn't say. It could have been just a moment or a thousand years, but eventually Gray pulled back. Carmen's heart was beating fast as lightning, and frantic thoughts whirled around her head as her brain slowly began working again. Had Gray just kissed her?!

This was the first time Carmen had ever seen Graham Calloway look flustered.

"Ah, um... sorry about that," he muttered, letting her go and moving backwards, pressing his back against the opposite wall of the small space. His gaze remained fixed on the ground. "I... I don't know what I was thinking."

Carmen was spared from replying as a familiar V.I.L.E. operative slid open the door to the small space she and Gray were locked in.

Dash Haber deposited a tray of food on the floor. His eyes flicked over Carmen and Graham disdainfully. "I can't believe we're wasting our time with you two," he sniffed in annoyance. "I told Countess Cleo we should just assassinate you and be done with it. But noooo, the faculty just had to deal with you themselves. Seems like too much trouble to go through to me."

Dash shook his head, sighing, and walked out. Before he closed the door, he said, "Enjoy your last few hours. We'll be arriving at our destination before sundown."

And then he pushed the door shut with a heavy thud.

----------------------------

Graham berated himself internally. What were you thinking, Calloway? You've ruined everything. Now what is Carmen going to think of you? Your friendship will never be the same. She'll never look at you again without remembering that you kissed her.

Normally he had more self control. But all of this apprehension and worry and fear over what the V.I.L.E. faculty was going to do to them had frazzled his emotions and now they were jumbled and confused.

A small part of his brain argued back, Were you just going to stay silent forever? Were you going to die without telling Carmen how you felt?

Graham really didn't have an answer to that. But he knew he shouldn't have been so impulsive. He didn't even know if Carmen felt the same way he did about her. And, judging by her shocked reaction, she probably hadn't entertained any possibility of that kind of relationship between them.

Carmen's voice interrupted his thoughts. "So, um, are you hungry?"

She spoke carefully, as if treading on eggshells. Graham nearly winced. He really wished he hadn't done that.

"Yeah, actually. What'd Dash give us?" he questioned, forcing himself to keep his tone light.

"Eggs, toast and a water bottle." Carmen told him.

"Huh," Graham replied in genuine surprise. "That's better than I would have expected from V.I.L.E."

"I know, right?" Carmen agreed. There were two pieces of toast, so she passed one to Graham and kept the other. She split the portion of eggs in half and they took turns drinking from the water bottle.

They were too busy eating to speak for the next few minutes. Graham caught Carmen's eye, silently asking her to forget anything had ever happened. She nodded slightly, and Graham felt his shoulders relax.

Thank you, he smiled, relieved.

"This might have been our last meal," Carmen said, looking down at the empty tray once they had finished eating. She said it almost jokingly, but Graham felt himself shiver.

"I hope not," he replied, pushing away the dark chill of fear in the pit of his stomach. "I don't want to die without having ice cream at least one more time."

Carmen laughed. "Me neither. Ice cream is probably my favorite food."

"Alright then. I'll promise you this: if we make it out of here, we'll stop at the first ice cream place we can find, and I'll buy you as much ice cream as you want."

"I'll hold you to that. But wait, where would you get the money?" Carmen inquired.

Graham shrugged. "I won't worry about that until I have to."

They chatted for a while to keep their minds off of the situation at hand. They eventually dozed off, but suddenly Graham found himself wide awake. It took him a few seconds to realize what was happening.

"The jet is landing!" he said urgently, shaking Carmen awake.