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Her ear cuff is screaming again, beeping shrilly as it often does whenever there’s a chiral spike. She stands quickly, following the hum that signifies Higgs’ arrival. It’s been so long since he’s visited that it feels like an eternity and she’ll be damned if she’s going to miss his visit this time. The chiral spike worsens, her ear cuff screaming at such a high frequency it makes her head pound and then in a matter of seconds... it falls silent as Higgs jumps into bunker.
“You’re awake.” He sounds surprised and maybe a teensy bit amused. “Figured you’d be out by now.”
She reaches for him without thinking, rushing forwards and slamming into his chest as she wraps her arms around him, going tense at what she finds. The fabric of his shirt is worn but tough and the feel of the smooth material of his hooded cloak beneath her fingers makes her stomach drop.
He’s not staying. Not this time.
“Faye—“
She steps back at the use of her name, not getting far as Higgs grips her arms. He so rarely calls her by her name anymore that it’s startling but it’s not the use of her name instead of ‘darlin’ that gets her attention. It’s the somber quality to his tone, the hesitation both in the way he reacted to her touch and the way he spoke. Cues that tell her something’s not right and that there’s a good chance she won’t like what he’s about to say.
“Higgs—“
“I have to go away for a while.”
She blinks at him, white eyes unseeing as always, her eyebrows raised.
“You could’ve sent mail. How long will you be?” A stretch of uncomfortable silence fills the bunker and Faye feels the beginnings of panic stirring in her veins. “Higgs?”
“I’m not... I might not be coming back, Faye. I’ve got something I need to take care of. I just wanted you to know.” He winces at the lie— the half-truth weighing a heavy, guilty weight in his mind. He knows that he’s not coming back and more importantly, that there won’t be anything to come back to. The sixth extinction, the end of all things. The end of him. The end of Faye.
“Then take me with you. I’m sure I can help with whatever it is. Just let me get—“
He tugs her back to him and leans down to press his cheek against her own, to have just one final moment with the woman he’d grown to care for. The moment almost breaks him, makes him want to take her far away, to let Amelie and her plan fall to the wayside... but he steels his resolve. His final decision made he leans back to get a good look at her, then leans down again to kiss her in the softest way he can manage. Her fingers dig into his cloak and rests a hand against her head, wishing that this wouldn’t be the end.
He breaks the kiss stepping back form her with an unseen expression of sorrow, drops his hand from the back of her head and then he’s gone. A swarm of dispersing chiralium particles all that suggests he was ever there, leaving Faye to stand alone with his unspoken goodbye hanging heavy in the air.