Hey, guys! Sorry this update is so late. I've been pretty busy, but I only have a long weekend and only four days of school left, and I plan to write quite a bit in the following weeks. Especially considering Intelligence got cancelled :(

Anyway, we'll just ignore that for right now! Pretty sure I'm still in denial a bit…

I don't own Intelligence.

Prompt from Guest: Riley gets chipped. (P.S. to the Guest who requested this, I really like this prompt, just so you know!)

Enjoy!

-:-

"You don't have to do this, Riley." Gabriel said insistently.

Riley looked up at her partner of three years, seeing the worry and the fear etched into his features. She swallowed, trying to suppress her own fear. Yes, she was scared. She was afraid something would go wrong and she would never wake up after the operation was over. And she didn't want to put Gabriel through that if something wrong did happen.

Ever since their Lillian had gotten the approving signatures and the funds to advance Clockwork, they had been searching for more candidates that weren't children. On a whim, Cassidy had tested Riley for the same gene mutation Gabriel had. Surprisingly, she indeed possessed Athens-4U7R. and since she—and Gabriel, for that matter—were adamantly against chipping kids to continue the program, Riley only saw one solution to the whole thing: volunteer to be a part of Clockwork. Volunteer to get a microchip implanted in her brain.

Well, volunteer maybe wasn't the right word. Yes, Riley had willingly said yes, but it was at Lillian's insistence. Their boss kept saying that Riley was just as good a candidate as Gabriel and that she knew Riley wouldn't abuse the power the chip would give her. And after a few more pushes, not to mention the fact that helping people was practically ingrained in her DNA, Riley agreed.

Gabriel wasn't as fond of the idea.

They'd fought. One of their very rare, explosive fights that involved slamming doors and yelling loud enough to get an angry call from Gabriel's neighbors. Now, they were back in his apartment, the day before the procedure was supposed to happen, with Gabriel making a last ditch effort to get her to bail on the operation.

"Riley," even though he just said her name, every ounce of fight he had left was poured into those two syllables and Riley nearly cracked.

"Gabriel, I can't back out. Not now." She replied.

"You're scared." He pointed out.

"Am not," she argued stubbornly, though not very convincingly.

"Riley," Gabriel gave her a disbelieving look. "I know you better than anyone, so I know when you're scared. And that's okay that you are. But that's also all the more reason not to do this."

"That is the reason I should do this." she countered. "If I'm this worried, imagine how scared a kid would be before an operation like this."

That shut Gabriel up pretty quickly. She reached across the counter and placed her hands over one of his. He seemed surprised by her touch, but didn't say anything or pull away, just simply met her green eyes with her own blue ones.

"I can do this." she said firmly, feeling a surge of confidence. "You wanna know how I know?"

"Please, do enlighten me," Gabriel responded, half a smirk playing on his lips.

"Because I have you to help me." She said softly, earnestly.

That elicited a smile from her partner.

"I'm still worried." He admitted after a moment. "What if something goes wrong?"

"Cassidy's not gonna let that happen." She reasoned. "And I guess that's just a risk I'm willing to take. Better me than some little boy or girl."

"Yeah," Gabriel agreed quietly. He gave her a comforting smile, giving one of her hands a squeeze. "Well, if you're sure about this—"

"I am." She interrupted.

Gabriel grinned, showing off his dimples. "Then I'll be with you every step of the way. This time, it's my turn to protect you."

Riley felt the corners of her mouth tug up into a smile. She reached for the beer Gabriel had in front of him, but he pulled it away at the last second.

"Ah-ah. No fluids, remember?" he reminded her.

She scowled. "I hate you."

"Hey, don't blame me. Doctor's orders." He grinned, then teasingly brought the bottle up to his mouth and took a drink.

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't bring herself to stay irritated at him. She never really could stay annoyed with him, though. She supposed that was just part of his charm. His dimples helped, too, though.

"Thank you." she said.

"For what?" he asked, puzzled.

"For being by my side."

Gabriel smiled, looking at her from under his lashes, making Riley's heart do some weird flip-flop somersault thing. "Always, partner. Always."

-:-

Okay, so I know that was short, but I was actually thinking about writing a couple pieces on this one. Probably not all in a row, but again, to the wonderful Guest who asked for this, I really liked this prompt, and I just want to do a little more with it.

Please review! The support means the world to me, and I really love reading your guys' thoughts!

Thanks for reading!

-DaughterOfPoseidon333