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monitor all inhabitants, Georgiana,” ERIC responded, the slightest hint of exasperation present in his tone.  “I can show you the specific portions of my programming if you’d like.”
    Georgiana took another sip of the horrid drink.  The AI wouldn’t dispense anything else until it was ready.  She regretted allowing Tab to mess with ERIC’s personality code.  Her brother was a genius on comparison with Robert Norwood or their father in terms of programming and AI work.  If Tab had been at full capacity, he would have smoothed over all the snags she and Dan ran in to within hours.  Then again, if Tab had been at full capacity, she wouldn’t have needed to create ERIC.
    “For the record, I prefer strawberry.”
    “Noted.  I will add it to the next grocery order.”
    “Thanks.”  She slumped against the wall, tipped the cup back, and chugged the rest of the protein shake.  She rinsed the cup with water from the tap and drank a cup of lukewarm, slightly metallic water. 
    The bedroom across from hers was silent.  She eyed her bed wistfully.  The quilt and top sheet were still tangled around the curved iron footboard.  Her eyelids drooped and a heavy wave of exhaustion hit her so hard she swayed. 
    A muffled whimper from Tab’s bedroom drifted across the hall.  She swallowed the bitter taste of fatigue and stumbled into the other bedroom.  She conjured a mental map of where every piece of furniture was located in the room.  Five steps later, her right foot struck the leg of her brother’s oak desk. 
    A yelp rose in her throat.  She clamped her lips shut.  Fire traveled from her injured toe all the way to her knee.  Limping, she made her way to the canary yellow wingback chair she’d dragged up from her mother’s old sitting room.  The chair was positioned so that she could reach the bed if she needed to, but far enough away that if she read or used her tablet computer the light wouldn’t wake Tab.
    Glad to be off her throbbing foot, she sank onto the firm cushion.  Huddled under thick blankets despite the relatively mild temperature, Tab whimpered and shifted restlessly.  Georgiana wrapped her fingers around his covered ankle.  He shifted towards her as if searching for more contact.
    She couldn’t imagine what horrors filled his dreams.  The nightmares were a nightly occurrence.  They’d tried sleeping pills, pain medication, and herbal remedies but nothing stopped the dreams.  She’d wanted to seek further treatment, but he’d stopped her.  He saw the nightly mental torture as a twisted sort of penance.
    “Gigi?”
    She was on her feet in an instant.  The mattress barely registered the addition of her slight weight.  She settled against the headboard and pulled her brother on to her lap.  Though taller by at least six inches and built like a linebacker, Théophile Bertrand Collier felt so frail in her arms. 
    “Oh, Gigi,” he rasped, his voice rough from tears and sleep.  He buried his sweat-soaked face in the curve of her shoulder.  Strong hands gripped her waist hard enough to leave bruises.
    “Shh,” she murmured, raking a hand through his damp, honey blond hair.  She continued to massage his scalp and whisper soothingly into his ear until he drifted back off to a restless sleep.
    With Tab sniffling and crying in his sleep against her, she turned her head to face the door.  The wooden headboard was cool and smooth against her cheek.  The tears she’d tried so hard to contain slipped out from between her eyelashes.  Her brother was in pain, and nothing she did eased that pain.
    Six months earlier, things had been easy, relatively speaking.  Their father had still been dead, but the grief had dulled with time.  Georgiana had been struggling to live up to his legacy as a CEO and software genius.  Tab had been at a prep school in Dallas unwilling to skip grades like his sister.  They’d made plans for a weekend of shopping and movies.  Though he didn’t care