Cliff had gone down the hall to his room.  It had, a few hours ago, been the site of the first bliss he had known since the race car wreck.  Now it was just another place of pain.  But at least his self-sacrifice would mean the end of suffering for the woman he loved.

Gar arrived and stood in Cliff’s doorway, saying nothing.

“Whaddaya want, Green Bean?” Cliff said.

“To figure out how your organic brain can be the only part of you that’s rusting,” Gar said.

“Back off, kid,” Cliff said  “It’s my life.”

“You’re only partly right,” Gar said.  “It’s not just your life.  It’s yours and Rita’s -- Mom’s.  She deserves better than what you did in there -- and, frankly, so do you.”

“She needs this,” he said.  “It’s what she’s always wanted, ever since coming back from the explosion.  I’m in the way of that.”

“It’s her choice, Tin Man,” Gar said.  “Just because you think it’s best for her doesn’t mean you can force her into it.  You can talk to her about it -- you should talk to her about it -- but it’s her choice.”

There was a knock on the door behind Gar.  “Excuse me,” Elasti-Girl’s voice said.  “May I come in?”

“Sure, kiddo,” said Cliff.  “Join the party.”

“Um, Cliff, I may have gaps in my memory, but I remember a lot,” Elasti-Girl said.  “I was part of Rita through all the ups and downs you two shared, and remember most of them.  And there’s something I need to do, and something I need to say.”

Elasti-Girl grew to eight feet tall and slapped both of Cliff’s earpieces at once.  The feedback triggered enough pain to cause Cliff to say, “Oww!”

Elasti-Girl shrank back to her normal height.  “That’s as close to a slap in the face as I could get and have it work,” she said.

Elasti-Girl pointed her right index finger at Cliff.  “Now listen, you big jerk!  Rita has been in love with you almost since she met you.  She’s finally found a way to be happy with you, and you seem to be happy with her, and you’re screwing that up!

“Did it ever occur to you, Mr. Self-Sacrifice, that Rita might know what she’s doing?  That she might want to stay like she is now?”

“You’re nuts,” Cliff said.  “Why would she want to do that?”

“Because she can do it at any time!” Elasti-Girl said.  “As Rita is now, she doesn’t age!  She could live forever, exactly what the Chief was hoping for!  But you, you big jerk, are still part human.  Sooner or later, decades or centuries from now, your human brain will die.  Rita -- Elasti-Woman -- can become human again after that, if she still wants to.  The technique, and the data from me, will still exist.”

Cliff had stopped packing.  “Then why didn’t she say so?” he asked.

“You didn’t give her the chance,” Gar said.

“Besides, how would it sound to tell the man you’ve loved for years, ‘I won’t do that now, honey; I’ll wait ‘til you’re dead?’” Elasti-Girl said.

Gar put a hand on Robotman’s shoulder.  “Cliff, I don’t know exactly what you and Mom found together, and I’m not sure I want to.  But for her to be ready to marry anyone after what Steve Dayton did to her means she’s found something really special.  It sounds to me, from what Elasti-Girl is saying, like --”

“Like I want to spend a lifetime with you,” came a voice everyone in the room knew from the doorway.

Cliff looked up.  “Rita.”

“You big jerk,” Elasti-Woman said, shaking her head and smiling.  “I knbow why you’re trying to do this, and I love you all the more for it, but it’s not up to you.  “We’ve found happiness together, and begun to make a life for ourselves.  I want to keep that more than I want to get back my humanity.  I have the  part of that that matters most:  people who love me.”

Elasti-Woman walked up beside Cliff and hugged him.  “And I hope those people include you, because I’m one of the people who loves you.”

Cliff slipped his arms around his Rita, sending out the low level current.  She giggled.  “I guess that answers my question,” she said.  She leaned in and kissed him, and a few small sparks literally flew as she did.

The light dawned on Elasti-Girl.  “So that’s why he shocked me,” she said.

The snogging was starting to intensify.  “So, can I assume the engagement is back on?” Elasti-Woman asked?

“It was never really off, I guess,” Cliff said.

“Smart man,” Elasti-Woman said.  She turned to her counterpart.  “Rita, there’s a guest house down the beach a ways.  You can stay there until we get permanent arrangements sorted out.”

“Sounds good,” Elasti-Girl said.

Elasti-Woman turned back to Cliff.  “Now kiss me a bunch more,” she said.

Gar grabbed Elasti-Girl’s arm.  “C’mon, Sis,” he said.  “I’d tell these two to get a room, but they’ve already got one.  Let’s give them some privacy.”

Once they were in the hallway, Elasti-Girl giggled.

“What’s with that?” Gar asked.

Young Rita was bouncing down the hallway.  “I’m just so happy for them!” she said.

“Yeah,” said Gar.  “So am I.”