CJ's P.O.V

"Me? I'm not even human." The woman flickered, then she disappeared.

I could see Ian's confusion without having to "read" him, the anger, confusion, not just at the woman in red but at all of this. And the worst part; I could see in his eyes his heart is still breaking, because of me. I could see Gabe's complete and utter confusion, and Suki is just so sad.

"Ian, what do we do now?" My voice shook and cracked.

Ian looked at me, and his eyes softened; "We find water, set up camp, and then we talk about what to do next." He looked at Suki and Gabe for their approval; they nodded.

A little ways from where the woman was standing was a clean stream with lots of fish; I don't think any of us could believe it. It was like this was meant for escape! Ian and Gabe cut some branches and made a small shelter, Suki and I invented a fishing pole from a long stick, our shoelaces and an old pin. We all went out to find firewood, and built a small fire pit. Then Suki lit the fire by short-circuiting her iPod. Ian gathered us around the fire.

"I-" he paused and looked at me "I think that before we make any decision as to whether we go back or not, we need to tell any secrets: anything and everything about us that could influence our decisions, talk about our lives before…" he looked at Gabe "during…" he looked at me "or after" he looked at Suki 'tower prep."

"It hurts to know that you don't trust me, Ian." Gabe said.

"The problem is not lack of trust, it's that I trust all of you too much. And I think that we should know as much as we can about each other, before we all go rushing into this. Besides, there are things I'm curious about, like; what are your deep emotional issues Gabe? Why do you love that darn sock monkey so much? How does someone like you get a parole officer?"

Gabe sighed, " So you want to know all about my life? It's a long story…Fine, here goes, but understand this is not easy for me and that when we're all done I expect you to divulge all of your personal secrets as well."

" When I was ten my mother taught me how to make a sock monkey, she said that if I could make one entirely of my own things and skills that it would be my constant companion. That year she got hit by a bus. My dad was devastated, he started drinking a lot, one day when he was really drunk he slapped my face, I went up to my room and cried, the next day when he woke up and saw the bruise on my cheek, he decided to stop drinking, I was proud of him." Gabe paused and smiled; remembering " I was twelve when he started dating again, he met this high flying lawyer at the firm, and he talked about her a lot, it was always 'Shandra this' and 'Shandra that' I finally convinced him to ask her out, and soon they were talking about getting married. I still hadn't met her. I was my dad's best man, I was thirteen. Then the real Shandra came out, she smoked, and she loved to hit thirteen year-old boys, I never fought back, I never told my dad. He was so happy and I just didn't want to ruin things for him." Gabe was crying now "Then one day she took me shopping and saw a necklace that she liked. She told me that if I took it and I didn't get caught, she would buy me an ice cream… stupid huh, but my family wasn't that well off so ice cream was a big deal to me. So I tried to steal it and I got caught, of course, so then I got sent to juvenile hall for few days, (turns out it was a really expensive necklace.) I tried to tell them what happened, but the people didn't believe me, my dad did though, and he negotiated parole for six months and divorced Shandra, life was pretty good. Then I got sent here."

We were silent, how could funny, sarcastic Gabe go through all that? Ian was the first to speak

"I shouldn't have made you say all that Gabe, I'm sorry."

"No, I'm over it besides, you were right, we need to know everything. So, Suks, your turn." He grinned, but faltered when he saw the look on her face.

"Suki, what's wrong?" Tears had coated her face over the course of his confession.

"Gabe, I'm so sorry, I-I-I…" Gabe was beyond confused.

"What are you sorry for?" Suki looked up at him "You, you idiot!"

Gabe looked at her "It's not like you can do anything about it now, besides I told you life got better after that. I just came here. Suki," he paused and made her look at his eyes, and his hyper suasion became apparent "It is not your fault, don't feel sad. " Suki looked up; smiled and laughed. "Stop that!" she giggled.

"I hate to break this up, but I think it's Suki's turn." I could read Ian pretty well, and it hurt to see how jealous he was that they could each trust the people they loved, even if they didn't know that they loved each other. Yet.

Suki looked at Gabe, who smiled at her reassuringly and put his arm around her. I looked at Ian and imagined him comforting me, trusting me. Suki began:

"My family lived the high life, but we weren't happy, I think the blue collar's would have killed for what we had, but they knew that they were happier than we were. I used to make friends with them, but daddy didn't like it, so he decided to stop taking me to the factories and focused on teaching me as much as he could about technology himself. But we lived pretty close to the factories so I would go at night so that daddy wouldn't yell at me, my parents fought a lot, which is why I had turned on the T.V. that day I got taken to tower, they were fighting over me, who got to take me and for how long when they divorced but then you know, it didn't matter 'cause I was here."

Gabe held her close, and he looked at Ian with a look that said: please, stop for tonight. Ian nodded and gestured to me, he nodded to the stream. His message could not have been clearer.

"CJ and I will do this tomorrow, how about she and I go fishing while you guys find some things to cook with, and maybe some kind of bed material or something." Gabe and Suki looked relieved, I was scared.

Ian pulled me along the riverbank, when he judged that we were far enough away he stopped and looked at me. It just about killed me, the way he looked, so assured but still hurting. I waited for him to say something. He did.

" CJ, I'm so confused." His voice cracked, but he pt his arms around my hips "I finally figured out what I feel and then you make it so hard to trust you!" He was getting angry. "And I want so badly to trust you, so, so badly." I looked a him "I can't change what I did, or who my family is, or your ability to trust me, but…" I brought my face close to his and pleaded him with my eyes, "Can I tell you how I feel?" He nodded " I love you, and I want you to trust me, but I know I have to earn it, and you know what? I plan too." I stared into his eyes defiantly. He stared right back, then he moved closer, and he leaned in really close, so close that I could count his eyelashes.

"It's going to take a lot of work, you know." He smirked and touched his lips to mine, then he pulled me into him and kissed me for real. I pulled away,

"I think I can handle it. As long as it's worth it."

"You've still got to talk tomorrow, you know."

"How about both of us talk tomorrow and kiss more today?"

"Fine with me."

Gabe's POV

Once Ian and CJ had left, I held Suki close and stroked her hair. She just sat there, but I think she appreciated it. A little while later she pulled away and stared at me.

"Why are you comforting me?"

"Because you're my best friend, and you're crying and I care about you."

"Care about me, or love me?" My heart stopped, how did she know? I worked so hard to make it look like I just liked her as a friend!

"Well, love, but you like Ray." I looked down. She slapped me.

"What was that for! " I yelled

"For being an idiot!" she yelled and yanked my face towards her, and she kissed me, I was in a state of complete euphoria, and I never wanted it to end.

Ian's POV

CJ and I had come back to the "shelter" to find Gabe and Suki making out, we high-fived and snuck around them to sleep. I don't know how long they stayed up, or how long they were kissing, I was to busy thinking about what CJ would admit too tomorrow and more importantly, if I would get to kiss her again…

The next day we gathered around the fire pit, even if it hadn't been lit, and we all looked at CJ, she sighed and began,

" My mother had the ability of extreme sight, and father had the ability of being immune to others abilities, I can't read him, Gabe can't hypersuade him, and whenever you talk to him, Suki, he hears only your voice. I remember having to hide when I was younger, there was really no reason for a five year-old girl to be in a prep school, you know. But, my mom left when I was three, so there was nowhere else to go, we know where she is, I talked to her once, as a birthday present from my dad. But that was it. For the most part my dad ignored me, until he realized I knew people who were trying to escape, and that I was one of them. Then he used every tact to get me to snitch you guys out, I refused, until he told me that the board would kill you guys and him if I didn't. I didn't know what he was working for, or what he would do. I don't know, if he's a villain or not, but I don't know if I want to go back because he scares me." CJ began to cry "He scares me so much." My heart broke for her, I pulled her close and kissed her forehead,

"Shhhh, Ceej it's OK, it's OK." Well she's got me whipped now. It took a while to calm her down but soon she stopped crying.

"Is it my turn?" Gabe nodded at me "OK"

"I had a pretty good life, until my parents adopted Adeline: a two year old at the time, from Haiti, Addie became my life, I would do anything to protect her, anything humanly possible but it's not humanly possible to stop a speeding train two feet away from your baby sister, when you're seven, and because I couldn't, she didn't have a chance… since then I just kind of closed myself off, I didn't allow myself to trust, then I came here, and I couldn't stop trusting, even when I knew something was up," he looked at me "Or someone wasn't who they said they were."

Everyone nodded, then the woman in red appeared in between two trees,

"Well, now you know everything about each other like you wanted, now the question is, will you go back?"

Would we? We stared at each other…