Hoffman took a brief moment on entering the room to glance at all the new extra bottles gathered on the shelves. "You're cancer's getting worse, isn't it?" John had a sudden violent coughing fit, and a bit of blood splattered onto the concrete floor. "I'm taking that as a yes."

"Hoffman…" John glared at him, not put off by Hoffman's sudden curiosity into his health. "We agreed…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Hoffman sighed. "Come later rather than sooner, you have no more trust in me, blah de blah de blah –"

"Hoffman, this is serious!" John was shouting as loud as he could without being heard from the other room. "You raped Michelle, you left emotional scars on her that cannot be fixed –"

"Yeah, I think we went through that already…" Hoffman interrupted coldly; his own scars from his trap still hadn't faded, despite all the health care and medication he'd been forced to have for a month or so. "And besides, I think you're healing those pretty well yourself…no need for tips from me…"

There was a deathly silence. "What are you saying?" John growled dangerously.

"You're fucking her." Hoffman said simply. "I can read the signs…you must be doing well, I'm happy to have broken her in for you –"

John's reaction took Hoffman by surprise; despite being riddled with cancer, John was pretty strong and Hoffman was pinned to the wall with a scalpel at his throat before he could get his gun out of its holster.

"Mark Hoffman, you listen to me," John hissed, and this time his voice was so dangerous that Hoffman stopped trying to escape and just stared wide eyed at him. "What you did was inexcusable, and if not for my philosophies you'd be dead by now. What is different between you and me is that I didn't force Michelle to do anything with me, and if I were you I'd make good use of your second chance because if you don't…you know what'll happen…" John withdrew the scalpel as the ripping of knives through flesh seemed to rebound through the many days since that incident.

Hoffman swallowed hard and cleared his throat. "You said…something about 'conditions'...when we talked last."

John looked at him, and Hoffman didn't like what he saw in his eyes. "I guess the most obvious condition in this negotiation is Michelle. You don't talk to her, you don't come in twenty paces of her unless I give you my expressed permission to do so and even if you do I will be watching you all the time. If you try anything I swear you'll be back in a trap and either die or never come back here again. Is that clear?"

"Got it..." Hoffman looked at John and knew that worse was coming. "...There's more isn't there?"

John nodded, and this time Hoffman was convinced that although his face was blank, he was grinning on the inside. "You can have nothing more to do with women. No dating, no contact, and especially no sex."

"...What?!" Hoffman would have burst out laughing had it not been such a serious matter. That and the fact that John was clearly enjoying himself. Which was pissing him off. "Are you trying to turn me into a monk or something?"

John's face remained emotionless. "As you subjected to your own lust, so you will never be able to show it to others ever again. Since you forced a woman to show her 'love', you will never know it."

"So I can never fuck anyone?" Hoffman screamed; he was so pissed he didn't care about anyone hearing.

John finally allowed his smirk to show. "Of course you can. You'll note that I never said anything about men..." He paused, his smirk growing wider and wider as Hoffman struggled with his rage. At least he was learning that lashing out in anger would only make things worse.

"You bastard!" Hoffman finally spat out.

"You're welcome." John said as Hoffman turned to the door. "And Hoffman?" Hoffman stopped and glared over his shoulder. John smiled. "Do you know the date?"

"I've been in fucking hospital," Hoffman snarled. "You think I know?"

"Well, it is New Year's Day. Let's call this a New Year's resolution which – for a change – cannot be broken." John nodded thoughtfully as Hoffman swore and kicked at a metal trolley bitterly. "Happy New Year!"

So, how am I doing so far? Please review and let me know!