Disclaimer: Watchmen characters are not mine. Leslie, however, is mine. BACK! BACK, YOU FIENDS!

Though I might be changing her name...(IE editing past chapters and changing her name throughout)

I was thinking: Melanie, Heath, Roxanne...

and if you guys feel like suggesting a name, go right ahead and stick it in your review. I've decided I don't like Leslie much, either XP

Thank you all for the faithful reviews!!! There are a few specific people whose reviews I look forward to frequently haha not that I don't look forward to ALL reviews. As usual, please R&R!!

The hot water felt good, better than she had expected. It burned a trail down her back, erasing the memory of the bomb shelter and the lukewarm, more often icy, showers. Leslie took her time scrubbing, lathering, and thoroughly cleansing her body. She shaved her legs, too, though she wasn't sure why; perhaps for the feel of it, as she hadn't seen the need to shave since the explosion. Smooth legs were always something that she had enjoyed.

The handles turned without a squeak, shutting the water off completely. She stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in two voluminous towels. The enormous marble tub stared balefully at her, and she wished that she had enough time to use it.

The closet was a monster; a living, breathing monster with layers of neatly hung clothes and stacks upon stacks of shoe boxes. For God's sake, they were arranged by style! Sandals, heels, sneakers, flats, strappy, plaid, every catagory imaginable had its own pile. The mere sight of it sickened her; she closed her eyes for a moment to regain her composure.

"Kim would kill for this closet," she murmured before immediately curling into gut-wrenching agony. Kim...Kim...she hadn't spoken the name aloud since the owner had been wiped from the planet. Kim...

Leslie straightened, stifling sobs. Get it together...you can't go in there crying. You're lying enough as it is, you don't need to make up some more. Come on...for Kim. Stop crying for Kim.

She wiped at her eyes, hoping that they weren't too red or puffy. Opening the closet again, slowly, she examined the various dress articles. The letter said casual, but she felt that she should dress up at least a little bit...classy would be the word. Casual but classy. A sleek silver blouse called to her, and she pulled it out. The material was soft, but thick and sturdy. A pair of black slacks, perfectly matched, were folded beneath them. She chose the white sandals, though, over the recommended heels. They were more comfortable and much more casual.

A few people were walking up and down the hall as she left her room, tucking her key safely into her pocket. There were men and women of all ages and ethnicities, though the majority of the appeared to be young and female. A middle-aged Asian woman walked her two young children down the hall, clucking at them in an affectionate matter. An older Hispanic man with a cane glared good-naturedly at passerby, and two young American brunettes chatted together as they carried laundry through the floor, emptying out the hampers outside of the doors. They all looked up and smiled as Leslie walked by.

Sure enough, maps were scattered freely around the Karnak. Leslie stopped by one and examined it carefully. The dining quarters were on the first floor, near the side entrance. Veidt's personal dining quarters was a separate area from the employees', and she assumed it was because he didn't want to impose his personal eating style on others. Making a mental note of where it was, she took a deep, settling breath and started down the wide, arched stairs.

The halls seemed to get emptier as she descended. The employee dining hall was on the other side of the second floor, so she couldn't say that she was surprised. It was eerie, though, walking alone through the richly decorated halls. However, they got barer, steelier, as she reached the first floor. She shivered. Machines started to fill the corners, whirring and grinding along to whatever rhythm they were supposed to be at. The walls changed from shades of pastel to mirrors, reflecting her pale, anxious face back at herself.

The scene changed abruptly as the stairs ended. The walls were still stretches of mirror, but an enormous, roaring fire dominated the far wall and a long table rested in the middle of the room. A magnificent diamond chandelier swayed overhead, but the only light came from the fire. Snow could be seen through the glass ceiling, swirling and piling into the nooks.

A chair scraped and from the far end a figure stood. Leslie knew immediately who it was. Tall, blonde, and broad-shouldered, no one could mistake him. Leslie fought to keep her composure. He took a few steps towards her as she walked to him.

"Miss Jannison," he murmured in a lightly accented voice, taking her hand gently, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Adrian, as I assume you already know." Leslie stared, her mouth dropping open. He most certainly did not look like he was in his forties, not with any sort of imagination. Clear skin, sleek golden hair, a charming smile; he was the epitome of youth. She blinked a few times before managing a laugh that sounded more like she was choking. She cleared her throat, blushing furiously.

"Mr...Mr. Veidt, you..." she began, but he held up a long finger.

"Please, Miss Jannison, call me Adrian. And let's save the conversation for dinner, shall we?" he said, pulling out a chair near his with a graceful sweep. Leslie sat much less gracefully. Several finely dressed waiters entered the dining hall, each carrying platters and variously sized dishes. A dish of boiling hot soup was placed in front of Leslie. Courses. Duh. I guess I shouldn't be surprised...

Leslie delicately lifted a steaming spoon to her mouth, making sure not to spill a drop. Cool, cool, very cool...

"Ow!" gasped Leslie, expelling an impressive amount of scalding lobster Bisque over the gleaming oak table. Her face and mouth burning, she was stunned to hear rich, deep laughter. Turning slightly, she could see Veidt holding back a wide grin.

"I'm so sorry, Leslie, I should have warned you," he chuckled, trying to stifle his laughter. "Your poor blouse..." Leslie sighed. So much for cool. The beautiful silver shirt was spattered with cream-colored stains, while Adrian remained spotless in his crisp, dark blue button-down.

"It's not like I'll run short," muttered Leslie, more to herself than to him. She patted the shirt hopelessly with her napkin.

"Oh? Then your wardrobe is satisfactory?" pressed Adrian, and she shrugged, determined to say as little as possible. "Your uniforms are all the way on the left side, I'm sure you've seen them around. Uniforms are something I detest, but the media loves the image they create."

Leslie nodded absently, enjoying the lobster bisque. It was extremely well-made, not too rich and not too bland. Freshly-grilled chunks of lobster tail actually floated in the silky broth, weaving in and out of swirls of lemon juice. It was the most heavenly meal that she had eaten in perhaps her entire life.

"How do you find the soup?" he murmured, his gray eyes glowing. Leslie looked up guiltily. He was so determined to converse with her that it now seemed horribly rude for her to avoid it.

"It's...great, actually. Like, best soup I've ever had," she hurried to compliment. "Karnak is gorgeous!"

"Yes, I do enjoy spending time here. With the current mood, nationally, I feel as if I'm going to get quite acquainted with this facility very quickly."

"If I may ask," said Leslie hesitantly, "if Karnak is a research facility, then why do you have so much staff?"

"Well, at first it started out with just my assistants and myself," said Adrian, smiling. "I hired a few people for cleaning and cooking and such when research took up too much of our time for us to carry out these tasks ourselves. I needed a greenhouse for experimental substances, and so I needed people to tend the plants frequently and according to schedules and procedures. To keep everything running efficiently, I needed mechanics. To keep business calls and dates in order I needed secretaries. My employees got stressed and so I installed a massage-therapy room. The masseuse got overbooked, and so I hired more. Do you see where I am going with this?" Leslie couldn't help but laugh.

"Wow...that's...wow," she giggled.

"I now have approximately 20 gardeners, 40 secretaries, 10 mechanics, 15 masseuses, 25 assistants, 5 exercise trainers, 20 janitors, 10 pilots, and I don't even want to bore you with the rest. I've had to extend the floors to an underground level to fit all of my research equipment without going upstairs."

The waiters returned to take away the soup and it was quickly replaced by two steaming, bursting stuffed peppers. Leslie cut them open gleefully; soft, buttery potato chunks and chili poured out into a fragrant puddle.

"I do hate to bring up a cliche, but do tell me about yourself. I think we've heard enough about me." He cut out a slice of pepper while she thought.

"Well...I don't have much to tell you. I joined that online-club thing a few months back, I didn't think it would actually help me out like this. I lived in Florida, just me and my roommate. We both had jobs at this local restaurant, worked in the back with cooking. My mom couldn't afford to put me through college, and I didn't want my little sister to end up working as hard as I did, so I put all of my extra cash into savings for her college fund. This job is sort of my jackpot; it's got better pay than anything else I've ever landed, and better living conditions than my apartment. I mean, sure I won't see my mom and sister as much, but it's worth it."

"Your sister...what's her name?" he asked, and it was an innocent question; mere curiosity. So why did her breath catch on her sudden rage? Why did her face heat and her hands shake with anger? Leslie took a deep, calming breath. His gray eyes met her green for a split second before dropping down to the neatly piled remains of the peppers.

"It's...Kate," she lied evenly, hardly able to tell why she lied. Perhaps it was because she couldn't say the name without breaking down. Perhaps it was because she wouldn't be able to bear it if her beautiful name seeped through his teeth. The stuffed peppers were switched out with enormous grilled salmon. Leslie didn't touch it.

"Hm." Adrian sliced off a bite of salmon neatly with his fork. "How would you like to take a tour of Karnak with me tomorrow?"

"I...don't I have to work? Don't you have to work?" stammered Leslie, not sure what to say. Was this a normal invitation?

"Well, of course...I have to finish the Atomic Destabilizer I've been working on, not to mention the meeting at ten..." he murmured, swallowing a bite of salmon. "How about tomorrow evening? You should be finished with work by then, and I'll be back here a little after noon."

"Back? You're leaving?" asked Leslie, fighting to keep the hope out of her voice. If he was gone, would it help her chances of digging around a little more, or sending a message to Bobby? She didn't know what she was supposed to be accomplishing here, anyways. He frowned, breaking her out of her reverie.

"Yes...I'm going to Washington tomorrow morning for a meeting." He paused and then laughed. "No one ever asks about the Atomic Destabilizer..." Leslie couldn't help but smile.

"I'll ask if you wouldn't mind stopping and explaining every trivial detail," she proposed, to which he merely smiled and shook his head. "And now you know. Why are you going to Washington?" Conversation with him became increasingly easier, and she found herself genuinely interested in what he had to say. She shook herself slightly; it wasn't smart to get too comfortable with him. But it was unbelievably easy. For someone who was intelligent, rich, athletic, and devastatingly handsome (she had to grudgingly admit), he did an excellent job of connecting with people.

"I have a meeting with President Ford. It shouldn't take long, though, since there isn't much that the federal government can do about the current...ah...situation." He was watching her face carefully, and she made sure not to twitch a muscle. She forced herself to relax and smile.

"Sounds interesting. I'm sure you'll tell me all about it when you get back." Much too full to finish the salmon, she suppressed a groan when the waiters replaced it with generous heaps of Caesar salad. She managed one bite before grimacing and sitting back. Adrian, however, started as mechanically into the salad as he had into the other courses.

"Oh, of course," he said between small, polite bites. Leslie almost gagged, his manners were so perfect. "There should be a television in your room, it's going to be on channel 6. You're not hungry?"

"I've never eaten in courses," she laughed, "and I'm a little grateful for that now. I'd be huge!" Leslie gasped, her eyes huge. Neither of them had failed to notice that Adrian had cleared every plate, and had just finished his salad. They both began to laugh.

"Wonderful. I've eaten a full-course meal every day since I turned nineteen. Wonderful," managed Adrian. Leslie paused.

"H-how old are you exactly?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer. Forty-four, of course...that's what his bio said. But he didn't look anything like forty-four, not in the least. He, too, stopped to think before answering.

"Well, that's a complicated question. Technically having spent over forty years on this planet I'm forty-four. But biologically, that's something different. It's a little strange..." he added, leaving her no less confused.

"I don't understand," she pressed, "technically forty and biologically not? So you haven't aged?" The thought was terrifying. She didn't even notice when the waiters switched out her salad with a delicate Pot de Creme.

"I've aged, certainly. But more recently, I've...un-aged. There isn't really a word for it. Jon might be able to describe it better, but he's working downstairs. I was in my fourties. I looked it, too; stress does that to a person. Jon decided I looked old, and he sort of...switched out my body, almost. Jon can change matter to his will; ceramic into glass, glass into brick, brick into gold, gold into paper, et cetera. But why not forty-year-old skin into, say, twenty-year-old skin? Why not old bones into new? Why not old muscle fibers, nerve endings, hearts, brains, livers? Jon wants to know how humans work, if perhaps he could put one together, and I was his first test subject."

"So you're twenty again?" gasped Leslie in stunned disbelief. It was impossible, ridiculous, and yet there he sat, glowingly healthy.

"Not exactly...more like twenty-four or twenty-five. But close, yes." He scooped up a bite of custard. Leslie's mind raced madly.

Put people back together...like Kim! Mom! Dad! Maybe...maybe he can put them back together, and I can leave this place and leave the rebels and just go back to the way things were...like how they used to be. I can have my life back.

She didn't notice that Adrian was staring intently at her, nearly abandoning his dessert. She absentmindedly spooned a bite into her mouth and was pleasantly surprised by the light taste and smooth texture. Smiling easily for the first time that night, she took another bite and closed her eyes. The sudden sound of a chair scraping across the floor made her jump.

"It was wonderful meeting you, Miss Jannison, and I do hope that we might have dinner again sometime," said Adrian, smiling charmingly and holding out his hand. She put her hand in his and to her surprise he lifted it elegantly to his mouth and brushed his lips across it. Her cheeks flamed wildly and she fought to swallow the enormous bite of Pot de Creme that she had just engulfed. She failed miserably and ended up a coughing, brightly burning mess.

But Veidt simply smiled again and bowed slightly, turning and heading towards the stairs. Startled by the abrupt ending to a long, rather tedious meal, Leslie wiped her mouth and hovered awkwardly by the table until Adrian was out of sight. Then she ran for the stairs.

"Jon. I have to mark her up, don't I."

It was really a figure of speech, since Adrian had no trouble remembering faces, but he used it anyways. Jon was studying detailed images of human arms, inside and out, on a large computer.

"Yes. I could have told you that before you had her join you for supper," said Jon mildly, zooming in on an artery. "This is fascinating...putting a human together might actually be a challenge. But, more like a puzzle...not an impossibility. Fun, I would say."

"Yes, yes, fun...and you only could have told me because I told you here, now, which I would actually have to do. So, essentially, you couldn't have told me before or I wouldn't be talking to you right now," he said dryly, "Now that that's cleared up, I'm glad that I talked with her. I did notice a few things; she absolutely detests me and she is also a fairly pleasant, intelligent, personable young woman. Although, detests isn't a fair word here...her guard slips a few times here and there, but there's always something. From her reaction to mentioning her sister, I'd say some family of hers died in New York. She's not alone, anyways. Jon, would you turn on the security cameras for me?"

With a click, several screens opened to various scenes. The flickered from room to room until Adrian entered a code and they all stopped on one room. The door had just opened and a young, dark-haired girl had rushed inside. When she suddenly began to strip off her clothes, Adrian colored slightly and averted his gaze, feeling foolish. It was ridiculous, Jon certainly didn't care and he hardly cared...but a sense of chivalry still lived in him, and chivalrous men didn't watch women dress.

He looked up again after deeming it safe, and was bitterly pleased to see her at her computer.

"Do you have a preference as far as people for me to experiment on?" asked Jon, and Adrian considered this for only a moment.

"No, not really. Only please don't pick from within Karnak, I don't want to have to go through the hiring process again."

"What about the marked?" asked Jon. Adrian was silent for a moment as he zoomed into the screen.

"Not yet...they're no threat to me so far, and I'd like to see where this one goes. I think I can turn her to my side, given enough time," mused Adrian, "and we'll see where it goes."

Bobby:

I'm in, I've gotten my job assignments, room, and everything I need. Just had dinner with Veidt, crazy, I know, but I found out a lot, like that Veidt is going to be in Washington tomorrow morning. I don't know if my messages are private, so I'm keeping the details to myself for the moment. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, though, it'd be great if you could help me out with that. Tell Paul I said hi, tell Uncle Henry I said hi, and I promise that I'll write again soon once I get the chance. The hours here look great, so you can assume that this means tomorrow, though I make no promises. I'm going on a tour tomorrow afternoon, I'll try to map out the general area for you guys.

I miss you, I truly do. It's so cold here, and I don't mean the weather. I'll admit that I'm lonely, I haven't had a chance to meet anyone yet and I don't think that any of them will be as great as you guys. I want to come back, and hopefully it won't be long before I do.

Talk to you later xoxoxo

Leslie sighed and sent the message, checking it three times to ensure that nothing incriminating was included. The map was stretching it, but there could be various excuses for that. She yawned widely, exhausted and full. The white bed was looking more and more inviting and she eventually gave in and fell through the canopy and into bliss.