Rae had seemed adamant about wanting the job. There were stacks of paperwork, of course, contracts about secrecy, insurance waivers, proof of residence, applications that needed to be filled out for dormitory housing, and a mess of things Craig never bothered to remember why they needed to be signed. It was all far too tedious to commit to memory, and he wasn't even sure if Biggs had it down perfectly.

The application process was a long one, and then there was a six week period between submission and confirmation. Biggs was more or less in charge of any new recruits, and judging from how she talked about Rae, he was almost certain that she got the job.

Craig was less than pleased when the woman showed up for her first day of training. She seemed terrified of everything – the exact opposite of the demeanor one would need in this line of work. For God's sake, she was jittery around the people. He sighed heavily and led her to the stockroom, to get her a lab coat. Sure, it seemed trivial, but the coats were lined with a protective layer on the inside. Many of the creatures contained at Site-17 were actually dangerous. Of course, Tracy wasn't one of them, to his knowledge. He was just desperate. But the lab coats actually protected the workers from many creatures – some that spit acid, some that emit dangerous gasses (though in this case, full-body protection was more preferable), and a colorful array of other tricks and talents.

As they walked, he asked her questions. Simple things, most of which she'd answered in the application form, but he didn't get to read. Where are you from, how'd you hear of us, why Site-17, so on and so forth. When they reached the storage room, he turned to her. "Why fairies?" he asked.

Rae was silent for a moment, registering the question. "Why not fairies?" she said lightly. "New field, no research done, new specimen. From what I've heard so far, he's fairly submissive. He's no threat."

The man gave pause at this. Her voice, her conviction was so strong when she said that he wasn't a threat. His eyebrows arched up his forehead. "Who told you that?" he asked. Of course he knew it was true, but for her to know it was true was pretty impressive. Not on the job a day and she knew more about her subject than most of his colleagues did.

"From what I've heard, of course. Around the place." She sputtered.

"Uh-huh… Welcome to the team, then," Craig said. "Here's to hoping you don't have any compassion." The man's voice was flat and humorless. Rae shifted uncomfortably, mind racing at the thought of the things done to the creatures here – the things done to her husband – that would require her to be so heartless.

She stood there, nervous as he thumbed through some lab coats, looking for one her size. She brought her hands together, twisting the tarnished silver band around her finger. It had become something of a habit, and the feeling of the cool metal on her fingers calmed her. He turned back to her, having found a satisfactory size, and looked down at her hands, staring at the ring for a moment before he looked back up, meeting her eyes. "You married?" he asked.

She clutched her hand compulsively, covering the silver. "No," she breathed. "It's a promise ring. From my boyfriend." Lying about it hurt, carved a hole in her chest and twisted her insides, and she found she had to bite back tears at the thought of the ring, her last connection with Tracy, having come from someone else.

"Course it is," he said lightly. "All right. We've got a very, uh… interesting addition to the archives, that fairy." He searched her face for any sign of significance in his words. "People around here call him SCP-1594, but his name's Tracy."

"Okay," she said, sounding convincingly nonchalant, as she shrugged the coat on, but he could see her tracing the bottom of the ring with her thumb.

"Says he's married," he said, sounding as if he were trying to make conversation. "And he's got a ring."

Rae froze, lowering her arms and pulling the sleeve of the coat further down to cover her hands. "That's weird," she said. "Signs of… of social structure. Good to know."

Craig nodded. "It is. And you know what's even weirder?" he asked, and he locked the coat rack back up, dropping the key into the small concave shelf that jutted from its side. Rae didn't answer, but had gone still next to him. His voice continued to hold a lilt of casualty, not indicating he had any malicious intent, but Rae knew better than to trust it.

"What?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"Looks exactly like yours." He said, pointing vaguely to her ring hand; he heard her breath hitch and she braced herself. He wasn't going to do anything to her, but spread his palms and gave her some friendly advice, pointing to the ring. "It's got to go. Because 'promise ring' won't fly with them. People here don't understand. They don't care if he's your husband. To them, he's just something to study. You let them see that ring, and pretty soon you'll be, too. Here." he removed a gold chain from around his neck, handing it to her and letting her string it through the ring, fastening the chain around her neck and letting the silver ring drop down her shirt, well concealed. She felt it on her chest, heavy and cold, and tears brimmed in her eyes.

"I just want him back," she choked. "Is he okay?"

Craig heaved a sigh. "He's fine. He's miserable, but he's not hurt."

Rae pressed her lips together, the weight of the situation hitting her full force and overwhelmed by the fact that this man, a complete stranger, was willing to risk his job to help her. "He can't… he can't let them know. What if – if – if he…" she stopped, working herself into a frenzy. Craig wrapped an arm around her shoulders and calmed her. He knew that this would be hard for her, her husband caged like an animal in a magical menagerie, and her powerless to help him at least until they gave her Euclid clearance. He knew the man wasn't dangerous, and felt pity for him on a whole new level – if he hadn't tried to escape his confinement and earned himself true Euclid status, he would have been classified as Safe after so long, and he would have been able to see his wife.

He could tell she was scared. She didn't know how this place worked, and he hadn't a doubt in his mind that she thought that her husband's life was in danger.

He gently reassured her that he was safe, that they wouldn't hurt him. He was the only fairy specimen they'd managed to capture, and as awful as it sounded, they wouldn't want to risk losing him; he was too valuable.

She shuddered at the thought of her husband in solitary confinement, and she could all but cry for him, poked and prodded and gawked at during such a dark time. She took a deep shaky breath, steadying herself as Craig turned to open the door. "Can I… ask a favor?" she whispered. "Tell him… tell him I'm coming. Please. Let him know it's going to be okay."

He moaned unhappily at the woman's request. The man had worked with SCP for a long time, and he knew how overzealous The Foundation could be when working with a living specimen. It wasn't unusual for them to test a creature to death, to push its limits or make a fatal error in evaluation experimentation. However, for both their sakes, he kept that knowledge to himself, trusting that his colleagues would be more careful with their new fairy, seeing as how Tracy was the only one any of them had ever come in contact with, the only one the foundation had to research, and so much was still to be learned about him and his species. The evaluation experimentation was over with; they'd found enough solid evidence of substances that could be used to subdue him, knew what not to give him, knew what could hurt him, and he was confident that no one would go out of their way to do him harm.

The SCP was a research foundation, not an institution of torture, though he was sure that Tracy and Rae thought differently at the moment. In honesty, it wasn't all that often that a living being was brought into the compound, whether that be because of the various facilities scattered across the globe, or because living creatures were harder to catch than objects, he wasn't sure, but a part of him wanted to argue that the Foundation simply didn't know how to handle Tracy. It wasn't often that they caught living creatures; it was even more of a rarity when they were able to procure something like Tracy, something almost human, who had a complex thought process and who, above all things, spoke English.

They'd been enthralled when Tracy had started making intelligent arguments about why they needed to let him go home; of course, this had only persuaded the staff to keep him, solidifying his fate at the facility and in turn, convincing him to keep to himself, to become as withdrawn as he had in the first few months.

"I wish I could." He said. "But if you want to get out of here, both of you alive, he can't know. If he knows, it'll show. I'm not the only guy who works with him, and if someone sees—"

Rae nodded stiffly. She understood. She'd rather them both wait out the misery a little bit longer than put his safety at risk. They left the storage room, Craig leading her back to the lobby and explaining to her how she would have to put in a level transfer evaluation request after two months or so on the Safe level.

Rae groaned inwardly. There were at least six more weeks between her and her husband. But once she was granted Euclid clearance, they were leaving.

She put a hand at her collar, feeling the band beneath the cloth of her shirt, and sighed.

It was going to be a long six weeks.