Chapter 10

Several days earlier, when Fang had first come to the CBI office to tell them what he suspected about Jeb, he'd divulged all the details about himself and the other bird-kids to Jane. This included the other unusual abilities they had developed, including camouflage (for Fang), color-feeling (Iggy), mimicry (the Gasman - a name that even brought Lisbon almost to the point of giggling), telepathy (Angel), and technopathy (Nudge). Jane had revealed this to Lisbon, and Lisbon in turn revealed it to Ballard after secretly placing a call to Iggy, using a phone number Fang had left herself and Jane before he took off to infiltrate the Dollhouse. Iggy and Nudge had then sneaked out of Jeb's house and flown to L.A., where they had been holed up in Ballard's apartment for the last 24 hours.

Now, Nudge had hidden herself inside the building, told by Lisbon that they might need her ability to hack any computer. But only in an emergency, say, if all the other tech-literate people in the building were incapacitated. Which was exactly what had happened, thanks to Caroline Farrell (formerly known as Echo) and the now-deceased Adelle DeWitt.

Nudge sidled up to the chair, where Fang was being hurriedly strapped down by Ballard, and picked up the hard drive Alpha was about to load in. Sliding the drive into its slot, Nudge seated herself in front of Topher's computer and started typing away at insane speed. Ballard stepped outside to call the paramedics, while Lisbon went up to the chair and held Fang's hand. She didn't know exactly what possessed her to do so, but perhaps it was because despite the fact that Fang looked and acted like a seasoned Phlebotinum Rebel (one of Rigsby's favorite phrases, which he'd discovered on some fan site for some fictional universe), he was still a child, and he'd placed himself in terrible danger, all in the name of rescuing dozens of mental slaves and avenging the murder of his best friend.

For ten tense minutes, Fang's body was stretched taut as the chair's lit-up headrest did its work, removing the poisonous personality he'd been imprinted with and replacing it with his own mind, his own memories. These, to Lisbon, felt like the longest ten minutes in the history of mankind. But, as with any ten minutes, they soon came to an end, and the chair lifted back up, with Fang blinking as his mind readjusted to the body it was born into.

"About goddamn time," he said. "Pardon my French. Do you have any idea how horrible it is, being trapped in limbo like that?"

"It can't be worse than us being put in cages 24/7," Nudge said, getting out of Topher's seat and hugging Fang. For a second, he froze, startled, but then he returned the affectionate gesture. Nudge turned to Lisbon and said, "This is so totally special. Fang never hugs. Well, except..." She gulped, not wanting to invoke the name of their fallen comrade.

"It's okay, Nudge," Fang said. "We got Max's killer. Sort of. That personality won't exist anymore. Now she's the person she should have been. Ordinary, happy...and with a chance at a long life."

Ballard returned to the room. "Okay, the paramedics are on their way. Great job, everyone. Lisbon, could you help me carry them down?" He gestured to the still-unconscious Jane, Alpha, and Topher. Fang reached down and picked up Topher all by himself, while Ballard and Lisbon took Alpha, then Jane.

"Now could we work on finding some place for these kids to live?" Ballard asked in an undertone while they carried Jane out of the office. "I'm gonna be extremely busy trying to solve this whole Dollhouse business, I can't find the time to keep five kids healthy in my apartment. Alpha's nice, but he totally sucks at caring for even a puppy. You should have seen the time we had to pet-sit for Melly."

"Who?" Lisbon asked. "Oh well, never mind."

"And besides, they all eat a lot," said Ballard. "If there's still any food in my pantry by the time I get back, it'll be a miracle."

"Hey!" yelled Fang. "We can hear you guys talking, you know."

Nudge glared at them. "Yeah! And we can pick for ourselves who we live with! I think we've really earned that right, don't you?"

"What's wrong with Jeb?" asked Lisbon.

"He's gonna kill us for leaving," said Nudge. "Trust us on this. He's too evil to live."

"If you say so," said Ballard.

"Why not with Mr. Jane?" asked Nudge.

Lisbon laughed. "Mr. Jane? No. No no no no no. He has enough trouble taking care of himself, let alone a bunch of children."

Fang leaped down the stairs in a single bound, still with Topher slung over his shoulder. "I think Mr. Jane and I really got along well when we met," he said. "He sure looks like he could do with someone to keep him company. And we could help him live, too. Who do you think takes care of us? Not Jeb, that's for sure."

Ballard chuckled. "Smart kids, aren't you? We'll see. But first, we need to get Jane treated. I don't know about you, but I don't wanna mess around with curare. We don't even know how much he got stuck with, and this stuff could be deadly in the right dosage."

"Don't you mean 'wrong dosage?'" Nudge pointed out.

Lisbon chuckled. "She's got a point there." She lifted Jane's feet onto the waiting gurney at the entrance to the Dollhouse, then stood back as the paramedics wheeled the gurney into the waiting ambulance. "Really, you are extremely intelligent."

"Smoking weed opens your mind to new heights," Nudge intoned solemnly. Ballard nearly dropped his cellphone upon hearing this, but then burst into laughter upon realizing, along with Lisbon and Fang, that Nudge had just cracked wise.