"Did you do something with your hair?" Sam asked with that boyish smile that drove Sasha mad.

She glanced up from the folder in her arms, to Sam sitting in the chair opposite her. With a deep breath she looked back down at the series of questions written before her, trying to keep focused. It wasn't easy with the way he looked at her.

"So, subject zero five, can you explain for the record where you are from?"

Meeting her gaze he shook his head, his eyes glittering with challenge and amusement. "No." After a pause he sobered a little. "It looks nice. You look beautiful."

Chapter 10 Metamorphous

It was another two days before Meghan was stable enough to talk and be seen. She'd had two more fits but, in the past twenty four hours, seemed to be growing stronger. The doctors said she was bouncing back, her body starting to recover. They told Sasha and him that she was coming out of the worst of it, yet they still had to be vigilant. It was enough to make Dick relax a little.

Bruce had called several times but Dick ignored the first few. At the seventh, he excused himself from Meghan's room and answered it. "Grayson."

"Dick. Where are you?"

"Gotham General. Meghan's in hospital."

There was a pause; then: "Does J'onn know?"

"Wrong Meg. The girl I introduced you to at the charity ball. She got shot a couple days ago, a street mugging gone wrong. I'm sorry I haven't answered my phone. It's been touch and go the past forty eight hours." He drew a deep breath. "Don't suppose you can excuse me from work for a week, just until she's a bit stronger."

"I'll make the calls. Does she require a specialist?"

"She seems to be out of the worst of it. I'll call if anything changes. Thanks for the offer, Bruce. It means a lot. Really."

"I have a meeting with the others tonight. I'll say you're busy for a moment," said Bruce stiffly. "We'll talk later."

He went back into the room and found Meghan sitting up, alert. She flashed him a smile, her face more animated than it had been in days. Even some of the lines had been removed from her and she was eating on her own, the first time since she was shot. It was a big change, yet he remembered how it didn't seem fast enough for Sasha, every success not enough. It was like she was expecting more.

The sister in question had ducked out for a few hours, saying she had to attend to something.

"You're looking good," he said, sitting down.

She pushed back the breakfast tray, having finished breakfast. "I feel better. The police came by before."

His brow rose. "What did they want?"

"Just a couple questions. I'm not sure why since I told them everything. They said it's routine, so I'm sure it's nothing – anyway, whose been calling you?"

"Sorry if I woke you this morning. Bruce tends to-"

She laughed, silencing him. "I get it. Sasha is just the same."

The thought of Sasha and Bruce being the same made him smile. They couldn't be any more different if they tried but he wasn't about to explain that to Meghan. His thoughts darkened. For all times he wanted to push her to open up he held back, trying to respect her choices – since he had his own secrets to keep, some of which weren't up to him.

"Have the doctors said how long they think you'll stay for?" He asked, trying to get Bruce out of his head.

She frowned. "They seem to think another few days if I stay good but, honestly, I feel fine. I'm okay to go home now."

He didn't want to add she'd almost died two days ago, that he'd almost watched her die right in front of him when she had that fit. As much as he wanted to get her to relax, to give herself time to heal, he suspected she'd fight that with every fibre of her body. Someone like Meghan didn't like looking or feeling weak, and that much he knew, and she very much liked being in control.

He couldn't fault her for that when he was just the same.

It was a miracle that Sasha had Veizner and Chris in the same room. They'd both w0rked extremely hard in distancing themselves from the program, as well as any old associates. Well, Veizner had been a junior researcher working directly with all the blood work and genetics. Chris had always been part of the biological team, the ones that watched how Sam and Max's bodies adapted and worked in different situations. Still, none of them had ever had the close work that Sasha had with Sam and Max.

At her apartment, which she was the one place she was happy wasn't bugged, she brewed up a large pot of tea. She glanced back into the living room, watching as Chris and Veizner caught up. Still, even she could feel how awkward it all was – it was hard enough to revisit that part of their lives but to catch up with other people from that place, try and talk like it was all times? It was painful and full of a lot of unspoken things – feelings that had been buried for years under denial and self-loathing, then tied off with a bow of delusion. As she strode back in with the tray, the pot steaming against the three tea cups, Cshe was ready to talk.

"I heard what happened," said Chris, looking at her with apologetic eyes. "Still in hospital?"

Surprise flashed across Veizner's face. "She's still in hospital? Are her nanites failing?"

Sasha poured the tea. "I had a look at her blood work from the hospital-"

"Oh no," moaned Veizner. "They would've seen the results…"

"That's just it. Someone had amended the results – well, they must have, since even the inert machines would've shown up in her results. The worst part is I don't know who."

Chris took his cup and was quiet for a moment. "What if it's another like her? We always assumed that Sam and Max were the last two, that they were the only ones. For all the nets we put out they were the only ones we found for years and it seemed unlikely that someone like them would hide away from technology, since that's how they can best move around."

"It could be possible," conceded Veizner, somewhat reluctantly. "But why now?"

"Could be a number of reasons. Maybe they were waiting for her to change – it could be a metamorphic stage for them, a rite of passage. Who knows. It's all hypothetical at this point," said Chris. He looked to Sasha, curiously. "How are you going to find out who changed the files?"

"I don't know. I don't like that there is someone out there that knows so much about Max, and that they haven't moved until now. Anyway, I wanted you both here because I have a proposition."

When I was finally allowed out of the hospital, I made Dick drive me to the Olympia. I didn't really want to have him know where I lived. Doing that crossed a line I wasn't willing to have crossed. The apartment was the last place in the world I didn't need to hide who I was, where I could chat freely with Sasha, without worrying about what I said. In that apartment I was Max, yet beyond that door, I was Meghan Willoughby. Two lives, two very different people, living worlds apart.

Dick waited at the bar whilst I slipped in the back, grabbing up some spare clothes and my second phone. I dialled Sasha's second phone, the one that only I called. After two rings she answered, seeming relieved that I was strong enough to call and expressed that she was incredibly sorry she couldn't get me from the hospital.

"Are you able to grab me from Olympia?"

"Yeah, give me an hour. I'll be there." She said something to someone else on the other end, her voice muffled and warbled. Then she sighed, her breaths sounding close to the phone. "Are you alone?"

I closed my eyes and sent out a cursory probe, which detected no bugs or listening devices. Unfortunately, it only seemed to stretch out twenty or so metres before it fizzled out. I didn't mention that little snippet. "Yeah."

"I'd like to run some tests on your nanites – we can't ignore what happened and I'd like to get onto that before we proceeded. I know we said we'd wait for the heat to die down before we looked for Sam but if you're not stable, if you're…" Her voice trailed off, uneasy. "When you continue your search I'd prefer you at full fighting strength, especially when you hit trouble in the future. I'd like to know you'd be able to at least survive a bullet without almost dying."

A flash of the attack shot through me. I shoved it away angrily, hated how I wasn't strong enough to survive it. Once, I'd be able to leap off buildings, climb for hours, swim without breathing – I'd been unstoppable. The thought of being almost killed by a bullet, by one damn shot, made me angry. It made me feel like I was failing Sam, that I couldn't repay the freedom he gave me.

"I'll see you in an hour," I said quietly. "By Sash."

"By Max."

I went back out to the bar, where Dick was chatting animatedly to Louis. The normally stoic bartender, who had a complete other personality whom was bubbly for customers, tended to be off-standish to people he didn't know. Rich people, in particular. But he smiled at Dick like he really did like him, like Dick was one of the family at Olympia. The sight sent a flutter through my chest, which I quickly quashed. When Dick glanced up a soft smile touched his lips, the kind that sent that feeling rushing through me again. Oh no you don't, I thought as I walked over, still a little weak, an involuntary smile tugging at my lips. Like I was some giddy kid.

"Hey."

I sat down. "Hey. I just got off the phone with Sasha. She's coming here, so I'll go back to the apartment with her."

"Are you sure? I could take you there, save her the trouble," he said, reaching for my hand resting on the bar.

It took all my strength not to yank my hand away, to do what I did best and hide. With a deep breath I squeezed his hand, hoping that the gesture somehow made all the lies somehow smaller, like they could be forgotten.

"Call me if you need anything – I'll be wherever you need in a flash."

He leaned in and kissed me, a small affectionate kiss. As he pulled back I snorted and grabbed his face, drawing him back for a proper kiss. Happily, he deepened it, holding my waist. Breathless, we pulled back. I tapped his cheek.

"Now, that's a parting kiss," I said, grinning. "I'll call you."

"Bye Meg."

As the door closed behind Dick Louis let out a low whistle, amusement glittering in his lovely dark eyes. He gaze an arch look, the kind that I knew exactly what he wanted to say.

"Shut up."

"You've vehemently stayed clear of any guy that looked at you with even remote interest. Heck, you practically scare off anyone that might have feelings for you. Now you've got yourself a beau that's crazy in love with you and you're not running for the hills."

I glanced at him. "Trust me, I tried but-"

He laughed. "But you've already fallen for him. I don't blame you – I really don't. He looks like one of the really good ones, the rare kind."

With an arch brow I flicked a wrist. "But?"

"But you're a wildfire, Meg. You are the very definition of complicated and have secrets more than anyone I know. The kind I reckon you can't tell that beau of yours, so ask yourself – are you okay with being with someone you can't be completely honest with? And even if you're okay with it, then ask yourself is it fair on him? You're making him live in a lie and he doesn't even know it."

I glanced at the door, Dick's parting words stinging. Goodbye Meg. It was then I realised I wanted someone new, someone who wasn't bogged down with all the mess of the past and the experiments, to call by my real name.

I wanted to hear different parting words.

Goodbye Max. I wanted those words.

Sasha drove me back to the apartment. She was oddly silent the whole drive, even as she helped me get my bags inside. Only when she returned after putting my bag in my room did she stop and look at me, drawing a deep breath before she spoke.

"Someone changed your file."

I froze. "What?"

"Someone went into the hospital files and amended your blood results. To any normal doctor there was nothing amiss but…"

Something clicked in my head. A horrifying realisation stirred in me, old memories rushing up to the surface. Betrayal burnt my lips, made me silent for a moment as I tried to rein in every curse I knew. She'd grown silent because she saw my expression, saw as I began to understand why she'd been so busy. It wasn't because she was angry with me; rather, it was because she'd been going behind my back. Lying to me. The person she was meant to be honest with. No secrets. It had been the oath we swore to each other. We'd lie and cheat, use whoever we needed but, to each other, we had to be honest with each other. It meant we could trust each other, have each other's back. I'd been honest with my involvement with the League, open and clear, even though I'd known how much it hurt her. I'd done it because I damn well respected herself with the truth, that she'd survive it.

"You went to her," I said in a low voice, venom dripping from each word. "After all she did – she hurt me, Sash. She hurt me."

Sash looked away, her cheeks pink with shame. "So did I."

"You didn't drain me with an inch of my life, then continue doing it to see how much blood I could produce and what changes were there in the new regenerated blood!" I shrieked at her. "When I begged her to stop you know what she did? She laughed and kept going!"

Sasha tried to take a step forward, one hand outstretched but I wasn't having any of it, stepping back with a face of betrayal and fury.

"Meg-"

I stormed past her, right to the front door. There wasn't any way I was sticking around. If I did, I'd didn't trust myself not to hurt her. "Go to hell and take that bitch with you."