Bill was mad as hell, and anyone who looked at him whether they knew him or not could tell. He stood like a sentry near the door of the city hall, watching the proceedings without expression on his face, smoke from his cigarette curling towards the ceiling. One look from him, a look that dared the guard who took them there to protest his smoking, and they hadn't told him to put it out.

He had the team prepped and ready to go, explained to the leaders he was doing them a favor, then they called all six of them to the city hall to speak to them about urgent matters regarding Jan's husband.

Steve had apparently reverted back to normal in some miraculous turn of events, and while the mutation was still residing inside him, he had become stable enough for them to move him into an isolated ICU within the lab.

No one seemed to be talking about the late Dr. Jeffries, no one seemed to be discussing the fact that Steve was obviously a hazard to the entire place, and the worst part was that everyone was treating them with far too much respect and kindness for it to sit well with him.

He was no greenhorn, he knew there was something big in the works here and he and his team were at the center of it. Many eyes had turned to them as they trudged through the town, and many eyes in the room were fixated on the two youngest in their group, standing before the leader of the base holding hands like they never intended to separate from one another again.

They had been offered an actual house to sleep in, something that could be easily defended, something with real doors and windows and rooms that they could sleep in without having to share… something that could have guards posted outside to alert the higher ups of any comings and goings.

While Bill was all in favor of sleeping under a real roof, he was wary of this gift handed to them on a silver platter.

He exhaled slowly, heavily, a thick plume of smoke escaping him to join the rest of the smoke drifting along the ceiling above, and the guard at the door grimaced at him. It was his third cigarette, after all.

Francis moved to join him by the door, huffing out a soft sigh and scowling in the direction of the leader.

"This is bullshit, all of this. No one's sayin' anything about the lab," he muttered beneath his breath, the old man nodding slightly in reply. "Everythin's goin' to hell today."

"Maybe staying up all night to play games cursed us," Louis added as he moved to join them as well, watching from a distance as Zoey and Ishmael pulled Jan to one side to comfort her. The woman was still crying, but they supposed it was to be expected.

Her husband was some mad drooling monster that wanted to eat the infected kid she considered her son.

"Don't say stupid things like that, it had nothing to do with you two staying out all night. It had nothing to do with Ishmael, or any of us; there's something else going on that we're not seeing yet." Bill exhaled slowly again, his scowl deepening. "Something tells me the next few days ain't going to be any nicer."

"At least I get my own room now," Francis smirked, Louis rolling his eyes and Bill letting out a soft, non committal grunt. "What?"

"I guess focusing on the good is all we got right now," Bill remarked, moving to join the women and Ishmael after putting out his cigarette.

…

Ishmael felt a little dizzy and tired, a little confused, the recent string of events filling his head with a fog and too many questions to answer.

His females were with him, sitting close, and while Jan was crying, Zoey was surprisingly calm. Their hands were still clasped and her cool skin was soothing to him, her touch allowing him to focus on the here and now instead of turning inward to his twisted thoughts.

Twice already today, he had lost control. Hearing the screaming of the infected creature in the lab from so far away, almost like it was screaming right into his head, something inside him had snapped. When he had come to his senses, her touch bringing him there, he had found the larger male human on top of him, weight almost suffocating.

It was lucky he had been so quick. Ishmael didn't want to think of what he might have done if they hadn't stopped him. Chances were, he wouldn't have woken at all. He probably would have been shot and thrown outside the city walls.

After some time, one of the armed men who had been standing watch in the room escorted them to a building, a short exchange between the oldest human and the guard taking place before Zoey urged him inside.

There was more than enough room for them all here, but despite how nice it seemed, the oldest human didn't look pleased. In fact, Bill was quite the opposite, bumping Ishmael almost intentionally when they tried to get through the door at the same time then turning to fix him with an irritable stare.

When it came time to choose which rooms they would all be staying in, Ishmael followed Zoey into the one she had decided to sleep in, suddenly finding himself sprawled on his back on the floor when Bill grabbed his shirt in one hand and dragged him backwards. Rolling to his feet with a snarl, Ishmael glared fiercely up at the oldest of the humans with fury flashing in his eyes.

Bill barked a single word at him and while he didn't understand the word itself, he clearly understood the meaning.

Bill was telling him in essence to behave. Something told Ishmael the word the man had muttered hadn't been so nice, the sour look on Zoey's face as she moved to join them only confirming this.

As Ishmael crouched low to the floor, offering Bill a glare but a submissive stance at the same time, the two humans had an exchange that sounded rather less than happy.

At the end of it, after a bit of shouting and some intervention from Jan and the youngest male of the group, Ishmael watched the look on Bill's face soften slightly.

Jan put her arm around Bill's shoulders and led him away, Zoey and Louis speaking quietly to one another before he put his hand on her arm and also disappeared up the hallway.

That left Ishmael and Zoey effectively alone in the hall together, the two of them not lingering long before Zoey took Ishmael's and squeezed it briefly, disappearing into her room and closing the door behind her.

Ishmael blinked at the closed door, crouching outside it and letting out a soft whine.

Had he just been locked out? Had his female shut him out of her room on purpose? Was it something Bill had said or done?

His whine became a persistent growl that stopped when Francis wandered up to him and hit him on the head with what looked like a rolled up newspaper.

Outside, the sun was starting to set…

…

Zoey threw her window open and sucked in a deep breath of air, closing her stinging blue eyes and letting out a noise of frustration. She felt like she was still back at home, her father telling her that the hoodlum she brought home was up to no good and after one thing and one thing only and that he wasn't allowed in the house… eventually he wasn't allowed to see her again, either.

Escaping from that hostile environment had been one of the most liberating events of her life… Here, though, there was nowhere to escape and the air was getting stifling.

This wasn't how she had envisioned her reunion with Ishmael.

The day had been filled with problems, one thing after another. Whatever director was in charge of the film that was her life, could they just give her a break already? After all, even the main character of Dawn of the Dead had gotten a moment to get to know her new love interest better, hadn't she?

Then there was the issue with the other boys. Where she thought she would get a nice happy reunion with everyone giving their blessing to her and Ishmael, she instead got awkward conversations and cold, stony indifference.

Was her decision REALLY that hard on them? And if they had wanted something from her, couldn't they have spoken up sooner? It wasn't like they had any shortage of time to do so.

"I hate being a teenager," she muttered, resting her elbows on the window frame and sighing heavily.

As the sun sunk lower in the sky, she decided to just go to sleep, forgoing dinner altogether for a chance at some peace and quiet and time to think. If they were lucky, tomorrow would be a day of rest from the chaos that today had brought, and wounds would have healed over enough that she wouldn't feel this need to escape.

Even though she had made the decision to sleep in the first place, how fast she got there surprised her. When she woke up to a soft noise somewhere in her room, a noise out of place, Zoey heard that the entire house was silent and still, seeing the moon creeping high in the clear sky outside her open window.

Sitting up very slowly, she looked around the dark room, heart beating fast, attempting to locate the source of the noise. Perhaps something had gotten in through the window.

She clapped a hand quickly over her mouth to stifle the scream that attempted to escape her when a dark shape suddenly leapt onto the end of her bed, her heart now hammering so hard she felt faint. When a hand, placed in the center of her chest, eased her gently backwards and a finger touched the place where her lips hid behind her hand, she opened her eyes again.

"Ishmael?" She whispered as she pulled her hand away from her mouth. She glanced over at her window, then up at him, then at the still firmly closed door across the room.

Something sure came in through her window alright. Ishmael didn't know how to open doors, so he must have gotten outside and scaled the wall beside her window to get in without anyone knowing.

Bill was going to murder her in her sleep for this.

The moonlight made his luminescent eyes glow ever brighter and she could see the smile that was on his face… the half-crazed, feral look he had carried before was now gone. It had been replaced with a rather smug look that clearly said…

"Nothing can stop us this time."

…

…

…

Author's Note!!

Hehe, I think you all know what's coming, yes? I continue to torture you with cliffhangers, though this is one that's not so bad, in my opinion. Or worse, I suppose, if you look at it that way.

No questions really to answer that I didn't answer in replying to your reviews! I DO, however, have more songs to share!

They're Changing/Mutation Playlist Take 2

Harmony - From the Full Metal Alchemist soundtrack

World With Me - From Phantasy Star Online Episode 2 (very pretty love song, I recommend it to anyone who might be interested! )

Can't Take it In - Imogen Heap, song from the Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack

If You Could Only See - Tonic (this is Ishmael's unofficial theme song.)

Inside Us All - Creed

I Hate Everything About You - Three Day's Grace

Bumblebee - Transformers the Movie soundtrack

Love Song - Hanson (this is the one Zoey was listening to in the end of They're Changing)

For the Reunion - Final Fantasy VII Advent Children soundtrack

The Howling - Within Temptation

Between - Vienna Teng (AMAZING ARTIST, AMAZING SONG)

Only a Plank Between One and Perdition - Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack