/2: Chapter Thirty: Bargain with B

Danny fought the urge to squirm and look away from Dr. Ryan's intent gaze. "Well," she huffed finally. "Still not speaking to me, then?" she asked (although why she was asking him when he'd just made it very clear that he wouldn't reply to anything she said, he didn't know). She turned to Maddie without waiting for a response, effectively ending the staring contest. "How has he been?"

Maddie started to babble on about their trip, his grades, his moods, his relapses.

Danny turned and grinned at Sam and Tucker- the least he could do was be cheerful for them, after the confusing day they'd had. He felt a brief flash of sick guilt for the things he had put them through, and the things he would put them through later (what would it do to them, to learn that their best friend was- well. time enough for that later), but pushed it away.

Agent B stood near the door, fidgeting impatiently. Danny, twisting around in his seat to see him, scowled at him. B frowned back, but it didn't have nearly as much of an effect when one couldn't see his eyes. Danny made a face at him to amuse Sam and Tucker; Tucker coughed to cover a laugh, but Sam didn't see.

"Ryan, about the portal-" Maddie said, and Danny swiveled back around in his cxhair to stare at her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Danny didn't speak to Ryan.

Maddie should have expected this; after all, he had never spoken to her before. Why would he start now? Somehow, though, she had thought that finally, finally he was coming to terms with it all, that he was better.

But he didn't speak to Ryan, or when he was near her; or, indeed, at all between the time they arrived in Ryan's office and the time the left again.

So Maddie did the talking for him. She told Ryan who Sam and Tucker were, how Danny had been acting, where they had been, what classes he took in school, and anything else she could think of, because Ryan was there to help him.

Finally she got around to what she really wanted to talk about. "Ryan, about the portal- the Guys did close it, didn't they?"

"Of course, Maddie! It would be criminal negligence not to," the cheerful brunette replied.

"And it couldn't have reopened?"

"No, no, it takes at least eleven years for a portal to reopen naturally," Ryan reassured her.

"It couldn't have been reopened naturally?"

"No! Well, I suppose it could have been, but it wasn't. Really, Maddie, what's brought this on?"

"Then why is it open?" Maddie asked.

"What? It's closed, Maddie."

"Not according to these three. They paid the house a visit a few days ago, and-"

"Then they were mistaken. The portal is closed," Ryan said firmly, her ever-present smile vanishing. "I think that will be all for today."

Maddie didn't move. She met Ryan's eyes and glared.

"Sometime today, please," Agent B said, sounding annoyed.

"Fine," she hissed, "If that's how you want it..." And she marched to the door, not giving Ryan the pleasure of another glance.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Then Agent B was leading them out with nary the time for a good-bye. "We'll go to a quiet room," said Agent B. "Or- my apologies. That's the Guy slang for one of the smaller, soundproofed meeting rooms. We use them for conficons- sorry, confidential conferences, slang again. The closest one is right... here." He stopped in front of a metal, windowless door that was marked 'CCG507'.

Inside, the room was large enough to comfortably fit a long conference table with twelve seats. 'One of the smaller rooms'; right. It had blank steel walls, flickering artificial lights, a steel ceiling, and a white tile floor (which, Danny knew from personal experience, likely covered more steel). Danny claimed the seat at the head of the table, refusing to let the room intimidate him. This also, fortunately, left him near the door; although, come to think of it, that wouldn't help him much if things went bad. He knew from bitter experience that the doors of this type of room locked from the outside.

Maddie sat to his left, and Tucker to hers. Across from Tucker was Agent B, and between B and Danny sat Sam. No one spoke for several minutes, as both Danny and B waited for the other to initiate the conversation.

"You know," Tucker said with his usual candor, when it seemed no one was going to speak, "it's really kind of disturbing trying to talk to someone with half of their face hidden. D'you think, maybe, you could...?" Tucker mimed taking off glasses.

B watched him impassively for a moment, then did as requested. Under the thick visor, his left eye was covered by a patch, and the skin surrounding it had four long scars running parallel to each other from his eyebrow to his cheekbone.

"Oh," said Tucker, deflated and regretful. "Sorry."

"Good lord, Agent!" Maddie lifted her hand to cover her mouth, although that did little to disguise her horror. "When did that happen?"

"Over a decade ago, now," he said calmly. "I made the mistake of provoking and underestimating a semi-human." He shrugged. "A lesson learned."

"Pity," Danny said softly. "Are you sure you've learned your lesson? All you'd have to do is let down your guard for one moment," his words lowered to a hiss, "and I could make the other eye match."

"Danny!" Maddie exclaimed. "How could you say such a thing?"

B sat back in his seat and scowled at Danny (proving that his scowl was, in fact, more impressive when his eyes were visible), his remaining blue eye burning with anger. "No, thank you, I'll have to pass," he answered in the same tone as Danny had used. "You'll have to live with only getting the one."

"Too bad," Danny said, in the ensuing shocked silence. "We'd better get on to bargaining, then, if we're not going to get to tear each other into bits."

"Yes, we'd better," B said amiably.

"My deal is this: I want all of your files on me, my family, and everything vaguely related to my family; or at least copies. I want them signed by the people in charge, swearing legally that they are the real files and all of the files, that the information in the files is true as far as they know, and so on; because I don't trust that you'll give me the real things unless I have that proof.

"In return, I will tell you what I am, how I came to be what I am, and what my ties are to Sam, Tucker, and án- and my brother; thereby giving you the answer to the questions you been fruitlessly asking for the past ten years.

"Is it a deal?"

After a moment, Agent B nodded. "If you'll allow your explanation to be tape-recorded."

"Yes."

"In that case, I'll get the papers and have them signed right now. Would you like me to have someone bring you refreshments while I do that? It may take awhile."

"Yes, please," Tucker exclaimed.

Agent B nodded, put his glasses back on, and left.

XXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Thanks, as ever, to my most wonderful beta, DarkAngelKisses.