Tasha tried to do what she could on her end, as discreetly as possible. She wasn't entirely sure what Esben was up to, though she knew that Hunter had left a while ago.

She kept David's promise in mind, that he would bring Sarah and the would meet someplace near the facility. They were due to arrive soon, and their tentative plan was to meet at a diner located near the edge of the city closest to Esben's research lab.

They had no real plan. They would just figure things out as they went, although she did her best to gather what little information she could from the inside. She already knew the layout by heart, but she also did an assessment of the current situation. Some of the werewolf subjects were still there, and apparently there were a couple of new ones.

Apparently, Esben was trying to recreate the success he had with Subject Seven in another in case Seven couldn't be recaptured, and just to see if it could be duplicated without her venom. But the truth was… he needed Sarah's venom to make more exactly like her. However the process had worked to change Sarah into the self-controlled beast she became, whether it was something about her biology or the way he modified the werewolf DNA-altering virus or both, it had happened by chance. Much like getting struck by lightning, there was little chance of it happening again in another test subject.

That was the odd thing about the werewolves; they each had a venomous bite whenever they changed into wolf form, with the capacity to infect others with their own unique strand. Sarah was a prize due to the level of self-awareness she exhibited and her ability to transform at will, even if emotional triggers still caused it to happen unintentionally. In the other experiments, they had great difficulty controlling it and they were mindless animals.

In the worst cases, the alteration of their DNA had reduced their intellectual capacity even in human form, leaving them mentally handicapped and possibly brain-damaged.

Sarah was damn lucky, even if she was cursed.

Tasha was a little suspicious at the end of the day when Esben let her go a little too readily, acting as though he was almost… delighted to see her leaving. But she didn't have time to question it, if she was going to meet her rendezvous.

What she didn't know was that she had someone discreetly following her after she left the underground facility.

Dylan Hunter had been waiting just outside, prepared to track her. After all, who better to lead him to his quarry than the one who had previously admitted helping Seven get away in the first place?

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

David found that he sort of had his hands full for the first few minutes when arriving at the diner. For one thing, it seemed that Sarah was uncomfortable in public places where there were a lot of other people, even though it might mean attracting less notice to themselves. It would also seem she felt a little… trapped.

Then again, it had taken her time to get used to the confined space of a car, too.

Another thing was that apparently she didn't have much experience in places that were a step up from fast food joints. This place wasn't particularly fancy and one could choose where one sat for the most part, especially since there were plenty of booths available, but there were a few things David had to explain to her.

He had to mention that this was a place where they would order from a paper menu and then be served, along with a couple of other particulars. He also gently asked her not to slouch too much, though he ignored it when she put her elbows on the table.

David could almost hear his mother's voice remarking off-hand, "Was this young lady raised in a barn?" Though what could you really expect, from a twenty-three-year-old who'd been raised pretty much rural, somewhat poor, and now had to exist partially as a wolf? It was just a good thing this wasn't a very fancy place that had different utensils for different things in different positions.

"What would you like, Sarah?" David tried to get her mind back on what they were doing. Besides, he knew that she needed to eat… he wasn't even certain if she'd gotten enough to satisfy her rapid metabolism over the last two days of travel, even if he'd tried to help supplement by getting her gas station food periodically.

Sarah, on her end, appeared uneasy. Apparently the sights, sounds and smells of the diner and everyone in it were a tad overstimulating, at least for her. This caused David to frown, wondering if this rendezvous had been such a good idea.

For an instant, David tried to put himself in her shoes, particularly while gauging her body language and the way her eyes kept darting around the room. What would it feel like, to be surrounded by strangers when having every reason to prefer keeping a distance from people? To have highly sensitive hearing, to the point where even a fork clinking against a plate would sound amplified?

He could almost understand, at least a little, why she preferred the peace of the forest and the sheltering of Tasha's small house. This place was somewhat boisterous, full of a sea of distractions if you weren't used to it and were more sensitive to sensing movements out of the corner of your eye or any kind of noise.

"Hey." David placed a gentle hand on the back of hers. Sarah's eyes snapped to him, glanced down at his hand, then back at him. Sensing that she could use this as sort of an anchor, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Just try to focus on what's right in front of you. Try to tune out everything else that's going on."

She closed her eyes briefly, just to snap them back open as if that only made it worse somehow. She slipped her hand out from under his, but only to reposition it; she wrapped her fingers around the side of his hand and curled her thumb around his. Her arm became rigid, but for the moment she seemed to use the sensation of touch and gripping hard on his hand as a way to filter out anything else that threatened to overload her senses.

"I'd just like a burger, rare." She said that while looking straight into his eyes, with such intensity and concentration that he couldn't help but chuckle a little despite everything. In her effort to try and function through this, and do what she felt was expected of her, she sounded like stating her order was the most important thing she would do all day.

"Okay," David smiled and glanced up just as a waitress approached.

"What'll it be, folks?"

"One burger, rare," David indicated Sarah, "and I'll have one well-done."

"Any beverages with that?"

"Just water."

"It'll be here shortly."

Moments after the waitress walked away and Sarah had traded squeezing David's hand for clasping her own hands together atop the table and fixating on the salt shaker as if to stay grounded, Tasha finally appeared and David waved her over.

"I'm so glad both of you made it," Tasha greeted them. Sarah glanced up in silent acknowledgement of her presence, but made no attempt to move over to share her side of the booth.

David remedied this by standing and motioning Tasha to sit. She slid into the booth and moved until she was next to the wall, allowing David to sit next to her and have the home-field advantage of the exterior.

"Did you have a safe trip?" Tasha asked.

David nodded. "Yeah, your car is just outside."

"Mhm, I saw it on the way in," Tasha held out her hand and David dropped her keyring into her palm, with Sarah's narrowed eyes watching their every move.

A slightly awkward silence passed between them. Even though they were all present for the same goal, more or less, it didn't mean everything was peachy either. David was just about to try and break the silence when the waitress appeared with their orders and placed them on the table.

"Would you like anything, Ma'am?" the waitress asked Tasha.

"Oh, just some coffee, please."

"It'll be right out."

After the waitress left, Sarah engrossed herself in her food as though dismissing the existence of everything else around her. To her credit, she didn't eat entirely like a barbarian in public… even if some of the blood from the rare burger did drip down her face a bit.

Tasha wordlessly placed a few napkins indicatively in front of her, but otherwise said nothing.

"Do you have any idea where your son might be?" David finally asked in a low voice.

"Esben has never said anything specific, but I have a general idea," Tasha whispered back.

Before anything further could be said, Sarah suddenly stood up straight as if in alarm, one foot conspicuously on her seat.

"Sarah, what is it?" David stood as well, though in a more civic way. Tasha remained seated, frowning and shooting a puzzled glance back and forth between them.

Sarah said nothing. Her eyes seemed to be locked onto one of the nearby windows that offered nothing but a view of the parking lot and some foliage on the outer perimeter of it. David followed her gaze to find an individual standing out there peering inside. It was a dark-haired man who appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties, clean-shaven and fairly tall. He was somewhat oddly dressed, less like someone who was thinking about coming inside to eat and more like someone who might be prepared for a trek through the forest.

Then, just as quickly as he had appeared, the man seemed to disappear.

David had moved over to Sarah's side of the booth. "Sarah, please sit down." When she didn't move much, he took the liberty of taking her arm and giving the back of her shoe a half-tap, half-push, getting her to move it back on the floor where it belonged while still holding her arm, as if ready to help her keep her balance if needed. She took the hint and sat down, giving him enough space to sit next to her.

"David." Tasha was leaning across the table now, toward them. "I know who that was."

"Who?" David asked.

"The hunter I mentioned. That was him."