The moment between them stretched on and Virgil was loathe to even breathe lest it be broken. He hadn't been able to help himself, playing for her. It wasn't that his family didn't appreciate his playing, but finding someone who appreciated and understood it? That was something different entirely. It was like a piece he hadn't known was missing suddenly fitted together. From her smile he knew she felt the same way.

Jasmine was the one to break the moment, dropping her eyes and intertwining her fingers in a nervous display.

"I'm sorry I shouted at you earlier" she said not looking at him.

"I think you had every right to" he said. "But I swear, I didn't know what was going to happen."

"I believe you" she said. "It took me a bit to calm down but, when I think about it, it was clear that you were as shocked as everyone else in the room. Besides, I wasn't mad because you'd fooled me. I couldn't believe you'd fooled Warren."

"What? I didn't-"

"Bear with me" she interrupted gently. "Warren 'gets' people. It's all part of his training." Virgil saw her face twist a bit at that statement but now wasn't the time to follow it up. "When I called him back this morning he said, and I quote 'he's alright that one' which from Warren is glowing praise" she laughed. "But then we came here and this happened" she hooked a thumb under the collar "and all I could think was; how the hell did you fool him? It's not a surprise that I fell for you – it" she corrected then continued as though nothing had happened. "I think gullible is the word Dr Leonard used to describe me best. But you'd got to Warren and no one does that. That guy has walls so think you'd think there was nothing on the inside." She sighed, "then I calmed down a bit and realised you actually looked as bad as I felt. So, I believe you when you say you didn't know this was going to happen." She regarded him openly, "but you were playing me a bit. You either knew what I was or were trying to figure it out."

"What I knew" Virgil said shift slightly so that he faced her better "was that we'd stumbled on images of you being held prisoner. We found them after that first night in London so I knew you were out of there now but you weren't okay and… I just couldn't let it alone."

"You didn't even know me, Virgil. Or the others. Why care so much? Why do anything?"

"I couldn't bear the idea that we'd been so close to that many imprisoned people but been forced to do nothing about it" he confessed. When she looked confused, he tried to explain. "We were in Johannesburg responding to a factory fire when we stumbled across someone in a room full of monitors. Now, I think we were looking at your facility but we all assumed it was there, in Johannesburg. Then we were literally ejected from the danger zone, Scott had been injured and, at the time, I thought the images we were seeing were from the facility we were in. I didn't find out till later that the images were old and I didn't find out till much later that they weren't even from the same country. We, none of us, could let it go, even father" Virgil said sounding bitter at the mention of Jeff.

Jasmine reached out and squeezed his leg.

"Don't be hard on your father" she said. "We've come to an agreement of sorts and, honestly, if it had been anyone else things would have been a lot worse for me."

"What agreement?" Virgil asked warily. Knowing their father, it could be anything though, if Virgil were honest, Jeff rarely struck an unfair bargain.

"He's not going to call the GDF, at least not straight away and in return I'm going to wear this and do what he says" she bit her lip. "Which I'm failing at miserably by being out of my locked room but there you go. I'll be back before he notices."

"How long were you in there before you'd worked out a way out?"

"Three minutes" she had the grace to look a little abashed. "It's only three floors up and the window ledges are quite large and sturdy. No one thought to lock the window."

Virgil actually laughed running a hand down his face in amused disbelief before letting it drift down to settle on hers.

"It's okay" he said. "It's kind of comforting to know you could get out if you needed to. I assume you have a plan for getting rid of that too?" He indicated the collar.

"I'm working on it" she said. "Look I wasn't exactly an angel in there with your father. I might have suggested that if he called the GDF he'd be a murderer and it's got to be clear to everyone here that the only play I have is to convince everyone here that I'm a real girl and not the biomachaniod war machine I was designed to be."

"The GDF will kill you if they find out about you?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, they will. Immediately and without hesitation."

"Then we would all be killers."

"Virgil-" Jasmine started shocked and clearly going to try and dissuade him.

"You know I think you're a real person, right?"

"You and Gordon" she agreed.

"Scott will come around. He abhors violence of any kind and was the first to try and find out what had happened to the people in cages." At her questioning look he explained. "That was what it looked like on the footage we found."

"Ah." Silence drifted for a moment before Jasmine asked, "so what happens now?"

"Knowing father, he'll sleep on it and have a full plan of action by the morning. But, if he's said he won't call the GDF, then he won't."

"Really?"

"Really" he assured her. "I know it's asking a lot but trust me on this. No one here has any desire to see you taken away and…"

"I do trust you Virgil" she said covering the sentence he had left floating. "That's why I'm still here. You'll forgive me if that trust doesn't automatically extend to everyone else though."

"They're my family, Jasmine, they're good people."

"They're scared people" she countered. "At least some of them are and, in my experience, scared people can do some unpredictable things."

"I won't let anyone hurt you." The words were out before he'd thought about it. Rationally he knew he was in no position to keep her safe, not with what she did for a living and not with what she was doing for International Rescue. He might not even be able to keep her safe from his own father but damnit every bone in his body was telling him to try.

"You won't put me between yourself and your family" she said sternly. "I mean it Virgil; you will not do that. Not for me."

Brown eyes met green steel and Virgil fought against the urge to nod in agreement under the force of her gaze. He opened his mouth to deny her but she spoke over him.

"I need to get back to my room" she said rising. Her hand began to slide out from under his and he caught it, halting her exit. She turned back glancing at where her hand was caught in his.

"Why are you out of your room?" He asked surprising himself. Whatever it was he was going to say he was pretty sure that wasn't it. More of him than he cared to admit willed her to say she was looking for him.

"I was looking for scissors" she said dashing that hope. "Finding you was a bonus. A nice one."

"Scissors?"

She pointed to the collar.

"The evil genius of these is that they actually come off pretty easily. Hurts like hell though and leaves you completely incapacitated for a ong time. You have to be sure you're somewhere totally safe before you try it. Steal some scissors and run like fun isn't a great plan but I haven't come up with a better back up plan yet."

"What's plan A?" he asked perturbed that she was thinking of putting herself at that much of a risk just to get away from them.

"Get everyone to like me as much as you do" she said, then that mischievous smile that Virgil was finding he simply adored crept across her face. "Well, maybe not as much as you do" she said with a wink. Her grip tightened on his hand and she pulled, urging him to his feet with a laugh. "There's the look I love so much" she said. "Flustered really does look good on you. So, do you know the key combo to the room or am I going in the window?"

"Er" he said eloquently before giving himself a mental shake. "I probably know it."

"Good" she said leading the way. "That last drop was fairly high, getting back up was going to be a nightmare."

Neither of them noticed as Scott hastily retreated down the hall and ducked into a darkened doorway. As their chatter became quieter Scott carefully stepped out, running a hand through his hair. He'd learnt so very much in so short a time. Whatever Virgil and Jasmine's relationship was, it was clearly a lot more than anyone had bargained for. But how much of it was real? He knew his brother well enough to know he wasn't faking it, but Jasmine – Oracle – whoever she was – whatever she was... Well, she'd just admitted she liked riling Virgil up. What if it was all a game to her? She'd also out and out told Virgil was she was planning to do, how she wanted to make everyone like her in an effort to save her own skin and had planned to run if she got the opportunity. She also admitted to manipulating their father.

Scott wasn't an expert on body language but he recognised the signs when a girl was into him and Jasmine was almost broadcasting to Virgil. And it's not like Virgil was a blushing virgin when it came to girls. John might occasionally miss cues like that but Virgil didn't – Scott had been on enough nights out with him to know.

He huffed out a breath before turning on a heel and heading for the kitchen. Sleep was a distant memory now. Coffee was what he needed so he could focus, sort through what he knew and what he only thought he knew and come up with a plan.

It would have worked as well, if only he hadn't turned the radio on…