"Max, so nice of you to grace us with your presence," Normal said in his usual blandly acid tone

"Max, so nice of you to grace us with your presence," Normal said in his usual blandly acid tone. "And only twenty minutes late today! Did your bed catch on fire this morning?"

She ignored him as she cruised to her locker. He turned to Sketchy who was balancing his bike on the front tire, and bouncing it. "Hot run," he yelled, and tossed the package in his hands to Sketchy. It bounced off him, and he tumbled to the ground. "This is a business people, not a circus!" he hollered to everyone and no one in particular as Sketchy climbed up and got on his battered bike.

"Hey Boo," Cindy said to Max as she got ready for another bip-filled day at Jam Pony. "You talk to your boy-toy?"

"He's not my toy," Max protested automatically. "But we did talk."

"And?"

"I'm going to talk to his doctor. It's just a consultation, I am not letting him start poking and prodding," Max answered quickly. "Logan's setting it up so I can meet him today after work."

Cindy silently blessed Logan's excellent cooking skills. "You need Original Cindy at your back, she there aiight?"

"Thanks," Max said, throwing her backpack over her shoulder, "but I think I can handle sitting in a paper dress by myself."

Normal threw her a package, and she was off, weaving through the streets of Seattle. It was a pretty typical day, cloudy and wet. She made her runs more efficiently than usual, her mind too much on the doctor's appointment than trying to mess with Normal. She didn't even stop by Logan's for lunch as she was starting to get into the habit of doing. The Jam Pony gang noticed her detachment today, but didn't comment. Herbal and Sketchy thought maybe she was up to something with her boyfriend and didn't want Normal to notice a long lunch or ducking out early or something.

She finally did her last run. She pulled into Jam Pony, and tossed the slip to

Normal. "Why Max," he drawled. "Every one of your runs came back with a signature. Did you have a religious experience today and decided not to be a slacker anymore?"

"Make me late for my appointment, and you'll be the one having the religious experience," she replied acidly. Her stomach was in knots. The last time a doctor had "treated" her for seizures was back at Manticore. She knew in her head that it would be different, but she kept remembering all the things they'd done to her then, how the sound of the saw would reverberate and then…

"You are unwell, my sister?" Herbal said, breaking Max from her thoughts. She looked a little sick.

"No, I'm fine," she said conjuring up a smile for her friend. "I'm just running late for something." She jumped on her bike and pedaled away.

Sketchy looked at Herbal, more confused than regular. "Max was worried about being on time?" he questioned.

"Women are strange creatures my friend," Herbal replied.

Max ended up at Sebastian's place. He had a lab there worthy of most medical hospitals. She'd turned back a few times and started to go home, but then went back. She was doing this for herself, she said firmly, so what if Logan wanted it too. This was so stupid. Doctor would have no idea what he was seeing, and would probably tell her to take some aspirin and sleep it off or something.

She didn't pick Sebastian's lock, even after seeing Logan's Aztec there. She had told him not to come, but felt relief that he was there. He might be a sidekick, but he was a damn good one that she wouldn't trade for anything. Especially when she was going to an actual doctor. Logan answered the door, and took her in. Sebastian was at his computer as normal.

"So what does this doctor really know?" she asked, mostly as a way to delay actually going in.

"Dr. Ronald knows that you were a part of a genetics-testing group," Sebastian's computerized voice said. "He knows that due to the research being done, you suffer seizures. He does not know about Manticore, but he does know about the implant." He paused. "Dr. Ronald is waiting for you now." Max noticed the cameras in the room she was supposed to go in were off. Odd for Sebastian, but he was trying to give her some privacy. Logan must have filled him in on her problem with being watched while being poked and prodded. She didn't like being a scientific show and tell.

The hall seemed a mile long to Max. Logan didn't offer to accompany her and she didn't ask. She was going to have to do this on her own. She finally got to the door, and opened it, looking down. She didn't want to see medical equipment everywhere that was supposed to be used on her body. "I'm here," she said.

"And only 45 minutes late," a familiar voice said. Max jerked her head up to see the doctor, his back to her, looking in a manila folder. "I do pity your boss dealing with slack…" Normal said, turning around. Their eyes met. Jaws dropped.

"Normal?" Max gasped out. Logan had to have known. She was going to kill him. In a terribly horrific way. One that involved piranha fish.

"Why is it I can never get away from you people?" he said dryly. He thought for a second about her medical file he'd been flipping through. "When you said you'd had amateur brain surgery to keep from stroking out, you weren't being flippant were you?"

Max was still trying to connect Dr. Ronald the Wonder Boy to the headset-wearing boss that yelled things like hot run and bip-bip-bip. She wasn't doing a good job of it. True, he was wearing a white coat, and his headset was missing, but he was still the same Normal she'd known. This was just so not right.

"What kind of sick joke is this?" she snapped, finally forming a coherent sentence. "You're not a doctor!"

He sighed, a Normal-is-annoyed sigh that she was very familiar with. "I do not currently practice medicine, but I am educated as a doctor," he said firmly. He was looking at Max very strangely. She was all of what…nineteen, twenty? She'd said 21 on her job application, but that didn't mean anything. When had she had time to be in a genetics research facility? He thought about GenCorp. They didn't care about legal age either. Things clicked together.

Max seemed to relax a little. It was finally starting to sink in. Normal was anything but. Logan had said the doctor was given a new life, but he never said it went this far. No wonder the guy looked down on all the riders so much. He really was the genius he always played. She remembered when he defined moron and idiot for them. He probably was fluent in both Latin and Greek on his own.

"I want the truth!" they both said suddenly at the same time. That dispelled the tension a little. She gave him her most charming smile. Well, it always seemed to work on Logan.

"So how does a tricked up doc go from the lab to the lab rats?" Max asked, not sure for the first time if Logan had told her the truth.

"And how does a genetically altered human being go from being the lab rat to the best slacker in the bunch?" Normal retorted. Max tensed. Sebastian said Manticore had not been mentioned to the doctor.

"They didn't have to tell me the whole truth," he said, seeing her get ready to bolt. "It's evident in the medical history. The only reason I agreed to help was to meet the flawed chimera."

"I'm not flawed!" she snapped, hating that word. Lydecker's word.

"Really?" He seemed a little bemused. "So you don't suffer seizures based on the amateurish cross-wiring of DNA?"

"Like you could have done better," she replied.

"I know I could have." He paused. "Doesn't matter. Up on the table."

"What?" She was shocked at his order.

"You obviously did a very big favor for someone who did me a big favor once," he replied, opening a drawer, and getting out some equipment. "So, despite being late, I'm going to help you." He turned back to her. "But none of this is going to be an excuse to be late to work tomorrow." She wasn't getting on the table. Oh well, there was something else he needed from her. He handed her a plastic cup and gestured towards an adjoining door. "Bathroom's in there. I'm sure you know what to do from there.