'Hey Adam,' said Jesse into his com-ring.

'Yeah Jesse, what's going on down there?'

'Well, we're standing about 25 feet away from the burning wreck that used to be safehouse five. It's a mess Adam. Even if there were anything in there you'd be hard put to work out what it was.'

'Okay, well there's nothing more you guys can do. You may as well come back now,' replied Adam. He leant back in his chair. He couldn't believe it had all come to this.

When he had started out with Genomex it had all been so perfect. He had been so in awe of Paul Breedlove and the whole idea of working for the government and saving lives had intoxicated him. He had never expected anything bad to happen. He had never dreamed that his experiments, his findings could be used to ruin people's lives. He didn't blame Gabriel for wanting revenge on the people who had made him the way he was but he couldn't allow Gabriel to hurt anymore people.

Adam sighed and, with plenty of effort sat forward. He rubbed his eyes to try and wake himself up a little and then began typing.

'Hey.'

Mac looked up as she walked round the stairs in the main room of Sanctuary. Alex and Maia were sitting and lying respectively on the dojo. They had settled in surprisingly well. Alex had always been able to adapt to pretty much any environment due to his laid-back nature and Maia, although slightly more curious than he was had done enough exploring to make her secure in Sanctuary.

'Hey,' Mac replied quietly. She walked up the dojo steps, unwilling to talk about what had happened the previous day. She had already shared all the information she wanted to with Shalimar. And she had to keep some sense of privacy in among all the chaos that was her life.

She sat down, with her back against the sloping walls of the dojo. She closed her eyes and breathed a deep sigh. She hadn't slept well that night, too much to think about. She was physically and mentally drained from the fight the day before and from the fact that she had finally met Gabriel. But though her body was perfectly willing to sleep her mind still wouldn't let her. She had talked to Shalimar about Gabriel but she needed to talk to someone else to find out what exactly Gabriel wanted. And what exactly could be done to stop him from getting it.

'Adam?'

He looked up from the computer monitor he had been absorbed in. Mac still looked tired, not surprising really after everything she had been through. But she looked more shy and curious than anything. Adam smiled at her to show that she could come in a little further.

She padded over to him. She had been lent some clothes by Shalimar, the closest in height and build to Mac. Her hair had been let down and hung lankly around her face. Despite her tiredness her eyes sparkled.

She walked up to the bed in the middle of the room and pushed herself up onto it. Her arms didn't have a whole lot of strength in them. But then none of her limbs felt like they were functioning properly. And she couldn't focus real well. Her eyes kept on drifting around her as she attempted to take everything in.

'What were my parents like?' she asked after a short pause. She had spoken so quietly she wasn't sure if he had heard her or not and she opened her mouth to prompt him but then he spoke.

'Good people; friends of mine. When they came to me I thought I was doing them a favour by helping Gabriel. Like most of the parents that were involved in Genomex's experiments they thought what they were doing was for the best; they thought they were helping Gabriel.'

Adam turned around and started typing stuff into the computer. Almost instantly two profiles were drawn up onto the monitor. One showed a woman, in her late 30's, early 40's. She had dark brown hair and eyes, tanned skin and bee-stung lips. The other profile showed a caucasian male; sandy coloured, short hair, blue eyes and a strong bone structure. Her brow furrowed, she didn't recognize them, they weren't the people that had been in the Genomex computers as Gabriel's parents. It wasn't even the photos that were different. Their personal details were changed too.

'I understand your confusion.'

She looked at him, the cogs whirring within her brain, trying to work out all the confusion, trying to remove the mist that seemed to have blocked the path between her and knowledge.

'There was information that was never placed in the Genomex files. That's why Gabriel didn't know and possibly still doesn't. And that's why you never found out. The two people that Gabriel killed when he was ten were not his parents. They weren't your parents either.'

It took a while for Mac to digest the information. This was huge. It was unbelievable. She had spent her entire life (or atleast her life after she had figured out how to use a computer) thinking that her parents had been killed by her own brother. It was a horrible lie, one that had tortured her for years but now that she knew the truth what the hell was she supposed to do? How the hell was she supposed to react?

'Why did they give him up?'

Adam turned around in the chair he was sitting on.

'They found out what he was capable of. They knew that they couldn't handle it and so gave him up to another family; a family that had volunteered for the job. Then Toni got pregnant again and we all thought you would be okay; we all thought you would be well.'

The tears pricked at her eyes. She had held it all in for so long that there was no stopping it…the flood gates were gonna open whether she wanted it or not. She blinked and the tears spilled over the edges of her eyelids and ran down her cheeks. She wiped them away as soon as they appeared but Adam wasn't stupid; far from it. He got up from his chair, walked over to the bed and sat down next to Mac. Putting his arm across her shoulders she leant her head into him. They sat there for a full half hour.

Eventually Macs tears subsided. She lifted her head from Adams shoulder and breathed deeply.

'Thanks.'

'What for?' This time it was Adams turn to be confused. What could Mac possibly want to thank him for? He had ruined her life by experimenting on Gabriel; by playing God with Gabriel and with all the other children of Genomex.

'For telling me the truth. You and I both know that eventually I'll have to know exactly what happened to my real parents. But for now it can wait.' She smiled at him. He had helped her more than he could know. Honesty meant a lot to her.