Sorry about the delay folks. thanks for waiting.

"Are you going to tell me what this is all about?"

Faye propped her elbow on the arm of her chair, and her head on her fist, and proceeded to look out the window, at the floor, at the steal legs of the uncomfortable hospital chair she was sitting in. pretty much anything that kept her eyes of Corbin, sitting on the examination table in his boxers.

"There's nothing to tell," she said evasively, suddenly very interested in a stain on the toe of her left boot. Hm. slight discoloration, and blotching. probably a water stain. And they were such nice leather, too.

He was so quiet; his bare feet came into her vision before she even noticed that he'd gotten up. She jumped in shock, on hand flying to her mouth to cover a yelp, and the other to her chest to cover her pounding heart. He occupied her vacated armrests with his hands, gripping the wood until his knuckles whitened. She gulped before bringing her eyes up to meet his.

She crossed her arms over her chest, and did her best to keep the look on her face one of bland detachment. Difficult, considering he was leaning over her, his eyes glittering with barely checked rage, so close she could feel his hot breath against her face, and smell the faint scent of cigarette smoke that clung to his hair. God, suddenly she was dying for a cigarette.

"Jesus, Faye, could you give me a straight fucking answer for once?"

"Could you have a little patience, for once?"

His eyes narrowed dangerously, "I'm not waiting for that doctor to come waltzing in here to tell me what's going on." The tension left his shoulders, a bit, and he lowered his head. "I want to hear it from you."

Faye bit her lip, "I didn't want to say anything. not until we knew for sure. Eve is a genetic construct. Like you. we just don't know how much like you."

Corbin pushed himself up, and stood back, crossing his arms over his chest, and doing his best to look nonchalant. "What does that mean?"

Faye sighed, relieved and yet slightly disappointed by his withdrawl. She shook her head before plunging on, "After Jet and I dug that bullet out of the wall, we took it down, had it analyzed. It turns out that Eve is not your normal human."

"Surprise, surprise." Corbin intoned sarcastically.

"She was pieced together using cutting edge genetic technology. She's faster, stronger, and more adaptable than an average human. She must have been put together in an advanced lab," Faye paused, and cocked her head to one side in mock "hm. who else does Eve seem to show an interest in that was made in a lab?"

"You aren't seriously suggesting."

"Think about it, why else would she be so desperate to find you?" Faye leaned over the side of her chair and reached into her bag to pull out a datapad.

"Ed slipped this to me, just as we were leaving. She said it was only preliminary research, and she'd need to do a little more poking around." She tossed the pad to Corbin, who caught it easily.

"The guy who headed up project Pheonix. your project. was a Dr. Dominic VanHausen. Apparently before he worked for the syndicate, he was a professor at NewHarvard. before being canned for illegal genetic research. and if you'll scroll down to page 5, there's a mention of an Eden project in his work in Lansing-Medcalf, which was terminated." She let herself prattle on, when he had the text right in front of him, because she couldn't stand the silence. It kept her mind off of their proximity, and Corbin's bare skin. "The syndicate said it was too dangerous. and that's saying something."

Corbin felt his stomach start to turn. It couldn't be true. It had to be a lie. There could be no similarities between He and Eve. Any minute now, the doctor would come through that door and tell them in a puzzled voice "nothing's out of the ordinary," while scratching his head, and wondering what had prompted them to come in the first place. Any minute now.

He watched the door.

"Corbin?"

Soft, barely above a whisper.

"Corbin." he knew what she was going to ask.

"How did you escape? The security was air tight. you were unarmed. how did you escape from Lansing-Medcalf that first time?"

".Corbin?"



Irma stared up at her ceiling, thankful that Faye hadn't seen. Glad she didn't know. She was sure she'd give it away, the way she avoided eye contact with Corbin, and had taken to mumbling under her breath. But Faye hadn't seemed to notice at all, either because she was too excited about her find, or because it wasn't as obvious as Irma had thought.

Probably the former, since Irma was almost positive she hadn't breathed the whole time Faye'd been here. That had to be conspicuous. It was a good thing Corbin found it easy to act natural.

She sighed, and threw herself onto her stomach, burying her head in her pillow, and willing the blackness of a dreamless sleep to wash over her. She dreamed instead that she was wearing a mask, with a taller girls face.



She chuckled low in her throat, as the gleam of a computer screen reflected off her hair.

"Some one's looking for you, daddy."

The hacker was good, Eve had to admit that. She'd already gotten a lot of information she shouldn't have before she'd managed to tip Eve off to her presence. She smiled, throwing up a wall in the hacker's way. It took only the span of a thought for the hacker to break it down. The smile melted from Eve's face. this would be a little more difficult than she'd anticipated.

"Don't worry, father, I wont let you down."



He wasn't really sure what made him do it. He really just wanted to shut her up, thinking about his days before the escape made his head hurt, like he was fighting with himself. There was something there he couldn't, or more likely, wouldn't remember.

He told himself it was just to shut her up.

He moved back to the chair, once again taking possession of the armrests, only this time he leaned forward, catching Faye's mouth in a violent, passionate kiss.



Sorry it's so short, but I'm still getting back into the swing of things. Hope you guys like it.