*"I was hoping you'd say that."*

She hadn't known why the words had sent a chill down her spine, traveling through to her nerve endings like electricity through a copper wire, but she was beginning to get the picture. She ducked, narrowly dodging a kick aimed at her head. It didn't matter, though, since a second kick, aimed for her stomach, and coming lightning fast off the first, made connection. It would have been a staggering blow, had her attacker not pulled back at the last minute. As it was, it still knocked the wind out of her.

She doubled over, panting, and managed to catch a flurry of motion out of the corner of her eye. She threw herself out of the way, rolling on the floor mats until she her feet were under her, then standing up. She felt the blood pumping in her ears, and sweat was stinging her eyes, rolling down her cheeks, and soaking her shirt. She was suddenly grateful for her short shorn hair. she couldn't imagine how difficult this would be with all that hot hair at the back of her neck.

"What exactly is this supposed to accomplish again?" she asked, right before charging her opponent.

"Come on, aren't you having fun?" Corbin's voice held a little too much nonchalant humor in it for her liking, and Faye was overcome by the urge to wipe the grin off his face. Too bad she was having so much trouble landing a punch.

"Hold still, damn it!" She shrieked, as he dodged yet another attack, this time, grabbing her wrist as it sailed past his head, and pulling her off balance. He laughed, low in his throat, his eyes dancing with merriment.

He really was having fun.

Faye narrowed her eyes, and twisted her wrist in his grip, until it was she who had a hold of him. She was already going to fall, but she'd be damned if she wasn't taking him with her. She threw all of her weight forward, and twisted her body, throwing Corbin a good seven feet across the room.

She watched him twist in mid air, arching his body like some circus performer, reacting to her throw as if it had been planned and rehearsed that way. He landed on his feet, and crouched low, like some jungle cat, panting, and sweaty, just like her, but also grinning. He was ready for her next assault.

God that grin was infuriating. it was just like old times.

She straightened up, suddenly, her posture signaling the end of their session. "I still don't see the point in all this," she said, turning away, and reaching for a training towel that hung on a hook in the wall. She poured her water bottle over her head, then wiped her face off, and toweled her hair dry.

Corbin walked up next to her, grabbing a towel of his own, and hanging it off his shoulders, while he rolled up the leg of his sweats. There was a bruise already starting to form on his shin, the discolored skin was tender, and he flinched when he touched it. That was from a blow Faye'd landed early on in the fight. He hadn't noticed it at first, but now that the adrenaline rush was leaving his body, it was beginning to throb.

He shoved his pant leg down again roughly, and fished a cigarette out of a pack he'd left on a chair near the door. Lighting it and inhaling with relish.

"I couldn't sleep, now I feel like I could sleep for a week. you really wore me out, isn't that point enough."

Faye grumbled about being able to sleep just fine before he'd woken her up, and stole a cigarette out of his pack.

"Besides, I wanted to see for myself. you know, about those so called "modifications," it was really eating at me. But I have to say, I couldn't be that special, otherwise I wouldn't be so frigging tired. It's good to know that I'm just human after all."

Faye frowned, "That," she said, sweeping her hand toward the practice floor, "didn't prove anything, except that you weren't properly motivated." She lit her stolen smoke off his lighter as well, and inhaled deeply, savoring the flavor before she continued. "And that bit at the very end. talk about quick reaction time. it wasn't exactly super human, but I've never seen anyone, outside of the Barnum and Bailey, do anything like it." She blew the smoke back in his face, a smile now tugging at the corners of her mouth, "so what do you think of that?"

"I think I'd be safer under the big top, than here with you," he said after a moment. He leaned forward, close to her, and she could feel the heat coming off him, and smell the tang of sweat. She felt like she was under a spell. he'd put a spell on her, she swayed forward, closing her eyes. She felt his breath in her face. "I also think I need a shower," her skin prickled in goose bumps at the absence of his heat as he turned and walked away.

"So do you." He shot back over his shoulder, and her eyes flew open.

"What the!" She started to charge after him, then stopped herself. Christ. she had been ready to kiss him again. She needed to get into the bathroom, alright, but not to shower. She was going to puke.







He was on his way to bed after his shower, and Faye was nowhere to be seen. She must have already headed to her room. He closed his eyes. He'd almost done it again. He'd almost let himself... He threw his door open, perhaps a little more violently than necessary. He wouldn't even allow himself to *think* about what he'd almost done.

"You seem to have a lot of anger."

The voice startled him, and he flipped the light on, illuminating his surroundings, and exposing the woman sitting the chair by his window. Irma. God, what did she want? Not... oh, man, he really wasn't in the mood.

She seemed to read his mind, because she shook her head, a queer smile crossing her face. "I just want to talk."

He nodded, and sat down on the edge of his bed. "Shoot."

"I've done something terrible," she said, her eyes now brimming with tears, "and you're the only person I can talk to about it." She rushed over to him, throwing her arms around him, and sobbing into his shoulder. He was stunned. Not sure what else to do, he patted her head.

"It's okay, we went over this. We didn't do anything wrong. Faye and I have no relationship."

Irma pulled away, sitting on her knees in front of the bed, and smiled, wiping her tears. "Funny... if you and Faye have no relationship, then why do you assume that I'm talking about us?"

"I...er..." he was at a loss. "Well, if not us, then... what else?"

Irma sighed. "Faye sent me to return John's ring to him. And when I went to his house, he invited me in," she turned to Corbin, looking him in the eyes, "I used you, I'm sorry, but I think you used me too, and just didn't know it."

"What are you talking about?"

"John was hurting and... I wanted to make the pain stop."

Realization finally dawned on Corbin, "so you slept with him?"

Irma nodded. "I don't want you to think I'm a slut, or anything. I don't know, I guess I just felt like we had gotten pretty close while he was being held by Dimitri."

Corbin smiled faintly, "I see... and then morning came, and you weren't what he wanted."

She nodded. Corbin could be really perceptive when he wanted to be.

"So you come home, hurt, rejected and spiteful, hating Faye for having John's heart, and you sleep with me. For what? Revenge?" He was laughing now, "how did you think that would get back at Faye?"

Boy, sometimes he could be pretty perceptive... and sometimes, he could be downright thick. "I guess I just thought that maybe you two had gotten close while John was held captive too."

Corbin lit a cigarette. "Guess again."

"Well?" Irma asked, after a moment.

"Well...?" he echoed.

"I've just told you this horrible thing I did, and now I want some advice."

"Oh, well in that case, try not beating yourself up about this. You were, after all, there to give him his ring back. This was a guy that Faye obviously wasn't in love with, the only person who was hurt by what you did, it would seem, was you." He smile at her, "so stop carrying around that guilt."

She smiled back, actually feeling a little better. She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for listening," she whispered in his ear, then got to her feet.

Corbin watched her walk out the door. He had a feeling that things would work out for her.









Faye shoveled her eggs into her mouth, but she didn't taste them.

She had decided that she hated Irma. she wasn't really sure why, since there was no way it could have anything to do with the way the short, attractive, *available* woman talked so easily with Corbin. They had always been friendly with each other, sure, but now they chatted like best friends, like they sheared some sort of secret. It was driving Faye mad.

Okay, well, maybe she didn't hate Irma, she really had no reason to. Even if there was something going on there, which, she assured herself, there wasn't, then it really wouldn't concern her.... except... except... if she closed her eyes, she could still feel Corbin's lips against hers, and the heat of his body... so close, like in the training room.

She shook her head, as if to empty it of such thoughts, and sighed at yet another spoon full of eggs that hung almost at her mouth. She dropped her spoon and let it clatter against her plate, metal meeting glass and playing a jarring tune. She pushed her seat back, smiling to herself as both Corbin and Irma looked her way. She didn't look at either one, though, as she went into the sitting room, and turned on the TV.

She couldn't wait for Jet and Ed to get there, so that they could get focused back on the task at hand... dealing with Eve.





"Huh, wonder what her problem is," Corbin said around his cigarette. It wasn't really like Faye to just walk out and leave her breakfast half eaten. He looked at his own empty plate, then back at hers, and with a shrug, dumped the remainder of her eggs and toast onto his, before he continued eating.

He caught the stern look Irma gave him out of the corner of his eye, and turned to her, disarming grin once again plastered to his face. "Wouldn't want it to go to waste, would we?" She ruffled his hair, like he was a misfit kid, and smiled.

"You know," she said, completely off the subject, "I thinks it's time you had a haircut."

Corbin swallowed his mouthful of food with an audible "gulp," and looked at her with what could only be described as pure shock. "What's wrong with my hair?" he patted his own head, as if to reassure himself that his bushy green-tinged locks were still in place.

"Nothing, really, it's just a bit, er, wild." She sat down next to him, "don't you think you'd feel better with a little change?"

He raised one eyebrow, "Whad'ya have in mind?"







Faye felt a muscle in her eye twitch when she went back through the kitchen, and Corbin and Irma were both gone. She didn't have long to dwell on it though, because a moment later, Jet and Ed came strolling down the hallway from the hangar.

Faye almost asked them how they'd gotten in without her opening the hangar for them, but then she remembered who she was dealing with here. Edward *was* a famous hacker, was she not?

"Hey, guys," she greeted them, weakly. "Hope you've got good news for me."

Ed smiled, and flipped the computer disk in the air like a coin, before catching it deftly between her thumb and forefinger. "Well, it's news, anyway, and it gives us a better idea of what we're up against." She handed it over to Faye, who, took it gingerly, as if it were made of crystal, and walked back into the sitting room, where her laptop waited on the coffee table. She inserted the disk, and opened it up.

There were several files on the disk, mostly archived syndicate memos, but also, she noticed, a pretty thorough record of Dr. VanHausen's diary entries, pulled off of his computer with great skill. The earliest of these was dated March 4th, 2070, the latest was dated November 5th, 2073... a little over 2 years ago.

"No current stuff?" Faye asked, opening a random entry, and beginning to read.

"Nope, not that I could locate, anyway," Ed replied.

"His diary entries toward the end talk about how he's getting paranoid that he's being watched, and his actions recorded," Jet offered, "so I think he switched over to doing his journal in hard copy. He was afraid of computer hackers.

"Don't know why..." Ed said innocently, but the smile on her face was anything but.

"This is a jumping off point, at least. did you pre-read these all, or just selected ones?"

"Are you kidding me?" Jet asked incredulously, "There's enough reading material there to keep me busy for a week. Ed and I read a few of them, but it barely even scraped the surface."

Ed dropped down on the couch, "You've really got your work cut out for you, Faye," she said. Faye resisted the urge to shove her laptop down the hackers grinning throat.

"Of course I do."

"Of course you do, what?" came Corbin's voice from the door.

Three pairs of eyes looked all at once, and three faces received three similar shocked expressions. Corbin's hair was shaved close on his neck, and by his ears, and was only slightly longer on the top.

"What?"