This episode carries a content warning: While still PG-13, much of the episode deals with mature themes including rape and torture; if you are of a sensitive disposition and/or these themes make you nervous, this is the point to bail. Reading on is at your own risk.

~*~

Interrogate

Eric felt groggy. He had an outsize headache, which was making it excruciatingly difficult to think about anything else. That in itself wasn't enough to make him suspicious, but the low-grade pain buzz from the rest of his body was. It was a familiar feeling. An uncomfortably familiar sensation, but the recollection of it remained just beyond his reach.

Something had happened.

Something bad.

There had been a fight, he thought. Beyond the blinding pain in his head, there was the impression of a scuffle, but pain in neither head nor rest of body matched the after effects of a fight, exactly.

Not any old fight at any rate.

But there was a memory, far older than the scuffle, that was lurking, just out of sight.

A little of the blinding pain dissipated, allowing him to take a little more notice of his surroundings. Over the complaints of anguished nerves, he realised he was lying flat on his back, on some sort of hard pallet. Somehow, that surprised him. Shouldn't he have been...

...kneeling? Or hanging? Arms chained above his head? Blood in his mouth for having bitten his tongue?

Eric froze. He knew the way this felt. Had felt it on two occasions, both at the hands of a man mercifully dead for more than ten years.

The reminder that Zafar bel Abis was dead -- and Eric knew he was because he had been the one to kill the sadistic bastard -- was enough to prevent any sense of true panic. But if it hadn't been bel Abis -- or one of his minions -- who would have been wielding a taser?

~*~

Somehow, Lexia wasn't entirely surprised to find herself back in the canteen. The moment Gina had asked Ben if she could 'borrow' both Lexia and John for the administration department -- at least for the day -- she knew that while John might be taking care of administrative tasks, that wasn't what Gina had in mind for her. And here we are, Lexia mused, nursing the cup of hot chocolate Gina had bought her.

"So," said Gina, easing down into the seat opposite. "I'm not gonna ask if you want to talk about 'it' because I figure you don't." Lexia said nothing. "But I also figure that whatever 'it' is, you do need to talk."

Lexia said nothing and studied the tabletop that separated her from Gina. It didn't seem like enough somehow.

"I'll let you in on something," Gina continued matter of factly. "Bottling 'it' up like this -- keeping whatever 'it' is to yourself -- is gonna make things hurt all the more when 'it' finally does come out."

"How do you know?" Lexia retorted angrily. "You don't know anything about it."

"Don't I?"

Gina's tone of voice was odd. Part rueful, part wry, part wistful, it was odd enough that despite herself, Lexia found herself looking up, curious. The expression on Gina's face was more rueful than anything.

"I've been where you are," Gina continued gently. "Something happened to me. Something that I thought had changed me and that would change how everyone else viewed me."

~*~

"Get up!"

The voice was loud and harsh and it set Eric's head throbbing once more. Before he could do more than groan, hands seized him by the shoulders and hauled. Searing agony lanced through his body at the sudden movement and for a full minute, the world greyed almost to the point of unconsciousness.

"Move."

Even as his vision was finally clearing, Eric found himself been propelled forwards without being really offered a chance to gain his balance. He stumbled and incurred another blast of pain. What the hell was going on? Where the hell was he?

A squint in the direction of his captor told him nothing. All he could learn was that the other man was taller than he was and was wearing some kind of grey coverall. And then he found himself stumbling again, which turned his attention away from where he was and what was going on and refocused it on just simply staying on his feet.

They reached a blank door -- at least, it looked like a door, although there was no sign of any open or close mechanism as far as Eric could see. The coverall-wearing man produced something akin to a garage door opener and pointed it at the door. The door swiftly slid aside. Even before it had stopped moving, Eric found himself being pushed through the aperture.

He fell. He knew it was going to hurt when he hit the ground. He tried frantically to regain his balance but to no avail. He went sprawling into the room beyond the door, and then the pain hit.

~*~

Gina watched as surprise and suspicion fought for dominance over Lexia's expression.

"What happened?" Lexia finally asked.

"I grew up in New Jersey, just over the state line from New York. When I was sixteen I took a job in my local Seven-Eleven. Just a weekend thing." Lexia nodded. "One of my colleagues was a boy -- high school senior -- I knew and who I thought was..." Gina paused to select the right word.

"You thought he was a hottie?" Lexia suggested, a small smile on her face.

Gina smiled back. "Yeah. He was definitely that. The football quarterback. Really built." At that, Lexia snickered a little. "We got rostered together most of the time, and, when we got off shift, he used to walk me home. He was sweet."

"Sounds it."

"One night -- Saturday evening, really -- he was walking me home. We were talking -- he was telling me about the upcoming game against Sayreville High. Almost out of nowhere, he said 'So -- you got a date for the dance next week?' I said I hadn't. He smiled. 'Wanna go with me?' he asked. I wasn't going to say no -- I mean, it's not every night of the week the starting quarterback asks you to go with him to a high school dance!"

Lexia nodded. "Sounds perfect."

Gina gave a faint smile. "It does. Too bad midnight came and the magic wore off."

~*~

The pain seemed to take forever to abate.

Maybe he blacked out a couple of times. That would explain it.

Or maybe it really had taken forever to subside.

No. Couldn't be that. No stubble. No real time passing.

Must just be fading in and out of consciousness.

"Listen up," ordered a voice.

Fractured focus knitted together again and Eric's first coherent thought was to tell the speaker to go to hell, but he now found himself suddenly unable to do anything but listen.

"You're currently under the influence of a drug called tmazacol. It's a little primitive, but somehow fitting." Instant nausea finally overcame the last remnants of the pain. Eric knew what tmazacol was. "I talk. You listen. I ask you questions, you answer. You refuse? Well you've already felt the pain that brings about."

There was a pause. Eric wanted to ask what was going on but the tmazacol kept his jaw clamped shut. It was a drug he was eternally thankful had only been a nasty rumour when he'd been in Kosovo -- Zafar bel Abis would have had a lot of fun with it. It worked as a mix of truth serum and will-inhibitor. In the face of anything his mind perceived as a direct order, he could do nothing but obey. Questions or suggestions provided him with a choice. Either answer or obey (and be forced to tell the truth or be utterly compliant), or resist and have every last shred of nerve and fibre explode into agonising pain.

It was no choice.

"What is your name and rank?"

"Myers, Eric. Captain. 569-34-9032."

"What is your occupation?"

"Myers, Eric. Captain. 569-34-9032." And then the pain began again.

~*~

Lexia looked puzzled. "What happened?"

Gina sighed. "We went to the dance. At least half the girls spent the whole evening glaring at me. I mean, here I was, just a sophomore, at a school dance...not only with a senior but the starting quarterback on the school's football team. If looks could have killed, I'd have been dead several times over. And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, he kissed me. 'How about we get some fresh air?' he suggested. He could have told me to jump off a cliff at that moment and I'd have done it," Gina admitted. "First time anyone had ever kissed me like that. He led me into the school grounds, and at first, it was nice. Walking with a cute guy who's paying attention to you..."

"It sounds romantic."

"It was. To start off." Gina sighed. The reflex to look down was strong, but doing that would wreck this. Lexia needed to see her; needed to know, so she forced herself to keep meeting the younger woman's gaze. "He kissed me again and this time, as nice as it was, I was more aware of what his hands were doing. 'C'mon,' he said when the kiss ended, 'lemme show you something.' I said 'I don't know...I'd kinda like to go back inside. It's kinda cold out here.' He just offered me a rakehell smile. 'I know a way you can warm up.' He kissed me again, hard. And he groped me. Harder. So hard, I had bruises across my chest the following morning. I said, 'No -- I don't...' And then I found myself under the bleachers on the football field, and he was kissing me again and groping me.

"The next few minutes were a blur," Gina continued quietly. "He raped me, all the while telling me 'You know you want this', and it hurt. God, it hurt. And when he'd finished, he kissed me again, and then he left me there. In the dirt and the garbage and in tears."

Lexia stared now, looking aghast and -- Gina noted -- just fractionally relieved. As if she realised she wasn't alone. That latter made Gina's heart sink; she'd been she'd been wrong. "What happened?" Lexia asked softly.

"I managed to get myself together enough to go home, but by the time I was home..." Gina stopped and shook her head. Lexia didn't need to hear the gory details. "I didn't want to tell anyone, because I figured that it was because of something I'd done, and that if people knew they wouldn't want anything to do with me." Gina wondered if Lexia realised she was nodding her head. Probably not. "But I then saw him, with another girl. Saw him with his arm around her...they were walking down the hallway at the high school."

"What did you do?"

"My first reaction was to get scared, then hurt, then I got very, very angry. I thought about what he'd done to me, I thought about her -- another starry-eyed girl, she was even younger than me, just a freshman -- and I knew I had to do something to stop him from ever hurting another girl again."

"Who did you tell?" Lexia asked.

"In the first place, my mom. That was the hardest thing of the whole mess -- I can't lie and tell you it was anything else. But when I'd finished, I felt a tiny bit better; a tiny bit less..."

"Wrong?" Lexia put in softly.

Gina nodded. "Yes."

"And did you manage it?" Lexia asked. "Did you stop him from hurting anyone else?"

Gina offered a smile. "Yeah. It wasn't easy -- but yeah, I did. Once I stepped forward, other people stepped forward, other things came to light..." Gina's smile strengthened. "It can be done. You can get through it." She leaned forwards, taking one of Lexia's cold paws in her hands. "Think you can manage that first step?"

There was a long moment, then Lexia finally said, "I think...I can try."

~*~

The questions abated, allowing the pain to recede, leaving Eric huddled in a ball on the floor of the room.

"Myers, why don't you make it easy on yourself here?" asked the voice presently.

"Go...to...hell..." Eric gritted as a response, precipitating another blast of searing pain.

"I can make the pain go away. Just tell me what I want to know."

Obstinately, Eric kept his mouth closed. This time the pain swelled until he was left shaking.

"Think of your family," the voice urged. "What would they think if you die here, over this?"

"They'd...know...why..." But he couldn't even finish the sentence before a fresh wave of pain hit.

"Tell me what I want to know!" the voice demanded.

Against his will, Eric found his mouth moving, the words coming, "I can't."

~*~

Lexia swallowed nervously and absently rubbed sweaty palms against her thighs as she waited outside her mother's office. It had seemed easy enough when she'd been sitting in the canteen, listening to Gina's story, but now standing here, waiting for Jen to return from the beach...

"Hey -- Lexia!"

At JJ's voice, Lexia tensed. She'd been avoiding him all day so far and her first impulse was to run, but even as she recognised that she also realised that at some point, she was going to have to face him.

"Lexia?"

Slowly, she turned to face him. He looked concerned. About her? "Hey."

"Are you OK?" he asked.

He really was concerned about her. "Yeah." The lie was automatic. She sighed and shook her head. "No." At that, JJ's eyebrows lifted and he looked even more concerned. "It's..."

"It's OK." JJ sighed. "Sorry -- I..."

"Wait!" Lexia surprised herself with that. JJ too, to judge by his expression now. "Look...I..." She hesitated. "It's complicated...and it's not your fault," she added hastily, as he opened his mouth. "I just...need some time." His shoulders slumped a little. "I...maybe...I need to talk to my mom...need to...to get my head straight...but -- maybe we could go for a drink. Maybe? Soon?"

JJ offered her a smile at that. "Of course. Whenever you're ready."

~*~

John balanced the small stack of folders on the plaster cast as he started to climb the stairs. This probably wasn't what Jackson had in mind when he said 'rest', but at least this meant he was being 'useful'.

He sighed. Eric's words were weighing heavily on him. "I am disappointed, but I am also very, very angry. What you did was extremely stupid and it could have got you killed."

John had squirmed at the assessment, unable to deny it, and he had squirmed even more when he'd finally understood what Eric's intent was behind the courses. What he probably tried to tell me over the weekend and I was too bone-headed to listen about, he reflected. I wanted to show off. I wanted to be a hero. I wanted to live up to his reputation. I screwed up.

He heaved a sigh as he reached the top of the stairs and turned to head towards the admin office and the filing room that was to be the home of the folders he was carrying. But as he reached the door, the sound of voices carried from around the corner. Peering around the corner, his eyes fell on Lexia and JJ.

John frowned, wondering what Lexia was doing up here -- and how it was she'd escaped from the filing tasks Gina had borrowed them for. As curious as he was, though, from the body language of both JJ and Lexia, it was obviously a private conversation, and he was about to head into the admin office when Lexia stood up on tiptoe and lightly kissed JJ on the cheek.

"Thanks for understanding," she said.

John felt sick.

Everything he'd done the previous day had been for Lexia. And yet here she was. With JJ. And definitely with JJ, judging by the way JJ leant down and returned the kiss.

He'd pissed his father off, got his wrist broken...now he'd lost the girl too.

~*~

The throbbing headache was back, and this time Eric could feel where it was they'd hit him to knock him out. It was throbbing as a counterpoint to the actual headache. Slowly, he put his fingers to the spot. They came away wet. It was bleeding. Not even the KLA had hit him that hard. Or had they used something with an edge?

He lay back on the pallet and closed his eyes. The headache was subsiding much faster this time, which was something of a relief, and as it subsided, it brought back memories. Not of his time as a captive of Zafar bel Abis, but of where he was, or more importantly, when. He remembered now, and somehow it was more alarming to know than not.

Time Force were supposed to be the good guys.

Weren't they?

~*~

Jen passed John on the stairs and noted the shell-shocked expression on his face. She frowned. She knew he'd been upset by what had happened to Eric, but John -- very like his father -- tended to choose the 'get mad' option before he did anything else, so either he'd tried something and it hadn't worked, or this was nothing to do with what had happened to Eric. And given everything, I hope it's the latter. I can deal with that. If it's the former... Jen shook her head.

She reached the top of the stairs, and passed JJ, also on his way down the stairs. Stranger and stranger... Then she rounded the corner to head into her office and found Lexia waiting outside it, and Jen found two and two coming together in her mind. JJ is sweet on her, John is sweet on her... Jen sighed. Oh boy.

"Mom?" Lexia's voice drew Jen's thoughts back to the present. "Can I talk to you?"

Jen nodded. "Of course." She opened her office door and entered, Lexia following. "What's wrong?" she asked, half expecting this to relate to either John or JJ -- or both, possibly.

"It's...um..." Lexia looked nervous. "It's about Mirracon...and what happened yesterday."

Jen sat down, heavily, in her seat. That was the last thing she'd been expecting, and to judge from Lexia's expression now, that was going to be the least of the revelations.

~*~

It was in the time ship, on the way to this place, that he'd been stuck with the tmazacol, Eric thought. Chisholm had been the one to do it -- Eric remembered now. It was after the scuffle. He hadn't been involved in that -- he'd been in prisoner containment, only able to watch what was going on around him, not take part. Chisholm had said,

"There's a change of plans. We're not going to headquarters."

"What do you mean?" Bunton had responded, puzzled.

Chisholm had smiled. "What I say." Then he had produced something that looked akin to a taser. "And if you don't shut up, you'll be joining him."

"That's an illegal weapon!" Bunton had objected. "You're not supposed...I'm calling command."

"Oh no you're not."

They had scuffled, briefly. Chisholm had been the victor -- unsurprisingly, considering he was armed and Bunton wasn't. Chisholm put Bunton into restraints, then he had turned his attention towards Eric.

"As you can see," Chisholm had explained, "The Master pays well. Oh, don't worry, you will be going to trial, but there's somewhere you have to go first..." And so saying, he had turned the taser on Eric. And that had been the last thing he remembered until he had come round in this cell -- wherever it was.

Hope Lucas has a plan 'b'', Eric found himself thinking, because I don't reckon plan 'a' is gonna work...

~*~

Kimberly groaned as she felt the time ship touch down. She hadn't felt as sick as this since before John was born.

"Quantum sickness," Lucas diagnosed. "It gets to most people."

"And we have to do that again to get back," Kimberly murmured, her stomach souring at the prospect.

"We can give you something for it on the return journey," Lucas promised. "C'mon. Sooner you start moving again the sooner it wears off."

"I'll take your word for that," Kimberly murmured, allowing Wes to help her from her seat. "And how come neither of you are sick?"

"I've done too much time travel for it to affect me any more," Wes explained as they started for the exit. "Believe me, first time I felt as sick as a dog."

As she reached the outside of the time ship, Kimberly realised that there was something of a welcoming committee waiting for them. Nadira was unmistakeable, but who the man waiting with her was, she didn't like to hazard a guess.

Nadira offered a smile. "Welcome back, sir." She then added, "And welcome, Kim, Wes. I'd say it was good to see you both..."

"But not under these circumstances," Wes finished. "It is good to see you, though -- and Jen sends her love."

"Anything to report while I was gone?" Lucas asked.

Nadira shook her head. "Been all quiet here. Oh, apart from one thing that came in just as I was heading down here -- Trip has the details. I think it's another Kerin Curve Ball."

Lucas just groaned.

"Um, excuse me," said the other member of the welcoming committee, who had so far been respectfully silent. "Dr Bennett sent me for the samples you collected, sir."

A knot formed in Kimberly's stomach at his words and she glanced at Lucas again. Was this the right person? Would the kids be all right?

"Ah -- Officer Drake." Lucas was smiling. Kimberly tried to relax, the name was the one Lucas had mentioned during the trip, but even knowing that she found herself nervous. "Yes, the samples are ready -- and you can tell Dr Bennett that I'll be down to see her in due course."

Officer Drake smiled widely at that. "Yes sir." He saluted smartly and headed into the time ship to collect the samples.

"C'mon," said Lucas, heading for the exit. "The quicker we get to my office, the quicker we can get things moving." Then in a lower tone he added, "And the sooner I can verify that the kids are OK."

~*~

The light came on in the cell, startling Eric from the doze he'd fallen into. He had a moment to process that, then the cell door opened and in stepped Chisholm and another man. The second man was wearing a white lab-coat over his clothing, which suggested to Eric he was probably a doctor of some sort.

"No, no -- don't get up, Captain Myers," Chisholm said. "In fact, you just lie there."

Eric inwardly cursed. There was clearly still some tmazacol running through his bloodstream, to judge by the way every impulse to move suddenly evaporated. How long did the damn stuff stay active, anyway? What was it Peterson had said about it?

"This," Chisholm continued, "is Dr Pearze." The doctor smiled pleasantly and nodded. "I can't risk you running off at the mouth, so the good doctor here is going to make you a little more...obedient." Chisholm smiled. Unlike Pearze, it was not a pleasant sight. "Tmazacol is all well and good for aiding interrogations, but..." Chisholm snickered and stepped back. "There are much better things available to us now."

Pearze stepped forwards, pulling a hypo-spray from his lab-coat pocket. "Don't worry, Captain Myers, you won't feel a thing." So saying, he pressed the injector against Eric's neck and discharged the contents into his blood stream.

There was a faint sting, which Eric barely had a chance to recognise, then everything went dim.

TO BE CONTINUED...