Biggs strolled into Joshua's apartment to see if Lucy was still with him. He'd searched all around the city and hadn't found her. The image he stumbled upon was quite beautiful and he cursed himself for noticing. The back of Lucy's head faced him, her slender neck straight as tendrils of blond hair fell over her shoulders. Joshua was painting her. Finally, he paints something beautiful, Biggs thought to himself. He walked closer to her. Joshua didn't acknowledge him, obliviously absorbed in his work. Biggs placed his hands on Lucy's shoulders and she yelped, bolting from the chair. Biggs started to laugh, but stopped when he saw the look on her face.
"Lucy, I didn't mean to scare you. I figured you'd heard me come in."
"No! You were completely silent!"
Biggs was glad she wasn't frozen. He'd had no idea she was so jumpy. He wanted to know what had happened to Lucy that made her so terrified of everything.
"Guess it's a training hazard."
Lucy crossed her arms. Biggs continued, "Why are you so jumpy, Lucy?"
Lucy was shutting down. Her eyes were dark and her facial expression was hard.
"I'm not. I just didn't hear you and you surprised me."
Her blue eyes were dull now and Biggs felt slightly guilty. Lucy turned towards Joshua.
"Can we finish this later?"
"Sure. Joshua can wait." Joshua replied, sensing her discomfort.
Lucy brushed past Biggs and left the apartment. Biggs started to follow her, but Joshua stopped him.
"Lucy sad, wants to be alone." Biggs realized the truth in Joshua's words and stayed.
Lucy liked the view of Seattle from the roof. She could see all the craziness below; National Guard swarming around, protesters for both sides, onlookers. It was fascinating and as an observer she felt more in power and less obvious. Whenever she was with people, she felt like they all knew and she was so dirty. She leaned against the cement rail and stared down. She heard the roof door open and bang shut.
"Gettin' ready to jump?"
Lucy turned to Max. "Naw. Did Biggs send you up here?"
"No. I like it up here. It's like my replacement Space Needle. I come up here to think."
Lucy nodded. "It's nice up here."
Her voice was distant and detached. Max noticed immediately.
"What's wrong, Lucy?"
Lucy shook her head and slid down the rail.
"Nothing's wrong."
Max raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Right."
She took a seat next to her, stretching her long legs out in front of her.
"Why'd you deny what happened in front of Alec and Biggs?"
"Nothing happened. You make everything sound worse that it was, Max."
"You forget I was there. You can't lie to me."
"So he beat me. He beat you, too. But nothing else happened. You have a huge imagination and you're making my childhood sound like a soap opera."
"He came into our room at night and took you away. By yourself."
Lucy shook her head in denial. Max watched her tremble like a leaf, her arms now folded in front of her like a shield. Lucy felt like she had to protect herself against Max? That confused the transgenic even more than she already was.
"You're insane."
Lucy jumped to her feet, wanting this discussion to end.
"You know I'm right. You know I'm not crazy." Lucy darted to the roof door, ignoring Max's last accusations. Max stayed seated. She'd heard of people living in denial, or blocking bad things out of their memory, but Lucy's reaction seemed much worse than any basic human reaction would be. Max felt the familiar twinge of guilt ride up her spine for never fighting back against Mr. Barrett and protecting herself and Lucy. She had the strength, she should have used it. She shouldn't have just left Lucy by herself. She should have waited, gotten the courage to fight Mr. Barrett without worrying about them discovering what she was. Max groaned, the feeling of peace that usually came from the roof no where near. She reluctantly stood up, tired of thinking about the problem and walked on down the stairs to find out if Dix and Luke had had any success.