Disclaimer: See Ch 1.

They sat in the gym. Trinity was tentatively exercising the muscles in her abdomen and leg. She sat on the floor with her left leg stretched out in front of her, right foot tucked up to her groin as she reached down and grasped her toes.

"How is it?" asked Neo, sitting over by the wall.

She grunted softly. "Stiff. I've lost some flexibilty - the muscles are all tight." She leaned over, pulling the foot with her until she lay on her side with her leg sticking up in the air, held straight by her hand on her toes. "Doesn't hurt, though. Feels good to stretch again."

She rolled over to lie on her back, wrapping her arms behind her knees and pulling them close to her face, rolling her hips off the floor until her feet touched the ground behind her head. Her stomach muscles spasmed, but she held the position. Neo raised his eyebrows. "How flexible were you before?"

She sat up. "More than this," she said with a shrug, before pulling her legs apart into a wide V and leaning forward. She could lie almost flat on the ground, her arms stretched out straight in front of her. Her legs were not quite in a straight line, but came very close.

"Damn, girl. Doesn't that hurt?"

She lay back on the padded floor. "No. It feels wonderful. I can feel it now - it's healed. It feels great."

Neo smiled. "I'm glad," he said softly, and she turned her head to bestow upon him a dopey, lovesick smile.

He crawled across the small space between them and collapsed in an ungainly heap across her chest that forced her to exhale in a burst of air and some creative cursing. "Get offa me, you great lump of a man!"

"Nope," his voice came muffled from her arm, "Comfy here. Sleep."

She shoved at him, and he poked a finger into her ribs, making her squeal and squirm away. She twisted hard, rolling them over so she was lying across him, and reached for his hip where she knew he was ticklish. He caught her hand and tried to hold it, resulting in a match of tug-of-war that quickly descended into a juvenile wrestling match.

"Am I interrupting something?" asked Morpheus from the doorway.

Neo looked up. Trinity tried to look up, but he had her in a headlock and it was difficult. "No, sir," replied Neo cheerfully, then yelped and released her as Trinity pinched him hard on the backside.

Morpheus looked at her calmly and said, "I take the situation has been resolved satisfactorily?"

"Yessir," she said with a flushed grin, scooting backwards as Neo rubbed his posterior and eyed her suspiciously.

"Good." He paused and looked hard at both of them. "Is what Feather told me true?"

Trinity sat up straight and pulled away the top she was wearing to expose just enough skin to prove her point. "All better," she said calmly.

Morpheus raised an eyebrow. "Neo, did you so that?"

"I think so, sir. I don't know how, but I think I did."

"Could you do it again? On somebody else?"

Neo thought about it. "Probably not. The circumstances were sort of unique. I don't even know if I could do it again on Trinity."

Morpheus sighed. "Damn."

Neo shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry. You know if could..."

"But you can't." Morpheus gave a sort of sneezing laugh. "It's not like I haven't already been asking the impossible of you. It's just..."

"I know," said Neo softly. Morpheus had been given command of a large mobile force to drive off the sentinels. The line had held, but not without massive casualties, many of whom he knew well and felt personally responsible for. Some of the injuries had been absolutely horrific, and Morpheus had seen most of the victims, knew them well. He would want to heal them, if he could. "I'm sorry," repeated Neo quietly.

Morpheus shook his head. "It's okay." He looked from Neo to Trinity, who sat curled up, watching the conversation from wide eyes, back to Neo. "You two going to actually do anything today, or just sit around down here and play?"

"I'm voting for play," said Trinity with a small smile.

"Yeah, me too," said Neo.

Morpheus smiled tiredly and nodded. "I thought that might be the case. But just for today, okay? Tomorrow it's back to normal."

"Yes, sir," they chorused, and Morpheus turned to leave. Trinity took advantage of Neo's distraction to tackle him, and the game was on again