Disclaimer: I don't have permission to write this. Darn =
AN: For those of you who reviewed, thank you very much, but I had to remove this story and resubmit it because it was never showing up on the listing.
AN: This takes place after IOTH
3 months earlier - Lyle's Office
Lyle looked at the five sweepers who were hunched over battered and bruised in various degrees. "What happened to you? I told you to take her when she was already in the Renewal Wing," he addressed them sharply.
"We did," Willie carefully spoke. Easily half of his face swollen, his bottom lip cut so severely that even those simple words were enough to make it start to bleed again.
"Well," Lyle placed his hands on his hips and sneered. "What happened, then?"
"She did," Willie answered concisely.
Lyle chuckled and took inventory of the five . . . "Wait, didn't I send six of you?"
"Johnson," Stan's voice broke off to cough and wheeze before continuing. "Johnson didn't make it."
Lyle arched an eyebrow and looked at Stan. The man was carefully holding his right arm to his side, protecting himself, and precariously balanced on his left leg so that he looked like he was going to topple over any second. The rest of the men didn't look to be in much better shape. Two of them were distinctly hunched over in a posture that bespoke of shattered genitals.
"Good thing she was already in Renewal Wing then, what would have happened if you had had to transport her?" Lyle sneered, feeling the rising of a familiar lust when he thought of his twin in combat. She was just so . . . maginificent.
2 ½ months ago - Sydney's Office
"I don't believe it, and I'll tell you why," Broots mumbled.
Sydney looked up from his paperwork and glanced at his worried friend and coworker. "What don't you believe?" he questioned before thinking. As soon as he said the words, he knew the answer and a resigned look settled on his face.
"She's not 'reassigned,' that's what I don't believe, Sydney," Broots burst out in controlled anguish.
Sydney refrained from sighing through long practice and his own personal belief that psychiatrists didn't sigh, it looked bad to their patients. "Broots, I know this has been hard on you . . ." he started.
"No, it's not that," Broots waved a hand to stop Sydney's repeated calming attempts to help Broots accept the fact that Miss Parker had been transferred, rather abruptly he admitted - but this was the Centre, back to Corporate.
"What I am talking about is that Mr. Lyle is much too happy, Mr. Raines is much too quiet and a lot of the sweepers look like someone has worked them over. Do I need to point out whom we know that could provoke such varied responses?" Broots insinuated with a sly look.
Sydney started to repeat his familiar arguments when he stopped and thought about what Broots had pointed out. He had to admit he had felt disturbed by Parker's abrupt disappearance and the rather stilted email she had sent telling him that she had been pulled from the pursuit of Jarod and back to Security at Corporate. The email had lacked a certain . . . sarcasm and, he had rather expected a telephone call by now. Sydney had felt they had transcended being members of the same pursuit team and had morphed into a family unit, dysfunctional of course, but still a family.
"I'm afraid I have to agree with you," Sydney acknowledged.
Broots looked up sharply, surprised by Sydney's acquiescence without a lengthy argument.
"It does strike me that Miss Parker would not leave . . . us so abruptly and without a parting shot of some kind," he chuckled at the thought and even Broots had to grin and nod.
"Yeah, it would be the perfect Nyah, Nyah moment."
"Perhaps a scan of any new projects . . ." Sydney trailed off.
"I'm on it," Broots confirmed.
2 ½ months ago Renewal Wing
"How's it going?"
"She's a feisty one, I'll say that for her," Dr. Cox replied with more than a little admiration in his tone.
Lyle glared at him. "Just remember our goal, Doctor," he emphasized the title, gritting his teeth. No one gets to play with his sister, no one but him.
Dr. Cox smiled his most serene smile and chuckled without humor. "No need for threats, Mr. Lyle, my admiration is purely professional. We both know that Miss Parker lacks the . . . accouterments that I require for any kind of nonprofessional interest."
Lyle relaxed, remembering Dr. Cox's peculiar requirements. No, Miss Parker would never be a candidate for Dr. Cox's games. He rubbed his stub, half-hoping the experiment wouldn't succeed just so he could . . . but, no, not that. He had to stay positive. The Triumvirate seat was worth more than a few moments of pleasure, though he was sure Miss Parker could provide hours . . . Lyle cut off his thoughts, growing uncomfortable with restraint.
"I called you down here because I thought you might want to watch the next mapping," Dr. Cox continued, either unaware of Lyle's thoughts or deliberately ignoring that awareness. He flicked the switch, lighting the room next door, the window linking the rooms revealed a sedated Miss Parker strapped to a table, clad in a shapeless hospital gown with an IV dripping slowly into her left arm and a bowl-like device positioned over her head. Another switch flicked and a partially colored map of a brain appeared on the screen in front of the two men.
"Oh?" Lyle questioned. "What are you mapping today?"
"Her pleasure centers," Dr. Cox said with a cold smile. "Particularly the hypothalamus."
2 ½ months ago on the table
Miss Parker floated on a sea of nothingness. The whispers in her head were warning her of many things but none of them made any sense. In fact, nothing made any sense. Not now. It was just too much trouble to try to figure out what was happening. She just floated along, humming a little ditty she had heard a long time ago. Someone had taught it to her when she was a child. How did it go? Oh yes, "Cree craw toads feet, geese walk barefoot."
The buzzing in the room rose to an annoying level and just as Miss Parker was about to say something scathing, pleasure flowed over her like a wave of sensation. She arched against the straps, gasping as all of her senses were tantalized and pleased.
2 ½ months ago Renewal Wing
Dr. Cox's lips lifted in a genuine smile as another section of the brain map filled in with electronic color, throbbing. "She has an extraordinary ability to feel pleasure," he murmured, quite impressed. It was almost enough to consider changing his preferences, at least for a night.
Lyle watched, fascinated, his eyes locked on his sister's almost comatose body reacting to unseen forces. Her skin flushed and glistening and even through the walls and double-pane glass he could hear her groans. She was magnificent.
"It will," he had to pause and lick his suddenly dry lips. "It will work, then?"
"Oh yes," Dr. Cox confirmed. "Better than we had thought."