Murphy's fourth law: If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.

Sydney walked slowly over to the lone youth standing in the doorway of the room, leaning towards the fogged glass like she would rather be anywhere but there. Upon reaching her, he crouched down until they were at eye level, "Hello Riley, my name is Sydney, it seems that we'll be working together for a while." Standing up again, he shook off the feeling of foreboding that accompanied those specific words. This would not be another Gemini Project. "If you would follow me, I'd appreciate the chance to get to know you better." He offered genially, pushing open the door for her.

The girl bobbed her head shortly in understanding and Sydney reached out to place his hand on her shoulder to lead her out of the room; a habit left over from Jarod's days at the Centre. Jarod had always been desperate for human contact as a child, and it had been Sydney's own way of accommodating him. The cameras hardly allowed him to do more. Sydney was more than a little surprised though when she shirked back from him, biting her lip, and looking as though frightened. It stunned him, because Lyle had gotten close enough to touch her on multiple occasions that morning, and had done so too, and she hadn't seemed outwardly bothered by it at all. She looked even more surprised than he by the quick movement, and Sydney thought bitterly that Raines would probably skin her alive for shying away from him. The girl was probably expected to just stand there and take it like a dumb animal. He flinched inwardly and let his hand drop back to his side.

Raines had never approved of the amount of leeway Jarod was allotted during his childhood. He had constantly been requesting that a method of discipline be enforced on the boy. Sydney had, of course, been adamant against any such thing occurring. As the years went on and Jarod grew older, Raines' demands had become more infrequent. At the time, Sydney had thought of it as a blessing. He realized now that Raines had probably found, or created, a new experiment to try it on.

Stepping back a bit, so as to appear less threatening, Sydney motioned for Riley to precede him out of the large double doors and down the hall to the elevators. She did, relaxing just a little bit when he didn't move closer than an arms length away, even as he fell in stride with her. Riley looked around curiously as they walked, seemingly trying to find all of the new things that she had never seen before. Sydney watched her closely as they entered the lobby area of the floor. These areas always seemed to house the windows that never made it to the lower floors where the research subjects were kept. They gave an abundance of natural light to the tower, giving their clients the impression of a clean, efficient, place of business. Unfortunately, the ruse only worked too well; certainly in Jarod's time here the simulation requests had come in droves. However, upon entering the large lobby area at the end of the hall, the area that had Jarod bouncing off the walls in childish pleasure, she didn't show any outward sign of happiness at the crisp morning sun pouring in. Then again, maybe Raines didn't allow her to show that kind of emotion. In fact, she dropped her eyes down to the tiled floors, as though avoiding any temptation to look outside.

"So Riley, what do you think of this latest assignment?" Sydney began making conversation on their way into the elevator. He had a special reason for choosing this elevator, the one that was almost synonymous with Catherine's death; he wanted to test the girl's skills of observation. The youngster's chocolate colored eyes, so much like another pretender he knew, flicked immediately to the bullet hole in the back wall, before moving up to Sydney's face.

"I-I don't really know what to think... I've n-never done this sort of SIM b-before... and..." She told him, aborting the answer to just shrug her shoulders. He'd noticed the stuttering in Mr. Parker's office as well, though then he had attributed it to the caustic glare Lyle had been servicing her with. Sydney was doing no such thing now, and couldn't help but wonder at the apparent nervousness.

"Am I frightening you, somehow?" He asked, hoping to elicit a longer response.

"No." Well, so much for that bright idea.

"You seem... anxious. You're stuttering-- I didn't think Mr. Raines would allow that sort of thing."

"He doesn't." She said, folding her arms defensively in front of her, she took a step back from Sydney, then another, until she ran out of room in the small elevator. "I'm not afraid. I-I just don't talk right sometimes. So, sorry."

"You were going to say more, about the simulation. What was it?"

"Just... that I-I've never done this before; a project where I'm the same person over and over again. It sounds like I'll be reliving his life, al-all of the experiences that shape him into what he is t-today."

Sydney hadn't liked that aspect of the pretend either. Jarod, an intensely secretive person by nature, would see this as a gross invasion of privacy-- a veritable raping of his mind and soul. The guilt of knowing it was going to occur, and still doing nothing to warn the young man, left Sydney ill-at-ease.

"I-I guess I'm just hoping I do it correctly. The SIMs I've done to track down other...other people have always been interesting; the clues they leave behind can act as a... completely different way to get inside their head." Riley told him, something akin to eagerness bubbling below the surface, though she hid it well. She seemed to enjoy her work at the Centre in a way that Jarod had never shared.

Sydney watched her curiously as the elevator ground to a halt and they stepped off. Her attention had turned back to the matter of where they were going, though for the last few floors inside the elevator, it seemed as though the whole world to her was made up of that tiny hole in the back. Sydney couldn't for the life of him imagine why they hadn't repaired it yet. But as much as she had examined it back there, she had yet to say a word.

"You seemed mighty interested in something in that elevator." Sydney invited her question.

"Do you know where the bullet hole came from?" The question had fled from her mouth almost before he had finished speaking. The girl stopped rather suddenly once her sentence was finished, as though surprised by her own rudeness at nearly interrupting him. She swallowed and continued when Sydney gave no sign of dissatisfaction in her behavior, this time allowing her sentence out more slowly. "It's ob-obvious that someone was shot, but..." She let her sentence hang.

"A woman who worked here, a good woman who worked here, was murdered in that elevator." Sydney said seriously, making sure he caught her eyes as he said it.

"You kn-knew her?" Riley asked him quietly.

"Oh, very well. Catherine was a good friend of mine, but if you know what is good for your health you won't mention this conversation to Miss Parker. She won't be altogether too pleased." He told her seriously, though affording the girl a small smile to reassure her of her position on stable ground, at least with him. He wished he could show her that it was perfectly alright to be curious, but he was afraid of what she might allow to slip out in front of Raines or Lyle. Neither of the two men would have been nearly as forgiving as he, and things as they were, it seemed safer for the girl if he did not interfere too greatly with what her training demanded.

"Mr. Lyle wouldn't be pleased either." Riley muttered as they reached the doors to Miss Parker's office.

"I can imagine."

Riley followed Dr. Sydney into the room, discreetly observing her surroundings. The office was arrayed in bold, dark, colors that could also easily belong in a man's office, but the furniture in the room had a streamlined effect that showed that it belonged to a woman. There was a desk near the back of the room, a leather couch and two chairs near the front. Dr. Sydney indicated for her to sit, and she sank into the overstuffed armchair as instructed, allowing her feet to come up off the floor this time. She didn't like that he'd called her scared, because she wasn't; she wasn't allowed to be scared. Settling in properly seemed like it might change his mind.

"Well Riley, tell me about yourself." Sydney prompted her to start talking.

Riley's mind froze momentarily at his words. She didn't think anyone had ever actually made that request to her before, and naturally, she had no idea where to begin. What if she said something wrong? Was this a test?

"Is there anything sespific...specific you'd like to know Sir?" She asked him timidly, hoping for a better clue of how to respond.

"First of all, you can call me Sydney," he told her with a small chuckle "And secondly I just want to know more about you. What do you enjoy doing? What do you do to relax?"

Riley's eyebrows met in a sort of confused furrow. "There... There really isn't much for me to do when I'm not SIMing." She answered truthfully. "I was allowed to play chess once, but I haven't been given the opportunity to play since. Once the study was over I don't think Mr. Raines saw any point in having me play again." She told him bluntly, and Sydney was surprised by how well she seemed to recognize the fact that she was constantly being manipulated. "Sir?"

"Yes?" Sydney almost sighed in exasperation; she was never going to call him by his first name, was she?

"May I ask you a question?"

My, but isn't someone getting bold...

"Feel free to ask anything Riley, you don't need permission."

Riley frowned at his answer in a confused manner, but plowed on with what she had wanted to say anyway. "Did you..or..uh.. do you, know Jarod? You just... seemed pretty...erm... emotional, before I came in the room."

Sydney paused before answering. "I do know Jarod. I raised him actually; I acted as his mentor, much as Mr. Lyle does to you, with some minor changes." It looked to Riley as though he wanted to say more, but thought better of it. She wondered what it was that he wasn't voicing.

"I don't mean any disrespect Dr. Sydney, but... well... wouldn't the pursuit go better if the team were made up of people Jarod didn't know very well? P-people he wouldn't be able to m-maneuver?"

Sydney leaned back in his seat. Oh, she was definitely raised by Lyle-- he even had her thinking like him. "I can see your point Riley, in fact there are many people who rather I would not be on the team, Mr. Lyle and Mr. Raines among them, but the connection between Jarod and myself can go both ways."

Riley gave him a puzzled look "H-How?"

At least she, unlike others, was open to explanation.

"Because of that emotional connection, Jarod keeps in touch with us, outside of me, the only reason he has to do that is because the answers to his questions are all here, at the Centre. And for that matter, if all he wanted from the Centre were answers, he could probably just break in and find them, but he knows too many people here, gets involved in too many situations here, and he becomes careless." Sydney carefully avoided adding that Jarod also had such a connection with Miss Parker. Let that come out when it would.

Riley nodded her head in understanding before voicing her next thought. "What s-sort of questions?"

"What drives, what motivates Jarod, is the secret of who he is. Jarod has been slowly piecing back together the family he had before coming here."

The family that was taken from him, Sydney had wanted to say, but he knew that if he were to tell her anything like that it would only cause problems.

"If his answers are all in a place he doesn't want to be, then w-why bother asking the questions? I think... I think if I ever staged an escape like he did... I'd just put as much distance between here and myself as I could. N-not that I p-plan on leaving... wouldn't work anyway." The last part of her sentence was muttered under her breath, but Sydney caught it in spite of this. His interest piqued as she said that, the way she was looking determinedly at the floor suggested that she didn't fully agree with what she was saying, like the thoughts were forced into her head, and truth be told they probably were. Looking back, Sydney couldn't remember Jarod ever giving up hope that he would be able to leave the Centre at some point, to lead his own life, to govern himself.

I wonder...

"Why wouldn't it work Riley?"

Riley maintained her hard stare at the floor. "It j-just wouldn't."

"You can hardly say that if you haven't tried."

Her eyes stayed determinedly down on the floor as she choked out again, "It wouldn't."

Sydney sat forward at that, moving around in front of the desk to kneel down in front of the Pretender. He wished she would look up so he could see her eyes. "You've tried."

The young girl's head shot up in surprise "N-No I d-didn't!"

"Really?" Sydney gave her an incredulous look that said all too clearly that he didn't believe her.

"I-I don't want to talk about it." Riley mumbled to the floor "It's not important. I'm never doing that again."

Parker threw the doors of her office open wide at that moment and walked inside, her gaze resting on the young teenager sitting in one of her favorite chairs.

"So Syd, I thought Lyle said no two hour sessions, when do I get my office back?"

Dr. Sydney shrugged with a small smile and Riley watched their interaction carefully.

"When Lyle or Raines decides I've ruined their project enough for one day. If you really want it back I have absolutely no problem moving back to mine as long as you promise to tell Raines that you kicked us out."

"Syd, I'm not crazy, and I'm not suicidal... not this early in the morning."

Riley watched the banter between the two colleagues curiously. She couldn't imagine Mr. Lyle or Mr. Raines ever speaking like that to one another. The idea of them doing any such thing was ridiculous. The phone suddenly gave a piercing ring, causing Riley to jump in her chair, and Miss Parker picked up the receiver and answered with a "What!" This didn't seem to line up with most of what Riley knew about proper phone etiquette, but she might be wrong... Riley watched as Miss Parker put the phone on speaker.

"My, but somebody's having a bad day," A cheerful voice on the other end of the line answered her "It's a bit early to start in on the vodka, don't you think?"

"Which is why I was about to get an Advil. Please Jarod just get it over with, tell me what you want me to know then hang up, we all know that you will eventually."

"Oh so suddenly I can't just call in to check on my favorite stalkers?"

"No Jarod, you can't."

"Geez, why don't you just say that you don't want me to call anymore? I won't. But don't expect anymore clues either." He said teasingly.

Miss Parker caught his tone easily and retorted in a taunting manner of her own. "But if I didn't have anymore clues then I wouldn't have any way to find you, and you know that I just love our little meetings."

Riley turned in her chair as the door behind her opened again and Willie poked his head in. She gave a silent wave goodbye to Dr. Sydney before heading over to the stern looking sweeper, following him out the door and missing the rest of the conversation with Jarod. It was plain to her that whatever Jarod might say on the phone probably ran under Mr. Lyle's category of inappropriate topics of conversation. She followed the sweeper down the hall, wincing at the vice-grip he had on her upper arm. The dark sweeper never talked, keeping a stony face throughout the trip back to her room. Riley didn't like talking with the sweepers in any case. She had much more important things to mull over on her own. Dr. Sydney for instance.

His connection to Jarod made him suspect, because his attachment could color his pursuit of him. And he had behaved so strangely-- everything against what she had been taught. Call him by his first name? Ask any question she wanted? They were liberties she was almost too afraid to even think about. And he had an unerving amount of interest in her.

Her headache flared up behind her temples and she dropped the subject in her mind. She didn't want to think of it. She just wanted to go back to her lonely-feeling room and try to catch some sleep. Simple dreams for a simple life that appeared not nearly so simple, anymore.

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