Heisenberg led Circe back through the factory and to the outside world. She would do less damage if she lost control, but she felt so vulnerable doing it out where it was so open. Anyone could waltz on up and see what was happening. It could blow their cover completely if it happened at the wrong time.

"You ready, buttercup?" she heard Heisenberg ask. A metal chair flew from, well, Circe had absolutely no idea, but it landed close to where they had trained all those days ago. "Sit. I'm gonna ask you some questions. See if it rattles any of those gears in that pretty little mind of yours."

She obediently walked over with a sluggishness to sit down in the chair, using her hair to cover the blush on her cheeks his words had caused. It was colder than the air outside. The weather seemed like it was getting cooler as the days went by; it would probably be winter here soon.

Circe looked up at the cloudy sky. There was something about the way they were floating that made her get a feeling of longing she couldn't place yet.

"Okay. So," he gestured outward with his hands, making sure that she was looking at him instead of above. "This is going to be a bit tedious, bear with me. What's your name?"

Circe tilted her head to the side and her brow dipped. She already knew her name, and she was certain he also knew her name. It was one of the first things she found out about herself. Perhaps, this is what he meant about being tedious. "My name is Circe," she replied, but her expression didn't change from one of confusion.

"Good. Now, how old are you?"

"Oh. Uh," this one made her think. She had no idea how old she was. She didn't even know how old she was during the one memory she was able to recover. "I don't know."

"That's fine. Just test questions. Just make sure you think about them when I ask," he was crouching now, looking up at her in the chair. "Where are you from?"

"I'm from…" she knew where she was from, at least, she could make an educated guess. She was from some lab, some facility, or hospital, but she didn't know any details. "I'm from...an experimentation place?"

"Well, sweetheart, that's something! Keep thinking about that," he encouraged, as he stood up to start walking around her in the chair. "What can you tell me about this...experimentation place?"

She felt like she had a lot to say now, despite only having one memory to go off on. "What do you want to know?" she asked.

"Everything you know," he was behind her now, close. "Close your eyes. What do you see?"

Circe looked at a particularly long weed growing near her feet before she closed her eyes. There was a pang of panic that suddenly filled her chest. She did not want to do this.

You're safe. You're safe.

She took a deep breath.

You're safe.

"I remember...the room smelled clean," her voice sounded far away, at least to her ears. She let herself go back to the beginning of the memory, but only as if she were viewing it from above. It was moving in slow motion. "Everything is white. The walls, the floor. There is no carpet."

"Is there anything on the walls?" Heisenberg's voice was far away, too, just like hers.

She tried to focus. "Yes. Yes, there are...pictures." Everything seemed so muddy. All movement had stopped.

"What kind of pictures?"

"Drawings," she said. "Drawings I made…" Things started to clear. Not completely, no, but enough to see. "I think...I think one is of me and Doctor Kramer."

"Tell me who Doctor Kramer is?" His voice was above her now, floating and disembodied.

"Doctor Kramer…" she moved her sights to the scene occurring near the bed. The doctor was holding a girl in clear distress by the shoulders. He so desperately wanted, no, needed her to understand. "He was my doctor...he wanted to keep me safe. He cared about me."

"What did he do for you?" she was asked.

Things started to shift. The room was the same, but the girl (who she still felt so disconnected from) was now on the floor, lying on her front; feet dangling in the air. Circe noticed she didn't have the reddish tints on her skin. The doctor was across from her, cross-legged, as he pointed at a drawing that was between them. "He would spend time with me…talk to me like I was normal…"

"What else?" his ghostly voice asked.

The room then morphed drastically. The walls were changing to make the room wider, and they were no longer in what she assumed was her room. It was almost like the room Mother Miranda had set up for her, but it had much more equipment, and it was much more white. Everything was white.

"I'm...I'm someplace different," she said.

"Where are you? Describe it," he quipped.

"It's a room with all kinds of machines and equipment," she looked around. There was an operating table on the far side of the room along the wall. The girl was sitting on it, looking at her feet with a sad expression. She looked younger. "I'm on a table."

"Anyone else there with you?" His voice was moving slowly around her.

"Yes...Doctor Kramer is here. He doesn't look happy with you," the memory was moving slowly still. She could hear him talking to her as he pointed at her as one would point at a puppy who had just used the bathroom in the house.

"Why is he unhappy?" He sounded curious.

She tried to focus on what he was saying. She moved closer, trying to zero in on the conversation itself, but then she felt a tug in her gut, some force pulling her towards the girl. But it was her. It was Circe. They were the same person, just at a different age, at a different time. She had to accept that.

After something that resembled a blink, Circe was looking through the eyes of her child-self, and down at her feet swinging off the side of the table.

"You can't keep biting people, Circe," Doctor Kramer had said, wiggling his finger at her. His voice was filled with disappointment.

"They called me a freak," she whispered, lip pouting, vision slightly blurred from threatening tears.

"That doesn't mean you get to bite them," he moved to sit next to her on the table. "If someone calls you a freak just come to me, and I will deal with it, okay?" He patted her on the head, similarly to the way Heisenberg does.

"Will you?" the child asked, looking up at him with her pink eyes. "Will you make them stop?"

Doctor Kramer smiled at her, the corners of it touching his eyes. He looked much older up close like stress had overcome him. "I'll make them stop, sweetheart."

There were a couple of bangs on the door. They were loud and demanding, and it only took a second before the door opened itself, before Doctor Kramer could even address it.

A man in a rather expensive-looking gray suit walked in, followed by two armed guards - like the ones from the first memory. This man had blond, slicked-back hair, and he was much younger than Doctor Kramer. He had narrow sunglasses on, and when he stopped a few feet away from them, he took them off, placing them in his breast pocket.

"Bailey sent me to talk to you," he was addressing the doctor, she knew that, but he was eyeing her with near contempt. "It's about the subject. Come with me."

"Can't it wait, Langley? I'm in the middle of-"

"No. Now," his word was final. "I'll be outside. Don't make me wait," he then walked out, the guards following after and shutting the door loudly behind them.

Circe looked up at Doctor Kramer. "You have to leave," she said sadly.

"I'll be back inside right after to take you to your room," he gave her a pat on the back. He proceeded to stand, give her one more reassuring smile, and then walked out of the room.

Circe knew the subject Langley referred to was definitely her, which meant that he wanted to talk to Doctor Kramer about her. She didn't like Langley. He was a meanie. He always ignored her whenever she tried to talk to him.

In a silent flash, Circe had crouched down at the door with her ear pressed firmly against it.

"-and she isn't improving fast enough this time. The only thing she can do is move fast and bite people," Langley was saying with a silky voice. "If you don't do something about this-"

Doctor Kramer cut him off, though he still sounded professional. "I'm doing the best that I can, Langley, but my funding was cut this month! I haven't been able to make much progress, and I was dealing with the biting right as you interrupted-"

"I don't give a damn about your funding cut and I can interrupt you any time I please. Bailey made that decision because we had to reset her too many times this year," his silken tone has a bit of a bite to it now.

A sigh came from Doctor Kramer. "She...she isn't coping well this time. She's been having nightmares about her past, I just-"

Langley didn't care about the doctor's exasperated words. "I don't want to hear any more excuses. I came here to pass a message. Fix. This," he said, low and demanding.

It sent a shiver down Circe's spine. What did he mean by "reset" her?

Then it all clicked. Resetting. Lost memories.

They had been erasing her memory to make her a blank slate. They wiped her mind completely clean so that they could mold her into something they could use. A toy, a plaything.

An experiment.

This infuriated Circe. She swung the door open so hard it slammed into the wall and broke off the top henge. "You've been erasing my memory!?" Circe screeched. Even for a child, the reverberations of her voice boomed around the corridor.

Doctor Kramer and the guards all gave her a shocked expression. Not Langley though. He just looked at her with that contempt in his eyes. He did sigh, however, like this was a mild inconvenience for him.

They said nothing.

"Answer my question!" she demanded, taking a few steps towards them. "You've been erasing my memory, haven't you!"

The doctor looked at her, pleading in his eyes. He raised his hands in surrender. "Circe, I'm so sorry, I can expl-"

"Restrain the subject," Langley said calmly, gesturing vaguely towards the guards. "Quickly now. It bites," he sneered directly at her, taking casual steps backward, and behind the protection of the guards.

She hated him. She wanted to bite him.

"No!" She readied herself as one of the guards was coming at her now, but he wasn't holding his gun right. He underestimated her for her age and size. Darting at him with her enhanced speed, she took his arm and slammed him against the wall.

"Circe, no!" Doctor Kramer tried to go to her, but a guard pushed him back hard. He fell back on an idle medicine cart, sending various pills and vials scattering about on the floor.

Circe was barely conscious of this, as she was now wrestling with another guard who had gotten his hands on her shoulders and held her in place. She bent her knees as far as she was able, then sprang up, catching his chin with the top of her head with a thud.

The guard cried out and let her go. He stumbled backward into another guard, and they both fell to the floor.

"Circe, please! Please just listen to me," he was crying now, full of such turmoil, still trying to pry his way out of the one holding him back. "Circe, sweetheart, please. Please, let's just talk about this-"

"No! No, you've been lying!" Circe growled, facing him full on now. Her fury was suffocating, tears were streaming. "You're bad! You're just a liar! I don't talk to liars! I didn't ask for this! I didn't ask for any of this!"

"Neither did I," Langley said.

Snap!

It was like a hot skewer shot through her shoulder, and Circe found herself screaming out in agony. She looked down and reflexively grabbed at it, discovering some kind of dart had been fired at her. She pulled it out quickly, scared of what it might do, but the damage was already done.

Time simultaneously moved much too fast and much too slow, and she looked to her right with slowly blinking eyes to see Langley reloading the weapon he had just fired at her; something she had never seen before.

But what if Circe had seen it before. What if it had already been used on her and the memory was just stolen from her.

Thinking about this made her blood boil, and she let out a shriek in his direction. She was about to pounce, when he fired again, this time the pain sending white lights in her vision.

It hit her right in the middle of her chest.

As Circe fell to her knees, Doctor Kramer had not stopped his protests and pleaded for all of this to just cease. Darkness coated her vision. The guard letting the doctor go so that he could cradle her was the last thing she saw.

Bolting out of her sleep was beginning to become a regular thing for Circe, and she did just that on Heisenberg's couch. It was a split second from being forced unconscious, and she was gasping.

"Whoa!" Heisenberg was there now, next to her on the couch. He was tentatively rubbing on her shoulder, on her knee.

This wasn't enough. It was never enough. A whole other instinct took over and she wanted more.

She buried herself in the crook of his neck, wrapping her arms around his torso. He smelled just like he was supposed to.

He let out a breath in surprise but took her in. He seemed unsure at first, first putting a hand to the back of her neck, and the other in her hair.

She was shaking, sobbing. She couldn't get close enough.

Heisenberg hoisted her into his lap, almost like some snap decision. He nudged her head back so that her chin was now resting on his shoulder. He lets his head settle on her shoulder, too.

Puzzles. This reminded Circe of puzzles. He was stroking his hand up and down her back, sometimes stopping to play with her hair. His other hand was wrapped around to her hip, holding her snuggly in place.

They fit like puzzle pieces.

She reached around and laced her fingers through his hair so she would keep him from getting away from her.

He was cooing soothing things now. Things like: "I'm here, Circe." "You did it, it's over." "That wasn't real, sweetheart, it was just a memory." Sometimes he would brush his lips over her ear as he whispered, bringing gooseflesh to her skin.

She hadn't realized she had calmed down until she was completely content in where she was, who she was with. She was no longer crying. She was no longer shaking.

She was falling asleep.

Circe didn't know how long she had been sleeping. When she opened her eyes she found herself looking at the top of the couch and the wall it was pressed against.

And she was still on the lap and in the arms of Heisenberg.

"Oh-" she didn't want to move. "I'm sorry," but she tried to move away anyhow.

Heisenberg kept her snuggly in place by tightening his grip. "You don't need to go anywhere," his voice was husky like he hadn't spoken in a while.

After her moment of tension, she finally settled down. He was still playing with her hair and rubbing her back. She started playing with his hair, too, slowly taking her fingers through it.

He let out a sigh. One she had never heard before, and it brought tingles to her senses. She had been so caught up in the moment from earlier that she had flung herself at him, and now it just felt like it was supposed to be this way. Like things were always like this.

"How long did I sleep?" Circe asked softly.

"The first time? About two hours. The second time, about four," he said, twirling strands of her hair around his fingers.

"Oh, no," she leaned up to look at him. He had an easy smile on his lip while he looked over her face with those golden eyes of his. "You've been stuck under me the whole time?"

He let out a breathy laugh, bringing his hand up to glide them up and down her upper arms tenderly. "I wouldn't call it stuck."

Circe blinked at him. "What would you call it then?"

He put his hand on her hips, holding her in place so that she wouldn't lose her balance while he readjusted himself under her, then stilled. "I'd call it relaxing, buttercup," he finally replied, giving her a sharp-toothed smile.

"Relaxing…" she tilted her head.

"Yep," he said, popping the last syllable. "Relaxing," he brought one of the hands from her hips to cup the side of her cheek.

He was being so calm right now. He was generally calm around her, anyway, but sometimes after coming back from Mother Miranda or working on his Soldats he would be much more rowdy and energetic.

Yet now he was just sitting here, casually touching her face while they stared at each other in silence.

All of the feelings she had mulling about in her brain, all of those urges to just be close to him, were swirling around her whole body now. She had no choice but to think about them now. They were close. Closer than she had felt with anyone, especially like this, and here he was beneath her looking at her like Noah was described as looking at Allie.

Did she think that right? Was this how it felt to be like those in love?

Did she love Heisenberg?

Oh.

She moved faster than she had meant to, but she ended up being about a foot away from Heisenberg on the couch, leaving him with a very confused expression.

"What-" he sat up, reached for her but then brought his hands back. "What happened, Circe? Did I do something wrong?" He looked hurt. She hadn't seen him look that way before.

"No, you didn't-" she took a deep breath. She couldn't look at him and speak at the same time now, and her eyes found the stained carpet. "You didn't do anything wrong, I just…"

Geez, why was it so hard to get out?

"Well, what's wrong then, sweetheart?" He put a hand on her shoulder softly like he didn't know what else to do.

"I just…" she said again, wanting to lean into his touch but was frigid instead. She closed her eyes tightly.

Come on, just say it already!

"Circe, listen-"

"I need to know what you think about me," she blurted out. Then she covered her face entirely.

There was no movement or sound for a moment until Circe felt the couch shaking. Taking a risky peek through her fingers, her eyes laid on the sight of Heisenberg laughing. The volume of it grew slowly, and never got too loud, but it was rich and vibrant.

She removed her hands from her face, glaring at him. "Are you laughing at me?"

He was still chuckling. "Yes. No- I mean," he had to catch his breath. "Yeah," he said, opening his eyes to look pointedly into hers. "I guess I am laughing at you."

Her scowl deepened. "Why?" She demanded.

"Oh, I dunno," he closed the distance between them before she was even able to process what was happening. He took her face in his hands firmly, but not hurting her. "Maybe because you're so fucking oblivious, it's hilarious."

"Oblivious? I-"

"Now, now, you asked me a question before, and I'm about to answer it," he tucked a side of her hair behind her ear. He was so intense, speaking barely above a whisper.

Suddenly, she wasn't able to make any sound other than a squeak as she nodded, completely starving for this moment.

"What I think about you…" he was looking around her face again like his sight was touching every place it landed. "I think you're one of the most gorgeous people I've laid my eyes on. And I'm not just saying that," he stopped his eyes at her again. "You mean more to me than anyone."

"Really?" She choked out, though she wasn't crying, not yet.

He laughed again. "Can you not tell? I don't treat anyone else the way I treat you," he let go of her fact to grab both of her hands, squeezing them tightly. "I don't look at anyone else the way I look at you."

She was a deer in headlights, eyes wide with shock. Her breathing had nearly stopped completely, and she had to keep reminding herself to make her lungs work properly. "I don't care about anyone else like I care about you, either," she murmured, unable to rip her gaze from his.

Heisenberg laughed but he was too focused on her face to do so fully. "I can tell, sweetheart. That's another reason why I like you. No one really gives a damn about me."

"I do!" She let go of his hands to grab the clothes at his chest, giving him a tug. It was a bit too hard (she wasn't entirely in control of herself at the moment) and he was jerked until their faces were merely inches apart.

Once she realized this, she attempted to apologize and take her fingers away, but he took one of her hands and made it lay firmly flat against where his heart was, using both of his hands to do so.

"Feel that?" He asked, content in staying right where he was. His heart was pounding. Fast. That's exactly how it felt with hers, except even faster.

She rested her free hand on the side of his face, lightly brushing her fingertips along his jaw, and now it was his turn to lean into her touch. "Yes, I feel it," she said, nearly choking on her own saliva while somehow managing not to.

They looked at each other for a long moment. Circe getting lost in the beat drums of his heart, not once looking away from him.

Heisenberg didn't look away either but his expression was changing from one of bliss to one of conviction. His eyes grew serious and his brows knitted together.

Finally, he said, "I'm going to do something now. Don't get scared and blast me."

And before she could even reply, his lips were on hers. This was no light peck, either. No, this was hungry. This felt like it had been building for months, even though they had only known each other for not even half of that.

Circe had no idea what to do. She read about this but had no idea how it actually worked. She tried her best to keep up, though she felt she was definitely sub-par. All she knew was that she didn't pull away, not did she want to.

Regardless, he moved his mouth with hers, never faltering, only leaning towards her to put his hand in the small of her back, and pressing himself flush against her.

The moan that escaped her was wholly unintended, and she was surprised she could even make such a noise.

It appeared that did nothing short of encouraging Heisenberg because he immediately shifted until he was nearly completely on top of her, the arm that wasn't holding her against him now holding both of them up.

Unfortunately, by the time Circe felt like she was finally getting a handle on where she should put her mouth, they had to break away for air. It was evident that they lost a lot, given that they were both gasping to fill their lungs. Heisenberg hadn't backed away from her, however, and was smiling down at her with such a wide grin that she couldn't help but smile in the exact same fashion.

He kissed her. He actually kissed her! And she kissed him back!

She couldn't even describe the feelings she had, there were too many of them. She wanted to say something, to tell him just how much she had fallen for him without even realizing it.

But what came out was just short syllables of half-started words, because she was much too excited and breathless to form a coherent sentence.

Heisenberg raised his head up to let out an exuberant laugh. "I know, buttercup, I know," he leaned down to capture her lips again, but unmoving and passionate.

She sighed when he pulled away once more. She had now lost the ability to speak and was almost afraid that it would never come back again. She simply stared at him, adoration clear in her eyes.

His chuckle was low this time, and he gave her forehead a peck. "Let's get us some dinner before we…get distracted again, shall we?"

Circe nodded, feeling more alive than she had ever remembered feeling.