The air in the apartment hung heavy with silence after the video ceased. Geoffrey stared blankly at the screen, his face frustratingly free of any emotional tell. He glanced over at Talia, opening his mouth to speak, but then pausing to collect his words. She felt his gaze lurk heavily over her, as if he were looking for the creature in the video, but only could find this flawed human instead.

"Talia, I…" Geoffrey began, his lips continuing to move even though the words stopped coming. His face displayed a mix of shock and confusion; Talia had no doubt this was a side effect of his brain working at processing the images he had just seen; a sight so few in the world had gotten a chance to witness.

Talia felt a pit in her stomach. Oh god, what have I done? she thought, wrapping her arms across her torso anxiously. Was it better to have him think me dead than know me as a monster?

"That…" he began, then stopped again abruptly. Geoffrey blinked his eyes rapidly before shaking his head, looking as if his whole body had done a reset. His pupils were dilated, his face flush. "Talia, that…"

"Geoff-" Talia interjected, but Geoffrey prompted her to stop by waving his hands in the air.

"Talia, that…" he said, a smirk growing on his face, "that was amazing!"

Her stomach did a backflip. "Wh-what?" she stammered. Now it was her lips that could no longer carry words. She looked over to Rachel, who was still giving her space from the corner of the room. Her friend matched her surprise.

"What you just showed me," Geoff continued, "is far beyond anything I've ever seen in my entire life! This..Talia, you did it!" He leapt up off the couch, knocking the laptop off of his legs and over onto the couch cushion, prompting him to stumble sideways in an awkward lunge to save the device from hitting the floor. In his excitement, he placed the computer upright on an empty cushion and ran over to Talia, who was standing a few feet away. "You were afraid for me to watch that?"

"I think," said Talia, feeling her cheeks redden, "I was afraid to watch it again." The rage-filled first roar of the creature, even through the tinny computer speakers, continued to echo through her head.

"Why should you be?" Geoff raised his eyebrows, before waving off Talia's concern. "All that grim talk you were setting me up with before the video had me picturing so many bad scenarios. Sure, we can have a talk about the ethics of testing on yourself anyday, but I understand why you did it; I just wish you did it with me at your side." Suddenly, he pulled Talia in with a hug. "You healed yourself...and more! This...this whole thing is...uncanny, right?" he laughed with a gleeful chuckle.

"That's a word for it," said Talia, sheepishly.

Geoff withdrew from her, pushing his former colleague to arm's length to look her in the eyes once more. "What I meant to say is," His words were still struggling to keep up with the speed of his brain, "I'm so glad you came to me with this."

As with his reaction back when they had first reconnected at his office at the university, Talia had once more found herself caught off guard by Geoff's behavior. There was no disgust, no anger - only excitement and curiosity. Just like the scientist I used to know, she thought.

Before she could respond, Geoff began to pivot his head at different angles looking across the room. "Where did I put that notebook?" he mumbled, before turning quickly back to her. "Oh Talia, I have so many questions. So. Many."

Talia tried to acknowledge with some words, but her brain could only manage to make her head give a nod. Before she knew it, there was a tug at her arm, and she found that Geoff had dragged her back to the couch, notebook in hand, with the look she had remembered reserved for interrogating lab assistants.

"Talia, you look fantastic," Geoff started, before her puzzled reaction caused his cheeks to redden. He quickly cleared his throat, and rephrased. "What I meant to say is: you look healthy! It looks to me as if you've kept your restored healthy muscle mass since this video without any relapse?"

"Yes," Talia acknowledged.

"How did you change back to...you?"

Talia scanned her memories of that evening, which were fuzzy, but burned into her memory all the same. "I woke up some time later on the floor of my lab. I had no memory of what had happened until I watched that tape, the one I just showed you, and discovered what I had changed into."

"You don't remember any of that?"

"I remember the experiment. I remember the feeling of something happening, my body growing, changing. I remember being so...angry. Everything after that gets blurry. After I transform, the monster takes over completely."

"Total loss of control?" Geoff scribbling continued diligently as he spoke.

"Total." Talia sighed, looking down at the ground. "That's how it happens every time."

Geoff's eyebrows shot up. "Every time? So it's happened again?"

"Yes."

"How many times?

There was a long pause. "Too many to count."

The room fell silent for a moment, before that was erased by the sounds of Geoff's pencil scraping words against paper and Talia breathing deeply. Finally, he looked up with the question that Talia could see had been on his mind since the beginning.

"That metamorphosis...can you still make it happen?"

How do I say this? she sent out a mental reel for the proper words, but her line only returned cliche.

"It's a bit more...complicated than that."

Geoff lifted an eyebrow. "Oh, how so?"

"It's...involuntary," Talia explained, taking a deep breath to quell the anxiety that was usually unearthed anytime she had to bring up her condition. "Strong emotions or stress trigger my changes; I have no control over them."

"That's right, that's right," Geoff nodded excitedly. "That's what happened in the video. The emotional trigger causes the release of adrenaline, which alters your body chemistry and kick starts a chain reaction. Similar to our animal trials, but those changes took place over weeks." He shook his head, a smirk still betraying his excited disbelief of the whole situation. "Talia, you changed within minutes! I don't know how that's even possible. Does it still happen that fast?"

"Too fast." Talia closed her eyes as her mind cruelly summoned memories of past transformations. Flashes of anger, the unpleasant chills that turned into pain, the short moments before the loss of control….

Geoff's voice cut through. "Fascinating. And what does it feel like to lose control?"

Talia's discomfort began to knot itself into concern. "Geoff, listen, I don't think you understand…"

"Oh I understand perfectly," Geoff interrupted, dropping the pencil against the notebook and letting it rest on his lap. His eyes, which were shining with a brightness she hadn't seen since they had received the award for their trials in muscle restoration, locked straight into hers. "I understand that you've taken our research to the next level. This is far beyond reversing cellular degeneration, which would be a wonder in its own right. No, no, what you just showed me makes all our years of that, all our studies, awards, what have you - this makes them all look like child's play."

"I'm not here to win any awards, Geoff," said Talia, shifting herself into her scientist tone. "I'm here because I want your help in getting rid of it."

Geoff's expression paled. "What, Talia, why?" He leaned in toward her, grasping her by the shoulders, his gaze narrowed and locked in on her as if he was hoping to find his answer in her eyes. "We've unlocked the next stage of human evolution!"

She did not meet his enthusiasm. "What I unlocked, Geoffrey," she said, sliding backwards out of his grasp, "is a monster."

Geoffrey laughed. "You're no monster, Talia."

"Then what would you call that thing you saw me turn into?"

"I just told you," he said, deflecting her icy response with a smile aimed at melting it. He gestured from her head to her toe with his right hand. "I saw scientific progress. The next stage of humanity, or a past stage we thought had been forgotten to time - all within you, Dr. Talia Walker. We spent years trying to unlock the hidden blueprints inside human DNA, and you just showed me the fruits of that, within your very being! I...don't even know how to describe it."

"I do," Talia said with a bitter tinge to her voice. "It's a nightmare."

"A nightmare?" Geoff asked incredulously, his voice stealing some of the coldness from her. "No, the nightmare was the thought of losing you to that disease. And for a while, I believed that was your fate. You let me believe that was your fate."

He sighed, and the bitterness left his voice as quickly as it had entered it. "But here you are, free from your genetic curse. That was my dream; I know it was your dream, once."

"It was my dream Geoff, you know that!" said Talia, her voice cracking with frustration. She could feel something inside her stirring, feeding off her stress, waiting for more. "But that dream came at a great cost, though!"

"What cost?"

"Well, first of all, the clothing budget is huge," said Rachel, who had made her way over cautiously and now stood almost between the two former colleagues. "She tears through those things like tissue paper when she…you know." She hunched over, flexing her arms and gritting her teeth in her best She-Hulk impression while unleashing a weird gurgle that fell far short of the creature's growl.

The two scientists both turned their heads toward her; Geoffrey showing a mix of confusion and Talia a look of mortification.

"I'm just saying, Geoff," continued Rachel, holding up her hands in front of her to ward off both of their glares. "You wouldn't understand since you're a guy, but...bras are expensive."

Geoff stood there, finding himself at a loss for words at how to respond to Rachel's dry sense of humor. Talia, however, now recognized Rachel's interruption for what it was: the gift of a break in the argument. She accepted that gift, and used that break to stand up from the couch and allow herself to calm down with a cooldown pace around the living room, which sent the stirrings of the creature inside away for the time being. She sent a small, thankful smirk to Rachel, who nodded in acknowledgement and went back into the corner of the room.

Geoff, seeing now where Talia had gone, slowly stood up, but was sure to keep his distance from her.

"Listen, Geoff," Talia spoke, taking in a deep pointed over toward the laptop resting on the couch. "I'm in trouble."

Geoff's face flashed with concern. "Trouble, because of this?"

She bit her lip. "Yes, but not only this. Creating the creature was my first mistake, but I've been making many more since them. The most recent ones are why I had to leave Vermont. I didn't want to bring this on you."

"It's OK, Talia," he responded softly, taking a small step forward. "Like I said, I'm glad you came. I want to help you."

"Thank you, Geoff."

"But," he continued. "This can't be like last time, when you ran away when things got tough. You have to trust me; you have to let me help you. You have to let me in, Talia."

"I'm going to try. But you're not going to like what you see."

Geoff shook his head in frustration. "OK, I have a question for you." He folded his arms and shot a piercing stare her way; a look she hadn't seen since they had argued over her leaving New York. "Do you want me to see you as a monster, Talia?"

The question pierced Talia's armor. "I, no, Geoff...you still don't understand."

"Help me understand, Talia. "

"Understand." Talia brought her hands up through her hair, letting the soft strands fall through her fingers. "Understand, Geoff, that when I transform, bad things happen. Bad things happen to people I care about." She hesitated, moving her head slightly until Rachel was in the view of her peripheral vision. "You've only seen a split second of what that thing inside of me is capable of, and most of it ends in pain."

Geoff stood silently for a moment, digesting Talia's words, lost in his own mind. Talia looked at him probingly again, unable to discern his next reaction once again.

"Well, I need to learn more about your green woman," he said, stroking his chin with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. "But I know you, Dr. Talia Walker, and I know what you are capable of. I know what we're capable of together, and, let's be real here, I think you do too, which is why you came here."

He slowly started to walk over toward Talia, and came to a stop ahead of her. "You didn't let me help you last time. Please don't leave again without giving me the chance to help you this time." He extended his arm out ahead of him, hand open in search of a handshake.

"Partners, again?"

Talia stared at the open palm blankly. Geoff is right, she thought. I came here for help, and I'm already trying to find an excuse to leave and do this on my own. She stepped forward, toward her former partner, but hesitated.

"We want to help you, Tal," said Rachel, cutting in again; this time her tone now a mix of serious and pleading. "We know the risks, and they're ours to take. Let us help take that pain from you and find a solution to it."

OK, here goes nothing. With a deep breath, swallowing back her nerves, Talia reached out and gripped Geoff's open hand with her own, shaking in agreement.