ugh, trying to get everything updated on here. sorry for the lackage.

and please remember that although tucker is in this, this is an au and nina is not his daughter

"Dah?" Edward heard Nina say.

He opened his eyes and she looked at him with worry. He smiled softly to her and she touched his face.

"Dah hah?" she asked.

Another two years had gone by and as per the stipulations Solaris had set for him, Edward took whatever the two gave him and stayed their guinea pig. As of right now though, he wished they would just let him have a small mattress. He wasn't asking for much in that regard and a bed of hay would have been suffice, but the cold stone floor of the basement and lack of blankets added to his fourth bout of sickness.

Although Nina was only three, she had seen what the people she thought were kind people did to her father. It didn't take a genius or someone with a lot of mental knowledge to understand what abuse was.

Edward motioned for paper and wrote on it.

Use good words.

Nina looked at it and pouted. In teaching Nina the basic fundamentals of speech, reading, and writing, Edward had to admit that his daughter was a genius. By the latter part of her first year, she was already writing basic sentences to Edward for communication and could read words. By two she was able to make tiny sentences and ask questions. At three, she was discovering the world around her in the basement they were kept in and she was also discovering the cruelties of it. Her daddy couldn't talk, the two people who came down the stairs hurt him sometimes, and they weren't exactly the nicest to her. They had never touched her, but Edward was always getting hit from protecting her.

Edward hated that his smart and lovely daughter only understood pain and suffering. She didn't need to be here…

"Daddy hot?" she said again, following his direction on the note.

In teaching Nina, Edward had learned to try and broaden his vocals a little. He could never get a good sentence out but it was broken gurgle. He knew he'd never be able to carry on a normal conversation, but Nina could. The problem was that his broken gurgle sometimes crossed over to Nina's speech so he had to correct her sometimes, but only in his presence.

He would never let Solaris and Will know that she was fluent in speech.

Edward nodded at her as she touched his face again, frowning at the fever he was developing. The door opened from above and Nina gasped, running away into a tiny cage on the other side of the room. She closed the door as the footsteps echoed in the basement. Will held a bottle in his hand and pointed at Edward.

"You! What are you doing laying down at the time like –hic- this? You need to sit up and get ready for this next batch of the form-hic-ula we made. I think we got it right this time…"

Edward didn't do anything and Will growled, putting the bottle on the table and walking over to Edward. He grabbed him by the shirt and shook him a little.

"Answer me! I know you can, you little piece of shit!"

Edward coughed in his face (by accident and on purpose) and Will dropped him, causing Edward to cough some more. He wiped his nose as Will clenched his fist.

"I've had about enough of you."

He pulled his leg back to kick him but he stopped when a tiny squeak caught his attention. He looked over at Nina and then back at Edward. Will walked over to the cage and pulled on the door, where a lock should have been. He snarled and reached in, grabbing Nina. She cried out and Edward growled from the floor like a feral animal.

"Dah!" she yelled in fright as Will practically held her from the floor with only her hair.

"Do you think I keep this little brat around so that I can feel fatherly every once in a while? HUH?!" Edward looked up at him with low eyes from the floor. "Do you think I'm an idiot?! I know you've been teaching her how to escape from here! You've been letting her listen to radio dramas about escaping for the past year and a half! All those prison dramas and spy dramas… Solaris thinks it's just variety but I know what you're trying to do." He practically shook Nina by her hair and she cried out in pain. Edward watched him. "If you don't quit your rebellious attitude and secret teachings of escape, I promise you that Nina will be our next guinea pig."

Edward snarled and launched at Will, making him trip over the bottom stairs. Edward grabbed his daughter and held her close as he scrunched himself as far as his body would let him to the corner of the room. One of the experimental concoctions they had given him had actually made him pretty strong. He had a lot of dexterity, strength, and even though he couldn't talk, he had managed to master snarling and growling like an animal. Whether it was a natural instinct he had given himself or part of the formula, he didn't know. All he cared about was keeping Nina safe.

He knew he could escape at any time but he was afraid that doing so would cause problems. So he suffered.

Will stood back up and clenched his fists.

"You will pay for that."

He left and Nina looked up at Edward.

"Daddy?" He looked down at her. "Cheeks…"

She reached up to his flushed face and touched them. Edward relaxed and practically dropped Nina from untensing. He reached up and touched her head.

"Hut?" he asked softly.

She nodded and he clenched his fist. Nina climbed into his lap and laid her head on his chest. She grabbed one of his hands and put it on top of her head.

"Better?" she asked.

He began to do little massages with his fingers as she snuggled into Edward's chest.

"I luh ooh, Daddy."

"Mmm." He replied but Nina knew he meant the same thing.

Soon, his hand slipped from her head and she looked up, seeing him fall asleep against the wall. She knew she shouldn't do it, but her Daddy was cold and he was sick. She got out of Edward's arms and crawled slowly up the stairwell to the door that was at the top. She reached up and turned the doorknob, the door opening slightly. She didn't remember being up there before but all she wanted was a blanket for her father.

Will opened the bedroom door as Solaris looked up and frowned at Will's disheveled appearance.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"That piece of shit downstairs happened. He's planning something with that kid, I know it. You think he's not tuning into those spy dramas and stuff by letting him have control of the whole radio down there but he's teaching her how to escape. And she's not as dumb as she seems. I can tell."

Solaris made a face when she saw Nina tiptoe behind Will into the living room. She watched her as inconspicuously as she could as she looked at Will as well.

"That last batch didn't even come close to what we were wanting to do. It made him more like a feral animal than it did anything close to what the research we are trying to gather is for."

"Well, remember, we were just making sure that he was still compatible with everything. It really wasn't part of the initial experimentation."

Solaris lifted an eyebrow at Nina grabbing a large thick blanket and walking slowly back towards the basement. Once out of sight, Solaris focused her full attention on Will.

"I'm just saying we seem to be procrastinating. The kid is already three years old and the more we allow them to be together, the smarter she's going to become. They'll escape one way or another. We have to buckle down and at least get that serum in him before it's too late."

"Do you plan on letting yourself get caught then?" she asked with a sardonic smile.

"No, you twit. I just don't want to get caught like the other guy did. I want to see the experiment all the way through to the end. If it worked once it can work again."

"Maybe we're missing a factor. I think we need to delve more into the notes about the setting up of the experiment more than the ingredients. We have that, but sometimes his experiments were all about the mood."

"True… God I'm so tired of this." He growled, getting into bed. "I'm going to bed. Don't wake me until I wake up myself."

Solaris nodded and waited until he was fast asleep. She then slipped out of bed and went to the basement.

Nina covered her and Edward up with the thick blanket that she had taken from above and snuggled in her father's arms. She didn't like the way his face looked and his skin was cold to the touch. She knew from the books she and Edward read that this was a bad thing. The door opened from above and Nina tried to practically merge with her father. A few moments later, the cover lifted up and Nina looked out, seeing Solaris.

"You're going to get yourself into trouble, Nina."

Nina stuck her tongue out at Solaris and the older woman sighed.

"I'm not playing around, Nina. Pull a stunt like that again and I'll make sure to make you are our next guinea pig."

"No." she said.

"Then I suggest you keep yourself in check, young lady." Solaris looked at Edward and frowned. "I guess I'll bring him something for the fever."

She left and Nina sat up, waiting for Solaris to come back. A few minutes later, Solaris came back with a small cup filled with red liquid.

"Wake your father up."

Nina shook Edward until he opened his eyes a little and she pointed to Solaris. He looked up and heavily sat himself up on his side.

"I'll talk to Will about the accommodations down here. This is the fourth time you've taken sick. I'll let you keep the thick blanket for now."

Edward didn't really understand what she was saying, since he was half asleep and half full of fever, but he swallowed the medicine and made a face at the taste. Nina grabbed her little notebook and wrote Solaris a note about maybe getting some sort of bed down there and Solaris thought for a moment.

"I'll see what Will has to say. Letting you be too comfortable could make things difficult."

Nina pouted but Edward pulled her to him as he started to fall back asleep. Solaris went back upstairs to sleep as well.

Nina woke up drenched in sweat and looked over at Edward, who was shaking in his sleep. He was wet with sweat as well and didn't look well at all. Nina shook him awake and he opened his eyes blearily at her.

"You're hot, Daddy." She said with a worried look.

He smiled a little but he looked like opening his eyes was about all he could handle for the day. She touched his face and found him clammy as well as very warm. She tried to think of things that people did on the dramas to help the ones who were sick, but everything involved stuff she didn't already have. She heard the door open and squeaked, hiding under the covers with Edward.

"You keep babying him and the runt. I think you're going soft, Solaris."

"I'm just trying to make it easier to get this experiment done. So far, we can't get him to hold and he keeps getting sick because of the environment down there. I'm not saying it because I want him to be comfortable, I'm saying it because he's the only specimen we have that could make this work. So far when things have been favorable things have gone well, so I'm going by the facts, not because I feel bad for him."

Will and Solaris appeared at the bottom of the stairwell and Nina peeked out from the covers. Will pulled them back and grabbed Nina by the hair again. She cried out and Edward woke up, his eyes red from sickness, but he sat up quickly.

Will grinned. "Good, got your attention. It has come to my attention that in order for things to go a little more smoothly, we will have to make your accommodations a little more hospitable. Did the doctor have a room like this?" Edward shook his head no. "Did it look like a normal bedroom?" Edward nodded. "Fine. We'll bring a small mattress down here and some blankets. There's a price, though, for my generosity." Edward rolled his eyes but nodded in comprehension. "Nina gets to watch."

Edward turned his head in confusion at what he meant by that.

"Nina has to sit and watch all the experiments we conduct on you. Doesn't matter what they are or what they do to you. She has to watch and can't try to run away. You understand thatk, you little mouse?" he growled, yanking Nina's hair.

Edward growled at him in warning of hurting his daughter and Will glared at him.

"And none of that nonsense. You're a human being, not some animal. You two belong to us and we can do whatever we fucking want to with you both. We choose not to use Nina but don't think we won't if push comes to shove. She's not immune from us."

Edward stared intently at him, daring him to try something with his daughter.

They ended up in a staring contest but Will couldn't win. He scoffed and threw Nina towards Edward. She slipped and fell hard to the floor, hitting her head.

Everything was in slow motion for Edward. Reaching out for his daughter, missing her by a breadth, her body falling away from him, her head hitting the hard floor. He lost his ability to breathe for one second as he stared at his daughter for a moment, lost in confusion. He then snapped to reality and quickly picked her up, assessing the damage. She was still breathing but there was a bruise forming on her forehead.

"Cheh, serves her right-"

A snarl cut Will off as Edward put Nina down gently and then turned to Will. For once, Will had the decency to look scared and Edward was suddenly on him, suffocating him against the wall where his hand was sinking deeper into his trachea.

"You. Hurt. Nina!" Edward snarled, talking hurting his throat so much he thought he felt it bleeding. "I. WILL. KILL YOU."

"Let me go! Solaris!" Will yelled, trying to get Solaris's attention.

His eyesight was going black around the edges as unconsciousness began to fall in.

"Dah?"

Edward turned as Nina blinked at him from the floor. Distracted by Nina's consciousness, he let Will go and ran to her, falling to his knees. He touched her face and hugged her tight, so happy she was alright. He looked at the bump and a pained look came over his face as he rubbed it with his thumb.

"Hur?" he asked, barely a whisper.

She nodded and pointed to it. "Ki' it."

He smiled and kissed it gently but began to cough into his hand. He pulled back and found that yes, his throat was bleeding. Nina gasped and pulled his shirt in desperation.

"Bah, bah!" she said, fear in her eyes.

Edward was about to comfort her when he felt something looming over him. He turned but was hit in the face. Nina screamed as Edward flew back, stars dancing in his sight as he hit the hard ground much harder than Nina did. He could feel his consciousness slipping away from him.

"You've royally pissed me off, Edward. Say goodbye to your precious little girl."

Edward could only watch as Will tore Nina away from him as she desperately tried to hold onto her father. All Edward could do was stretch out his hand towards her as he watched Will haul her up the stairs.

Tears filled Edward's eyes as the door slammed closed. He knew he'd never see his daughter again… his baby girl. His life.

Unconsciousness overtook him and he wished so many times that it was death instead.

nuuuu! nina's been taken away! what will ed do? will he be okay? will no one save him? why am I asking YOU these questions?