The Largo children stayed with Rotti during their Christmas breaks from school. There was plenty of room for them in his large residence which took up the entirety of the top floor of the immense Geneco building. However, Christmas was the only time they really stayed with him, as they spent most of the year with their respective mothers – they were each a result of a different fling of Rotti's. The mothers of the children never came to stay. Marni expected that those women were kept happy due to Rotti's generous child support payments. She asked about them, but Rotti would shrug off her questions and simply state that they were of no consequence to him anymore. Rotti's youngest child, Amber, followed Marni around like a shadow during her stay. Amber was a loud and joyful child, always chattering and clutching at Marni's skirts for attention. She was just shy of four years old, with brown eyes and fine, mousey coloured hair that hung in ringlets around her heart shaped face. Rotti's other two children, Luigi and Paviche were fourteen and ten respectively. The two boys mostly ignored Marni and preferred to laze about watching television and bickering with each other during their stay. Rotti was always on his communicator, having important sounding conversations, or else rushing off to meetings. Marni had time off from work, and kept herself busy entertaining young Amber and trying to talk to the two sullen boys who shrugged off her attempts at conversation. They seemed to resent her for her relationship with the father who hardly spoke to them, and for her youth. She overheard them, muttering about her when they thought she wasn't around.

"What is she, eighteen?" Quipped Luigi, "Stupid old geezer doesn't realize she's just after his money."

Paviche agreed heartily in his heavily Italian accented voice, "Yes, it's-a disgusting."

About the only clue Marni had about the identities of the children's mothers, was that Paviche almost certainly lived in Italy for most of the year, whereas the other two did not.

Christmas day meant a large dinner hosted by Rotti, with his children and several of his close friends. The chef always put together a wonderful meal for everyone, which was served by the ever present interchangeable GENterns. The guests were due to arrive in under an hour, and Marni was fixing her hair, as Rotti fussed over which of his suits to wear. Really, he was such a girl sometimes, Marni thought. She knew that Nathan wouldn't come. He still seemed to be avoiding her as much as possible. She asked Rotti if he had heard from him at all in regards to attending dinner, and Rotti laughed.

"Oh, he's not answering his communicator." He said, his eyes glinting with unconcealed amusement.

Marni had several hair pins in her mouth as she fiddled with more pins, securing her long, wavy hair up and into intricate twists on her head.

"What's so funny?" She asked, her voice slightly impeded by the pins which wobbled as she spoke.

"I expect he's still enjoying his Christmas present." Rotti said, as he held up different ties in front of his selection of shirts, eyeing each in turn.

Marni looked at Rotti's reflection in the mirror, "Christmas present?"

Rotti laughed then, as he at last chose a combination he was happy with and began to pull on the trousers, "Oh Marni, you're so innocent. Surely you noticed?"

Marni thought about the night before, remembered Nathan being accosted by those two overly friendly GENterns.

She felt a cold feeling in her stomach, "Do you mean…Those girls were…?"

"They were happy to oblige." Rotti said with a shrug, "The boy needs more confidence, you see."

Marni felt a rather strong wave of revulsion and, she had to admit, jealousy. She stared, unseeing, at her reflection, feeling her stomach churn and her heart race. She was getting married, she had to remind herself, it was no concern of hers what Nathan did.

"I want to start giving him more responsibility." Rotti continued, as he pulled on his shirt and buttoned it, "That young man is going places. He just needs a self esteem boost."

Marni kept her expression blank as she finished fixing her hair into the style Rotti so admired. She couldn't help but feel troubled, however. Rotti liked to have control over people, liked to have direct influence in their lives. She couldn't shake the thought that his 'Christmas present' as he had so delicately put it, was just a way for him to control Nathan. The glee which Rotti seemed to get from orchestrating events was worrying. She looked at him now, as he pulled on a dinner coat and walked to stand behind her, leaning in close to her.

"You look beautiful." He said softly, eyeing her reflection in the mirror with a pleased expression.

Marni smiled tightly, as he kissed her cheek lightly before moving away. She couldn't shake a feeling of unease which churned in her stomach.

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Nathan woke up with his head pounding and a generally overwhelming feeling of unease. As his eyes adjusted to the soft light of his bedroom, he began to wish he'd remained unconscious. The two GENterns were sprawled on either side of him, sleeping quite ungracefully and looking far less attractive than they had last night. Nathan sat up and felt the room spin. Oh dear God. His usually immaculate room was strewn with clothes, empty bottles and for some reason, a large amount of tinsel and other Christmas decorations. Oh dear God. Nathan looked around for his glasses, but had no idea where they might have been. He pushed the sheet back, trying not the disturb the two women, and made to get out of the bed. Ah, they were all stark naked, well of course. He felt ill. The red haired girl muttered loudly in her sleep, twitching and rolling over slightly as he eased himself over her and out of the bed. He padded across the carpet, stepping on tinsel and trying to avoid empty wine bottles. He located some pants, which was a good start at least. As he pulled on his trousers from the night before he heard the girls stirring in their sleep. He crept stealthily out of the room into the hall. He spotted his glasses at last, sitting on a small end table in the hall. There was a bright red g string on top of them. He sighed heavily, tossing it away with distaste and at last putting on his glasses. He stumbled a little over yet more tinsel as he walked into his small living room. It was in worse shape than his bedroom, somehow. The cushions had all been pulled off the couch - had they attempted to build a fort, perhaps? Now that would be a welcome explanation, but he somehow doubted it. His head was still spinning slightly as he made it into his bathroom and splashed cold water on his face. Drying his face on a soft hand towel he assessed himself in the mirror. Bloodshot eyes, skin looking quite pale. Hair sticking up at odd angles. He felt a twinge of pain in his leg and thought for a moment that he'd possibly gotten a tattoo the night before. He was supremely relieved to find only a purplish, angry looking bruise. Ah. unexplained drinking bruises, where would we be without you?

"Good morning, Mr Wallace."

Nathan whirled around, to find the brunette girl standing in the bathroom doorway, leaning against the door frame. She was naked and had quite unappealing, obvious tan lines on her breasts, perfectly shaped white triangles. She smiled sleepily at him, eyes heavily lidded and bright red lipstick smeared. Her eye makeup had gone south from her eyes and was gracing her cheeks. On the whole, it gave her the appearance of a panda who had been punched in the mouth.

"Round two?" She asked, running a finger down his bare chest, with its fine scattering of hair, and sniggering, "Or would that be...round four? I think we lost count."

Nathan blanched momentarily, as memories of the night before swirled in his head. Hot skin and a lot of...noise. Oh dear God.

He swatted her hand away, "Actually I think it's about time you and your friend left." he said coldly, his words clipped and emotionless.

The brunette pouted at him, twirling a strand of her long hair around a finger and looking at him with narrowed eyes. He pushed past her and went back into the hall, where Miss Redhead was now standing, looking a little bewildered.

"Look, uh...Beer, Cider, whatever your names are," Nathan said, while scouting around his small apartment and picking up items of the GENtern's clothing which were strewn about in odd places, "You need to go."

Christmas day was not a special event for Nathan, as he had no living relatives left to spend it with. Perhaps this would have made him sad if he'd given the matter much thought, but he wasn't especially concerned. Christmas was just an excuse for parties and drinking, anyway, right? Spending a moment more with these vapid women was not something he was interested in, however. He would much prefer to spend the day alone.

"Aww, he's no fun anymore." said the brunette to her friend, "Guess we'll see you at work on Monday, Mister Wallace."

They both exploded into laughter as Nathan hurriedly handed them a large bundle of the majority of their clothing. Oh of course, he had to see them at work on Monday. Merry fucking Christmas. He heard his communicator beeping from someplace in his room. He ignored it.

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Christmas came and went. The Largo kids were due to go home tomorrow. And Marni was back to work tomorrow, so decided, since Rotti was again busy with work, to pass her final day off taking Amber into the city for a day out, Rotti made light of Marni's attachment to the young girl, saying that she was saving him a lot of money on nanny bills.

"Pretty!" Amber exclaimed, trying to grab Marni's eye shadow from her hand, as Marni attempted to apply the grey, shimmering powder to her eyelids.

Amber's favourite word seemed to be 'Pretty' although 'Want' was a close second. Marni felt an aching fondness for the child, and smiled down at her from where she sat at her dressing table. The small girl was trying to climb up onto Marni's lap to further inspect the makeup which lay on the table top.

"Not for you, sweetheart." Marni said, tousling Amber's silky soft curls.

Amber changed tack and wandered away from Marni's side, focusing her attention instead on her father's bedside table, which had a stack of shining, see through documents on top of it. She began to grab at the sheets of plastic, throwing them on the floor.

"Look, shiny!" She giggled, stamping on the slippery plastic documents with her bare feet.

Marni jumped up from her seat and scooped Amber up into her arms, pulling her away from the documents, "Don't do that Amber, those are daddy's important papers."

Amber grabbed at Marni's necklace, as Marni sat the small girl down on the large bed which stood in the centre of the room.

"Want it!" Amber exclaimed, as Marni pulled her small hand away from the cameo pendant.

Then the small girl giggled happily and sat perched on the bed, swinging her legs, as Marni turned her attention to the documents which were scattered on the ground. Rotti hated anyone to touch his things, she knew. She began picking up the papers, trying to put them back into the neat pile they had been in. Her eyes caught certain words on one of the pieces.

Bill 98-463

The term was familiar to her, as she had overheard Rotti talking about it with great zeal and something akin to excitement, more than once during his super important, confidential calls he took about twenty times a day at odd hours. She frowned slightly, gazing at the sheet, as Amber babbled at her from the bed, wanting attention. She felt a hollow sort of ache as she skimmed the document, certain words leaping out at her.

Organ repossession.

Now what, in God's name, was this all about? She put the documents back where they had been previously, and plastered a smile on her face, turning to Amber. She determinedly put the sinister sounding words out of her mind, and set about getting Amber ready for a day out in the city.

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Rotti didn't want to waste time with a long engagement. He pressed Marni to agree on a date, for he saw no reason to delay. Eventually, she agreed to a February wedding. Not long now, mere weeks to go and she would be his by law. It was a busy time for Geneco, business was booming and he felt content and hopeful for the future. He stretched languidly in his seat behind his desk, a soft smile playing on his lips. Soon, the bill would be passed, he knew. The people were ignorant, they would go along with it in the end. Once Geneco had the power to repossess organs, who would dare stand against them? More and more surgeries were booked every day, as 'Your friends at Geneco' continued to sell the idea that humans could better themselves by way of surgery. Self improvement was becoming the ultimate fashion statement. 'It's what's inside that counts'. 'You are only as good as we can make you.' 'We will make you everything you can be.' It had started out as a necessity; organ transplants were needed due to the epidemic of organ failures. Who knew what had caused the original problem? More to the point, who cared anymore? No one seemed to question it, and simply lined up for new livers, eyes, spines and spleens. Rotti smiled to himself. Life was good. Marni had seemed slightly distracted the past few days, but he assumed it was due to the upcoming wedding.