In which Joe sees sparkles, suspicion arises and somehow, Nick manages to sweep Joe off his feet.

"Where did I go wrong with you?" He asks himself, his back turned to his daughter. "Where did I make the mistake that made you turn the wrong way that made you make the horrifying decisions you made today?"

This isn't how she planned it; this isn't how she should be treated. She should be honoured, rewarded. But no, thanks to he Lucas brat, the little brother of the Humanoid's source, everything went wrong. All her plans destroyed and now, she is here, in the disgraces of her father.

"Father, I…" But she is unable to speak, finding herself empty of words.

"No 'fathering'." His voice is razor-sharp. "I trusted you with my project and you betrayed me. You're done here, Penny."
Her eyes widen in shock and her protesting is cut off.
"You will not be supervising the project, is that clear? It is time to take matters into my own hands and you…" His wrinkled finger points towards her, his eyes shining with something indefinable. "Are lucky you are so valuable to me."

Her head immediately snaps up, fetching off his words that he doesn't think she is a lost cause.
"Because of your misbehaviour and the outcome of that, I assign you to the boy, in the hope this will teach us both something. Aside from the N.I.C.H.O.L.A.S. project he is our most important object of investigation. I am..." He pauses for a second. "Interested. Slightly intrigued and even though I am shocked by your attempt to harm him, you will from now on, silently and unnoticed, make sure no hair on his head is out of place."

Rage courses through her. He couldn't be serious. She almost killed the boy in an attempt to follow through with a plan that was originally his!
Dr. Misa hadn't been needed anymore, now that the vital tests were complete.
But suddenly, the plan isn't the plan anymore and she's here.
What had changed his mind?
She could tell you with gritted teeth what had; the boy had.
Infuriated she hisses; "Father..!"

"I do not wish to hear it, Penny, you will do as you are told."

His voice thunders and her body freezes, like pounds of weight suddenly press down on her slim body. "Yes, father, of course." She says, but her eyes still burn with a fierce passion when she leaves the office of Robert Lincoln Coler.

The man himself sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose; He can't completely blame her for her mistake; her logical way of thinking has overruled her obedience. It is partially his fault for scolding her into believing she had to make things right on her own, following his brilliant plan, of course.
It was indeed so that he'd initially planned to let the Humanoid be 'stolen' when he was ready for training. A mysteriously unsolved, silently dangerous and perfect act of thievery.
It wouldn't have mattered when the project's training and the rest of Coler's plan had been complete.

But now he has an even better plan to get to the goal even quicker; the boy. Joseph.
Not only is he far more, let's call it 'steerable' then the nosy dr. Misa, but he has a more then blood-related connection to the Humanoid.

With a supple movement he pulls a small tube of blood from a hidden compartment in his desk and holds it against the soft lighting, watching the red liquid slowly flow.
He smiles.
Joseph also has the most extraordinary DNA-strands he's ever encountered. It is exactly what he needs; little, clueless, currently unconscious Joseph.

Oh how this works out for him.
Soon, the Humanoid's power, increased by Joseph's talent and so much more will be his.
Only his.

Everything's blurry, a whitey kind of blurry. Blurry and sparkly. A Whitey sparkly blurry. How particular.
Something's wrong though, but the dancing figures distract him so; it doesn't really occur to him that he could find out what.
He just lies there, watching the sparkles. His body's too heavy to move anyway. It's kind of weird, the sparkles make shapes. How nice of them.

There's triangles, rectangles, circles and something that looks like a face. It even has ear-shaped thingies on the side! And round dots and a line for the mouth.
That potato thing could be a nose, kind of.

A pleasant buzzing fills his head, though something hammers on the edges of it. Does it matter? Joe has his sparkles and his face to look at. It's getting clearer.

Wait, it's changing. It isn't white-ish anymore. The edges, they're… Black?
Should they be black, something tells Joe that it should. He likes the face; it's somehow familiar to him.

Wait, wait. It is familiar!

Heavily blinking he tries to sit up and moans, flipping back, because a painful headache is threatening to split his head in two pieces. Evenly divided.

"Joseph?" A voice screams and Joe winces.
"Too loud!" he mutters, bringing his hands up to cover his ears from the sound.

"I apologise!" The vaguely familiar voice whisper-calls, still too loud.
Joe's eyes finally focus on the face that still hangs above him, now recognising the shape of it. It's Robert Lincoln Coler. Penny's father. Penny, the humanoid.
Joe remembers everything and as soon as he does all remaining sparkles disappear.

"Get away from me!" He screams, fighting the urge to curl up because of the pang of pain in his head as he pulls away from the hand on his shoulder. "Don't touch me!"

"Shh." The man whispers. "Its fine, Joe. You're safe now; my traitorous daughter won't hurt you." The look on his face is genuinely mad and sad at the same time.

Joe swallows, taken back by the strange emotion on the man's face. His straw-blonde hair hangs around his face, looking like it needs a proper washing and the suit, that was very neat last time Joe saw him wear one, is slightly dishevelled.

"You're one lucky boy, Joseph Lucas." He says, putting his hand back where it previously rested. "The Humanoid was able to distract Penny as long as needed for us to stop her and those who betrayed us with her. I'm so sorry this had to happen in your kind visits. But all is well now." His smile is brighter now, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. He's sad about his daughter…

"The Humanoid?" Joe asks and he smiles apologetically when Coler chuckles darkly.

He points to the side of the room. A very small room, now that Joe pays attention, is different from the room he woke up in with Macy.
Embarrassed, he realises it's twice now that he's lost consciousness.

He follows Coler's pointing finger and sees the face of Nick behind glass, again.
"Why is he over there?" He demands, not liking this one bit.

"We… thought that would be better." Coler's voice is hesitating.
"Isnot." Joe blurts, his eyes still focussed on the Humanoid.

"You're not scared?"

Joe blinks, confusedly. "Why would I be?"

Coler laughs again. "You are truly something, you know that? From our security cameras we've seen that our Humanoid demonstrated his more frightening side right in front of you. Though it was to protect you, we thought it might have scared you."

Right, Humanoid. Thing. It's not alive.

"It's supposed to be like this, isn't he— it? Protecting people and super-strong and everything?" he can't help but let it sound like a question.

"Okay then." Coler smiles. "Humanoid, enter!"

It doesn't take 2 seconds for Nick to step into the room. His face is neutral, but he seems to be fine.

"It's good to see you're well again, Joe." He speaks and Joe's jaw drops again. He still isn't used to it.

"We've finished the fifth phase while you were asleep. He's completely activated and ready for what he's designed for. Reassuring, protecting." Coler explains.

Joe's face falls when he hears this. The Humanoid's working?
Then he sighs, smiling at Nick. Of course he is, it's what he's designed for. Joe was hurt and now he's taking care of him.

"It closed most of your wounds expertly, before our doctors could even get to you. Nothing but the memories will remain."

Joe smiles at Nick with a thankful nod and then hesitatingly steps out of the bed. He's dizzy for a second but

"Are you okay?" He asks him.

"My systems are one-hundred percent fine. Thank you." His smile is gentle. "But I believe you have a slight concussion and should be laying down now."
Before Joe can even open his mouth to counter the statement, he's swept of his feet and gently placed back on the bed, without any kind of pain, like the wince expected.

"Uh, thanks."

"I shall leave you now, the scientists have a lot of questions for me, now that Dr. Misa is a little off her game." Nick says, but Joe notices the way his face is pulled in a plain façade has changed. It's more like he remembers the look on the Humanoids face. A little playful, though serious. Like he knows something Joe doesn't.

"Maybe it's a good idea that you go home soon too, Joe. Our doctors have examined you and believe you are healthy enough, though you should try to be careful with that concussion. Your parents and brothers will be worried."

Joe doesn't turn to Coler before the Humanoid is long gone out the door, but nods in approval. It has to be late, very late, though he has nothing to indicate the time.

"Thank you, Mr. Coler." Joe feels like everything is moving rather fast. Like Penny's attack was just a dream.

"Please though Joe, once again, don't tell them anything and if anything should happen, or you feel nauseous, please come to us first? You need a good night's sleep in a trusted environment, or so my doctors tell me. They have some questions for you tomorrow."
That's more like Joe though it would go.

"But sir, what exactly happened. I remember the fight, but why would Penny turn on her own father. No offence, sir."

Coler's face falls. His eyes look like they caught fire and he rises with a stiff movement. "I do not know what has clouded her mind, Joseph. Like I said, there are some questions for you too, tomorrow, since you were the first to notice her misbehaviour. I've talked my employees out of it now, but I expect your full cooperation, are we clear? Don't think I am someone to be messed with. This company is larger then you think Joe and running it is hard enough without this mess. Go home now."

Then he turns on his heels. His coat flying out behind him and Joe stares for a second, hoping he hasn't done something to wrong. Though he suspects asking about what happened wasn't the best idea ever. Especially to Penny's father, as good as he may be himself.

What did happen, though? His head hurts too much to think clearly, but he knows for sure that Penny hadn't done this because of her dislike for Joe, or Dr. Misa. She'd wanted the Humanoid.
She was after Nick now, which Joe considered to be worse then the whole DNA-stealing thing. Coler hadn't been able to stop her, or at least not before she hurt him and Nick.

And Dr. Misa. What had happened to her? According to Nick she was a little 'off her game' but what did that consist of, exactly?

Joe was frustrated by his lack of knowledge; he was frustrated by Coler's demand of silence, while he wasn't telling Joe anything to tell.

And the Humanoid. Everyone was telling him he was so extraordinary somehow, when a living and moving half-robot/half-human was walking through their very hallways.

Of course he was aware that it wasn't exactly how it was meant to be, with what the attack and what not. But he was mad that people were still keeping him in the dark, about the robotboy, about Nick and about what had happened to him.
Wasn't he in the project? Macy trusted him, didn't she? Wasn't that enough? He kept their secrets for them, because that was a logical thing to do. It was for Nick, but this was ridiculous.

His thoughts got angrier and angrier while he was escorted to a car outside, reunited with Elvis, who had been taken care of.
But in the car he realised he was basically on a dead end. There was nothing he could do to find out what was going on, if nobody wanted to tell him and there was no way he was going to tell the world about Nick… they would rip him apart.

The world flashed past his window and he rested his face against the cold glass, his head was still pounding painfully and he was starting to see a few sparkles again. It was rather girly to see sparkles, Joe mused, though Kevin would have probably liked it.

Then he suddenly raised his head and Elvis looked up at him, startled by his sudden tensing.

"Excuse me?" he called to the driver, who looked at him in the rear-view mirror with a raised eyebrow. "Could you, possibly, drop me off at the hospital?" If he was lucky, he could still catch a few minutes of visiting hours. He knew that if he managed that, the sisters would let him stay for a while, which was exactly what he needed.

"If you are feeling unwell, you know you shouldn't…" The driver began.

"I just want to visit my brother, 's all." Joe muttered, his hand stroking Elvis's head maybe a little too harsh. The dog barked.

"Well, in that case. I shall take you there, are you sure you are well enough to get home on your own after that. I am instructed to make sure you get some rest."

Joe admitted it was kind of late, but he knew his family would be with Kevin at visiting hours, even if it was late.

"I will, I promise, I just want to see my family. The shock…" He trailed off, hoping his little lie would work on the already greying man.

"Fair enough, then."

Within minutes, they arrived at the hospital and Joe thanked the driver with a big smile, though it appeared slightly fake, even to the driver, who eyed him suspiciously, before he shrugged in his expensive suit and drove back to the laboratories.

Joe knew that what he was going to do was probably a bad thing and that he should think about it first, but something drove him to that room, room 483, where he found his family.
All of them, surprisingly. And even more to his astonishment, he found no other then the blond haired idiot named Ben sitting next to Stella.
Everyone was looking at him.

"Hello, Joe." His father said, stiffly as he stood up from besides Kevin's bed. Joe noted Anya was sitting next to Kevin on said bed, also staring at him, but turning beck to Kevin, with a questioning gaze.

"Honey, where have you been?" His mother asked. She was standing by the windowsill and the look on her face was beyond worried. "We were all worried sick."
He was right then.

He hadn't anticipated this. Why he hadn't was a mystery to Joe, as he stood in the awkwardly in the doorstep, staring at his friends and family, whom had somehow gotten a place in the back of his mind the last couple of days, though they'd been there for him longer and better then the people at the laboratories.
Nick just seemed more important at the moment.

Joe was ashamed as he took in the worrylines on everyone's faces. Stella looked deathly disappointed as she gazed at the shirt she didn't know and the hair that looked so unwashed it couldn't be courtesy of Joe.
Mostly though, she saw the depth in his eyes that hadn't been there before Kevin's attack.

"What's going on with you Joe?" His mother asked again, now walking towards him. "Where have you been, you keep disappearing on us…?"

Joe flinched and Sandy stopped in her tracks. Her son flinched away from her, what had happened to him!

"Joe…?"

Joe was torn, he couldn't tell, but his plan. "I – I…" He watched as everyone stared at him, or glared, in Frankie's case. Elvis had gone straight towards him, abandoning Joe, now that he wasn't interesting anymore, apparently.
Stella's face was blank, a little shocked. Ben's was somehow understanding. Tanya was staring at Kevin, who was staring at Joe with worried confusion.
His father still looked a little mad, but concerned now too.
His mother was the worst; there was actual fear in her eyes. She reached for him and this time Joe let her embrace him.
"I've just been, out. I'm… dealing with what happened. It's been hard on me."
He hated himself for becoming better at lying, but he had to.

"Oh Joe!" Stella sighed, before she left Ben where he dumbfoundedly sat on the couch to almost run into Joe's now empty arms, his mother sniffling a little. "Why didn't you tell us?" He absolutely hated lying to her. The look in her eyes was making him feel guiltier then he'd ever felt.

"I just… couldn't." At least that was the truth.

He ended up hugging everyone in the room and having his mother fuzz over how exhausted he looked. "You should have a good night's rest, that's for sure." Made him remember that he'd leave them again tomorrow to be questioned.
What web of lies had he gotten himself into? It only made his decision stronger.

"Yeah, probably. Why don't we leave Kevin to get his and take Joe home? With Ben's car there's enough room for all of us!" Stella, even though unknowing, was once again his saviour.

"Actually, if you don't mind. I would like to talk to Kevin for a bit." Said Joe, rising and walking towards Kevin, who had already said his goodbyes to Anya, who was even more tired then they all were and had retreated to her own room next door.
Joe was still worried about what would happen to her DNA.

"Uh... sure?" His father spoke.

"In private?" Joe knew it was an odd question and that he didn't deserve their trust, but he hoped they would anyway.
Of course they did, but Ben gave him a strange look as they left.
He shouldn't be judging, Joe didn't even want him here.

"Kevin." He turned to his older brother, who was looking at him with concern and a certain expectation. "I have to tell you something."
His brother nodded, more serious then Joe'd seen him for a long time, even since he'd woken up in the hospital. He knew he had to do it now, tomorrow, Kevin would be home again and then there wasn't any hint of privacy, not until anything was back to normal.
And to be honest, Joe was sure things wouldn't be anything close to normal for a long time.

"It's about where I've been and what happened to you. What really happened to you…"
If there was someone he could tell it. It would be Kevin.

I am fully aware that this story is progressing very slowly. But that's going to change soon. It's just that I'm spinning a more complicated web then I've done in quite a while.
Critique?