Kristin slowly shook her head. "Millions will die… how can I help you kill all those people?"

"And what about Lucas and Nathan?" Zellar asked quietly, easily seeing her emotional turmoil, and enjoying it.

She turned away from his intense stare, too spent to fight anymore. "I… I don't know."

He nodded sagely, "ah, yes, 'a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.' I always felt that was a realistic view of the world."

Kristen looked at him sharply, "and I've always felt that it reflected what an evil man's view of the world was."

"Yes, well, Stalin is often misunderstood." Zellar laughed, but it faded away when he saw the triumphant smile stretch across Kristin's face.

"Stalin? Perhaps he was, but he didn't say that. He certainly believed it and acted on it, but it originated before him."

Zellar blinked at her, stunned, and Kristin took the opportunity to continue. "It is true that the book, 'Man is Strong' was based on Russia and the turmoil therein, but it was released before Stalin was attributed with saying that particular quote. And similar quotes were collected about different men even before that."

Giving her a hard look, Zellar suddenly stood. "I think it is time for you to get some sleep dear. There is a lot of work to be done tomorrow."

Kristin swallowed tightly, she worried that she had pushed him too far in an effort to outwit him once again. "Yes… I dare say that you are right." She paused before speaking again, but decided if he was angry with her, she was already going to pay the price. "May I visit with Nathan before I go? I want to make sure he is healthy."

"No, I don't think that is necessary." Zellar responded snidely, enjoying the power he was still able to weld over her. "You can see him after you get something done for me." He briskly walked to the door and flung it open, the ever ready Wendell waited on the other side. "Dr. Westphalen is ready go back to her room, escort her."

Kristin balked, "you said I could stay with Lucas." Zellar's eyes flared in rage at her challenge, and she scrambled to pick up the needle and vial. "His… his medication, I'll need to administer it."

"Fine," he snapped, "you can stay with him."

Keeping her face low, and with what she hoped was a meek enough expression, Kristin left the room behind Wendell. "Supplies have been delivered to the room, ma'am, at the request of Dr. Zellar." He told her stiffly as he led her back.

"Thank you, Wendell," she responded automatically. Part of her recognized that Zellar had once again been able to predict her actions before even she knew what she would do, and had arranged the delivery before they spoke.

He opened the door without further comment, and she went in. Lucas was sitting on the bunk, eyeing a box sitting on the floor. The door slammed behind her, causing Kristin to jump in fear, then slowly lower herself to the bunk. She knew she was strung out much too far. The adrenalin of the day was catching up with her. "He said the food was safe to eat, but I would like to check it."

Lucas tore open the package, and started to hand her some of the food inside. The pieces of fruit were the easiest to check for tampering, and she looked at them first. "It's clean, I don't see any sign of injection points." Kristin sat on the bed and watched him.

"Are you sure? He could have hidden it some other way." Lucas asked, holding a sandwich and looking at it worriedly.

"No," Kristin's fingers tightened around the needle and vial, hiding it from his view. "I know that much, it's safe to eat."

Lucas took a large bite of the sandwich in his hand, making a happy and content noise deep in his throat. "Hey! What are these for?" He asked through a full mouth, pointing into the box.

Kristin resisted chastising him and followed his gesture. What she saw made fear churn in her stomach. Several rolls of white bandages, basic first aid medical tools, as well as antibiotic ointments littered the bottom. "He's planning something." She whispered, "he said we would have everything we needed."

The forgotten food hung limply in Lucas' hand. "What do we do?"

"Be very careful, that's all we can do. And keep trying to outthink him." Kristin responded wearily. "We need to get some sleep to do that. Have you eaten enough?"

"Yeah," he nodded, and began to carefully rewrap the sandwich. His appetite vanished at the thought of what might yet be coming. Lucas stood, and started to put the extra food in the refrigerator.

Seeing her chance, Kristin got up and slipped into the bathroom. After using the facilities, he tucked the hypodermic needle under the bottom lip of the sink's basin. A strong jarring would knock it loose, but she couldn't see anyone beating on the porcelain before she would have a chance to retrieve it.

When she returned to the main room, Lucas was attempting to prop the chair against a wall with a pillow balanced on the top of the reclined backrest. The wheels of the chair, however, made the task more difficult. Every time he would get it close to where he wanted it, with the edge of the seat about a foot from the bunk, it would roll away or topple over. "I don't think this floor is level." He growled in frustration.

"What on earth on you doing?"

He jerked around at the sound of her voice, clutching at the pillow guiltily. "I um… I didn't think you would mind if I took the pillow. You can use the featherbed to put your head on, it's big enough."

Kristin raised an eyebrow, "you are not sleeping on a chair."

"No, no, I'll be fine. I don't need a blanket or anything. I'm… uh…" he glanced at her thin dress, "my clothes are warmer." He wrapped his ever present baggy flannel shirt around his chest as an example.

"Get in the bed, Lucas. No arguing." Kristin rubbed her forehead, trying to suppress irritation.

"Where will you sleep?"

"Next to you."

A dark blush started to rise on Lucas' cheeks, and Kristen was forced to bite back a laugh. "It'll be like crawling in bed with your parents."

He looked at her blankly, "I never did that."

Kristen sighed, "of course you didn't. That would be a normal childhood." She clapped her hands, "better late than never. In, now."

Seeing no way to delay the inevitable, Lucas pouted, but crawled in. He squished himself against the wall, facing it and burrowing deep under the blanket. Kristin rolled her eyes, and turned off the overhead light before getting in next to him. "Honestly, teenagers," she muttered to herself in the darkness.

Hours later, Kristin was awoken by the sounds of whimpering and sniffling. She groped in the darkness to find the light switch, and flicked it on, blinking in the sudden brightness. Lucas was on his knees, curled in a ball at the foot of the bed, holding his head and rocking back and forth.

"What is it? What happened dear?" She sat next to him and carefully tried to lift his hands away.

He jerked away from her, "nothing, I'm fine, it isn't real. I just want it to stop... it just needs to…" He leaned against the wall as a spasm of pain twitched across his face. "It isn't real, I'm just..."

"Was it a nightmare?"

"Am I wake?" He asked frantically, "I can't be... But," he flinched again, panic showing in his bright tear filled blue eyes. "Things aren't supposed to hurt in dreams."

Kristin reached for him again, and he allowed her to examine his scalp. "Did you hit your head?"

"No... It isn't like that. It can't be real, it doesn't make sense." Lucas tried to explain plaintively.

Kristin dropped her hands, "oh, you're getting the shocks already."

With his face twisting in another painful grimace, Lucas glanced up at her. "This is normal?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. It's a side effect of going off the meds. I hoped it wouldn't start so soon." She sighed, rubbing her weary face and closing her eyes. "The dosage must have been very high."

Lucas startled her by tightly seizing her wrists in his hands. "It hurts," he announced simply. "Make it stop."

"That would mean taking his drugs again and letting him control you." Kristen explained, she wrapped her arms around him in an encompassing hug. She wanted desperately to comfort him, and it was a testament to how frightened he was by the fact that he did not resist. Instead, he buried his face in her shoulder.

She was glad for the action, because it meant he would trust her completely, and because she didn't have to look into his eyes. For the first time since she met the young man, Kristin forced herself to lie to him. "It won't last long, sweetheart. It'll be over soon."

Author's Note: I just needed a little awkward humor in there, I hope you don't mind!

And a word about the brain shock thing. When you go off certain happy pills cold turkey, it's real. I've dealt with it, it sucks. It lasts for a long time, and it honestly feels like some one has wires on your scalp. If I hadn't been told about it before it started, I would have been terrified. So... like... don't do that.