After having spent the past few years hopping from one motel to the next simply to get a good night's sleep, she had a mental map of all the best coffeehouses in the city. Jayden was absolutely useless in this area since he'd only been here for a little while and spent the majority of his time at some of the shadiest and most hellish places. It was a shame he hadn't gotten to see the good side of Philadelphia, like when it wasn't raining.

They exited the motel room just as the sun began to break through the clouds. The rain stopped, for the moment, at least. Jayden was staring up at the sky in amazement.

"What? You didn't honestly think it rained all the time here, did you?"

"Seeing is believing, isn't it?" He shrugged. "Besides, it's not like I had any evidence to suggest otherwise."

Madison wanted to scoff at that, but found herself grinning.

She briefly considered calling a cab, but it was a waste of money since her motorcycle was parked a short distance away. After walking over to it and getting on, she motioned for him to the same, noting that he looked slightly pale.

"Are you sure it's...I mean, is it really safe?" This coming from a man who did God only knew what and ended up passed out on the floor frequently enough for it to be considered normal for him. This time Madison did scoff. You have got to be kidding me...

"Come on, you FBI guys put yourselves into dangerous situations all the time." she argued. "And this is way less dangerous than having a loaded gun held to your head." Just because he wasn't with the FBI anymore didn't mean her point was any less valid.

He stood there for a moment longer, still apprehensive, before finally climbing on the back of the motorcycle. Madison put her helmet on and started the engine, which roared to life immediately. Jayden gripped on to her shoulders and tried to make it look like he was utterly terrified. Their destination was only a few blocks away, for God's sake...

Silence took over for a while as they rode through the streets, cars and light and sound all rushing by at remarkable speed until everything blurred into one almost musical rhythm that was the essence of this city. It was at times like this that she felt most alive. Speaking of which...

"You still with me back there?" Madison called over the howling wind.

Jayden didn't respond. Truth be told, this caused her to worry. Maybe he just hadn't heard her. For mercy's sake, she slowed down a little, and he seemed to relax a bit. When the traffic light turned red and Madison stopped the bike, she took the opportunity to check up on him. What she saw worried her even more.

His eyes were bloodshot, staring straight ahead but lacking focus. She tried calling his name a few times but to no avail. It was as if he wasn't even on the planet anymore...

She could see the coffee shop from here, just across the street. The second the light turned green, Madison drove as fast as she could to reach it, mindful of other vehicles because it wouldn't do either of them any good if they got hit by a car.

Parking the motorcycle, she got off hastily and tossed her helmet aside. Jayden tumbled rather gracelessly towards the pavement, which in hindsight, she probably should have predicted. He lay there, helpless, until the pain seemed to shock him out of whatever the fuck had been happening to him.

"That's it," Madison declared. "I'm calling an ambulance. I never should have listened to you. You could have been fucking killed, Norman."

"I tried to tell you it wasn't safe." he muttered, which only infuriated her more but he continued before she could express her fury. "Look, just help me up. We'll go inside, have coffee, and I'll explain everything. After that, you can do whatever you want."

Madison decided to hear him out. He might be crazy, but there was no harm in listening. And frankly, she was curious. By the time they had sat down in the little cafe, cups in hand, she had decided to ignore him as a punishment. Only he didn't seem to notice. In the end, her curiosity, and maybe a twinge of concern that she didn't want to admit was there, got the better of her.

"What's going on, Norman?" Madison asked softly. "Do you have a brain tumor or something?"

"Heh. Probably. But that's beside the point." The joke fell flat, and he sighed. "I know that if I tell you not to print something in that newspaper of yours, you'll do it anyway simply to piss me off. But this is highly classified. It's serious shit, Madison, so keep it to yourself. Not for my sake, since I have nothing left to lose now. But you do. I have to warn you: the government doesn't like it when you poke your nose into their private affairs."

Jayden began to tell her about a very complicated and very expensive technology called an Added Reality Interface - ARI, as he kept referring to it - which was apparently like a computer connected to your brain via a pair of sunglasses, allowing you to access files and data and analyze crime scenes. Madison got the feeling that she was only being told the very basics of the device. It sounded like something right out of a terrible science fiction novel. And yet Madison had to hide how impressed she was.

"What was it like?"

"I can't really describe it." Jayden admitted. "It's sort of like having your own little world, I guess, only without all the flaws of reality."

"So...it's like a dream?"

"More like a nightmare, actually..."

The FBI had been testing the equipment on their agents because evidently their lives were expendable. For a while, everything was fine until a few of them started experiencing hallucinations, migraines, blurred vision, nosebleeds, and the list went on. Eventually one of the unlucky agents started bleeding from his eyes and collapsed. The government had already poured too much money into this project to stop now, so instead they invented a solution.

"Triptocaine was meant to reduce the negative effects of prolonged exposure to the ARI, and it did, but they never warned us that it came with its own set of problems. For one, it's highly addictive. Not to mention too much can be lethal."

"Then why did you take it?" Madison wanted to know. She was disgusted with the FBI's actions but also surprised that Jayden would fall for it. He looked down at the table.

"I needed ARI: it was the only way I could do my job." he said, his fingers twitching slightly as he sipped the coffee. "I thought that if I was careful maybe...Look, I stopped taking the tripto. There came a point when I knew I had to quit." Now he avoided meeting her gaze entirely. "What you saw in the motel...and just now...were the withdrawal symptoms. It's a real bitch, isn't it?"

Madison just sat there in stunned silence for a long time. Never in a million years would she have guessed that this would one day be her reality. Here he was, Norman Jayden: ex-FBI profiler, drug addict, and government lab rat. And here she was...

"I...I honestly can't believe it."

"You think I'm lying?"

She shook her head. "No, not at all. It's just that...Norman, you do realize that this could be the biggest scandal of the century, right? If you got a good lawyer you could..."

He was glaring at her. When he spoke, the tone was weary. "All I want is to move on. Maybe get back in touch with reality again. I don't know yet. What I do know is that I'd much rather put the whole damned thing behind me, okay?"

That's what I said to myself, too, and I haven't been able to sleep in my own fucking apartment for years...

"Yeah, fine, whatever you say."

Jayden nodded, satisfied with her answer. "You can still call that ambulance if you want, although I'm not sure what you'd tell them now." Madison almost thought she saw him smirking.

He had a point, even she couldn't deny that.

Look at what you've gotten yourself into this time, Mad. Nice job. Real nice.