Doc Barrows' hands were shaking when he looked up at Knox and Charon as they entered the Chop Shop. The stare he aimed at Knox shut the smoothskin up in the middle of saying hello. Knox bared his arm; Doc took a blood sample and checked it. The worried expression on his face never left. Doc Barrows looked through the microscope again before he stood up, rubbed his eyes and opened a bottle of Nuka cola.

"Doc? You okay?" Knox took two steps towards the doctor but Doc Barrows smiled and stopped him saying that he's fine. It sounded like anything but 'fine'. Knox glanced at Charon who was standing by the entrance.

"Smoothskin, I am going to ask you several questions and I want you to answer as honestly as possible, okay?" Knox did not like that tone of voice at all but he nodded. Doc picked up his clipboard and the pen. All business. Doc started asking him questions about his visit to the Duchess Gambit. Those were easy to answer. Killed anything on your trip? A couple of raiders, muties…you know the usual. Any ferals? A couple…in the subways. Any bites? Nah. I was in Roy's mask. So they're gentle. The blades used on your skin; are they sterilised? Troy knows his blades, Doc. Doc Barrows nodded and sighed in frustration.

"What's wrong?"

"Did you get into close contact with any ghoul? Intimate contact of any kind?" Knox froze. He refused to glance at Charon and pulled the collar of the Tunnel Snake jacket up to cover the marks on his neck. "Smoothskin, did something happen?"

"…I did have intimate contact with someone… kinda slept with them. With a ghoul." Knox gave the doctor a sheepish smile. Actually Doc Barrows seemed confused. "You know. Sex."

"With a ghoul?"

"Yeah."

"You had sex with a ghoul?" Knox nodded. Doc Barrows stared at him in disbelief.

"Shit. Doc. People do have sex."

"Yes, I understand that. But you…You had sex with a ghoul."

"Hey, man, ghouls are people too."

"Yes, I know that. But…smoothskin…" So, that's what it was. The smoothskin business. Knox patted his body for a cigarette. Doc Barrows cleared his throat and placed the clipboard onto the desk. "Was it consensual?"

"I hope so. I mean, I wanted him –"

"You did it with a male ghoul?" Knox stilled at the question. Doc Barrows' mouth was agape. "You swing that way and I don't even notice" he muttered under his breath.

"Look, man. I don't swing any way. I just like things that can fuck me up bad." Like guns and claws. Charon had both didn't he?

"When did this happen?" Knox found the packet of smokes and gripped tightly. Well, fuck. Doc would know it's Charon now. Sure.

"…Yesterday ." Doc's eyes travelled over to his bodyguard, understanding flitted in the gaze. "It's consensual. I didn't force him. Didn't push him into it, okay. Wouldn't do that to him…well not if we're gonna do that…" Doc stopped his tirade with a squeeze on his shoulder.

"Was it good?"

"Fucking incredible." The cigarette twirling around his fingers finally made its way between parted lips. Charon walked up to him and lit the stick for him.

"When did this arrangement start?"

"I told you. Yesterday." Then Doc froze again, walked over to the microscope and picked up the clipboard again. "Look, Doc. You gotta tell me what's wrong." Doc Barrows beckoned for Knox to come to him. He gestured for Knox to look through the microscope. Knox obeyed. He sat down on the stool then put his eye over the device. It was blood. It was ghoul blood. Knox could tell by the fluid way the cells moved, more fluid that a normal human's were. Plus the cells…ghoul blood had 'dots' in them from the strain of the virus… Wait. This was…strange. He could differentiate the blood cells. Yet, something was different. They appeared to be a mixture of sizes, two sizes, similar but different…one was slightly bigger, plumper…this was…odd. Blood cells were uniform, weren't they? When he observed a bit closer, he realised that the smaller cells were human and the slightly bigger ones were ghoul. He couldn't understand. Was this human? Or ghoul? It actually seemed to be a… perfect assimilation of bloods. Knox gazed up at the Doc, quietly asking for explanations. Doc didn't even blink at him until he blurted out. "What the fuck is this?"

"It's your blood."

"Don't piss around –"

"It is your blood, smoothskin. I just took this sample today. It was the same as yesterday's results when I checked it." Doc picked up another dish next to the microscope. "I thought I had somehow contaminated your sample. But I didn't."

Knox stood up from the stool, his mind in disarray. He had to think. It was impossible. That couldn't happen. If he was ghoulified, he'd be –

"Why am I fucking not …rotting right now? I have …ghoul blood…I'm half ghoul…I…I'm…" Knox picked at his skin and leaned against the counter, breathing in short gasps that hurt his throat. "This is not possible… I'm not even glowing right now." He held his hands to his face, as if he could see himself glow and rot at the sudden knowledge. His hands were shaking.

Knox turned to the Charon who stood calm with something unreadable in his gaze. He examined the broken flesh. He pressed kisses on that flesh. He lay his head on him, didn't he? Was it so bad to be a ghoul? Judging by his own decisions, and his own flesh, Knox was halfway there, wasn't he? And ghoul dicks didn't rot and fall off like noses did. So, that was fine too. Knox calmed down somewhat, finally replacing the cigarette that dropped from his lips with a new one. Charon lit this one up too and Knox grasped the hand that held the light, remembering the way the same hand in all its imperfections had held him the previous night. He traced the veins till it reached a dent in the flesh; the gash from which he drank the lifejuice…

"I know how it happened…" Knox's voice trailed off. "Him. His blood." Knox spoke and it sounded breathless in his ears. "When Charon shot me, he made me drink his blood. It healed the wound. Healed me. But…" Knox inhaled. "That's how…maybe…how it happened…You think it makes sense, Doc? Is that possible?" Doc didn't answer right away but stood watching Knox's interactions with his bodyguard. Knox pressed the hand where the gash had been on his lips and re-enacted the scene in his mind. "Ever since, my body feels like I'm being pulled apart…like I'm tired but I ain't. Like I'm weak but I'm stronger than anything. And I feel tingly…like I'm irradiated."

"That was more than a week ago," Doc said and Knox nodded. "That has been in your system and…there aren't any outward changes. Stronger, you say?" Doc muttered to himself for a while longer before he turned to the smoothskin and just stared. For a very long time.

"What is it, Doc?" Knox finished his smoke.

"I think you might just be the cure."