"Carley Hun?"

"Speaking."

Lily looked across the table at Billy who nodded in encouragement. Her eyes darted from him to the phone in her hands as she pulled it away, gazing at it as if it were entirely out of the universe, an alien object. Billy could hear the woman on the other end saying 'hello' repeatedly. Lily finally lifted the phone to her ear, looking at him while she spoke.

"H-hello… this is Lily," she stammered, curling up even tighter on the chair. She must've learned how to make herself as small as possible on the island-she had no qualms with turning into a tiny nervous ball. He stood and turned his back to her so that she could carry out the conversation on her own. "Yes… I'm your sister. No, this isn't a joke." She paused, her voice sounded hurt, "No… no, I didn't know that. I'm sorry… no, I… alright. He did?" her voice got real low before she carried on, "Well I just wanted to see if maybe we could mee-… oh, yeah. I didn't even think of that. No. No, I'm sorry… mhmm. Yup. I don't know." He turned back to face her, seeing the sullen look on her tanned and scarred features, "Yes. Alright. Goodbye."

Her eyes narrowed, brows furrowed and pinched just above the bridge of her nose. Slowly setting the phone down on its base, she turned to gaze at it. Staring with such intensity that it may burst into flames, the corners of her mouth tightened into straight lopsided V's. After a long while, he sat down beside her. For the first time, she didn't move away from him. 'Progress,' he thought to himself and grinned at her, 'We're making progress.' She turned just slightly after a few seconds, her head still angled sharply down. The depression in her rocked him, he felt it in his very core and it hurt more than he ever wanted to admit. After a long while she opened her mouth as if she were about to say something but may have thought otherwise.

He held out a hand, his palm up, letting her decide whether or not she was willing to make an intimate physical contact such as holding hands. She looked at his hand, realizing the gesture she sighed. "Doesn't that mean you're fond of me?"

"I am fond of you," he said in quiet response.

Lily looked right at him. "My only family is not fond of me," she said flatly.

Billy chewed on the inside of his lip for a moment, "What did she say?"

Her eyes immediately averted, her hands tucked between her crossed Indian-style legs, "Carley, she thought that I was …joking? Yes, she thought I was joking. Said that my mother died on the island, her body was never recovered. Father died shortly after mom in a car accident. She said that she had a life and kids, didn't have time for me. Asked if I understood her-she talked to me like the people here talk to me. Like I'm… an ape. A jungle ape."

He snorted and she hissed, barring her teeth. Lowering his eyes he stifled a smirk as she went on, "Asked me if I understood her and then said she has more important things to deal with than a fraw… frawdu-"

"Fraudulent?" he offered.

She nodded, "Yes, that. She said I was her fraudulent sister and she needed to pick up her daughter from school."

Silence passed between them for a long while until he sighed. It felt wrong to think so fondly of the woman he'd been studying for so long. She looked down at his hand after a few moments, seeing it was still sitting on the couch between them, palm up. Her hand, a closed fist, pressed into his palm. He turned just slightly, amazed at the sensation that such a small gesture could bring. She opened her fist, her long nails tickling his palm and making his fingers twitch slightly. Her slender, mocha colored fingers slid between his and gripped them.

"I think I remember my father holding my hands like this when I was really little," she smiled, the lame corner of her mouth numbly twitching in response. "That or I may have read about it at some point."

He nodded, squeezing her hand and stroking the side of her palm with his thumb. "I wanted to ask you a few more questions."

"No more questions, Billy."

He laughed, looking at her and then suddenly stiffening when the door opened. Wilder, escorted by a security guard-the same one that had made a comment about how beautiful Lily was during her first freak out.

Lily immediately withdrew her hand from Billy's and stood on the couch, scooting back over the arm of the sofa until she stepped off and pressed herself into the corner of the room. Her eyes stared at the guard, lips quivering. She'd turned a ripe red and growled low, the sound reminding Billy of a pit bull just starting to get all worked up.

Billy stood, addressing Wilder as someone extremely displeased but having enough respect to contain himself would. They nodded at one another before she waved a finger for him to step aside. The security guard, however, held Billy's attention by the balls and wouldn't let go. His hazel green eyes followed the burly man as he walked over to Lily, barely juggling concentrating on the scene and listening to Wilder lie effortlessly about her intentions. He watched as the guard started to taunt Lily, faking to lunge at her so that she'd flinch and hiss at him as if she were an animal. The guard started to laugh, doing it again which made Lily last out and claw at him, hissing before returning quickly to her hiding spot in the corner of the room.

He couldn't have it any longer, "Hey, what the hell are you doing?" Billy pulled himself from Wilder, grabbing the shoulder of the guard and forcing the man to face him.

The guard shook his shoulder once with a hard jerk, tossing Billy to the side. "Lay off Brennan, this does not include you."

Billy looked down at Lily, her eyes filled with an anger that he mirrored and used to fuel himself against the guard. The guard said something ridiculous about Lily liking any attention, even if it was a 'good whippin' threat.' Billy mumbled something about the guard needing to remember where his place was. The guard taunted him and that was it.

Billy swung at the guard, his right fist connecting solidly with his left jaw, knocking him back against the wall. Lily screeched, jumping up and launching herself across the room. She slid and then jumped into her own room where the door slammed shut. Wilder was struggling to get the door open and call for help as Billy grabbed the guards shoulders and forced him onto the ground. They fell on top of one another where the paleontologist, a bit more nimble than the stocky guard, easily managed to get the upper hand and seize his baton. He held it above the guards head.

"What have you done to her?" he growled.

"What the fuck do you mean?" the guard tried to struggle, his face contorted with pain as Billy leaned forward so that his knees crushed the guards hands. He howled in pain.

Billy flinched, threatening to bring the baton down on his head, "I saw the way you looked at her. What the fuck did you do?"

The guard glanced behind Billy, his features softening as he smirked a bit. Billy turned just as two needles hooked into his back, one high on his right shoulder, the other down in the padding above his left hip. He flung himself off of the guard, convulsing and groaning, every muscle as tight as possible. He felt as if he'd explode.