Portia gaped at the sight of the office floor. She saw agents walking around with fedoras on, chatting, laughing, sharing stories. It reminded her of ARCHANGEL except a lot more relaxed and a lot less stressful. Also, there wasn't a trainer at every corner with a dagger and a whip, waiting to punish every single infraction of the rules.

"I know I've seen this before when I escaped but that was evening and I was trying not to be seen. This…this is amazing!"

Perry smiled at the look of wonder on her face. "I'll take you to my office."

Portia stared at him. "You have your own office?"

"Every agent does. Come on."

Perry led Portia to his office. On their way, Perry's prediction came true: many agents gave Portia suspicious looks but they saw that Perry was with her and returned to whatever they were doing. The closest they came to a confrontation was when Portia accidentally bumped into a grizzly bear agent, who almost swiped Portia with his large paws until he spotted Perry.

When they finally got to the safety of Perry's office, Portia smiled and sat down in Perry's chair, swinging it round. "This is cute," she said. "You get to work in your own office?"

"Every day," Perry said. He grinned. "Believe me, the novelty wears off after two or three years."

Portia also grinned and examined the computer. "Nice," she said approvingly.

"Ready to go outside?" Perry asked her.

"Absolutely."

Perry took Portia's hand again and led her out of his office. "Oh, wait. Do you want to meet my best friend?"

Portia's face fell. "Your…best friend?"

Perry knew why she was acting like that. "I'm sorry, but Pinky has been my best friend for as long as you have. At the moment, he's my best friend."

Portia nodded like she was expecting that. "Fine."

Perry took Portia to the medical bay and found Apollo just coming out. He eyed Portia suspiciously and then passed them without saying a word. "That was Apollo, OWCA's doctor," Perry told Portia. "He doesn't like people who cause other people injury, and…well…you know…"

Portia understood but she wasn't happy about it. "Yeah, I know."

Perry took Portia in and over to Pinky's bed. The Chihuahua looked up as they came in and his eyes widened.

"Pinky, this is Portia."

Pinky just stared at Portia with an expression of both fear and shock on his face.

"Nice to meet you?" offered Portia.

"L-likewise," Pinky stammered. "Perry, this is completely against regulation!"

"She's not a bad person," Perry said pointedly. "I'm showing her around OWCA."

"This is against regulation!" hissed Pinky again. "You're going to be in a lot of trouble with Major Monogram."

Perry just narrowed his eyes. "I am aware of the risks, Pinky. I just wanted you to meet the person who has been best friends with me for the same amount of years as you have."

Pinky just returned to his book and ignored the two platypuses. Perry felt a stab of anger in his chest. "Fine. We're leaving."

Perry pulled Portia to the door and led her towards the front door. "This is the way outside."

He pushed open the door. Portia immediately had to shield her eyes from the bright sunlight but when she got used to the bright light, she let out a gasp of happiness. Birds were singing in the trees, there was a warm breeze on her fur, and she could taste the fresh air. She let go of Perry's hand and ran forwards. Perry made a move to go after her but he stopped when he saw that she was just feeling the grass under her feet. She flopped onto her back in the grass and made a movement as if she was making a snow angel. Perry laughed and lay down next to her on his back.

"I haven't experienced this in years," confessed Portia. "When I lost you, I didn't want to go outside anymore. When we had our playtimes, I just stayed inside. I haven't properly experienced the whole "grass" and "sunshine" and "fresh air" thing in a while. Excluding the battle, of course, because that wasn't for pleasure."

"Yeah," Perry said. "You know, we aren't the bad guys."

"Who isn't?"

"OWCA."

Portia frowned and looked away. Perry expanded, "We may seem like we're the bad guys but we're not. ARCHANGEL are."

"Perry, I know ARCHANGEL haven't been kind to us, but they're not bad."

"They are, though." Perry rolled onto his side and faced Portia properly, though the teal platypus still wouldn't look at him. "All those tasks they gave us five years ago? Vandalism, assault, theft, destruction of property."

"It was all necessary," Portia said. "Remember Kegan?"

"Kegan's different," Perry argued. "More often than not, Kegan was the one who attacked us first. What happened to him, by the way?"

"He attacks us just as regularly as he did before," Portia replied. "Last attack was just a few days before we were sent here, actually."

Perry took a deep breath and decided to take the proverbial plunge. "Is Kirk planning anything?"

Portia looked at Perry and frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Is he planning to attack us? Perform a jail break? Try and take over the Tri-State Area?"

Portia hesitated. "Well, I heard him telling some of the others a couple of weeks ago about some big plan that he was going to put into action, but I don't know what it was or even if it's still in development, so it can't be a jail break."

"You don't know anything else?" pressed Perry.

"I…I think he may be planning something to do with OWCA's agents," Portia confessed. "I don't know what it could be."

"Okay. Thanks."

Perry must have looked distracted because Portia narrowed her eyes and said, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you ask?"

"I-uh…"

At that moment, Pansy came over, sparing Perry from answering. "Perry, what's Portia doing out of prison?"

"Easy, Pansy. I brought her out for some fresh air."

But Pansy was glaring suspiciously at Portia. "It's against-."

"I know it's against regulations," Perry snapped. "And I don't care."

Portia's mind was still on their previous conversation. A nasty thought had occurred to her. "You just wanted information."

Perry turned to her in confusion. "What?"

"That's why you brought me out here and acted so nice to me." Portia jabbed a shaking finger into Perry's chest, which hurt. "You just wanted information! You pretended to be nice and you sang that song to me and made me feel like I could trust you again but I can't, can I? You were just using me for information!"

"Portia-." Perry reached for Portia's arm but she wrenched it away and backed up a step.

"Stay away from me!" she shrieked. "Traitor! I was just beginning to trust you again and you pulled a stunt like that! Do you deny it?"

Perry said nothing.

"I knew it," snarled Portia. "You were pretending to be nice to me so you could get information out of me. I hate you! I HATE YOU!"

She bolted for the security fence. Perry froze in shock. With incredibly good reflexes, Pansy quickly raced after Portia and tackled her before she reached the fence. Bringing out a pair of handcuffs, Pansy quickly cuffed the struggling teal platypus and called over Calvin the Cat and Danny the Dog, who took hold of the squirming platypus and began to march her back to prison.

Perry watched them go, taking all the verbal abuse that Portia was flinging his way. Pansy returned to Perry's side and put her arms around him. Perry couldn't stop the tears any longer. Letting them flow down his face, he buried his face in Pansy's shoulder.

He was a horrible person.

…

*cries*