Max awoke from her deep sleep. The first thought that came to her was that she was lying on the cold floor. A small change in her assumption came when she looked up at Eleanor whose lap her head was cradled.

"Good morning," Eleanor said with a half smile.

"What the hell," Max exclaimed. She tried to get up but a sharp pain in her side caused her to fall back into Eleanor's lap. She looked up at Eleanor with an awkward face and saw that she very pale with bags under her eyes.

"Sorry. I healed that but it is still going to be sore. I am almost done with this bruise on your head."

Max quickly undid her leather jacket and lifted up her bloodstained shirt only to find no scar where she had been gutted. The skin had a slight red tinge but otherwise… nothing.

"That's amazing…"

"Yea but I hope I reconnected your organs right."

Max shot an annoyed look but the girl was not paying attention.

"But about Stanley and Fred?"

Eleanor remained silent as she healed the bruise on Max's head. She forcefully pulled Eleanor's hand away from her head and glared at her.

"Where is-are they?"

Eleanor pulled away from Max and wheeled around. She convulsed violently until red bile poured from her mouth.

Alarmed, Max crawled up beside her. "Hey, hey! What happened? Did you get hurt too."

Eleanor shook her head. "If only…" she wiped the blood from her mouth and spat the rest out. "Healing… takes a lot out of me."

Ignoring the pain from her freshly healed wound, Max grabbed the canteen strapped to her back and had Eleanor drink in between heaves. Max propped Eleanor against the wall. She retrieved an pep bar out of her bag and put it in her hand.

"Your probably hungry. See as how severely hurt I was."

Eleanor had hardly ripped the packaging off before she half swallowed the bar. She was handed another and gobbled that one up as well. Then another and another until Max had only one left. In between bits Eleanor explained that Stanley had been taken while Eleanor was fighting off several Spider splicers. She tried to chase after Stanley but then she heard Fred yell and ran back to see Max dying and Fred gone. While Eleanor continued munching down the bars, Max sat next to her and hugged her knees.

After wiping her sticky hands, Eleanor decided she felt a lot better. She studied the multiple wrappers around her. "You miss Stanley. You are afraid they have done something to him."

"Am not! What makes you think I'm worrying about that idiot?"

"You got all these bars for him, right?"

Max scoffed loudly. "Of course not. We just have similar taste."

"When I found you bleeding out you were whispering his name."

Max turned away to hide her blushing face. Was it that easy to read her, she thought. Another thought reoccurred to her. "Did anything happen between you two? Anything at all."

"No, why?"

"No reason. Stanley seemed a little distant that's all."

"Ready to go find your idiot."

"He's not an idiot," Max yelled. "He's not an idiot… He's my boyfriend."

"She's… she's your girlfriend," Fred replied disbelievingly. He had woken up a long time ago and found himself to be in the middle of a room and tied back to back with Stanley, tied the same way. Only one small light lit the room and it hung right above the two of them illuminating their holds. Originally they had been gagged as well but the knots were not tied very well.

"Y-yea," Stanley replied weakly. "Or at least she was… I think she hates me but I don't know why."

"It's because he treated me like, like I wasn't his girlfriend," Max threw up her arms. "Just waltzes in here and no, no…"

Max and Eleanor had been walking down the hallway searching for their lost companions. Eleanor had accidentally opened up a can of worms when she asked about Max's rough behavior.

"I understand." No she did not.

"I assumed he had hooked up with you," Max replied apologetically. "I know, I know, my mistake but you understand how it looked from my point."

"Oh trust me, I do." Eleanor still did not understand. Stanley was a good guy, a changed man, and a good friend but this was insane. Eleanor had never considered Stanley for dating. What Max saw in Stanley Eleanor would never understand. "So have you two… you know, made out."

"Oh yeah, lots of times," Stanley replied staring at the tip of his nose. He had an itch on the bridge of his nose and his last resort was to wish it away. "Sometimes I smooch my way up her arm until I stop at her neck. She loves that."

Fred chuckled in his restraints. Even though Stanley was neither the sharpest nor the handsome guy he did know his way with the ladies. "You dog."

"Yea well one doesn't sit in the lap of luxury without learning a thing or two about the anatomy of the opposite sex if you know what I mean." Stanley's old smile momentarily returned to him as he remembered the good times he had in Persephone. "But I- I was lonely. I had a girl for every day of the week and twice on Tuesdays. I would work myself into a drunken stupor and party 'till the dames left. Stanley the manly they called me. Always sounded better when I was drunk." Stanley began sobbing aloud causing Fred to roll his eyes. He really was not in the mood for a heart to heart at the moment. But Fred remained silent as Stanley continued.

"You know," he said choking through the tears. "I was always a rat, a newspaper conglomerate rat. Even before I came to Rapture. I made mega bucks catching people in the act and sharing it with the world. Made enemies and cut my ties with the surface down here. And down here I became a water rat- a sewer rat. My life was worth…"

"Nothing until I found Stanley. All the splicing had made me antisocial. I didn't need anything else except that next hit. Needles and plasmids, Eve and splicing were my life. But I never truly needed anything until I met him."

Eleanor sharply turned a corner, her eyes searching for someone sinister she could take her anger out on. She had been listening to Max whispering her ear off while they crept through the bowels of Fontaine Futuristics and it was driving her crazy.

"I actually almost killed him the first time I met him. I was looking for ADAM and saw him stumbling around. I knocked him over and pointed my rifle at his chest. He had the balls to grab the barrel and point it at his head. When I hesitated, he saw how torn up my arms were from the needles and- and he said I shouldn't waste…"

"Such beautiful skin," Stanley said. "And Max dropped the rifle and cried in my arms."

No sooner had Stanley finished his sentence when multiple spider splicers fell from the ceiling. They formed up into two rows and lifted their hands in front of them. Each froze in their position as if they had always been statues. Then a single white splicer slinked down the rows of her companions. She came to a stop in front Stanley. She raised a hook to her sewn mouth and ran the blades edge the length of her lips. The splicer exhaled as crimson liquid dribbled down her sliced lips.

"Oh Stanley I never knew you were a softy and a coward," the splicer crooned.

Stanley's mouth hung open and he remained silent.

Fred tried to twist his head to see who it was but he was unable to do so. "Stanley, who hell is that!"

"It's- it's Lucy. Lucy Evansfield! "