Chapter Six:

Security

*Nick*

I turned with Ellie still wrapped in my arms to see Mr. Porter watching me with a large grin on his face. I smiled back as I took Ellie's hand and led her over to where Isaac was standing.

"Mr. Porter", I said, "This is Ellie. Ellie this is Isaac Porter, my former boss."

Ellie smiled up at him, a bit embarrassed I noticed.

Isaac smiled down at her as he laid a hand on my shoulder and then hers.

"I am glad you both are together again. I have never seen Nick so happy."

I smiled and so did she as we turned to see the young man from before sprinting towards us. He stopped when he saw the creature-man-thing on the ground waiting for first aid treatment.

"Oh for heaven's sake", said Rochelle taking it out of his hands, "I will tend to him."

She went over and began treating the man as I watched her gently tend to his injury.

"Good to see you're alright Ro", I said as memories of her surrounded me.

She smiled up at me, "You to Nick."

I smiled back as I leaned over and kissed Ellie's head.

She grinned up at me as she pulled me towards the mutated men.

"Nick, this is Hunter, Smokestack, Jock, Slim, and Bo."

"Hi there", I said, a little nervous of them.

Hunter glanced up at me and I realized who he was, surprise no doubt flitting across my face.

"Commander Douglas?" I asked

He looked away from me.

"Hunter, Mr. Dean, please."

I nodded, "eh, alright Hunter", I said as I glanced up at Isaac who looked curious.

"You're the base unit commander?" asked Mr. Porter as he kneeled in front of the mutated man.

"I was", he said with a sigh, "Until DC sent some creep to take over."

"He did this to you?" Isaac asked in shock.

"Yeah", Hunter said with disgust in his voice, "Me and my men", he said indicating those behind him.

I looked up at them and like the commander, you could see the human side of them but also the monster they had tried to be turned into.

"Well this will be a long story no doubt", said Isaac as he stood back up, "Shall we move this inside?"

Upon entering the room, I noticed Coach stiffen. I looked back at Rochelle and saw her smile as recognition came into her eyes. She remembered now.

"Ro!" Coach said as he jumped up and embraced her just as passionately as I had Ellie who I still had beside me, my arm wrapped around her waist.

I smiled at the reunion as the men moved into the room and took seats. Hunter gently lowered himself into a chair, but his eyes rested the entire time, I noticed, on Sophia.

The girl was just waking up and she seemed startled by the appearances of the men. She edged closer to me, but stopped when she noticed Ellie.

"Sophia", I said, "This is Ellie, my fiancé."

The girl looked up at her and waved, a small shy smile coming onto her face.

"Sophia", said Hunter as he gently lowered himself to the floor.

Sophia glanced over at him and she backed up a step when she saw him. I was about to tell her he wouldn't hurt her when she all at once shot off like a cannon into his arms.

"Dad!" she screamed as he held her. Her body shook as she wept, "Daddy, I thought you…I thought you were dead."

The commander shook his head as he nuzzled his daughter with his nose, "No baby, just… I couldn't remember."

The girl looked up confused but I noticed she didn't question him. She was just glad to have him back with her.

"What a large touching reunion we have here", said Isaac as he came in, his boys behind him. "I understand that you all must be tired, but I do have a few questions I would like answers to."

"We will try to answer them the best we can sir", said Hunter as he held his daughter close to him.

"Very well, let us begin."

*Ellie*

Mr. Porter was quiet as he listened to all we had to say about what had occurred. Nick filled him in on what had happened after the casino incident that I had never heard about before and then he told him about everything leading up to when we were sedated. After that, Hunter took over and began filling us in with the help of Dr. Barkley about the rest.

Dr. Barkley seemed surprised to see the mutation that had occurred to the commander and the others, but she wasn't as shocked as I had expected her to be. It made me a little suspicious, but I didn't mention this as they continued to fill in the gaps.

"And then you met us in the street", finished Hunter, "You know the rest", he said as he looked down at the little girl now sleeping in his lap.

"Yes I am afraid I do. I apologize again Commander Douglas for my man's actions."

The commander just shrugged.

"It's Hunter now, and no matter. I heal quickly", he said.

"We would love to study you a bit if you get the chance Commander", said Dr. Weston with an excited look on his face.

The other mutated men frowned and stepped forward almost protectively around the Commander and his daughter.

"There will be no more experiments on us or anyone else if we can help it Doctor", Smokestack said with a glare.

"Right, sorry", the doctor said, but I didn't think he was sorry at all.

Nick must have noticed my tension because he leaned towards me so that only I would hear his words as he spoke.

"What is bothering you?"

I whispered back, watching the others in the room to make sure they couldn't overhear us.

"I don't trust them."

He looked around the room for a moment before responding.

"Dr. Barkley and Weston?" he asked.

I nodded.

"They seem to be handling this too easily."

Nick was silent for a moment before I noticed he was making eye contact with Isaac Porter. They seemed to be having a conversation with their eyes before Porter gave a slight nod.

"Forgive my rudeness", he said all at once, "I understand you must be tired. We shall continue this tomorrow morning. For now, my men will show you each to a room."

Mr. Porter turned and whispered something to his men and they gave a nod as they stepped forward.

"Seth here will take Command…I mean Hunter, his daughter, and the other infected. Please gentlemen and little lady, follow them."

Seth walked out of the room as the others followed him. I noticed Hunter glance at me with a warning look. I wondered what he was trying to warn me about, but I figured I would find out soon enough.

"Lance will take Dr. Barkley and Dr. Weston with him, as well as Coach and Rochelle. You will be split into two rooms. I hope Doctors, that this is not inconvenient?"

"Not at all", answered Dr. Barkley, "I don't mind sharing a room with Weston as long as he plays nice."

Said doctor just smirked as he followed after them. Coach and Rochelle smiled at us as they passed and headed down the hall, Lance in the lead.

When all of the guests had been removed except Nick and me; I waited to see what it was Mr. Porter wanted to talk to us about.

"Forgive me for interrupting the conversation Ms. Hayden", he replied as he stepped towards us, "However I wanted the chance to speak to Nicholas without any distractions. I don't think you will be an unwelcomed distraction to Nick, correct?"

Nick only answered by smiling and tightening his hold on me.

Mr. Porter smiled and sat down.

"Then let us talk, shall we?"

*Nick*

I watched as Isaac sat down across from Ellie and me, his chest heaving as he sighed.

"I must admit Nicholas; I was shocked to see you when they brought you in here. However I am even more surprised by this little lady", he said as he motioned to Ellie who looked up in surprise.

"Me?" she asked.

"Yes young lady, you are what? Twenty? Twenty-one?"

"21", she answered.

"You are much younger than Nick. When he had told me had found Love again, I was expecting someone a lot like his ex-wife."

I noticed Ellie get an interested look on her face. I sighed, knowing she was about to get the whole story of my past. Then again, I knew she deserved to know everything.

"Who is his ex?" she asked him as I figured she would.

Isaac glanced at me and I gave him a nod that he could tell her.

"His ex-wife was my niece, Robin Porter. She was older than Nick by about seven years. Nick at the time was a cheeky kid, a kid who wanted to be in the midst of a thrill. When they announced their engagement, I was shocked to say the least."

"You and everybody else", I added, "I had only been dating her, what? Like eight months when we got married?"

Isaac nodded.

"Yeah, Nick here never seemed one to settle down, but he was smitten with her, as she was with him."

"So you married her?" Ellie asked glancing at me.

I was happy to see she didn't look angry or jealous in the least.

"Yeah I married her", I said, "but it didn't work out in the end."

"Well, why not?" Ellie asked with attentiveness, "What was she like?"

I sighed.

"Robin was a beautiful Italian woman who was mature and loved the good life. She had been raised in a well-off family and since I was a gambler, I wasn't not wealthy. She was afraid though that I would lose everything in a gamble. I don't blame her now for her fears, but at the time, I thought she was being overly cautious."

"Yeah, she was worried Nick was being his usual play boy self to", added Isaac.

"Yeah I had a tendency to take women to bed", I said, I felt my face grow hot when Ellie looked at me with a slight 'No kidding' sarcastic look on her face.

"Anyways", I continued as I cleared my throat, ignoring Isaac's laughter, "I just didn't feel happy with her anymore. I still loved her, but not like I once had. I just knew she wasn't the one."

Isaac nodded.

"I will tell you Nick, after Robin divorced you, even she said she didn't feel like you and she had been meant to be together. She started dating a friend of mines son, Robert Gowns soon after."

My eyes widened. I was a little surprised when he said this because I had always thought she had been horrified over the divorce. She acted like it was the worst thing she ever had to do in her life, but to hear she started dating again so soon after…

"You look surprised", commented Isaac, "I don't know why. When you started gambling and going out with other women, she did the same, aside from the gambling."

"That little witch", I whispered, "She was trying to trick me."

Isaac laughed.

"Yeah my family is like that", he said, "So am I, to a point. She wanted your money and I was actually a little shocked when she settled for half. She must have cared about you still, even after she had started dating Rob."

I shook my head, not completely staggered by this news but still a little hurt by it. While gambling had been my life…I had loved her.

A hand tightened around mine and I looked over at Ellie who had a sympathetic look on her face. Although she seemed slightly amused by the whole thing, she also seemed somewhat horrified as well.

"It doesn't matter now", I said as I smiled at Ellie, "I found the reason behind my divorce, and she is well worth it."

Isaac smiled as he looked between the two of us and shook his head.

"Well enough side chat", he said as he pulled out a laptop, "I actually kept you two behind so I could show you the setup."

He turned the screen towards us and we gaped as we looked at several different small screens. One showed the infected and Sophia. Another showed Ro and Coach where they were sitting and talking. Another showed the Doctors and another showed an empty room.

"These are cameras set up inside the 'guest' rooms. We use this to make sure we didn't involuntarily let any spies in. We record their movements and their speech; however we won't hear anything that is said unless we open a specific camera. It will however record what is said for future viewing in case we need to record all of the rooms."

"I am guessing this room is ours?" I asked pointing at the forth corner view showing an empty guest bedroom.

"It is, but rest assured, I will be turning your camera off. I trust you Nick; sides, if I didn't, I wouldn't have shown this to you in the first place."

I nodded, knowing he was telling me the truth.

He glanced between us.

"I can see you both are tired. I will show you to the bedroom. I wanted you to know though that I will be monitoring those two doctors especially close."

"Thank you Isaac", I said as I shook his hand.

He smiled as motioned for us to follow him. He led us down a small hallway to the first door on the left.

"This is your room, get some sleep Nick ", he said and then he turned to nod at Ellie, "Ms. Hayden."

She smiled back and waved as I opened the door and gently pulled her through with me.