Adamsen arrives early the next morning before Tom awakens. He hears the cart roll close to his cage. Others follow behind Adamsen.

"Sorry, Tom, today we eat first. They get to put in your barber chair. No one else can be in here if you’re out of the cage. I hope you don’t mind company for breakfast. I’m on a short timeline today."

He puts a tray in front of Tom and one in front of himself. Tom sees Adamsen has almost the same breakfast for himself as he had for him yesterday. Toms’ tray was just as described with the addition of sausage. At least he was eating better.

"What do you mean a short timeline?"

"Lets see, I have to eat, give you breakfast, time to stretch, shower, shave, change my class schedule, catch a ride into town and make sure I get back in time, dinner for us both and then class again tonight."

As Adamsen sits down to eat, he lets out a soft groan, Tom looks at him closely and sees that he is moving stiffly. He reaches out and tries to find out what he is hiding. "What’s wrong?" Tom asks.

He could feel Adamsen was in pain, and feels him push the pain away. He looks closely in the light and sees a light bruise on the side of his face.

"Nothing, really. I’m just not the fair-haired boy and last nights instructor let me know that. I’ve got bruises in places I didn’t know I had places." He gave a short laugh. "Everybody is envious of my ‘easy duty’ but no one wants it. Considering what some of the other prisoners have done I think they expect me to be in the infirmary or morgue by the end of the week. All I can say is if you do decide to kill me make it quick."

Tom senses he is serious about the last part. There it was again ‘prisoners’ not ‘Dominants’ not ‘members of the new species’. Adamsen didn’t know. Tom wondered if it would make a difference.

As Tom eats, he watches the workmen bring in a heavy steel chair and bolt it to the floor. They were taking no chances.

"Adamsen, I’ll stretch this evening before dinner. Gives you more time this morning."

"Are you sure?"

Tom shrugs, "I can do basic stretches here."

The workmen leave. Adamsen gets up and cleans up the debris created by the chair’s installation.

He picks up the trays and puts them on a lower shelf of the cart and pulls it over near the new chair and takes something off of the cart and places it on the chair. "Come on Tom, time for a shave."

He unlocks the cage and escorts Tom over to the chair. There are 4 pairs of handcuffs on the chair. "Sorry, you have to be cuffed to the chair. I don’t see the point. There are guards outside and you don’t know the layout of this place. Where would you go?"

Tom shrugs. Adamsen picks them up and cuffs his feet to the bottom legs of the chair and his wrists to the back. He takes the lid off of what is on the cart. Steam rolls off of the bowl filled with hot water. "I used boiling water so it would stay hot. I hope it isn’t too hot." He dips his hands in and takes out a hand towel and wrings it out. "Hot, hot." He tosses it a few times to cool it a bit. "Tom, hold still and let me know if it’s too hot."

The towel was hot and steamy on Tom’s face. It felt good. Tom leaned back in the chair and let the heat seep into him. After it cooled a bit Adamsen refolded it and placed it again on Tom’s face.

"Better?"

"Much. " Tom replies.

"I warn you right now, you’re taking your life in your hands. I haven’t shaved any one but myself. I don’t think you can count shaving the dog when I was 12-years old." He says as he removes the towel and starts to spread a shaving gel over his face.

"They only want me to use a disposable razor, but I brought 3. If it starts to get rough let me know and I’ll change." Adamsen concentrates on the job he is doing and there is only silence broken by the quiet scrape of the razor. About halfway through he notices the razor starts to drag and changes without a word. He nicks Tom only twice and softly says, "Damn." each time. When he is done he wipes Tom’s face with the towel, now cooled. He reaches into his pocket and takes out the handcuff key and unlocks the cuffs. Tom reaches up to touch his face. It feels strange after having a beard here. "Shower?" Tom nods.

Tom showers quickly sensing Adamsen’s impatience. He dries and dresses. As they walk back to the cage. Adamsen says, "I’m sorry to hurry you. Maybe next time I’ll get the timing better. Oh, by the way, you now get a shave weekly. If you trust me that far.’

"You didn’t do too bad of a job." Tom says as he strokes his hand across his face. "Maybe you have a new career."

"Was that a joke? Maybe I’m a bad influence on you."

Tom turned and looked at him, his eyes narrowed. Time to give the watchers some ammunition. "Maybe, but even though I’m hurt I’m not falling apart anymore. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t done what you did. I wanted to die. You gave me a reason to live. Maybe Sloan is dead, but maybe she is alive. You let me see that. She’s all I have. No family, no friends, I’m considered a traitor by my people, I need her. I need her to be alive. Thank you."

He feels Adamsen’s panic. He doesn’t want Tom to give them anything they can use against him. He puts his hand on Adamsen’s shoulder and squeezed slightly. He looks in Tom’s eyes. Tom moves his head slightly so the cameras can’t see his face and mouths to him, "I know what I’m doing." He winks.

Adamsen’s panic fades, he doesn’t know what Tom’s up to but trusts him.

He locks Tom back in the cage. "You know I would leave you out of there while I clean up if I could. But I’m supposed to be right by you when you are out of there, sorry. I’ll clean up and go. I’ll spend more time here tomorrow."

Tom watches him clean and prep for tomorrow. It was going to be a long day. He stares at the picture of Sloan for a long time. He moves to a meditative posture and clasps the paper against his chest. He needs to feel her. It’s been so long. He knows the mental torment will start soon. He wants to reinforce himself. He lets himself flow into her. She is thinking about him. He feels warmed by her. He wishes he could do this more often. He lets her strength flow into him. It reinforces him. Anything they do, it will not harm him. It will make him stronger.

It takes him longer than he thought it would. When he returns to himself he stretches and waits.

Adamsen hurries back to his room. Only civilian clothes in town, and he still has to change his classes, that only takes about 15 minutes. He tries to sign up for a mid-afternoon class on duty days and a late night class on his pass day. Damn. The only late night class I can get is at 2200. Going to be a long day.

"You’re late," his friend says.

"Not more than 10 minutes," he says. "Let’s go"

He’s quiet on the way to town. That’s OK. His friend likes to talk. With a 2-hour trip to town he only has 4 hours to do what he planned. When they get there he lets his friend know that he’ll take the regular bus back to the lab. He only has an 8-hour pass. First stop the bank to get cash. Then to the newspaper, two ads one a looking for love ad and one other, and rental of a lovelorn box. Ouch! Over $200.00. Oh well, it’ll be in every newspaper in the area. Next to the coffee shop. He opens several e-mail accounts and is careful to delete the history file. He lingers talking to regulars. He checks the time, 30 minutes to catch the bus. Mission accomplished.

On the bus ride home everyone gives him a wide birth. Normally his feelings would be hurt but today he is just as glad no one wants to talk to him. He’s too nervous, he hopes this works.

When he gets in he goes to his quarters and changes back into his uniform. He had breakfast with Tom this morning, he might as well have dinner. He gets dinner for himself and Tom and reads what his orders are. Damn. He knew they were going to start in again he just didn’t think it would be this soon.

Tom was sitting in the cage staring at the picture of Sloan, waiting for him to arrive. He felt Adamsen’s worry and disappointment.

Adamsen unlocks the cage, and escorts him to he bathroom without a word. On the way back he says, "Tom, do you want to stretch out or eat?"

"What’s wrong?"

Adamsen sighed, "I wish I knew how you always know when something’s wrong. I wasn’t going to tell you ‘til later. They want me to take all your papers away, including the newspaper with Sloans’ picture. I’m sorry."

"Can it wait until you have to leave?"

"Sure, now stretch or eat?"

"Stretch, and you stretch too. You’ve got a class tonight. If you stretch you’ll do better."

"My class isn’t for 3 hours yet."

"Good, we stretch, eat, rest, and stretch before your class. Afterwards come back and we’ll stretch again. This morning you got up so stiff you could barely walk, didn’t you?"

Adamsen reluctantly says, "Yes."

"It won’t happen tomorrow if you let me help. Besides it’ll help me keep my mind off things."

"Yeah, like what are they going to try next."

Tom nods. "Take off your shirt. It’ll make it easier

In the reflected light that illuminates the cage Tom shows him how to stretch and relax effectively, stopping to correct a motion or stance. Afterwards he asks, "Feel better?"

"Yeah, but I don’t know what’s worse. You or the instructors in my classes."

"If they’re doing their job, it’ll be the instructors, if not it’ll be me."

"How do you know?" Adamsen asks as he gets out their trays. "Tom sit. I’m still here so no need to get in there until I leave. They said ‘No one else can be in the room if you are out of your cage’, they didn’t say you had to be in the cage if I was in the room."

Tom almost smiled. Adamsen was doing it again, making the watchers jump through hoops. He sits down with a fluid movement. "Because I’ve been through it. I was trained to be a chameleon, to insinuate myself into a situation, to study someone, to become someone. Hand-to-hand was only one of my skills. Most of the time it was not necessary to kill. You get information, you misdirect, and you put people in situations they shouldn’t be in. Killing was a last resort. If too many people die, you bring attention to yourself."

He puts a tray in front of Tom and another in front of himself.

"I see what you’re talking about. I suspect your training was a lot more intense than mine will be. Now here’s the kicker. I’m being trained so if you decide you’re going to leave I will stop you. Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?"

"To your superiors it does. I suspect they want to keep you alive and they think this is the way to do it. I assume you are not allowed to have any weapons when you are in here with me."

"You got it."

Tom shook his head. "They should know more about me. If I wanted you dead, you would be. Even with the six guards, after the drugs wore off I probably could have taken them. I would have died in the escape attempt but I’d have taken them with me, and probably some more."

"But you didn’t want to die."

"No, and that will be seen by some as a weakness, but I think you will fight harder if you have a reason to live, rather than a reason to die.

They ate in silence for some time.

"Tom, if you were that good, how did you get captured?’

This was the question he had been dreading but one that he knew would come up. Tom pushes his tray away, suddenly losing his appetite. "Because I was under the influence of the Genogenesis serum. I wanted to become human for Sloan. It made me weak enough they were able to capture me."

"What do you mean ‘become human’?"

"Did you read the newspaper articles about Sloan discovering a new species, Homo-dominant? Well, I’m one."

Adamsen eats in silence for a few minutes as he thinks. "You better eat up. It’ll get cold. That still doesn’t explain why you’re here."

Tom pulls his tray back in front of him and tries to analyze what Adamsen feels. Surprise but no fear. He still feels the worry from earlier. Adamsen is up to something. Tom picks at what is left on the tray. With all this talk of what he has to do today he’s concerned about something, something he can’t or won’t talk about.

"Tom, may I?" He points to the picture of Sloan Tom has placed by his tray.

Tom nods. Adamsen picks it up and looks at it carefully. "You know I guess I’m hopeless. The pretty ones are always taken and now members of the new species are taking them. I can’t win. I just can’t win." He hands the picture back to Tom, with a smile on his face. He feels something like Ed. Tom thinks Adamsen is a friend. Maybe I can have some hope after all.

"You done?"

Tom nods. Adamsen picks up both trays and puts them on the cart.

"What now? I’ve still got a couple of hours before class."

"Why don’t you tell me about yourself? You know more about me than I do about you. Why don’t you tell me about your family? You once said I remind you of your mother."

Tom felt a sharp stab of pain when he asked the question. "What’s wrong? Is it something you don’t want to talk about?"

"It’s not that. Well, maybe it is. Listen, you told me your story now I’ll tell you mine. I haven’t got a family any more. Momma died when I was 14 and Pop drank himself to death after that. I went to live with my Grandpa, but he died a few months before I got out of high school. I joined the Army and that’s been my family ever since."

Tom felt his pain at his mother’s death, pain, guilt and anger. "How did your mother die?"

Adamsen put his knees up before his face and laid his forehead against them. "I killed her."

Tom was shocked. Of all the answers he could have gotten, this was the least expected.

"She got sick when I was 12 or 13. I don’t really remember anymore, but eventually she had to go into the hospital. Pop used to take me to visit her, until the pain got real bad. Then he wouldn’t take me. I can still hear her begging the doctor for something to stop the pain. After a while he wouldn’t go either. He just drank. One day I took the bus down to the hospital to see her. She must have a dozen machines hooked up to her. She was so small. She said, ‘JC, make the pain go away.’ I blocked the door and unplugged all the machines. I just sat down on the floor and waited for her to die. By the time the doctors got there, she was dead. I was arrested and taken to Juvie, Juvenile Hall. The judge decided I was not responsible for my actions and I was released, eventually."

Tom watches Adamsen shudder and knew he was crying. "I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked."

Adamsen reaches into his pocket and takes out a handkerchief. He dries his eyes and says. "There is no way you could know, besides that was a long time ago."

They sit in silence for a long time.

Tom is slightly confused. He puts his hand on Adamsen’s shoulder and asks, "Why?"

"Why, what?" Adamsen asks.

"Why wouldn’t the doctors stop the pain?"

"I didn’t understand either, at the time. I didn’t find out until later. Doctors are afraid of giving out too much pain medication because it may shorten a patient’s life. Apparently it doesn’t matter if the patient will die any way or not.

"So, she was dying and the doctors knew it but they wouldn’t relieve her pain?"

Adamsen nods. "That’s it."

Tom looked at him thoughtfully. "I don’t understand."

Adamsen sighs. "Quite frankly, my friend, I don’t either."

"Look, my class is in about an hour. Are we going to stretch or not?"

They go through the routine again until Tom is sure he is well enough stretched for his class. Tom says, "Be sure to come back afterwards and we’ll do a different set to allow you to sleep and have less pain tomorrow. Wake me if I’m asleep."

Adamsen gathers everything together and locks Tom in the cage. "Tom I’ve got to have the papers now." He says softly. "I’ll see what I can do." Tom watches him as he leaves.

Tom lets himself relax. He knew they would take the picture eventually. Maybe he should be a little more crazed. He will have to see what follows. He doesn’t think they really expect any result this soon. He’ll have to be resistant for a while.

Adamsen goes to his class and is surprised at how much Tom’s stretching techniques help him in the class. Even though he is dead tired when he gets out he heads over to where he is being held, forgoing his uniform, in sweats and tennis shoes.

The guards let him in even though they are not pleased. It seems as if he has become a real pariah around here. As he comes close to the cage, Tom awakens. He knew he was tired but he didn’t believe he would fall asleep that quickly. "Tom, if your tired we can wait ‘til tomorrow."

"No, you’ll sleep better tonight and feel better when you awaken if we do this now."

As they go through a set designed to relax, Adamsen says, "I can’t do that one." He stops and puts a hand to his back.

Tom asks, "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing, I just landed wrong last night and have a sore spot."

Tom knows that even with a sore spot he should be able to do the stretches. "Come over to the light."

"Tom, I’m all right."

"Let’s see." Tom lifts the back of his sweatshirt to reveal an ugly purple bruise on his back. Tom puts his hand over it and sees that it’s definitely larger than his hand. He drops the shirt and says, "You need to see a doctor about that. You could have some internal damage."

"Tom, it’s just a bruise."

"Look at it this way, if you’re badly hurt I could catch the blame. You called me friend earlier today, if you meant it you’ll do as I ask." He hates manipulating Adamsen this way, but he needs to have it looked at.

"Ok, I promise. But tomorrow, not tonight."

"Just do it, now you’ve probably stretched enough. Go get some sleep."

Adamsen locks Tom back in the cage. "You know I hate locking you up like this. I’m gonna see if I can get you better accommodations. At least a bed and blankets, a place to lay down in."

"We’ll see." Tom says