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Aubrey fished it out of her pocket and looked at it again. "I promise," she said seriously.

Aubrey rolled herself down to the indoor pool facility after talking to some of the docs in the hospital wing. She was being pushed along in a standard wheelchair, not her normal eletric one. The docs had helped her get into a special pair of scrubs she could use to get into the pool, perhaps try to move her legs a bit under the water. The hottub was heated to a warm, bubbly throth, and the doctor helped her carefully move into the water.

Oh god, it felt heavnely. Aubrey smiled and nearly moaned. She was stressed, a bit angry, and so ******** sick of her chair. "Can I just be a lone for alittle while?" she asked the doc. He nodded, stating he would be right outside if she needed help. Aubrey nodded her thanks and leaned back, sinking into the bubbly water.

Sabin, meanwhile, had seemed to have taken a page from Aubrey's book a few months ago. Since his reinstatement, he had been frazzled, had barely slept, and was up to his neck in paperwork. It almost seemed as if Moreau was taunting him with the fact that he had his job back, but seemingly three times the amount of work he normally had. He was being asked to do things that he KNEW he wasn't qualified to do, make judgment calls that he was uninformed with and normally having to turn to his research heads for advice, making him feel inadequate.

His papers were in a complete disarray, the filling systems he had set up were now all.... computerized... Half of his old team was gone (with that Robin person who had taken his place while he was out), replaced by new people who he had to instruct and bend to his will teach them how he ran things, he was supposed to catch up on all the research since he was gone, further the studies into behaviorial effects, continue other jobs like moniter duty, AND on top of that many of the serums that his team had been working on were missing. He didn't know where they were. In the labs? Used? Discarded? It was enough to drive him to strangle something.

Instead, however, Sabin cut out right at five, wiht some pretty strignant directions, and went to one area that he had not frequented nearly enough The staff pools.

SO, at about the time Aubrey had been in the hot tub for around twenty minutes, the smacking of flip-flops on the tile came to her ears, and there was Dr. Duvert. Aside from the shoes, the only thing he had on was a small black speedo, and a towel around his shoulders. He was standing by the main pool and apparently had yet to notice Dr. Lockheart - circles were under his eyes, his hair looked even more erratic than usual, and his shoulders were hunched.

Aubrey opened one eye to see who was coming, half expecting it to be Moreau, then eyes shot WIDE as she given much more of view of Dr. Duvert than she ever expected to see. "My god," she cried, "What the hell are you wearing!"

Sabin looked up quickly, suddenly feeling much more awake as Aubrey's scandalized voice caught his ears. "What?!" He looked down at himself quickly - just to make sure that, yes, he hadn't been so out of it that he forgot his swimsuit entirely.

Noisily approaching he spread his arms to the side. "My swimsuit!" He protested.

"THAT is NOT a swimsuit... its like..." she gestured... " a rubberband or something. Oi!" She dipped her hands and splashed her face, trying to wake herself up a bit. Had Sabin not known anybetter, getting a better look at her, it might even look if she had been crying.

His teasing grin wavered as he cocked his head and eyes narrowed at her face. Opening and closing his mouth, he thought about his words for once, and closed the distance between them, taking a seat at the edge of the hotub she was in, putting his feet on the steps. "You okay, Aubrey...?" He glanced at the scrubs that she wore, the feeding tube, but the lack of IV. "You're down to one less cord sticking out of you, eh?" He tried to force a smile.

"Yeah, slowly getting there," she said, returning the smile slowly. THough wet and out of her wheelchair and labcaot it was much more obvious that she had shed a lot of weight. She learned back and ran a rand though her hair - or attempted to. IT was mostly still try, except for the humidity that made it comically frizzy. "Just.. had a rough day."

He nodded, his eyes examining her figure for a moment before returning to her face. She might have viewed it as lecherous, except for the somber expression that remained on his features. "I... have been there myself." He chimed in, rubbing at the bridge of his rather prominent nose.

"Oh? I thought you'd be happy to be back at work?"

"Oh I am! Don't get me wrong.... It's just... well... there seems to be an awful lot more work than there was when I left it. Things are missing, things are moved, I've got new staff, they're all in the middle of this great project that I wasn't even there for the begining..." He took a breath, ready to lapse into a continuation of the list when he just shook his head and waved it off. "It feels sometimes like I am purposely being distracted."

Aubrey tilted her head. "Aye, this place can get pretty stressful. I'm.. sorry. Anything I can do to help?"

He gave a shrug. "I don't know. Maybe part of it has been because you have been sick. I heard they hired a new doctor, but I have yet even to meet him. And I haven't seen any reduction of work."

Aubrey visably bristled. "Dr. Frost," she spat out bitterly.

"Ah...... I see you've met? Is he that bad?"

"SHE is horrible. She makes Moreau look like a limp kitten. At least in my book." She cracked a dry laugh. "But I guess I'm biased."

He quirked an eyebrow. "A woman...? Interesting. I have yet to meet her, all I know is that she is new - from the mainland straigt to my level. They haven't had any new supervisors since the place opened... except for Robin, and she was an internal promotion."

He shrugged. "IS that what has gotten under your skin?" He shifted positions a bit

"Partly," she admitted. "Moreau... hired her off the mainland when I was sick. Didn't even mention her until she was here. She's... sick. Dibarred because of mental manipulation and drug manipulation of her patients." AUbrey snorted. "She looked virtually turned on when we explained what we were doing here.." Aubrey looked downa nd make a little nervous splash of the water with her hands. "..and she's prettier than me to boot." She shook her head. "its like a custom made to order Moreau dream-woman."

He leaned back listening with a quirked white eyebrow. "Hired while you were sick, eh? I hear she does psychology and biochemistry. Interesting combination there - seems cut out to the job and bordering on both of ours, no?"

"So you feel threatened by her? Why? Did not Moreau put that overpriced rock on your finger?"

Aubrey looked down at her ring and frowned. "I'm afraid I'm not entirely the woman Moreau wants me to be."

He shrugged. "And what is that?"

"Cold hearted. Able to survive on his presence alone. LIke being around him would sustain me." The bitterness was obvious in hervoice. "he's been getting on me again for being friends with some of the islanders."


"Hrmmmmmmm" He drew out pensively, glancing around to the corners of the room. He had never personally seeeen a moniter displaying the pool area, but most likely because it wasn't turned to it. He hoped that was the case now.

"Do you mind if I join you?" He gestured to the seat under the water. "Or would Moreau view that as an infraction?"

"Probably, but go a head. I'd like to see him ban me from being friends with staffers now, too."

He looked strangely at Aubrey but slipped into the hottub, facing across from her. He closed his eyes in a luxurious sigh for a moment, letting the warm water close around him and calming him before he opened his blue-grey eyes again to the doctor.

"Now what's this? Banning from being friends? He has always seemed very controlling to me, but that was nothing new. And I think he has always resented your connections with the islanders, but what is this about banning?"

"Billy," she sighed. "He basicallly...forbid me to speak to him anymore."

"Billy again, huh? What happened this time?"

Aubrey frowned. "He had this earring... he's had it for god knows how long... it looks pretty beat. But anyway.. I'm fairly certain it was pretty important to him. But he doesn't have any ears anymore so.. he gave it me."

"Okay... and then what?" He shook his head, a blank look.

Aubrey shrugged. "By the time Billy hobbled back to his duplex- oh yeah did I mentioned Billy crutched his way up here - Moreau evicted him and locked him out."

Sabin leaned back, absorbing these pieces of information. He felt out of the loop since he got his job back. He had - apparently incorrectly - assumed that most of the Moreau/Aubrey drama was mostly over after Moreau put the diamond on her finger, but apparently that was certainly not the case. There was a lot he had missed - a new woman that Aubrey felt challenged by, and apparently Moreau STILL felt challenged by Billy, despite being half octopus and having put a ring around Aubrey's finger.

"Last I checked a beat up gold earring was no match to a ...." He looked at the ring on her finger. "What... several hundred thousand dollar diamond ring?"

Aubrey looked ashamed, then shrugged. "He's... insecure, I suppose."

He snorted. "Moreau? He's not insecure. He's controlling....." He glanced at the ring. "Do you mind if I take a look?"

Aubrey held out her left hand, the blue diamond, 4ct stone glitening in the lighting and reflecting off the water.

He pursued his lips and went to take it off - presumably for a closer look. He squinted his eyes and turned it over in the light, looking at the stone and the band.

Aubrey watched him curiously. "What?"

"Hrmm.. Alright, My mistake." He handed it back to her. "I was looking for the 'propery of Moreau' stamp on the band. I was sure it would have been on the inside of the band or something like that."

Aubrey narrowed her eyes and snatched it back. "Very funny." She slipped it almost reverantly back in her hand, rubbing the stone with her thumb.

"Well, come on. That is what it is, is it not? A warning? And a declaration to you that you are HIS?" Sabin's French accent, in his presumable strain, was thicker, his voice more flippant than he usually dared. But he DID keep his voice down as he reclined in the hottup, up to his shoulders in the water.

"Has he even set a date yet, or is this stamp of ownership sufficient to him?"

"Isn't that what they all are, though? A symbol? That I'm taken?"

She paused. "But no. No date."
"Yes... though the timing is rather appropro." He mused with a look to her. There had been many things that he had been itching to say about her ring - but the last time they spoke he knew he had been under direct, live observation by Moreau himself. Now, weeks later, and in a chance encounter in the pool room of all places - he felt he had more privacy. Especially keeping his voice down near the bubbling of the water.

"Perhaps you are right. But I still say, if anything, Moreau is a man of control. And he does no like to think that you are outside of his domain. Even being threatened by an octopus man. But of course... this is not the first time.."

"Yes, he's controlling. I've always known that. He hates feeling like my loyalties are split. Even back in high school.." she trailed off, suddenly looking very sad.

"From what I have seen, he hates there being any other priority in your life.... which is a bit of hypocritical for him, no?"

She looked up at him. "What;s that susposed to mean?"

He shrugged. "He has his work first, then you, right? You.... he gets jealous if you put anything before him. He thinks that you are trying to undermine him if you stick up for me... or for an islander."

Aubrey shifted in the water, looking uncomfortble. "Our lives are intertwined with our work."

Sabin had been stressed. Much like Aubrey who, in a fit of despair and anger, had run to Billy to 'relieve stress' - be it through argument or something more... passionate, Sabin was also seeking a repreive from his stress. Coupled with the thoughst that had been on his mind that he had to hold back the last time he had seen her that had only grown an festered, he was bubbling forth with comments that he had been looking for a way to communicate to Aubrey privately. He was also goaded by the fact that she DID seem disgrunted with Moreau. He had half expected her to roll over and become Moreau's unquestioning pawn after the ring. But the hook... she wasn't his quite yet... it was certainly an interesting setup.

"Are they intertwined? All I remember of the argument you had with him was that he apparently thought that your physical relationship got in the WAY of his work..."

Aubrey shot him a dangerous look. "He was angry, thats all." Though the line seemed scripted, not like she actually believed it.

"Hmm." He tapped his long nail on the tile of the edge of the hot tub. "People tend to be more honest when they are angry."

Aubrey suddenly looked on the verge of tear. "What are yu doing to me, Duvert?! What are you saying? That he doesn't love me? That I'm fooling myself? Thats right. Why wouldn't someone, especially Moreau, love someone like me." Her eyes stung and she batted at it. "Yeah I don't think I would believe it either."

Sabin hesitated, blinking, not ready for the outburst. He reigned himself in for a moment and took a breath.

"I... I did not say that. I think you misjudge what I say. I think, Aubrey, that you are very loveable. And that is precisely what Moreau fears. Moreau wants you all to himself, but he does not return.... the same emotion that you invest in him. I think... i have been thinking.... that Moreau needs a ..." he gesticulated, searching for the right word. "Someone wholly loyal to him. Someone who will agree with him no matter what he says. In all of his power, this is his weakness. ANd he knows it, and he is doing all that he can to keep your loyalties solely with him. He is maybe doing it slowly. Pulling you back... you say that he says you can no longer speak with Billy? That certainly sounds like a step in that direction to me. I also saw how upset he was at undermining what he told me about the pets... probably not even stopping to think that you might be doing the wrong thing - he was upset merely because you did something other than what he told you to do. Because you valued your logic over your unquestioning obedience to him. Just like when you stood up for the Dude when he punched him. Do... you see the pattern I am seeing?"

Aubrey listened to what he said very carefully, though her expression was downcast. "In his defense, he doesn't have a reason to be weary of me and Billy I suppose. Do... do you know why I was down in the village, Duvert?"

"I.... I had heard pieces after the fact... you wearing his shirt? I... I saw the argument. You went to his duplex, didn't you?"

She looked down. "I did. I didn't... you know..g o there thinking... that would happen.. but.."

"But?" He prompted. "what... what did happen that night? Before.... you know...?"

"We started kissing..." she said, refusing to look him in the eyes. Then he started to change.. right befor the power went off. I got scared...so I ran out."

He nodded, thinking. "And Moreau knows this? That you kissed him...?" He opened and closed his mouth. "But... may I ask one thing? Why Billy? I mean... he is dirty, foul-mouthed.... I do not see the appeal..?"

"Yes, Moreau knows. I made sure he knew before I accepted his proposal. Thats why I thought he trusted me."

Aubrey was silent for a few minutes before she spoke again. "I don't know." She gave a dry laugh. "To be honest.. I have no idea."

"Hmm... that is interesting that he knows. So you think that might have something to do with forbidding you to talk to him? But it is late for that. But an earring seems inconsequential unless you think he might be seeing more into it. But then again, it might just boil down to the fact that you still talk to him, he gives you thinks, when Moreau sees you as HIS."

He shrugged broadly and gave her a wide toothy grin. "You just have bad taste in men?"

"I don't think he fully trusts me. Or him. I think he's just scared something is going to happen between Billy and myself. Which is silly..."

She splashed water at him. "And HEY...thats just mean,"

"well come now. A mad scientist and a skeezy coke-head?" He shielded his face from the water. "Can you blame me for saying it?"

Aubrey chucked softly. "I 'spose not."

"But... I am glad that I am getting the chance to talk to you. I have had a lot on my mind about this whole affiar since you were injured. You know... for a time I honestly believed Moreau himself might have set it up?"

Aubrey looked shocked. "You can't be serious! Moreau would never do something like that to me!"

"Oh I Know! I do not think he would have EVER meant for you to be hurt as bad as you were. But.." He took a breath, leaning closer to her and dropping his voice a few octives. "I COULD see him intentionally manipulating an islander to scare you. I do not think that he likes for you to interact with the islnaders more than passing. Perhaps except Colche who could not manipulate her way out of a box. If he thought you would be scare dby one... then maybe h would think that you would turn more to him and against them."

"Thats ridulous. Moreau doesn't have to go to such extremes measures to get me to obey him."

His eyebrows raised virtually up to his hairline. "Oh?" He tapped the side of his nose. "What about Billy. Months ago, when you started first your 'arguments' with him. When he nearly raped Colche? The man you had been getting close to ... your 'daughter' here on the island? And you saw the drugs in his system..."

Aubrey's eye twitched. "Are you implying Moreau had something do with that?"!
His other eyebrow raised to meet the first. "You hadn't thought of that? Who else would have had the motive and access to the drugs?"

Aubrey looked -distinctly- uncomfortable with the way this conversaton was going. "I don't know. But it wasn't Moreau."

"Then who?" He pressed. "Just beacuse you don't want it to have been him does not make that the truth... Besides. Who else would have been able to get him the drugs off camera?"

Aubrey looked away, and didn't answer. Her eyes burned and Sabin could almost HEAR the gears turning over in her head.

"You do not like the answer. I have given it plenty of thought after you accused me. Though... the reason you came to me first... is beacuse you knew it wasn't, right? Or else you would have gone to him?"

"No. I would have gone to you first. I don't like making unfounded accusations. Unlike you, apparantly."

He held up his hands. "I stand corrected. But I dare say that my reasons are founded. At least logically."

Aubrey glowered at him. "He's not as heartless as you probably think he is."

"touche. But I do not think he is as loving as you make him out to be either."

"And I don't think I'm as cold or heartless or detatched as Moreau thinks I am. So we're all even, I suppose."

He shrugged widely and expressively. "And where does this leave me? Sitting by my lonesome in my room concocting conspiracy theories? And if my hair wasn't already white, I am sure it would be peppered with grey from the stress of the last few weeks?"

"You and Dr. Frost can ejoy mentally torementing the subects together," she said bitterly.

He rolled his eyes. "I know nothing of this Dr. Frost save for what you have already told me. But I have not been doing much mental torturing recently. Besides. I have been too busy to do that, and before that I was suspended." He scowled.

"You're not going to get much 'oh noes work is hard' sympathy from me, Duvert," she said only half teasing. "I've been busting my a** since I was twelve."

" I know you have. And I have as well, but in a very different field. As I said earlier, I think that he is purposely putting me in a situation where I am too busy to do much else - like my own projects. But I hope that once I have my staff up to being trained, that I can start to manage in my own time. "

He stretched. "Speaking of... I don't believe I got the chance to thank you properly... for saving Beastie."

"Well, I wish you the best of luck, Doctor. I'll help I can."

Then she gave a genuine smile. "You're welcome.."

"Thank you. " He got the distinct impression that Aubrey had reached her limit of this sort of conversation for the day.

"Well. I suppose I Should leave before I become a prune. Or until Moreau turns me into one, yes?"

Aubrey laughed heartily. "Yeah, probably a good idea."

He stepped out, water running down his body in rivulets, once again displaying how little he was wearing.... and if Aubrey let her eyes wander, she would discover from the hair that peppered his legs and ran from his naval downwards that the carpet did indeed match the curtains.

Grabbing his towel from where he had left it, he began to dry off.

"You take care. And don't let yourself push those thoughts to the back of your mind again."

"Oh!" SHe said, after allowing herself to stare for a moment. "Look!"

Aubrey concentated and , very slowlyl, lifted her leg out of the water and wiggles her toes. "They're workin!"

He blinked and turned to look as she raised her leg with a smile. "That's wonderful!" He beamed encouragingly at her. "Keep it up! Hopefully you will be walking soon and not bound to that chair."

"God I hope so," she said with a nod. "Its not so much the nerve damage as the strain on my insides. As lovely as that sounds. But....gettng there." Aureby sank further down in the water. "Bye again."

He nodded, not seeming bothered by the more grizzly details of the injury. "well, that is good news then - if it is more trauma than nerve damage. It means that once your body recovers from the shock, and with the treatments can start to heal, you should not be hindered, yes?" He wrapped the towel around his waist after giving ther est of his body a once over and walked by where she sat, leaning down to give her shoulder a squeeze.
"And if you need a friend to talk to who is not a coke fiend. I am just down the hall."

Aubrey smiled and nodded, watching him walk off

The guard on durty flipped open the communication box on the fence and paged the doctor.

"She says she'll be right down."


A few minutes later Aubrey, in her chair, came wheeling out to see her. She looked, well, better than the last time Kaveri saw her definately. But she still looked thin and tired from the Aubrey from before 'the incident.' If Kaveri looked, her neck peeking out from above the labcoat had several fading scabs and a few butterfly bandages - but the wounds did not look very serious anymore.

"Miss Porter," the doctor greeted with a nod. She opened the gate and offered to lead her inside the plush lobby. "How can I help you?" she asked on the way

It took Aubrey a minute to understand exactly what she was apologizing for... she reached up and touched her neck as she motioned to it... then it hit her. Her brow raised slightly, and though her expression stayed mostly nuetral, all the color drained from it. Of course... a vulture.......

Aubrey took a few breaths before attempting to answer. "Of course... you weren't acting under your down actions Miss Porter..."

Aubrey swallowed. She didn't blame the woman. She really didn't...but still the idea of another person eating your skin... and having to face that. She surpressed a shudder and accepted the gift.

"I.. don't know what to say. Thank you. Really. I mean, I know you didn't have to do anything. Tell the labs.. you know. I mean.." she stopped herself and started over. "Thank you, Miss Porter. I forgive you, if that means anything."

She curiously and carefully unwrapped the little package.

"Yes... yes I would be," she admitted as she finished with the unwrapping.

Aubrey looked a bit surprised by the gift. She ran her fingers over the paint gently, admiring it for a moment. She looked up to the woman. "Did you make this youself?" Her interest was genuine... she wasn't used to getting gifts from the islanders. It almost made her feel guilty...especially given her position. But in her heart she loved the fact that she wasn't utterfly despised. By everyone, at least.

Aubrey admired the work, obviously impressed and appreciative of the gift. She put the rock in her lab carefully until she could find somewhere to put it.

"I don't blame Zach for what he did," Aubrey said honestly. "I mean.. I can't help but a bit, erm, awkard because of it but... he shouldn't be punished." She nodded to herself slowly as she thought about what to say. "We didn't know his mental condition when he and Sabin where taken in. Though I will warn you that he will have to go through his further injects in the lab observation room." She paused. "You see, he wasn't inject with the same thing that surpressed your human brain. He just... reacts to the changes rather violently. Its just a safety precaution. We can't have what happened to me happen to anyone else."

She ran her finger over the rock again. "But he's suffer no permantent 'effects' of what happened as long he's not a danger to others when not going through his transitions."

"I can't blame him for a negative reaction to something we're doing to him. Would be rather hypocritical of me, now wouldn't it."

She looked up and gave her a nod. "But I know he didn't mean it. I mean, I highly doubt he likes me given the circumstances... but he's not a murderer."

Aubrey held up the rock as she left. "Thank you again."

She watched led her out and closed the gate behind her, not having any clue she hadn't figured out her serum yet. Aubrey figured she understand why she ate what she perceived as a dying animal. Had she known she was still in the dark Aubrey probably would have told. She figured blaming it on a vulture would be reassuring.

Relatively speaking.