(Continured from Reverse House Call)

Two transformers and a motorcycle ride later they ended up at the sanctuary a quiet walk from the garage to his room, he hadn’t said much if anything at all, he didn’t know where to begin so he simply didn’t. The only statement the Red heap of muscle andbrain had to say to her was all in what he did when he got her into the room, He embraced her and kissed her on top of the head and then embraced her some more. He was genuinely happy to have her back in his life and more so to see that she wasn’t broken…they would have to do something about her rewiring but that would come with time and information.

He needed to take care of a couple calls at some point letting the boys at her place know that they could lock up and return to the sanctuary. He would need to show her the surprise he had gathered for her over the last month as well. He wanted her to talk to him but he would not pry. He refused, but still he hoped that he would find the door to her was open to him.

His typically organized to the T room looked as if a bit of chaos ran through. His desk was covered with information and files that could be useful to tracking the woman down if needed, he looked a bit stalkerish, but quite frankly if he needed to stalk her a bit to ensure her safety well, appearances be damned. And her she was safe and sound…now if he knew two days ago that it simply would have taken a trip to Jacen’s apartment was the first easy step to find her, then he would have saved himself the time.


He got into his room and looked for a new shirt, his had gone to her to make a temporary dress, riding a motorcycle in a bathing suit was not practical. Sexy, yes. Practical, no. He didn’t bother putting another on and momentarily wanted to take a shower, but he knew she couldn’t, so he wouldn’t either…but he could give her his first surprise to her, it was one of two, this was the more first and more thoughtful one, the second, he hoped he wasn’t missing the point of and had blundered.

She'd been wearing the same clothes for... weeks? Lori had stumbled into Mars' room ahead of him and had stopped at the mess of papers at his table. Sightings of her. Some real, some not. She should figure out a way to shield the delicate equipment on a cell phone so that messes like this didn't happen again. Typically being untraceable was a boon. When even she did not know where she was, however, it was sort of a downer.

Lori touched the calendar that had various notes scribbled here and there. She knew she'd been gone a month at least. But she hadn't know the exact timing of things. Mars scooped her up in a hug and kissed her on her smelly head. She'd wanted a shower ala Jacen, but that wasn't something she should tell her... Mars.

She was charged now. The door was shut tight and for all purposes, she was home in Mars' embrace. That didn't make her any less tired. Repeated draining and refilling was as good as running uphill. Pile that on top of half wakeful pained weeks in the back of a van that was worse than a sauna and she was tired. A little void nap just wasn't going to cut it.

"Sponge?" She was pretty sure there was one in this room, but if not she had a shower kit in hers. She smelled. And she wanted not to. As lovely as it would be to melt into red skin and muscle, it would be nicer if it were clean skin on skin.

He offered a half apologetic expression at her inquiry at his…erm work. He had taken the note as a hint that she was up to something that could need back up from but her look of informing him of anything caused him to hesitate. He should have chased her down the second he found the note.

If she had told him that she wanted a shower Via Jacen. He could and would have arranged that… He had after all invested in a Tranq gun. he liked the guy after all, but he figured that a unconscious Jacen would work just as well…tied and blind folded for good measure of course. Possible in a chastity belt…

~~"Sponge?"

His lips perked up at the break in silence and what he hoped would be an excepted offer. He had taken the liberty of matching her shower kit for two. And then found multiple scents in the various products she found useful. He held up a bag that held everything two people could possible need for swapping mostly dry sponge baths and raised a quiet eyebrow. “ I thought that you washing my back and me washing yours would be nice, but you’re worn out, perhaps I could simply wash you this time around? After we finish I could find you something to wear from your room. “

Wonderful, beautiful Mars. Always two steps forward and one step back. At least he was still going forward.

Lori leaned her face against his chest and nodded. "Rubber gloves aren't the height of sexy, but if you need sponging..." She wasn't above sponging his back. He was, after all, going to be sponging hers. She didn't want to give him any wrong ideas, though. Washing and cuddling was about the height of excitement she was expecting tonight.

With one last squeeze she slipped out of his grip and made a bee line for the bathroom, shower supplies in hand. She made short work of the tent-like shirt and horribly smelly clothes. Too bad Slate wasn't around. No doubt it would have proved educational for him.

Yellow rubber gloves on, she went to turn the tap.

How could she even begin to explain the events of the last month? Lori sank onto the cold ceramic ledge of the tub, away from the splash zone. She usually just waited until she could see steam from the water to know if it was hot or not. "Jacen isn't the only adapted. There's more where he came from." And more from other places around the world, no doubt, considering there was an entire organization of them out there somewhere.

~~"Rubber gloves aren't the height of sexy, but if you need sponging..."

“ I think as the sole item being worn they could work, when worn by you, well the gloves could do worse.” He observed her undress and he was infinitely interesting funny how a mans other senses could shut down; say a nose in favor of other interests. “Perhaps if we added one of those little aprons that tie at the waist and look like the front half of a skirt, we would have something.”

His eyes watched her form move around the bathroom for a moment and then he shook himself out of it. He was not his brother he could operate from his proper brain in spite of a naked woman. He repeated that to himself a few times in his head as he observed the woman in question.

~~“Jacen isn't the only adapted. There's more where he came from."

“hmmmm so he really isn’t a mutant then? I thought he might’ve just been a bit hopeful or in denial…perhaps we could make friends with one? I wouldn’t mind learning a bit more.”

He snapper on his own bright orange gloves, the only ones he could find in his size. He took off his pants and boxers and tried not to strut into the bathroom or invaded her personal space inappropriately. He tested the water with his tail. “It’s getting nice in there. I think I’ll watch you do it the first time and then take care of you after that.” He once heard a female comedian tell a joke about showering with men and that a woman’s chest would never be cleaner then after that. As he looked at Lori he knew how he might be inclined to work in higher detail in certain areas.

He then couldn’t stand not saying something any longer. “So, next time. I don’t care who it’s for, or how far you have to go, I’d like to be there for you. If you ever want someone watching your back on something like that all you have to do is say so.” He knelt on the floor and was ready to spoil her a bit. Perhaps he would implement some of the massage techniques he had learned over the last month on her, if she was up for it.

Lori only snorted at the thought of herself traipsing around in nothing but a kinky maid's garb. Not entirely her style, but it was worth trying once.

"Not a mutant." She confirmed the fact. "Not sure about playing nice with them either, but we could always try nice first." On a different adapted, of course. She was a little bit past nice with Jacen and on into naughty.

"I know quite a bit already, more than likely not everything, but enough perhaps." Like Jacen's beer preference and the scents in his shower soap.

Lori picked up a body wash scented like something soft and spicy. The label called it "magnetic," it looked like a men's product, but the irony was not lost on her. She squeezed an ample amount on to the sponge and, after Mars okayed the temp, ran the sponge under the faucet for a brief moment. Thoroughly soaked, she brought the sponge back and rubbed it between her rubbery gloves until it came away sudsy.

“So, next time... I’d like to be there for you. If you ever want someone watching your back on something like that all you have to do is say so.”

"I needed to be a non-person. Big and red doesn't exactly work for incognito." No, she was far too used to working alone and using her particular skill set. "If I had conceived of needing back up, you would be at the top of the list." She admitted that a bit grudgingly in order to mollify him.

Lori ran the sponge across an arm and the smell of singed sponge and cooking "magnetic" body wash filled the room. She scrubbed at the zebra tan stripes, half hoping they'd come off. No such luck. She then squeezed the sponge as dry as possible and wiped the sizzling suds off her arm. "It's not that bad if you go fast." The hardest part was washing her hair.

~~“Not a mutant." "Not sure about playing nice with them either, but we could always try nice first."

Mars grunted his agreement, he would have trouble playing nice with any that had that sort of power over him…how washing a woman who had everything she need in the room to kill him easily was better, or somehow in more control than someone who could combine him in with the other guys and take away the void and his strength he didn’t know.

~~"I know quite a bit already, more than likely not everything, but enough perhaps."

“Interesting. I find this off shoot of humanity interesting, they are certainly the humans answer to giving mutation competition.”

He allowed himself a short chuckle at her reaction to magnetic.

~~"I needed to be a non-person. Big and red doesn't exactly work for incognito." "If I had conceived of needing back up, you would be at the top of the list."

He nodded, he had no words for that, he couldn’t very well change to human when ever he pleased now could he… It had been awhile since he was annoyed with his obvious and remarkable appearance.
He did not like the sentence that he was about to say, and he only disliked it due to the fact that he wanted her to be wrong in this instance. “You are right.”

~~"It's not that bad if you go fast." Mars managed to caress Lori the first time and then efficiently repeated her steps beginning at her stomach, cleaning her thoroughly was tricky while working quickly. He wanted to make this a bit more pleasurable, but knew he couldn’t linger. He did however work with precision he did anything. She would be as clean as she had ever been when he was through with her.

"You are right."

It wasn't very often that she got to hear those words from Mars. More often than not those three little traitorous syllables were being dragged from her lips. No small amount of satisfaction was wasted. She drank it in as surely as her damp skin leaked charge.

He tickled her. And she made his job easier and the process faster by starting on her other arm all the way down to the rubber glove. She leaned forward to dunk her sponge under the flow of water again and then started mopping her way across anything of his that she could reach. She could take her time, though and watch the water trickle down the side of his pectorals... if she wanted to.

"Clean is the best smell." She had missed it as surely as she missed Jacen's smile and as surely as she missed the safety of Mars.

Her sponge drooped against Mars' arm as her mind flittered away on unpleasant things. She couldn't rightly remember what Jacen had even been saying when she last saw him. By now, of course, Lori had discerned that they were back in New York, back on home turf. And yet here she was at the Sanctuary. Were there no just rewards for her good deeds in Florida?

"Clean is the best smell."

"I think I prefer it on you." he agreed teasing good naturedly.
He watched her eyes as he scrubbed and dried the rest of her, his hands in a bit of a rush as they neared cleaning the more fun parts of her. circular motions here and there and a pause at what he should do else where, nature told him shouldn't be using a sponge once he reached her, so he went to her toes and eventually came strait back to the same dilemma. he sat the sponge in her other bright yellow glove and leaned back. by the time they finished with her...he was clean enough and she was spotless.

It was now time for her hair which made him again want to observe, first and try second.

"Is there any one that I need to go and rectify in Florida?" his eyes glanced at her finger tips... that couldn't have been her Idea and whoever had done it need to suffer surgery at his hands. he was attempting to chip away at the big questions, so by the time they managed to sleep he would at least have stemmed his curiosity.

Before tackling the hair, she stopped and toweled off. She washed her hands bare and toweled them too. Then it was back with the gloves. "You can actually help with this part quite a bit." She grabbed up a cup from the bucket and held it under the stream before handing it to Mars.

Before he could ask she flipped her hair over, rounding her shoulders and back until her hair was hanging down as much as was possible for a girl still standing or kneeling on her own. She guided his hand with the cup toward her head. "Wet it down without getting any on the scalp and we won't singe a single hair."

For a time he worked in silence, but once Lori was reaching for the shampoo, he was ready for answers.

"Is there any one that I need to go and rectify in Florida?"[/color]

Lori inspected it. Lavender? She wasn't so sure about that, but shampoo was shampoo. Must have grabbed it from the girl bucket.

"If Jacen did not kill the man, he's got no spine and Florida was a wash. There are more fingers to point, but I wouldn't begin to know where. Did a bit of damage myself, mind you."

She had some vague memories of utensils of torture standing up shock straight out of a ruined chest. She taught them that no metal was safe to wield against her. As for the others responsible for her mutation's temporary enslavement? She had no idea. The faces she saw were limited in number. No doubt more limited after the Florida crew finished up. There was no way for her to know, though as the end of the fight was a complete void. Apparently in the literal sense.

"When did you make it to the OK Corral?" If he even did. It was possible that she'd been dropped off a the Sanctuary or something. Wouldn't that just be a kick in the pants?

Lori lathered the hair, careful not to touch the scalp and beckoned for Mars to rinse it again before patting around for some conditioner.

~~"You can actually help with this part quite a bit."
"Wet it down without getting any on the scalp and we won't singe a single hair."

“if you ever want to try it, I could dangle you above a full tub and dip.” He shrugged. “So long as you wouldn’t mind me man handling you a bit.” He added playful smile.

~~"If Jacen did not kill the man, he's got no spine and Florida was a wash. There are more fingers to point, but I wouldn't begin to know where. Did a bit of damage myself, mind you."

He nodded all seriousness; she was having her hair washed at the moment so she couldn’t meet his eyes.

~~"When did you make it to the OK Corral?"

“After everything that was anything went down. I showed up in time to clean up the mess, nullify any pain you were going through until I got you to slate and provide those four with a ride home to the city.”

He then clarified. “ I began looking for you the day you left the note, trying to track you down having no idea what trouble you might find with in a month. Apparently Jacen got the package and ran with it immediately, didn’t stick around long enough for me to call him. I missed him by minutes at your place, some shady folks tore into but I have some of our people watching your place and cleaning up until I call them, remind me to call them. I tracked down his apartment and met, Kealey, she wanted nothing to do with me tracking him at first and it took some arguing from there to convince here to let me know where he went. And then she insisted on coming with me once I was on my way. We took a sanct plane down there and the airstrip was within hearing distance of a gun fight. I show up to see the last shot fired and from there it was scooping you into the void, which I won’t do again unless you absolutely need it.” Another odd flight back and then strait to slate.” By the time he finished speaking he was coming to a close of finishing the first batch of hair. “ and here we are. Naked with sponges”

She was glad her face was obscured by potentially dangerous hair.

Kealey? Kealey Quinn? She wanted to ask but didn't dare. What the hell would Kealey Quinn be doing in Florida? Or better yet, what the hell would Kealey Quinn be doing in Jacen's apartment? He could be loaning it... or... that hypocritical, self-centered son. of. a. ****. What was she just his type? Like a serial murderer's usual?

Lori took her dear sweet time with the conditioner. She would not be out played. Would. Not.

"A succinct synopsis. So sorry for you to miss all the action." She tried not to scathe him. It wasn't Mars who deserved her anger. Never Mars. "It smelled bad anyway." The thought of those beef jerky arms made her throat dry. Those could not have been hers. She'd only seen them so briefly before Tarin leant her his coat that their reality was easy to deny.

Lori turned the faucet off after they managed to finish out the conditioner. She wrung her hair out like a piece of cloth. There were reasons why she kept it at this length. Too long and it'd get dirty faster. Too short and there was no hope for avoiding the scalp and it would always appear greasy... because it was.

She fumbled for the towel and scrubbed at her hair carefully. It was best that she was facing the floor. Really. It was.

"A succinct synopsis. So sorry for you to miss all the action." "It smelled bad anyway."

"Uh." holy crap! she made him say uh, he hated uh and any other sound that stated your brain was temporarily out of order and might be working shortly. for that his brain dipped into a bit of defense and he liked to defend himself with the obvious truth, that sometimes got ignored much like the purloined letter.

"if it isn't absolutely clear I was disappointed by the lack of action and the culmination of it because I like to protect you, ensure your safety even as you try to spend it on fools. Seeing that smuck with that Irish knock off of you, nearly caused me to try to kill him while you weren't backing him with a shovel." didn't he usually pull his punches with her. make sure he treated her gently... was it simply that tone after a month of worrying and working at finding her and hoping to keep her safe, where he got a tidy package with instructions of how to save her, where Jacen got glory,he got to pick up the pieces.

He made his assumptions, "He doesn't deserve your attention, he squanders it."He stood. " I'm not saying this Jealous fool does either, but him?" he shook his head and concluded all of tha with a chance to take a breath. " let me go find you something comfy to wear."

Lori scrubbed at her hair and scalp with the towel now. She'd only guessed it was dry enough to touch skin.

"if it isn't absolutely clear I was disappointed by the lack of action and the culmination of it because I like to protect you, ensure your safety even as you try to spend it on fools."

"I don't need protection." She hissed it from beneath her towel no doubt loosing ground for lack of face to face denial. But he was talking again.

"Seeing that smuck with that Irish knock off of you, nearly caused me to try to kill him while you weren't backing him with a shovel."[/i] She stopped. She was pretty sure all her vital organs just dropped out of her body and down through the floor. So it was... and then that meant...

"He doesn't deserve your attention, he squanders it."[/color] She knew that. Maybe. She'd told him "no" time and again about feelings for a reason, but it was simple. She wouldn't have been attracted to him if he were good for her. He fit in her serial murderer's profile. She'd just hoped...

Mars was getting up in a huff in search of clothes.

He had been her last shot at normal... Lori struggled to take in breath, her throat was closing and her chest squeezing painfully. She told herself she'd give up normal in college when lightning struck. She told herself she'd give up normal when she left Bacchus in her bath tub. She was so sure she'd given up normal and gotten over it when Jacen came along.

In the end... she was so weak.

...And now she knew Jacen wasn't the only adapted in the world. Her drug of choice became that much much easier to come by. Even knowing that... that it didn't have to be him... she wanted it to be him. She had deluded herself into wanting normal with him.

She pulled the towel from her head down and around her shoulders and put her prickling warm cheek against the cold tile. It helped her calm down a little, breathe a bit better maybe, but it in no way helped clear her mind.

"I don't need protection."

"If you insist on finding enemies like you do, you just might and believe me I know you can handle yourself, you don't need protection, that doesn't mean I can't want to make sure you don't have to."

Mars' jaw went slack for the second time...she wasn't even listening...perhaps he should take Venus approach to life have your fun and get the heck out of dodge...it was what he intended for this relationship or lack there of in the first place. He sighed as he exited his room went next door and forced the door open wheather it was unlocked, locked, barred,or booby trapped otherwise....booby trapped. a bucket of stale water poured onto the floor infront of him and he considered going and venting a bit on his idiotic little brother Pluto. what did he not understand about the milk incident. liquid plus lori equals zappp. maybe he did think it out....he would have to give that boy a thrashing to see if he couldn't get it through his head that Lori was off limits.

He stepped in threw the room and grabbed a couple of options of everything, thong or boy shorts, sports bra or under wire, short shorts or pajama pants, tank top, or oversize tee. he reached under Loris bed and grabbed a bottle of Rum. he then turned around mopped up the mess and closed her door headed back to his room. and set the stack of clothes on the bathroom tile....he didn't bother to get dressed during all of that. He unscrewed the lid to the bottle and took a swig, how did she have him so tense. it was ridiculous! he closed his door offering a small naked wave to pair of the normal sanctuary residents who like nosy people looked into room as they passed them. The naked red giant must have been a sigh, the only accessory being his big bottle of rum. he shut and then locked the door.

He headed to his dresser began to open it started to rest naked and then put a pair of boxxers on, after that he laid down and began to nurse his drink.