Noel pushed her way in and then stopped dead. The shower curtain was a duplicate of the square curtains out in the room excepting one major factor. The nice opaque beige that blocked out sunlight was gone leaving the majority of the curtain transparent. The squares really only framed what was there rather than covering any of it up.

"Oh God. I'm so… I thought… I mean I didn't…" Weren't guys supposed to take really fast showers? She thought he would be all nice and toweled by now.

The carbonated beverage gurgled its last on her arm and it was like that broke the spell that had paralyzed her and her stuttering in the doorframe. She put her eyes on the floor where they belonged. "Yeah, we're gonna wash clothes anyway so it's uh… yeah." Time to stop talking. "Room service is here."

As if that hadn't been awkward enough, Noel let the door shut back between the two of them without another word. She felt like more than just her face was red. Like maybe her embarrassment extended down to her toes and up to her hairline. This was… weird.

She sipped on the sticky soda and went to choose a piece of clothing that would double for a towel. No need to get a real towel dirty. She wanted that for her shower.

The ex-agent had to think about this rationally. She needed to throw out everything she thought she knew and reason out was was actually true. Noel ended up sitting in the spiny office chair with her bathrobe pulled over her head like it was a tent. Between nail bites, she sipped her soda sullenly underneath the soft fabric.

Fact 1. If this was a man she was not attracted to, she would not have been embarrassed to see him, uh, as he was if she were not attracted to him on some level. Okay. That was a fair assessment. He was pretty. She liked him.

Fact 2. Noel would not permanently involve herself with someone. She felt like that was a something she knew to be true right down to her bones. So, a) she had broken that personal rule or b) she hadn't.

Fact 2, point a, subsection 1. If she had pledged some kind of permanence, he would surely know what he was getting into. Did she know what she was already in? That was a rabbit to chase later.

Fact 2, point a, subsection 2. If she had pledged some kind of permanence she would have gotten a tattoo. She would be up next for the shower and she certainly wasn't going to get caught with her pants down so that would have to wait. If this was a new development, she wouldn't have had time for a tattoo. But surely it wasn't that new. He was comfortable naked around her and she had never, ever been loose in her morality. Noel was decidedly old fashioned compared to most New Yorkers.

Fact 2, point a, subsection 3. Noel had no engagement ring. It was very, very, VERY likely that she lost it. She didn't keep to change well and she had never been one to wear rings before. The brunette shoved the robe off of her head and looked at her left hand. She tried to imagine… something. What had it looked like? Did she have a tan line? She squinted closer at her finger. No tan line…

Fact 2, point b. If she didn't break her own rule, she had somehow come to the conclusion that she had broken her own rule. Where did that assumption begin? Noel thought back and realized that the information had come from Nick. Nick was her rock, her second opinion and a much more reliable source than she was. She knew that to be true.

Fact 3. Noel could forget herself. Even if this wasn't real, if he wasn't her actual fiance, Noel had the option to let herself be deluded. Well, no that made it sound bad. She could forget her doubts and let herself be happy. Nick wasn't a bad man. He had helped her and held her and she even liked him (see Fact 1). So why did it feel… weird?

Fact 4. Nick was Noel's work partner. A picture was forming in her head now. She had rotated through partners relatively often, but besides Kael the Adapted, Nick had been with her the longest. Work was her life. Nick was her partner at work. Now he was to be her partner in life as well as work and even more importantly, now, work had been taken out of the picture entirely. That just left him as her partner in life. Her insides cringed at the idea. Even if it had been some kind of natural progression of falling in like or love or whatever… would their relationship be able to support itself without the structure of work driving it? She felt like something inside herself was taking on a new dynamic that she felt weird about.

She had also chewed through all the nails on her left hand. Noel transferred the mostly empty can and started on the right.

What did she know about Nick? None of his stuff was here so she couldn't gather clues that way. She didn't have her phone to double check his picture. Was it possible that the Nick she had here wasn't the Nick she thought she had at work?

The door shut behind Noel as she scurried out of the bathroom like a frightened mouse, leaving a bewildered look on Nick’s face. “What the hell was that about?” Nick said to the empty bathroom just before he noticed the shower curtain didn’t provide the level of protection he had originally anticipated. Whoops. Any lingering doubt of what the woman had or hadn’t seen was pretty much solved. “Good thing the water wasn’t cold.” he mused to himself.

Nick proceeded to finish his shower and dry himself off at a leisurely pace. When dry, he tied the wet towel around his waist until he was ready for his robe just in case another soda related emergency should occur. He found a complimentary razor and toothbrush beside the sink and put them to good use. The mirror kept fogging up with steam and forced the man to wipe it down occasionally to complete the task. The results were worth it. All he needed now was a good night’s sleep and he would be a new man. He went over to the door, discarded his towel, threw on his bathrobe, and picked up his dirty clothes before stepping back into the main room.

His eyes fell on Noel who sat in the office chair opposite him, hiding under her gown. Her toes barely peeked out from beneath the cloth as she had pulled her legs up tightly against her body while she hid. It appeared like the encounter in the bathroom had been more traumatic then Nick had realised. He chucked his clothes into the dirty pile by the door and slowly walked toward the woman at the desk, kneeling down on the carpet in front of her.

As gently as he could, Nick lifted the end of the robe up to look inside the makeshift tent. Two hazel, doe-like eyes blinked back at him. Noel gnawed absentmindedly on her right thumb nail while her fortress of solitude was slowly being peeled away around her. Smiling warmly at the adorable creature before him, Nick tried to soothe her fears. “You ok?” He asked with a reassuring tone. His hands continued to move the terrycloth off her head and let it fall to the side. He let his finger comb a few stray hairs behind the brunette’s ear and finished by cupping the right side of her face delicately. A sudden urge took hold of him and he leaned forward slowly, hoping not to frighten Noel further. Nick pressed his lips against the lovely woman’s scarred left cheek and kissed it softly. Her skin felt warm beneath his lips and a fire began to blossom from deep inside of him. He followed the line of the scar with light and gentle pecks until he reached his destination. Their lips met in a tentative embrace before he reluctantly pulled his face away and kneeled before her once again, gazing at her affectionately.

Nick’s instincts tried to push him further but a small voice in the back of his head had fought back. It was like it was screaming to Nick from a deep, dark pit; unable to escape its prison in the farthest recesses of his mind. The voice was trying to warn him. Tell him this was wrong and to stop before he made a huge mistake. The animal and the prisoner wrestled for control before the voice won out.

If Noel looked doe-eyed before, she was a deer in headlights now. She seemed to be frozen in place, unable to move as the couple stared at each other from a few inches apart. Nick tried to read what she was thinking but couldn’t find a clue in her exquisite feminine features. Concerned that he had just overstepped his bounds, Nick decided to back off and try to give her space to deal with the thoughts and emotions swimming inside her head.

Reaching his arms underneath her, Nick scooped Noel out of the chair with ease. She felt weightless in his arms as he held her against his chest. “So, the bathroom is all yours.” He told her as he carried her towards the door. “Take your time and we can watch some TV, talk or whatever when you get out.” Carefully bending down, he let her feet touch the floor and lifted her into a standing position in the doorway as he righted himself. “I’ll take care of the dirty clothes so just throw them out before you hop in the tub.”

Not knowing what else to say, he turned and began to pick up the pile of laundry in the corner so that they could be sent off for cleaning.

The robe moved and she knew her alone time was over for now. He asked if she was alright and the automatic response was "Yeah." Though she knew she sounded a bit defensive about it. Noel was being paranoid. It came from years of being disoriented, she was sure. Of course this was Nick. Of course he would tuck some hair behind her ear. Of course... his face would get closer to hers...

She just froze. What was she supposed to do? Say eww and shove him away? It wasn't eww. He was even freshly shaved, but for whatever reason, her teeth were all but chattering in her mouth when he pressed his lips against her cheek.

Not all of her arguments against this situation were thrown out, but they were all curiously silent when those lips moved against hers. It was brief. It was gentle. She wasn't sure what to do about it. Part of her wanted to rub her face on his hand like a lap cat. The other part wanted to dump the last dregs of her diet coke on him for... for just being there.

When he sat back on his heels to assess the damage, he looked serene. Maybe a little wanting, but mostly just happy. Noel could feel the slight wrinkling of her brow. It wasn't that it wasn't nice. It was nice. Wasn't this nice? Everyone was nice here. She just... needed time to adjust to the idea of kissing. Killing? That was a sometimes unpleasant if necessary side effect of a job. Kissing was just too new. At least from this source. She had stabbed him more times than... Noel had an image of a knife. Not her knife. Nick's knife. Didn't he always have that knife?

She dropped her eyes to his pants pocket, but... he was wearing a towel. Well, a towel and a robe, but that was it.

Maybe it was to save her from her own embarrassment, but Nick picked her up. He had carried her many times when she was too slow or too weak to get the bad guy on her own and she was less opposed to it now than she had been initially. "I can walk, you know. For the record."

And she had enough wits to keep her robe in hand too.

> “Take your time and we can watch some TV, talk or whatever when you get out.”

Or whatever... sure. Her stomach just about flip flopped in her abdomen. "Don't leave, okay?" Laundry was fine. She meant not to run off forever. Just because Noel wasn't sure what to do with him just yet did not mean that she was done with him altogether.

She shut the bathroom door between them and then breathed fully. It felt like she hadn't been taking proper breaths for a while now. Right. Noel had to check for a tattoo. She would have to remember to check for Nick's knife later. Her clothes came off and she put the robe on, grimy as she was so that she could toss her clothes out the door without worrying about anything showing. That done, she did lock the door before she went to work.

In the mirror, she saw her back tattoo. Her arm tattoo was the same. There was nothing over her heart and... well nothing on her thighs inside or out. Since those were the places she thought to check, those were the places she would have thought to get a tattoo.

She was not reassured. Especially not when she found the mat of blood in her hair. With a sigh Noel went through the motions of taking a shower. There was never enough shampoo in a complimentary hotel bottle, but it was what she had. She washed and dried herself and lamented not having a comb, but her fingers worked alright.

Robe fastened securely, there was nothing left to do but go back to Nick. Distracting, potentially knife-less Nick.

Noel opened the door just a peek and when nothing immediately assaulted her, she peeked around toward the bed. "Anything left?" The warm food, by now was cool and the cool food was warm. Still, the shower was worth it.

Nick hung up the phone and was glad to hear that the shower had started running in the other room. He had just called downstairs to tell the hotel staff some clothes were waiting to be cleaned and had been placed in the hall. He even had the foresight to have breakfast left with the laundry when it returned the next morning. Every scenario could he think of had been covered.

Just then, a low growl erupted from Nick’s stomach. Every scenario had been covered except for food. He made his way over to the desk and picked up a rather limp fried zucchini stick and stuffed it in his mouth. It tasted a bit chalky on his tongue but he swallowed anyway. He was too hungry to be picky. He did a mental inventory of what remained on the plate and then quickly demolished half, leaving the rest for Noel in case she was feeling peckish later on.

After finishing his meal, he grabbed the TV remote from the desk’s surface and made his way over to the bed. He flopped down on the mattress and propped his head up with a pillow before turning on the television and idly flicking through the channels. Other than news talking about a 17 car pile-up on canal street and a limo in a third floor apartment, not much caught his eye so he turned the TV off again and dropped the remote on the night stand.

Lying there, Nick idly listened to the sound of the shower in the other room. He hadn’t realized how exhausted he was and it was like the water was singing him a lullaby. His eyelids fluttered heavily and he tried to resist but the inevitable happened well before Noel was done in the bathroom.

*****

The sleep was far from restful. Nick dreamed he was facing himself atop a cliff, overlooking the ocean during a moonless night. The waves crashed against the rocks and roared angrily to anyone within ear shot. His twin seemed angry with him, and stared at him with a judgemental look.

“What do you think you are doing?” His doppelganger sneered, speaking in the voice of the prisoner that had stopped him with Noel earlier. “You don’t even exist.....Your nothing but a figment of a helpless woman’s fantasy.”

Nick felt confused when he heard the accusation. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“I’m not, that’s the problem.” The clone responded bitterly. “Everything about us is gone and you are keeping it locked away so you can play out some weird delusion. Your weakness is only making things worse. You can’t possibly save her with lies.”

“No!” Nick yelled back, anger boiling up almost instantly. “She needs me! I can help her!”

Suddenly, sharp claws extended from the evil Nick’s fingers and he lunged forward, murderous intent bubbling out. The clawed fingers dug into the real Nick’s throat and they both stumbled backwards under the force of the attack. He couldn’t breathe and his heart raced as they rolled about on the grass.

“You have to let us free! While there is still a chance!” His mirror image screamed into its master’s face. “THERE IS STILL A CHANCE LEFT!”

*****

"Anything left?" a freshly cleaned Noel asked from the bathroom door as she ran her fingers through her wet hair to straighten it.

Nick startled up into a sitting position, his hands trying to pull away claws that didn’t exist before realizing where he was. The dream had felt so real to him that he was disoriented and the hotel room seemed foreign and new as he took in the surroundings once again.

“Um....Yah.” He answered as he composed himself. “I left you your share on the desk over there.”

Looking towards her, Nick took in the full picture of Noel’s beauty. Her fingers toyed with the long wet hair that hung limply across her covered shoulders. The skin of her face and neck were still flushed from the warmth of the water and had a slight glow about it now. Her tiny feet and toes wiggled playfully upon the carpet and her firm, slender legs disappeared up underneath the robe. The cloth hugged her waist where the belt held the front closed, trying in vain to hide the feminine curves concealed within.

Nick was momentarily smitten until the prisoner in his mind grabbed the bars of his cage and thrashed wildly, a feral scream ripping from his lungs. Nick swallowed hard and refocused himself.

“Feel free to have what you want. I’m done eating for the night.” He said as he tore his eyes away and dropped back down on the bed, trying to quell the fire that suddenly ignited within him once again.

Noel set the towel wrapped gun and her ankle pouch down by the food. She reclaimed the spinny chair since Nick looked so very comfortable on the bed. The very tip of his tattoo peeked out from under his own robe. She hadn't realized that he had such a large tattoo until she had seen all of it. That small piece of his tattoo led fluidly into more lines that traced Nick's body... The ex-agent cleared her throat and ended that line of thought firmly.

"You remember to clean out your pockets before you sent our crap to laundry?" This was about as tactful as Noel ever tried to be. At least she wasn't flat out asking him if he actually was Nick. No doubt he was tired of proving that one.

"I wouldn't want your knife to get washed. You know," She talked between bites. "In case I have to stab you." She was all serious and very matter of fact. Nick was a mutant. His power was to use pain to make himself stronger.

With her feet, she curled her toes in the carpet and half spun the chair and then straightened the again to half spun it back. It was like she wanted to spin the whole thing around, but knew that she was a grownup and grownups didn't do such things. "These fried green things are good." She went back for more and grabbed a regular coke for her can of soda this time, unconcerned at the fact that she would casually offer to stab her fiancee.

Noel’s joke about stabbing went right over Nick’s head. Maybe it was some inside humour from a long past experience they shared that he was unable to remember now. She had seemed serious when she said it but how could she be? What possible reason could she have to stick a knife in him?

The prisoner stopped shaking his cage and addressed Nick like he was talking to a small child about not playing with an atom bomb. “Nick, you have to stop this and remember. Please....just try to remember.” He pleaded

That didn’t help at all. He knew he couldn’t recall anything but mirages and was trying to piece things together for most of the day. Nick just couldn’t seem to get anything straight. Nothing made sense. He was somehow blocked from his own past, unable to see the truth. There was something nagging at him that seemed right in front of his face but it was like he couldn’t quite see the forest through the trees. If he could only find some solid clue, maybe it would jog his memory.

“Hey Noel,” he said as the idea popped into his head. “Let me see that map of yours.”

Nick got up and walked over to the desk to take a look. Its surface was crowded with the plate of food, the towel and other assorted items. He saw the ankle pouch and reached for it, removing the map inside. His hand brushed the side of the towel and the handle of the gun slid more clearly into view.

With nowhere to lay the map out, Nick turned and spread it on the bed and bent over it, starting his scan. Writing littered the papers surface with details of all the important places in Noel’s life. It only stood to reason that since he was engaged to her, his home would be marked on it as well. If he saw where he lived, maybe it would help reset his mind.

It hit him suddenly, as if from nowhere. The tree in the forest he had been missing. It wasn’t his apartment he was looking for, or what he ate for breakfast, it was another question entirely. He had just accepted everything based on the fractured images in his head, but the real problem was not who, but why. Why did he share the same affliction that Noel did? She had an intricate system in place to protect her from her memory loss which meant she understood she had the issue. Noel knew that she would lose her memories over and over again so had detailed notes to help her. The only thing she didn’t forget was that she would. It didn’t faze her because she remembered it would happen and was prepared for it. How could she understand that?

A cold chill went down Nick’s spine as he turned and sat on the bed to face Noel. She watched him idly as she slowly spun back and forth in her chair. The black pistol grip lay on the desk beside her, easily within reach. He was afraid to ask the question but needed to know. Reaching out, Nick grabbed the arm rests to stop the woman from swinging and to force her to look him in the eye.

“Noel,” he asked. “Why can’t I remember who I am?”

Nick’s mind recalled his dream as the couple’s eyes connected. The prisoner had warned him that he needed to let him free while there was a chance left. He hadn’t been warning him about her. Noel was strong and could take care of herself. It was Nick that was in danger here.

Oh no. Noel felt like she had taken a solid hit to the stomach. All her guts might as well have fallen out through the bottom of the floor. This wasn't Nick. Nick would know what his own mutation was. He would have been proud to have his knife on hand. Noel kept half spinning back and forth so that maybe he wouldn't get a clear look at how very disappointed and worried she had become. His non-answer was answer enough.

She let him have the map, though when the subdermal tracking packets spilled out, she stuffed them back into the small pouch. It wasn't good to leave those out. She wasn't sure if she needed them... No, she shouldn't need them since her job really was over. But it helped to have them. It helped her remember that RUPERT hadn't been a delusion.

But... how was she supposed to tell this man that everything he believed was most likely untrue? "What if—" It was like he hadn't even heard her. The man, he wasn't Nick, caught the arms of her chair and the brunette squirmed with guilt.

> “Why can’t I remember who I am?”

"I—" I what? Why did she feel so guilty? Noel couldn't look him in the eye. She just couldn't. Instead, she tugged the lapels of her bathrobe closer together as she caught a glimpse of something in her fractured mind. "Because I'm a mutant." Her face twisted unpleasantly, but that now that she had said it, it felt right somehow. She disliked and distrusted mutants and yet here she was. That was why they had picked her out of so many others. Today's battle is for information. Whoever controls the information, controls the world. Remove that information... "Because that is what I do. I make people forget." This also felt right, though if he asked her to prove it, she wouldn't be sure how.

She felt the crease deepen between her eyebrows when she did finally get the guts to look up into his brown eyes. Her eyes flicked quickly between each of his eyes, searching and her hands took a light and shaky place on his wrists. She didn't want to break him or scare him off. She would understand him not wanting to stick around, but he had better not run away dressed as he was. "I wasn't sure that you weren't him, but you seemed so sure that you were. I'm not sure how. Maybe I—" But that wasn't a helpful thought so she abandoned it with a shake of her head. "I thought, if I asked you about your— I mean, about his mutation you would remember and be sure..." The ex-agent had been so wrapped up in trying to make sure that she wasn't being taken advantage of that somehow she had ended up as the one taking the advantage.

The strain was making her eyes hurt again so she shut them and let go of his wrists in order to press her palms against the closed lids. Her chewed nails caught in her damp hair.

"I'm really sorry." So much for having the option to delude herself...

It was like a glass of ice water had been thrown in Nick’s face. Noel was a mutant and she was the reason he couldn’t remember his life before today. Everything he knew was simply a fabrication. Was it all a lie to aid this woman to take everything away from him? More questions bubbled up. Who was he? Would he ever remember his life before today? Had he played out this bizarre charade before?

The voice of the prisoner crawled up from the darkest recesses of his mind. “Time to go Nick.” It said patiently.

“What is going to happen to me if I do?” Nick asked the voice. “Where will I go?”

“It doesn’t matter, you’re not real.” The prisoner responded. “Now that you know the truth, you know the only thing that matters is her pain right now, not yours.”

Nick looked at the woman in the chair before him. She had covered her eyes with her hands in an attempt to deal with her misery and shame. He had gotten a glimpse of her world but was lucky enough to have had Noel there to help guide him. He had felt lost without his memories but she was there beside him giving comfort and support. Nick had dealt with it for only a few hours but this was Noel’s life, and she didn’t have someone there to hold her hand. Could he blame her for wanting someone there for just a little while to share in her affliction? The woman before him knew what it was like to be scared and utterly alone. It was her every day reality. The prisoner had been right. Nick was nothing but a mirage, to evaporate when the sun set over the horizon.

Reaching down into the dark pit of his mind, Nick grabbed the handle of the cage and swung the door open wide. The past rushed up from the darkness and engulfed him. Happiness, sadness and grief swirled about in the torrent of memories as everything came spewing back. Nick closed his eyes as the flood washed him away into oblivion.

*****

Lucas opened his eyes and wrapped his arms around the distraught woman, pulling her onto his lap and hugging her like a mother hugs her child when she is scared.

“It’s ok Noel.” Lucas whispered in her ear with a hushed tone. “It’s alright now.” He started to rock her gently back and forth, hoping the motion would calm her. “I’m going to do everything I can to help you.” Tomorrow they would look for Nick. This mutant knew her well and she trusted him. He could probably help keep her safe. But not tonight. Tonight, Lucas had to help pick up the pieces.

She had ruined his life and here he was comforting her? Somewhere along the way, Nick... err... this guy had sunk to his knees in front of her chair. Now that he was comforting her, she realized that she had been pulled from her self-reliant office chair and onto his lap. For the briefest moment, Noel let him lie to her before she heaved a sigh and pulled away. Even if she just made it onto the floor on her own, she was on her own again. Things were much safer that way.

"I knew I wasn't pregnant." She laughed darkly as if at a private joke. "There aren't enough tattoos in the world... Or engaged. No offense, it was... nice." Noel put her unfinished hand back into her mouth to chew on her nails and get some thinking done.

"At least I didn't have to stab you to prove you weren't him. God, that would have been awful. Nick bleeds just the same, but he uses the pain to fuel his mutation." Had she ever stabbed someone that hadn't been Nick, thinking that he was? She would have to watch out for that. Maybe write a note that Nick was gone. Whoa. That was a thought.

"If RUPERT was dissolved," She thought out loud for his benefit. It was better than crying again. She was all cried out at this point. "I suppose I won't see Nick again." Theirs was a strictly work relationship. She hadn't broken that rule at least. It was as it should have been. What an incredible load off to learn the truth!

"I need paper." Noel shoved herself up to her feet, adjusted her robe for snugness and snagged a pad and pen before retaking her place on the floor. It was as good a place as any. She curled her toes under her feet and started to list the things that would change in her life because there was no more RUPERT.

No tagging.
No Nick.
No stupid office mates.
No adapteds.

Hmm. She put the end of the pen in her mouth and tried to think of anything she was missing from that list. Oh.

No phone?

Lucas had misjudged Noel yet again. It was becoming a habit. She had seemed so hurt as she sat in that office chair and now she had reverted to being perfectly fine in the blink of an eye. It was extremely difficult to get an idea of what she was thinking at any time. Whenever he thought he understood her, the vibrant young woman would surprise him.

He watched her as she sat on the floor before him, completely oblivious to the world while she wrote her list. Peering over her shoulder from his vantage point on the bed, Lucas read it through. “You forgot ‘No Apartment’ “, he added helpfully.

“Maybe you shouldn’t make a list of what you don’t have but what you do have?” Lucas suggested. It seemed it would be a much more positive exercise to him. “While you’re doing that, you can tell me a bit about yourself?” The words sounded like a cheap pick up line and the young man wished he could have reworded the sentence now that it had escaped his lips. Instead of getting an idea of what Noel remembered of her past, he had come off like they were on some awkward first date. He decided to try to fix it so she didn’t misunderstand his meaning.

“What I mean to say is...Rupert, Nick, that photo of your parents....I would love to hear your story if you don’t mind sharing what you remember?”

“Smooth Lucas.” He groaned inwardly. “That sounded SO much better.”

Noel had been staring off into space as she thought, but when her eyes focused, she realized that she had been staring at... at the guy she was sharing a hotel with. He thought he was clever adding something to her list. "These are things I need to know about changes related to work. They don't have any say over my apartment." Plus, she had written that on her map... that was... somewhere... She nabbed it from the bed and put that near at hand in case she thought of anything else to add to it. Maybe she should X out all the RUPERT spots?

"What... uhh.. do you remember your name? Yet?" She had done it again. She had gone right back into worrying only about herself. This business of involving other people her life was hard to remember and he wasn't helping with all his questions specifically about her.

Also... what did she have? "I already made an inventory list..." The pen went back between her teeth. She didn't think she had forgotten any of the physical things that came out of her bag. She didn't seem to notice any awkwardness in his questions.

"Half the reason why I was hired was in order to keep secrets. I can't just tell you everything, but I can tell you some things. Adapteds, for example. I don't think that's not something any mutant on the street couldn't figure out on their own. They're humans that can nullify powers." Humans that were guaranteed to give her a splitting headache.

She added No headaches at HQ to her list.

"My parents live on the west coast and I said goodbye to them maybe..." she counted on her fingers and was embarassed by the number she arrived at. "Maybe ten years ago? I try not to wipe anything related to parents in case that makes me forget, but if I do end up forgetting having something to jog the memory helps me remember." Redundancy brought to you by the redundancy corporation.

Lucas listened to Noel as she talked, jumping back and forth between topics like a four year old telling someone about her day. She had asked if he had remembered his name but continued on so quickly that he hadn’t had time to answer. Listening to every word, he tried gathering the information and storing it for future use but became distracted as she went. The smooth and subtle contour of her neck stretching out from the robe’s collar, the slight curl to her tongue when she pronounced the letter ‘W’, the way she cocked her head to the side as she chatted about her past all teased him unexpectedly.

The lovely woman sitting on the carpet before him captivated his imagination. The energy in the tiny feminine frame was electric and caused Lucas to smile despite himself. After knowing her only a few hours, he felt comfortable around her. This was the first person he had connected with since he arrived in New York and even with all the chaos and upheaval that came with being around Noel; the young man wouldn’t trade any of it, just so he could be sitting in this exact spot with her right now.

When she stopped to take a breath, he tried to press for more information and answer her question at the same time. “When you mention that you said goodbye to your parents, does that mean you no longer have contact with them?” he asked as tactfully as he could. Before she could hijack the conversation again he quickly added. “And I do remember my name. Thanks for asking.” He was being coy. Toying with her a bit. He wondered if she would notice before diving headlong into talking once again or take the bait. Smiling down at her from his perch up on the bed, Lucas waited calmly for her response.

Noel decided to X through the RUPERT location that she had already been to... that opened up a searing rift between her eyes and she shut them tightly, pen hovering just over map paper. That's right. She had been to check in like normal, only there wasn't anything left. She had... gone somewhere... there was something hitting her... She had gotten hurt. Just like he had gotten hurt.

She opened her eyes and X'ed out that location before dropping the pen disgustedly. How many days go had that been? Weeks? Maybe even months of backward thinking. What if they thought she was truant? Hadn't her note said that she needed to report to the local office for the regular FBI? She didn't want to have to claim her mutation for the disability that it was just to get off the hook, but she might have to if it had really been that long.

A question about her parents was an easier topic to conquer. She ran her fingers through her hair in hopes that pulling more tangles out would lessen the strain inside her skull. "Lots of people don't keep in touch with their parents. It's part of growing up."

The light slipping past the open curtains deepened to an orange that meant that the sun would disappear behind buildings and leave them in an ambient twilight until full dark. Noel frowned at that too.

A slight movement caught her attention and Noel noticed man toes not too far from where she was sitting. The room was pretty small. Anywhere in the same room was not too far. Was he trying to make her remember his name? Is that why he didn't just tell her? She watched his toes for some clue. They didn't help. She squinted up at him instead. "Can't you just tell me?"

She was getting too tired for this. "I remember getting hit and you were hurt." That had to be worth something. She twisted her hair around and pulled it over her shoulder before refolding her map and putting all the pens and papers on the desk. Her head hurt almost constantly and closing her eyes seemed to be one of the few things that helped. Stupid mutation. Didn't she have a coke somewhere?

"Lots of people don't keep in touch with their parents. It's part of growing up." Noel said as she ran her fingers through her hair.

Noel couldn’t have known how difficult it was for him to hear those words. It was always tough for Lucas to hear people dismiss their parents so easily. Having lost both his father and his mother, it hurt when people could push their families out of their lives by choice. It wasn’t Noel’s fault. She couldn’t have known the truth. For her, parents were no longer a necessity. But having had a father and a mother meant the woman hadn’t had to grow up to quickly and probably got to enjoy her youth. This was something most people took for granted. Lucas didn’t have that luxury and a part of him would always be jealous of those who did.

Coming back from his own thoughts, he connected with Noel’s squinting glare as she asked "Can't you just tell me?"

He had wondered if Noel would ask again. The woman on the floor before him was curious enough to remember and ask twice despite flying all over the map in the conversation. That is the only sign Lucas needed. It was time to see if he could push her out of her comfort zone and get that smile he had been coveting since the afternoon.

She drifted off to a fresh topic before Lucas could answer but he wasn’t going to let it go again. "I remember getting hit and you were hurt." She said next.

Launching himself off the bed with his arms, Lucas landed on his feet, ready to go instantly. “Yah, I get hurt a lot. Don’t worry about it. Totally worth the trouble.” He said dismissively as a smile appeared on his lips. “Let’s get out of here. I have to tell you my name again and I don’t want you to forget this time.” He grabbed the door card and stuffed it in the pocket of his robe and turned back around to the woman on the floor.

“Leave all this stuff here, it isn’t going anywhere and we won’t be gone long.” He added in hopes to dissuade any chance of frolicking amongst the outside world with a pistol hidden in Noel’s robe.

Reaching down, Lucas took Noel’s hands in his and tugged enough to pull her to her feet. The young man studied the brunette’s face for a moment, reading the slight fear and doubt at the idea of leaving the security of the room and venturing forth to parts unknown.

“Unless you’re too scared of course?” Lucas prodded as his smile warped into a devilish grin. He gazed into Noel’s hazel eyes, unblinking, waiting to see the fire ignite at the thought of being challenged.

The look on his face told her that she was going to regret whatever he had brewing up in his skull. He blasted to his feet like he'd been shot out of a rocket launcher. Where he had gotten the energy was beyond Noel. And of course, he couldn't just tell her.

She grumbled and let herself be pulled to her feet. Noel had been willing to get a tattoo of his face when she thought they were going to be married, but anything short of that and she wasn't getting a tattoo. Other than that she really couldn't imagine what he might have in mind to make his name unforgettable.

Barefoot and dressed only in a robe, Noel padded along the freshly vacuumed halls behind Lucas. Her teachers had tried negative reinforcement. Her parents had tried positive. Nothing seemed to help except a physical reminder. For example, thanks to her scar, Noel knew that a man named Roland Pruitt existed. She couldn't remember how the scar happened or what he looked like. Only that was the name that went with the scar. There was no scenario that she could imagine that ended well for her remembering this man's name.

It was safe to say this was not her idea of a good time.

Noel tightened her lips at his taunt, but didn't bother to deny it. She wasn't scared of forgetting his name or of what he might have planned. Even without her gun, she had confidence that came from surviving fight after fight. No, what scared Noel was learning to depend on someone. Someones came and went. Nothing guaranteed this someone would be there tomorrow. Even her partner, who was obligated to be there, now wasn't. Her only constant in a constantly changing world was herself.

"It's not gonna work." The brunette muttered darkly.