Isabel was in a sort of personal Hell. The muscles in her arm fought for enough room to spasm under the pain being inflicted upon them, their movement somewhat impeded by the rest of her body pulling the arm taut as she warred to regain her limb from the fingers clasped around her wrist. Pain had quickly reached agony and there didn't seem to be any stopping it. Her attempts to escape or make him release her didn't seem to be working. How could she stop hurting if she wasn't able to free herself from the source of the pain? How could she fix herself if there wasn't anything physically wrong with her?

And then suddenly there was release, if only for the briefest moment. Rather than trying to get to her feet and put some distance between her and her assailant, her body didn't seem to want to do much more than curl in on itself and sink into the heaven that was numbness compared to what she'd been enduring.

Before she could so much as attempt to regain any sort of composure, the young man had moved and found a different point of contact. She flinched away from his touch, but she was barely able to duck so much as half an inch. Her muscles didn't want to cooperate and move her body as she desired. She already felt tired, and phantom pains caused by memory were causing a slight twitch. She felt like she was going to be sick.

And then there was pain again. Every defensive spike that had been called up burst into pain. She'd never had her abilities mutiny on her in such a way. She retracted the spikes as quickly as she was able, trying to make the awful sensations cease.

It was hard to make any sense of what he was saying to her. Her pride wanted her to tell him to go f**k himself, but the rest of her, which was fighting not to writhe, just wanted the pain to stop, even if it meant cooperating.

Her cheeks felt hot. She didn't know if she was turning red or if the tears in her eyes had finally spilled over. Maybe it was a mix of both. She hated feeling so defenseless. She was supposed to be the one causing pain and terrorizing people. She was not supposed to be the one in trouble.

She could feel her muscles locking up. Isabel knew she was in trouble, but she couldn't seem to do anything about it. She couldn't bring herself to accept or deny his advice to stay still. She didn't seem to have a voice left at the moment. The only thing that seemed willing and able to escape her was a strangled sort of sob.

Looking down at Isabel from his haunches, Garrett watched with a fascination. Perhaps a cruel one, like a child holding a magnifying glass over an anthill. Whatever the motivations of sensation, they passed the moment that tears formed. The initial shriek had felt righteous, breaking the otherwise stalwart countenance of the resident copkiller. Though an earlier incarnation of himself might have pushed her farther and punished her for her stubborn behavior, Garrett just couldn't stand to make Isabel cry. He knew she certainly wouldn't want anyone to know she had and he would never tell. The pain ceased.

The sequential locking down of her body continued, however. Just because he felt compassion for her didn't make the manipulator stupid. Her injured ego could easily lash out in a symphony of bone shards. No, he still wanted her to listen. If she could behave, he might even help her up. As a gesture of kindness, Garrett massaged her temples, duplicating the sensation of pleasant goosebumps he had received after kissing Maya in the bushes in another lifetime. Sure, it might make for a strange segue for Isabel, but all the other pleasures he had stored were definitely not appropriate.

His voice came as a hushed tone in an attempt to soothe her. " There, there. I'm sorry I had to do that. I want you to listen to what I have to say and I knew that this would be the only way to make you receptive. I love you, Isabel. As I love all of my brothers and sisters. It should be clear to you that I am returning and we should really try to move past that. I want your support for a simple reason. Lori may run the Order, but you are its heart. If I were truly so uncaring, I would have just returned and never consulted you. But I want your blessing. We have so many things to do for our people, Isabel. I need to know you will at the least hear me out and accept it."

Isabel was somewhat surprised when the pain suddenly stopped and didn't start back up again a moment later, as it had before. She hadn't entirely expected that Seizure would ease up on her so quickly, if at all. Maybe it was because she wasn't so sure she'd show the same kind of mercy if their roles were reversed. He probably wasn't quite as temperamental she she was, nor so unforgiving. Whatever the reason, she was grateful. Not necessarily grateful to him, but for the lack of agony in general. See if she ever let him get within arm's reach of her again.

Of course she didn't forget the fact that he was still touching her and still manipulating her in other ways. She could feel her muscles locking up gradually, and while it was better than the stabbing pain, it wasn't any improvement. She would have retaliated, were it not for her fear of the pain returning, potentially with even more intensity. While she didn't seem to be physically wounded, her pride was, and that made her just as dangerous.

The sudden rush of goosebumps over her flesh effectively disrupted her thoughts, which were once again beginning to turn violent. She would have shivered, had her muscles allowed such a movement. She would have wriggled out from under his fingers as well, had that also been possible. She didn't particularly like either sensation he was creating with his hands and his mutation.

Isabel's fear and hatred of being vulnerable and without control was perhaps the only thing that rivaled her hatred of the human race. Both were easily manipulated by the young man that had confronted her, and she hated him for it. She didn't want him touching her. She didn't want him repressing her mutation through pain. She didn't want him to be able to so easily force her into such a position of helplessness. Every fiber of her being wanted to fight back in protest, but she knew she couldn't. Not just yet.

She just huffed as Garrett apologized and tried to justify his actions. She could feel now that her cheeks actually were wet, and that just made them even hotter. She didn't care what reasons her had for tormenting her. She wasn't going to be forgiving him anytime soon. She was too deeply embarrassed and just as angry.

He was going to be in trouble whenever he decided to let her up. It wasn't likely she'd act on that anger immediately, though. She was rash, but she wasn't stupid. She was capable of learning from mistakes. She didn't know how quickly she'd be able to effectively move her muscles once shed been released, and on top of that she was getting tired. Mentally tired, and no doubt physically tired once she regained her ability to move. She was angry, but she could wait.

His next statement, however, put any patchwork plotting to an abrupt stop and made it impossible to ignore him, as she'd entertained the idea of doing.

'I love you', he had said. 'As a sister', he meant. She just blinked in a confused sort of way as that bit of information processed. She couldn't remember anyone ever having told her they loved her before now, platonically or otherwise. She certainly hadn't expected to hear it from someone she had tried to maim. It caught her entirely off guard.

She didn't know why, but it made her want to cry again.

There wasn't much choice after that other than to listen. He'd locked her down so she couldn't move to do anything else, and his statement had caught her attention so entirely that she couldn't have ignored him if she tried. He wanted her support, her blessing, as he integrated himself back into the Order. She knew she had to acknowledge the fact that there was some truth in what he said. If Lori had given him the green light to slip back into the Faction, then Isabel had little say in the matter, even though she'd already said otherwise. There was no doubt he knew that as well and had sought her out anyhow.

Isabel wasn't exactly in any position to argue with what he was telling her, nor the fact that he was going to be around the Sanctuary whether she liked it or not. However, she could risk believing that there was at least a little truth in what he'd been saying to her. If Lori trusted him enough to let him back, she could deal with it for the time being.

She didn't voice any sort of approval or acceptance of the situation. She was afraid that if she tried to speak, that inexplicable urge to cry again would creep back up on her and interrupt whatever she might have said. She could only take so much embarrassment. Instead she simply nodded as best she could given her current position.

Garrett equated his current predicament to holding a black mamba beneath a Tupperware container. The snake had recoiled and accepted its present position, but even the village idiot could guess at what might happen once pressure was released from the lid. Nevertheless, this game was one of trust and at least Isabel had a functioning cerebral cortex. Logic would clearly explain Garrett's position once his mutation wore off. It was time to take that leap. Her flushed, wet cheeks and trembling eyelids were as much a red flag as a rattler shaking its warning song.

Without much pomp and circumstance, he simply removed his fingers from her head, the visual map of her neural pathways losing its vigorous gleam. He stood slowly, looking down at her. He knew there would be retaliation, but he had no interest in violence. If he had, he would have gone an entirely different route a moment ago. Hands in pockets, he paced backward slowly, his eyes still set surely on his quarry. He had no idea what she would do for his intrusion. He lacked apprehension as it was replaced with a much more vivid excitement and anticipation. He kept these jovial emotions beneath a slight stoic grin.

" Don't push yourself too hard, now. I am going to stick around to make sure you can get up and manage on your own. Before you start being stubborn, do remember that I am a certified EMT, so I am just being cautious." The days of sunny compassion and exuberant longing for cohesion with humanity were gone now. Now was a simple calling to unite his people. Isabel Duskmoor, recently put in the most abhorrent of places, was a surefire litmus test as to his future successes.

A sigh nearly escaped Isabel as the pressure from the young man's hand was lifted from her head. Just that one absence made her feel a little bit better, a feeling which only increased as the paralyzing stiffness in her muscles gradually started to melt away. Her shoulders fell and her hands unclenched as she was slowly able to relax. She was careful to at least keep an eye on Garrett's shoes all the while as he retreated a few steps and gave her a little space. She hoped he kept himself at that distance, while at the same time wondering what the odds were of her successfully cutting his hands off.

She made a face as he proclaimed that he's be hanging around to look after her while she pulled herself together. Couldn't he just leave her the hell alone? He was making himself very tempting target yet again by sticking around, and she very well might have put herself right back where she'd been by taking advantage of the situation, had she been able to move quickly enough.

However, for the time being she wasn't quite up to that speed yet. She had to settle on testing her muscles as she began to move and stretch this or that limb, and sections of muscle here and there. Of course she didn't give a rat's ass if Seizure was an EMT or not. She wasn't going to let him touch her ever again if she could help it. And she wasn't about to let him help her in any way, either. Her pride was already tattered enough.

Slowly and steadily she shifted around and managed to get to her feet, making sure that any swaying she might have done was at the absolute minimum. She was a little bit dizzy, but it passed before too long and she thought it was safe to make her way off somewhere away from the offending individual not far from her. She didn't have anywhere in particular in mind for her next destination, and didn't particularly care, just so long as it was away from the lobby and she could sulk in peace.

"You can take your caution and shove it," she replied, a glare back in place as the back of one of her sleeves was angrily passed over one cheek and then the next before the arm dropped back down by her side. She was already brainstorming possibilities for later meetings with Seizure as she glared and stalled as long as she dared to make sure she really was steady on her feet. She wasn't going to retaliate again just yet, but she'd get her chance eventually, and she would take full advantage of it. For now, she had a corner somewhere with her name written all over it and that was just here she was heading next.