• Fair warning: This chapter got cheesy, but there was no other way to write it. Just read, but if you're lactose intolerant like me, keep your puke bags ready •

I was sure I was hallucinating. The drugs had finally driven me insane and I was now imagining things that couldn't possibly be real.

That was, until he pulled down his mask and fell to his knees besides my bed, taking my hand, very corporeal. "Carly... no, no, w-what did they do to you?"

He ripped my restraints away furiously, quickly moving down to my feet and doing the same before he stood up and leaned in over me and cupped my face.

"I am so sorry," He whispered, shaking as I stared up at him speechlessly, seeing the water shimmering in his eyes. He brushed my hair away and held me like he thought I was going to slip through his fingers. "Carly, please forgive me."

I blinked slowly and felt the numbness leave my chest. It was like being pulled out of ice water. Heavily, it poured off me and released me; allowed me to breathe again.

He was really here.

"Charlie," I croaked, hating how faint and weak my voice sounded. I lifted my hand and touched his cheek, hearing him choke out a sound at the connection. "How are you... here?"

He shook his head. "It's a long story, and we don't have much time. Please, you have to forgive me. What they told you, it's not true. I didn't trick you. I didn't know about their plan, I swear, I knew as much as you did. I was there to learn, I was, Carly. Please believe me."

My whole body started trembling. Now that the numbness was fading, I could feel everything again. All my emotions I had pushed away, all the feelings I couldn't straighten out. As he spoke the words I somehow deep down knew were true, another burden left my chest and freed me. "I do." I didn't know how, but the truth shining in his eyes couldn't be faked. He was telling the truth.

He let out a haggard breath and then brushed my cheek. It was then I realized I was crying just like him. His purple irises were wet and glowing, but exuded so much love as they looked at me. But then his face fell.

"I did lie to you, though," He whispered. "I... I impregnated you, and I did it on purpose. I knew you were pregnant the moment it happened, but I didn't say anything. I was afraid you wouldn't survive. That's why I stayed so close to you the following days. I couldn't let you out of my sight. I had to make sure you survived... that you both did."

I looked up at him, confusion and shock clouding my mind. "W-why?" I knew he knew I wasn't asking why he kept me alive, but was questioning the other bit; the pregnancy part.

"Because I knew all along they were never going to let me out again when our time was up," He whispered, his voice breaking. My own heart did, too. He had known, just like me. "So I wanted to leave a piece of me there with you so you'd always have me and I'd always be with you when I was gone. I didn't know they'd find out. Didn't know they'd..." He looked down at my pin-cushion of a body and clenched his teeth. "I'm so sorry, Carly. I let this happen to you. That's why I asked you to forgive me; I knew what kind of people they were, I should've seen it coming. I just hoped you'd been long gone by the time you realized... and that you'd run away to safety and find the letter I left you."

"The... the letter?"

"I left you a letter inside the picture we took together, the one you got framed. I asked you to do that because I hoped you'd bring it along with you so one day the child could see it's father." He swiped my cheek again when another tear crept down it. "But then everything went crazy..."

My heart swelled to five times it's real size. Or at least it felt that way. "Charlie..."

"I hate them," He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, balling up his fists. "I hate them. I didn't see them implant the listening device, didn't hear it record and transmit. They rigged it to a frequency I couldn't hear. I didn't hear them till it was too late. I'm so sorry I failed you. I failed you both. All I wanted was for our baby to have the childhood I didn't, but instead the exact opposite happened. I failed you, Carly, but I won't fail you again."

He suddenly pulled back, leaving me amazed and confused, but then turned to the machines and started tapping on them. I stared in shock at what he was doing, which looked like... well, I don't know how he did it, but it was like he was looping them into a circle, making my heartbeat and all the other stuff seem normal when he turned back to my arm and begun taking out the drips. He removed the electrodes and even helped remove the catheter they had given me, after every attempt of getting me to go to the bathroom myself had ended up in me trying to escape.

"Charlie, what are you..." I watched in astonishment as he worked to free me from all the machines until he finally stepped up to my side again and carefully helped me sit up. "Charlie, we can't—"

"I'm going to get you out," He said determinedly, lifting my legs out over the edge of the bed, steadying me when my whole world started spinning. The drugs were still in my system and my head did not like sitting up so rapidly. Also his statement didn't help. "I have a plan, but time is critical, so I need you to work with me and do as I say, okay?"

"But... how did you..." I was so confused, so speechless. I had so many questions. How did he escape? How did he get a hold of his prosthetic leg? (Assuming they had taken it from him) How did he find the scrubs he was wearing, and how did he fool them and blend in so well? More importantly, how did he gain access to my room? Everything here ran on eye scanners and fingerprints, both of which I knew would probably blare if he tried to pass them. I couldn't place it in my head how he managed to get through all that and how he was going to get me through it as well, but I had never seen him so determined.

"Remember how you once told me it's survival of the fittest, and I told you that logic was faulty?" He paused to meet my eyes. I nodded, hesitantly. "Well, I was right. It's not survival of the fittest anymore, it's survival of the smartest; As long as you can outsmart your competition, you can do anything, so that's what I did; I adapted and outsmarted my obstacles."

"I..." I was speechless again. I mutely stared at Charlie before he leaned in and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "I... I don't know what to say. You're..."

"I learned from the best." He smiled, then pulled back and looked me in the eyes. "Now, I need you to follow my lead; In forty-three seconds the other scientist will come back, and when that happens, I'm going to take her out. I'll give her a drug that'll incapacitate her and then you're going to take her clothes and put them on. Do you understand?"

I nodded and quickly swallowed. "O-okay..."

He nodded back. "Keep her distracted for me."

And then he grabbed a syringe from one of the medical drawers, the same drawers they pulled my anesthetics out of, and then went to the door and leaned right up against the wall next to it. He waited, and as did I, listening concentratedly before he gave me a quick nod, telling me it was go-time. Not seconds later the door opened and the female scientist walked in. She didn't see Charlie, but instead laid eyes on me sitting up, out of my restrainers.

"What the—"

He moved like he had practiced for hours; In a graceful sweep, he came up behind her, wrapped his large hand over her mouth and injected the needle into her neck. The scientist didn't even know what was happening before her eyes rolled back into her skull and she was out. Charlie caught her and carefully laid her down on the floor. "Here we go. Are you ready?"

He was swift to remove the scientist's top layer of clothes and bring them to me. He then helped me undress and re-dress, my limbs shaking and weak from weeks in bed. I was having serious doubts about how I was going to walk out of here like nothing was wrong with the way my limbs protested, but I had to stay optimistic.

"Won't they see that you're gone?" I asked as he helped me get the shirt over my head and my arms into the right holes. "The scientists. I mean, your cell..."

"Not for another fourteen minutes," He said as if he had a clock inside his head. "I told you, time is critical. They do rounds in fourteen minutes, and if we're not out by then, the alarm will ring. This place will go on shutdown and they'll start my tracker."

The chip inside his head. Like a dog, they could track him with it, but also kill him. And that posed the question on my lips.

"Then how will you escape with us?"

He paused and slowly met my eyes. "I won't. You escape and I stay here. There's no other way."

"No!" I protested and gripped on to his arm when he crouched to help me with the shoes. "No, you have to come with us! You have to, there has to be a way—"

"There isn't." He didn't look up at me as he tied my shoelace. "The chip in my brain can't be removed or turned off by anyone but them. It'll self-detonate. If I go with you, they'll just track me, if not kill me right away. You have to go without me, keep our baby safe."

Our baby. "But... but wh-what if they're tracking me as well, they could've put a chip in—"

"They didn't. If they did, I would've been able to sense it, but I don't sense anything, so they're not."

"But what if—"

"No what ifs!" He said desperately and cupped my face. He looked at me pleadingly. "Please, Carly, just listen to me and do as I say. I... I can't have you in here with me. I can't let my child grow up in this place. What they did to me... what they stole from me—I won't have my child experience that, so please," His eyes glowed with intensity. "Do this for me. Be free for me."

The tears rolled down my cheeks in streams. I couldn't hold them back, couldn't hold back my feelings as I looked at this man who had been locked inside a lab his whole life and hadn't wanted anything more than to be free.

And here he was, sacrificing his biggest wish for me and our baby.

And that's why I couldn't fight him. I wanted us all out of this mess, but I also understood what he was saying. We had to save this child from their grip, save it from the fate he had suffered. And with these people and the way their talons were dug into him, there was no other way. Everything inside me would hurt till the day I died, knowing that I left him in here, even if it was his wish. How could I possibly live with myself?

"I... I'll do it." I couldn't even keep my voice from cracking.

Charlie exhaled gratefully, then pressed his lips to my forehead again and gave me a last, lingering kiss. "Thank you. Now, we have to get going. We only have 10 minutes left. Can you walk?"

"I-I think so."

He helped me up and supported most of my weight as my stiff legs accepted my weight for the first time in weeks. It hurt like a thousand needles. It was exactly like rehab, except the broken thing was my soul.

But, with Charlie holding on to me, each step got a little less painful.

We made it out of my room and into the hall that it was located on. Charlie seemed to know exactly where he was going, so he rushed us the right way, keeping our pace fast. He had dressed me up in the hairnet and mask as well, but even so, our eyes were exposed. If someone recognized us, or rather didn't recognize us as part of their staff, things could go south real fast.

Things like this just never went easy. I didn't doubt Charlie, but experience had just told me things always ended badly. And I had a bad stomach feeling.

"What about cameras?" I asked as we ventured down the hall, the camera's in the ceiling watching us. My heart passed a beat.

"I'm controlling them," Charlie whispered back. When I stared up at him in shock, he elaborated; "I told you I never knew my limits because they never let me know them, but now I do; It's watching them torture my woman and my child."

My throat closed up. My woman. My child.

This really wasn't the time to cry.

Focusing and trying to keep walking as normally as possible, Charlie led us through a maze of white halls. It felt like we were going around in loops or walking around on a space station; I had no sense of time or direction, but Charlie seemed to have. Whenever someone was approaching, he agilely turned us down a different hall and hid us.

It felt like we had been walking for hours (which was probably nothing more than minutes, but the adrenaline in my veins was pumping rapidly through me), but finally we came to the entrance, the place I had been a few times before when I first started my cooperation with C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S. This was where you either entered to never leave, or left with a newfound love to be alive and free.

The entrance itself reminded me of passport controls at airports, a thick glass wherein a person sat, waiting to scan your ID. In this case, that person was a scientist who controlled the alarms, the intercoms, and monitored the cameras and the button that could grant us passage through to the outside. But, before you even got to that, you had to go through the thick and hypersensitive metal detectors that were guarded by four armed guards.

And in front of them stood the last person we needed to have in our way. Even from the back, I recognized his ugly, thin, gelled-back hair and repugnant little figure. He was chatting, chuckling and keeping a light conversation with the scientist behind the safety glass over a mug of coffee.

My heart dropped. There was no way we were making it past them unnoticed. Dr Jacoby had worked with Charlie all of his life (I presumed), and resented me too much to forget my face. We were screwed.

But maybe Charlie's intentions had never been to leave quietly. I felt his hands begin to tremor as we approached—could almost see his scowl behind his mask. His eyes glowed extra powerful, and it made me clench his hand in warning. It did nothing.

We came to the detectors, Charlie stepping up in front of me protectively as the scientist and Dr Jacoby finally noticed us, their smiles dropping. Then, it was like everything dropped forty degrees and chilled the room to arctic. A small outburst left the scientist as she laid eyes on Charlie and saw his glowing eyes. Immediately they both knew what was happening, dropping their coffee mugs and staring at him in horror. Even Dr Jacoby seemed temporarily caught off-guard, that cocky grin of his gone.

"What in the name of..." He stared at Charlie in mortification, blinking twice as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing; one of his Creatures out of its cell, roaming about and impersonating the staff. It was right out of a sci-fi movie. "6402?"

"My name is Charlie," Charlie snarled angrily. He ripped his mask and hairnet off, not bothering to hide anymore. Dr Jacoby visibly paled. "And you've been in my way for the last fucking time."

Dr Jacoby widened his eyes, but then quickly turned to the woman inside the box.

"What are you waiting for! Hit the alarm!"

The scientist jumped in her seat, but then quickly smashed her hand down on a button on her control board. I expected blaring alarms to sound the second it bottomed, but all there came was... nothing. The scientist hit the button again, almost panicked, but then quickly pressed more buttons, pulling on different handles. But no alarms sounded.

Dr Jacoby freaked. "What's going on?! Why isn't anything happening?!"

"The systems aren't responding!" The scientist cried, frantically trying to do something, but nothing worked.

"Then just bolt the door, goddamn it!"

"I can't! He's controlling that as well!"

My eyes turned up to Charlie in shock, seeing his concentrated face staring at Dr Jacoby, his chest pumping hard. Charlie always seemed to lose control of his abilities when he lost control of himself, but this time he wasn't trying to be in control; he was finally letting go and it was both a terrifying and an amazing sight to behold.

"How is he doing it?!" Dr Jacoby yelled furiously. "He's not supposed to be able to tap into the systems—"

"I-I-I don't know, it's like they're no longer obeying the circuits, but instead obeying him—"

"It doesn't matter, somebody just shoot him!" Dr Jacoby howled and now turned to the guards who had been impassively standing by, frozen in shock and amazement like me. He screamed at them in rage. "Why are you just standing there?! Shoot him!"

All of the guards finally drew their weapons, but Charlie wasn't having it. He curled his lip back and then roared at them, before clenching his fists; The next second, a blast powered through the room, and everyone but me and Charlie was thrown backwards onto their asses. Screams and horrified cries boomed all around, but nobody dared step in our way as Charlie grabbed my hand and prowled forward. He stalked up to Dr Jacoby who was whimpering on the ground, glasses broken, gelled hair out of place, and was staring up at Charlie in horror.

"What are you?" He whispered.

Charlie's purple orbs burned back down at him. "Lethal."

And with that, he turned around and picked me up, making me yelp before he kicked the thick, metallic front door down like it was paper thin. It fired off with rocket speed and flew several yards away on the ground outside.

The cold air of the night hit us both. For just one brief moment, it felt like we were actually free.

... Then, the alarms finally triggered somehow, piercing our ears with agonizingly high shrills.

The whole premise lit up in blinding white lights and spotlights were cast on the ground as Charlie stepped out, holding me bridal style. He wasted no time to kick into a run, bolting with a speed faster than what I thought was possible with me on tow – and yet forward we went, the landscape flying past us.

"Security breach. Security breach," A pre-recorded, monotone female voice said over a loudspeaker system behind us, a system I had to guess was run by a backup generator Charlie hadn't gotten into. It was all the same, though, because what happened next, it didn't matter how much he could control.

Snipers on the roof of the facility appeared as if out of nowhere. The people behind us inside the lab were slowly getting to their feet, one voice booming above the rest of the chaos. As he screamed, we heard the triggers pull.

"SHOOT HIM! Don't let them escape!!!"

I screamed a warning to Charlie as all the snipers in that moment fired their weapons and shots went flying around us. Ricocheting on the ground, Charlie outran them, panting hard and clutching me tightly. I clung to him as well, everything inside me shaking.

This wasn't how I wanted it all to end.

Someone fired, and next thing I heard, Charlie let out a sound. Something imbedded itself in his shoulder, a small red dart. "Charlie!"

"Its human tranquilizers," He said in between breaths. "They can't risk hitting you with one of the tranqs meant for me, so they're firing human sedatives."

Human sedatives. His body could handle those. His metabolism would excrete those just as easily as it did with the whiskey.

But that thought only calmed me down until another one hit him, then another and another and another. His pace started to slow and it wasn't because of exhaustion.

"Charlie!" Tears were streaming down my face as he started to limp, his running becoming more uncoordinated for each passing step. "Charlie, you can't go on!"

"Yes, I can!" He pushed on, but let out a harsh grunt as another dart hit him. His face twisted and he nearly stumbled over his feet. "I can... I have to..."

"Ch-Charlie, please—"

Suddenly he let out a hiss and then his leg did something funny. It was as if it stopped working, his prosthesis freezing up and making it impossible for him to flex his foot. It was now as useless as a mid-century wooden leg, stiff and impractical for running. Charlie grunted, but still tried to make it work.

"Charlie, please, you're hurting yourself," I cried twisting my hand in his shirt. "Please stop, we can't—"

"No," He protested, dragging his feet forward, his body sagging, his arms shaking. "I have to protect you... I have to keep you safe..."

"Charlie—ahh!"

Something hit his leg and he toppled over, somehow managing to brace his fall, holding me so his weight didn't land on me. I shrieked and hit the ground, but Charlie took worst of the fall. He laid next to me, grimacing in pain, but still climbed to his hands and knees the next second as more shots started hitting around us. He climbed in over me and shielded my body. An army of darts hit him, but he hid the pain from me, squeezing his eyes shut and gritting his teeth.

I couldn't take it any longer. "Charlie, please stop! It's over, they've won, we can't escape. We... we have to surrender."

"He's almost down! Keep firing!" They shouted in the distance.

Charlie let out a broken sound, but then roared loudly as he took the next load of tranquilizers. "LEAVE US ALONE! YOU MONSTERS!"

I sobbed hard and cupped his face, looked up at him and saw his own eyes glistening with tears as well. He looked down at me in pain and heartache, then dipped down and kissed me. Behind us we heard them reload, shouting around commands for one final takedown.

But I heard none of it as Charlie kissed me with all he had, as if it was our last kiss.

And I realized, maybe it was.

"I love you," He whispered, just as we heard a voice yell loudly to fire.

I swallowed thickly and met his eyes. "I love you, too."

And then fire erupted around us, just a someone finally yelled the words I would've heard even through a nuclear explosion. The words I had been dreading and waiting to hear.

"We got his switch. End it!"

And that was the moment I couldn't take it anymore. Charlie clutched me like he knew he what was about to happen, too, the snipers fired their lasts rounds that rained around us, but I couldn't focus on anything else than the person in the corner of my eye whom I could vaguely see standing in the broken door to the facility, holding a click-switch.

My whole world exploded when I saw him lift it. And that's when I exploded as well.

"STOOOOOP!"

Everything went quiet. Guns stopped shooting, Charlie stopped breathing, even the wind seemed to halt.

And just then, Charlie tipped over onto the ground limply, closing his eyes.

I let out a scream as my heart stopped too, my hands flying to his. My body was numb, my fingers were shaking, and for a whole of five seconds, I thought my world had died.

Until I felt the soft thud-thud of his heart beating against my trembling palm.

I choked up. Pulling his head into my lap, I cried and brushed him over his hair, never having felt happier to feel his warmth against me, his soft groan as he felt me, too.

He was alive. He was passed out, but alive, meaning they hadn't pushed the button to kill him.

Yet.

Black figures started to approach us. Men in black tactical suits came to us, armed with real guns and more tranquilizers. When they gripped my arms to pull me away from Charlie, I ripped them straight out again and held tighter onto him. Never again were they taking him from me. "No! Enough is enough!"

"Ma'am," One of them said. "We need you to come inside with us for safety."

"Screw your safety! There is no safety in that lab, and there is no danger but you people out here!" I yelled at them as they hesitated around our bodies, me holding on to Charlie with a death grip. "This is enough madness! I've had it! I demand a talk with the people in charge here, or so help me God, there's nothing you can do that'll stop us from trying to escape again! This is crazy, why handle it this way when we can work out a deal?"

"A deal?"

My head swirled around when I recognized the voice that approached me. Stepping into the circle of protection the SWAT men had created, Mr Alan, the man who assigned me to Charlie, stepped up to me, clad in a different black suit than all the others.

"Yes," I said, deciding it was him my affairs lied with. I didn't let go of Charlie as I shifted around and stared up at him. "This has been a freak show for long enough. It's time we sit down and work something out for all of us. A negotiation."

Mr Alan diplomatically raised a brow, but then observed me with a small squint. "You're suggesting a willing collaboration between our lab and yourself?"

"And Charlie. There's been enough of this torture on both our parts, why drag it out longer if we can come to an agreement of some sort?"

"An agreement?"

"We will come back inside the building if you promise me that you'll be open to hearing my suggestion, since it'll be of benefit to us both," I said, pinning him with my eyes. I believed I had found a way to end this hellish shit, and in a way that would mean no more violence. "Beneficial for me and Charlie, as well as C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S."

Mr Alan gave it a moment of thought, but then looked to the SWAT men and gave them a nod. My heart unclenched when I saw them lower their weapons and stand down. My breath then also eased up and I looked down at Charlie.

I was going to make this right for the both of us.

~~~

"Immunity?"

"For me and Charlie," I said as we sat in what I was pretty sure was the same room me and Charlie first met in. The sardine can had only gotten one new piece of furniture, which was a gurney that laid in the corner, on which Charlie was slowly regaining consciousness. A medical team was seeing to his injuries, working on reviving him from all the drugs.

Mr Alan sat across from me in the metal chair, hands folded on the shining table. He stared at me as if he was trying to scan me for a scheme, but I showed nothing as I stared back at him. He didn't show his displeasure, but instead kept his face a straight square. "And why should we ever grant you that, Ms Bloom?"

I sucked in a breath. This was all or nothing.

"I could make an endless list of reasons why, starting with my human rights, but I know you're only going to be interested in the parts that benefit C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S, so I'll skip to the important; The way I see it, we have a situation on our hands that could work two ways. Option number one is the way you guys have been doing it so far; Capturing me and Charlie separately, holding us both for testing and experimenting until our child is born and I'm cast away. You've seen how that worked out for you tonight, and if it's happened tonight, I promise you it will happen again in the future. We will try to escape, and no matter what new security you install, we will break through them somehow. There's no arguing that love pushes your limits beyond anything, and tonight Charlie displayed just how far he is willing to- and will go to save the ones he love. So why not save yourselves the trouble and go with option number two."

"Which is?"

I took another breath when I knew I had laid my arguments out right and had caught his attention. I continued my case.

"Option number two is what I'm suggesting; A symbiotic partnership between us and C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S. You grant me and Charlie and the baby once it's born, totally immunity for anything that's happened tonight. You set us both free and allows us to return to my home where we'll continue to live for as long as we're alive, or until we want to move. Our baby and any other future offspring we may have, will live with us and we'll be together as a family."

"You said it yourself, Ms Bloom," Mr Alan flatly said. "I'm waiting for the part where this benefits C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S."

I pursed my lips. "During my time with Charlie, it became clear to me just how bad a reputation C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S has. The people we met who were confronted with your name and the idea of Creatures either shunned away or raged a war. Nobody likes you and everybody considers your Creatures to be demonic, dangerous monsters."

"I'm waiting, Ms Bloom."

"Me and Charlie will set an example," I finally said and placed my hands flat down on the table. I leaned in and strongly held Mr Alan's gaze as I came to my point. "We will be the poster family of a new world with Creatures in it. We'll show them there's nothing to be afraid of, that they're deep down just humans with hopes and dreams of a normal life as well."

"Forgive me for not sharing your vision, but I struggle to see how the two of you playing the traditional American family is going to do any difference to our reputation," Mr Alan spoke up, crossing his arms. "People don't just change their minds like that, Ms Bloom, surely you must know that. So far I see no reason as to how this could be beneficial for the both of us."

"I'm not finished, and you're clearly not seeing the bigger picture," I resolutely continued. I wasn't done negotiating. "This isn't just about me and Charlie," I told him. "Or C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S, or even this country. This is about the world. You created the Creatures in the first place to breed a newer, stronger and smarter human race to combat the damage we have done to ourselves and the Earth. Creatures were supposed to be a new start, and it probably would've been a great plan if the people weren't so damn terrified of them," My eyes hardened when Mr Alan's cooled. "Instead of embracing them, they are prepared to kill them on sight. To them, your Creatures are monsters."

It was time to go in for the finale.

"Me and Charlie living together isn't going to magically fix things, I know that, but it is going to force people to see that Creatures aren't what they think they are. It's going to take time, hard work and effort from both sides, but eventually someone will change their mind. All it takes is one person to make a believer out of another. Me and Charlie could be the start of that, the true future you intended with this whole experiment."

Mr Alan's lips twitched, but then he sat up straighter. "Alright, Ms Bloom. Let's in hypothetical terms say this works out and you manage to flip the eyes of the world over to our side. Let's say you succeed in all that and you live happily ever after playing suburban parents to happy hybrid kids. How does this benefit our labs, may I ask? We spent a lot of money on Charlie and invested a lot of assets into project CAROL. We can't let that all go to waste, just to let you and our Creature play house."

I sighed patiently. I had also considered that. "And you won't. Once a week, during my pregnancy, I will come in for tests and examinations since this pregnancy is fragile and quite possibly dangerous. I will allow you to treat me and the baby, and upon the birth, you will deliver the baby safely under circumstances approved by me and Charlie, for our safety and reassurance." I expected no less of them to try and take the baby from us the moment it was born. "Then, after the birth, we will continue to come in weekly, and during the first month of its life, you will send out a doctor daily to check up on its condition and health. But it will happen in our home. Then, after six months, our visits will shift from weekly to monthly. It may vary if anything arises and needs attention.

"But in any case, our future collaboration will happen once monthly where both Charlie and the baby will participate in any non-invasive and scarring research you wish to obtain. Any experiments will be supervised and will remain painless or non-traumatizing. They will take no longer than three hours tops, wherein there will be breaks if needed. The baby, while in infantile and juvenile stages, will not be submitted to any prolonged tests or research, and will be approached by a friendly doctor, not a clinical one. When it grows up, the lengths and trials of the testing may be argued, but for now, let's focus on the present. During any and all experiments, let it be written and signed that we come under our own free will and will leave again under same terms. Should we not, I don't think I need to recap what happened here tonight, do I?"

Mr Alan smiled impressed, then looked down at his hands that had folded themselves again sometime during my speech. "I believe you've made yourself quite clear."

I felt a breath leave my chest. "Does it sound like something we can agree on?"

"You've made a beautiful case, Ms Bloom, but you must forgive my candor," He said and met my eyes again, firmly. "Normally we'd throw you both back inside and up the security to maximum, but this is an unusual case. You've already pointed out that Creature 6402-C will stop at nothing to keep you all protected, but what should stop us from taking those chances? We are the government, after all. We could get funding that would ensure neither of you could ever escape within an inch of your locked confinements."

"But is it really worth it?" I said, giving him an equally hard look. "The funding will cost you much more than it would to just let us go free, not to mention the costs it'll take to repair every item that Charlie breaks on his attempts out." I couldn't help but smirk a little, picturing his rampage to get to me and the baby again. Tarzan went through the whole jungle to save Jane. Charlie would kick through every wall in this building to get to me, or search the globe to find us if they relocated us. "The economy is bad as it is, and the people already hate you enough. What do you think they would say to you raising taxes because you can't contain your Creatures?"

I knew I was finally breaking through. He masked it well, but I saw it in his eyes that my words were sinking in and making it harder and harder to argue. This was truthfully no longer just about me and Charlie. We were negotiation the future of the whole World. I could tell Mr Alan was as fully aware of that as I was. Whatever happened here could alter the course of the future forever.

"You said something about reassurance for you two. How about reassurance for us?" He questioned, leaning in on his elbows. "What's keeping you from running away during any time you're sleeping freely in your house?"

I closed my eyes and knew this was going to sting. But if they were sacrificing their Creature and his next of kin, then I had to make sacrifices as well. "Because of the chips. That's right; Me and Charlie will both get chips, as will the baby. But they will be non-explosive," I emphasized with importance, glaring at him with a mother-bearish sneer. "They will be no different from the types that dogs wear for identification, and they will only be used for you to keep track of us if we in any case should disappear. They will be your reassurance that we all belong to you, but do so freely. Is that understood?"

Mr Alan tugged a little on the corners of his lips, but then looked me over. "Obviously the details will have to be discussed a little further."

"I agree," I said, nodding. "Everything will be stated and gone through once Charlie is awake again, and will then be written into an ironclad contract and signed."

"Mhm-hm."

I didn't show any signs of angst as I then finally mouthed the words that would hopefully be the final ending to all of this.

"So do we have a deal?"

The world held its breath.

• • •

And so will you. For a whole week, haha. (Sorry) That was a long chapter, btw. Possibly the longest I've ever written.