A/N: How's it going, beautifuls? Having a good day? I hope so! Enjoy the update :) Things are starting to heat up! Also, MWAHAHAHAHAHA >:)

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02 - 05 - 2089

The next day is normal. But not the boring kind of normal. The kind of normal that you dread and have no choice but to endure. The kind of normal that you are forced into. The kind of normal that is my life.

I am up bright and early according to my internal clock before my breakfast even arrives. I take the extra time to take a quick bath and clean myself up. Then I sit on the edge of my bed and braid my wet hair to pass the time.

When my meal finally comes, my stomach is yelling at me to eat something. It has quite the temper as I have learned over the years.

I down the tasteless meal quickly while a nameless orderly waits to take me to a day filled with tests. Tests for this thing and that thing. Who knows what they will test on me today?

I make a sour face at the thought. I wish I could stay in here all day and draw while I wait for Cade to get me out of here. He's going to save me; I just have to wait, I remind myself. It might take a few days so we make sure to do it right. I can wait a few days. I can wait a year if it means freedom.

The orderly takes my arm and leads me out of my room, heading for the testing room where I normally go. That helps to relieve some of the apprehension building in my stomach. Normal is always better than the unexpected when it comes to these tests. Normal means pokes and prods. Maybe a few shots. But nothing overly scary then. At least, I hope.

When we arrive, the orderly has me go into the empty room and lie down on the bed. Then he waits in the corner, stoic and still as a statue.

Minutes later, the door opens again and Doctor Acosta enters, looking perky and more energetic than usual. Great.

"Good morning, Gis," she says as she takes a seat at her desk.

I don't respond. I used to, but not anymore. Doctor Acosta is not my friend. I won't treat her like one.

"Today we are going to be doing something less invasive." She turns off the screen on her A-book as she finishes typing something in and approaches the bed where I'm lying. "So no pain, dear." She smiles, like she is doing me a great favor.

I want to slap her.

"Thomas, go prepare the XRER room."

Thomas, the orderly, leaves immediately without a word.

My stomach is caught in my throat. But I force past the lump to speak. "What does XRER mean?"

"It is just the x-ray room. Today we are going to do a full workup to complete our records." Doctor Acosta slaps on a pair of rubber gloves and lifts my shirt. She presses her fingers into different parts of my stomach and I hold my breath against the uncomfortable feeling. Even through the gloves her fingers feel cold.

"You just got pictures of me not too long ago," I argue, hoping she'll change her mind. Yes, x-rays don't hurt, but I don't like the room. It's so cold and dark that it reminds me of solitary. And that gives me the tremors.

"Yes, dear. But we've had a breakthrough. With the new data we've recorded as of late, we might be ready." Doctor Acosta moves her hands to my neck and collarbone, still pressing.

"For what?" I ask as a shiver rolls down my back. Be strong. Be strong.

"To extract and identify your DNA," she says. Her voice is simple, like she is talking about an everyday topic. Like the weather outside. I've heard guards and orderlies talking about that on occasion when I passed by them on my way to the testing room, or back to my room.

I frown, feeling as I always do when Doctor Acosta actually explains something to me. Frustrated. Frustrated that I don't understand it all. It always feels like she keeps part of the information from me.

And scared. I feel scared at what her words mean. Extract? I don't know entirely what that word means, but it doesn't sound very nice.

I don't ask anymore questions, as Thomas returns in that moment. He leads me to the XRER room, the cold blasting me as we enter. He turns on the lights, but they don't do much. The shadows dance around the room, reflecting off the equipment filling it up, and the metal table in the very center.

I take a seat on the metal table, trying not to think about the huge contraption that takes my pictures hanging right above me. Or the memories of solitary that want to take precedence in my mind.

The orderly goes back behind a sectioned off part of the room with windows. He sits at a desk there, and I hear him flipping switches and turning on the machine.

Another orderly enters the room. This time it's a woman. She hands me a paper thin gown and leads me over to a screen in the corner of the room before instructing me to change. I scurry behind the cover and quickly do as she says before she decides to come back here and check on me.

Goosebumps cover my flesh as I pull on the paper gown. It doesn't provide a smidge of warmth, and I shiver as I walk out behind the screen, leaving all of my clothes behind.

"Come lay down," the woman instructs. I do as she says, and she moves me on the table to adjust me into the correct position.

I close my eyes and hold them closed until the pictures are done. I imagine myself somewhere else. Anywhere else. I picture myself with Cade in my room. I imagine what it would be like to sit and talk with him without any worry of people watching. If it could be just him and I.

"You're all done." The orderly's voice brings me back to the cold room. I sit up with her help and slide off the bed. "You can go change back into your clothes. Then you are done for the day and I'll take you back to your room."

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I'm back in my room, doing nothing. I think through Doctor Acosta's words earlier. How she told me what she was planning. Extract my DNA. Extract.

I pick the word apart in my head. E... x... t... r... a... c... t...

It doesn't help. I wish Cade would just come visit me so I could ask him. For some reason, the word feels important, like I should know it.

An hour passes before anyone comes to see me. But it isn't Cade that comes. It's Barr. And he's only here to check on my temperature, or so he says. He sticks the thermometer under my tongue, and we both keep quiet as he does his job. No words are spoken, then he leaves.

I scratch my tongue to rid my tastebuds of the metal tang from the thermometer. The taste remains, so I eventually give up and lay back on my bed. There I stay until the door opens again.

"Hey."

I shoot up like a rocket, smoothing my hair down and straightening my shirt as I see Cade enter. He smiles, and it warms me. I smile back and cross my legs. I stick my hands under my legs, not sure what to do with them. This feels natural, I tell myself.

"How are you doing?" Cade asks, coming over and sitting down next to me. I inadvertantly suck in a breath at his close proximity.

When I realize what I'm doing, I force myself to relax. "What does extract mean?"

He releases a laugh, but cuts it off, staring at me. "You're serious?" he asks, tilting his head.

I nod.

"Oh. Uh, it means to remove or take something out. Sometimes by force." Cade raises his eyebrows. "Why?"

The lump is back, and not because Cade is here. I have to force myself to speak, even though I don't want to hear any words at all. "Can they hear us?"

"No." Cade grows solemn at the seriousness in my words, his eyes watching me in earnest. "Gis, what is going on? Why did you want to know what that meant?"

I can't say it.

Cade takes my chin in his hand with careful fingers and forces me to look at him. He is gentle, though, and I can't help but lean into the warmth of his skin.

"Please tell me," he pleads.

"Doctor Acosta," I shift. "She said that she is going to... to... extract my DNA." There. I said it.

Cade's eyes grow wide. He curses under his breath and lowers his head into his hands. He mutters something to himself that I don't catch.

"What do we do?" I whisper. "What does that mean? I know it means something bad, but what exactly? Is it going to hurt?"

Cade finally looks at me again, his face distraught. He heaves in a deep breath, his eyes on mine. "It will kill you."

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