Morning had come far sooner than I would have liked. I had been right in assuming sleep would be next to nonexistant after my little escapade last night... and I was an avid lover of sleep.

That being said, I had absolutly no regrets for what I had done. In fact, I felt quite the opposite. Last night had been liberating. But it had also served as a stark reminder to how wrongfully Jayce had been treated.

I glanced over to Tony (moreover to the tray he held) falling in stride beside him.

We were on our way to Jayce's room to start another monotonous day of exercise and study.

"Is that all he eats?" I asked, nodding toward the tall glass of fibreous looking brown sludge. It smelled worse than it looked, if that was even possible.

All I had ever seen him consume was those disgusting shakes at breakfast and a few bottles of water throughout the day. Surely a man of his incredible size and stature needed more than that.

"This is a highly concentrated shake, containing all of his dietary needs." Tony replied, stepping aside once we reached the door to Jayce's room.

"I bet if you sat a steak down in front of the man he would beg to differ with that." I muttered, punching in the code on the key pad and pulling the door open.

Tony went in ahead of me, not bothering to wait, and sat the glass on a table beside a black loveseat he had moved in to make a more comfortable setting for me.

I kicked back in the loveseat, not paying any mind to what my uncle was doing while he woke Jayce.

Today was a no-injection day (as were most days) so I had a good half an hour before I had to worry about Jayce who had likely not forgotten last night.

I had not considered whether or not he may say something to Tony about me waking him... hopefully he would keep that mouth of his shut.

I was in the middle of reading another science book, one of many that I had stolen from Tony, when Jayce finally sat up.

I peeked over the edge of my book, watching timidly for the moment he realized I was there.

He stretched, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Seconds later he had looked up, scanning the room. He froze when his eyes landed on me, his golden irises narrowing in an I-have-not-forgotten scowl.

I smirked right back at him. If he wanted to soil my good mood he would have to try a lot harder than that. So I slammed a door on his face... it was not like it had even hurt him.

"That is odd," I heard Tony mutter, speaking for the first time in nearly an hour.

He was standing across the room with the drawer to Jayce's medicine chest open... the same one I had broken in to the night before.

"I could have sworn I counted eight syringes in here."

The air died in my lungs. My eyes shot from Tony to Jayce who sat with his distugsting sludge in hand. He was shooting me another dark look.

This was all my fault.

"Jayce," Tony spoke, directing his scrutinizing gaze to the alien in question, "has anyone besides me and Dr. Short woke you within the last twenty four hours?"

My stomach twisted into knots, my palms were sweaty. Was it getting increasingly warm in here or was it just me?

Seconds ticked by in silence, but it felt like an eternity before anyone spoke. The tension had grown so thick it could have been cut with a knife.

Was I the only one freaking out here?

"No." Jayce finally replied, stoic and void of any emotion what so ever. He looked away from Tony and resumed gulping down his shake just as casually as if we had been discussing the weather.

He looked so innocent, so completely oblivious to what was happening that I would have believed him myself... if I did not already know better that is.

How had he learned to lie so well? What else has he lied about? Had he lied to me?

My god, I was growing more paranoid by the second.

"Very well," Tony sighed, turning back to the drawer, "I must have miscounted."

That was it? Again, I was left completely baffaled. There was the potential that a syringe had gone missing and he was really not going to persue the matter...

I stared on in disbelief at this utter madness and waited on the erratic pounding in my chest to slow.

Eventually things settled back down to their noral pace. I sat at my chair, skimming through my science book. I had been stuck on the current page for the last ten minutes, reading and rereading the heavily laden, scientific jargon that made absolutly no sense to me.

Just as I had done multiple times throughout the morning, my eyes drifted up to Jayce, admiring how the alien had spent an hour on the treadmill and ran fifteen miles without even breaking a sweat.

And Tony called that a 'warm up'.

If only I were blessed with his physical capabilities

Occasionally we would be joined by the ever silent Dr. Short (who was actually quite tall... go figure.). He looked like he was a much younger man than my uncle, and most of the other scientists here for that matter.

He never paid me any mind whenever he entered the room, in fact every time I had tried to make any form of conversation with the man he would ignore me completely. Any time we were in the same room together Dr. Short would do his work, take his notes, and leave without so much as a single glance in my direction.

At first I had been understandably offended by his lack of anything towards me, but, eventually (once I pushed through my resentments towards him) I grew immune to being ignored.

It was a bit of a habitual existence here, in every aspect of life, for Jayce as well as the scientists. Things moved like clockwork every single day. Sometimes I wondered if Jayce was the only prisoner here.

Dr. Short was a prime example; he was one of the most frequent visitors to Jayce's room. Every morning he came to take notes and sometimes take over for Tony. He never took a day off. Before noon every day Jayce would leave with him and his evaluation specialist, Dr. Alexander.

Dr. Alexander assessed Jayce every single day before Jayce was taken wherever it was he went to next.

I never seen him after he left with Dr. Short every morning, but I knew from what little Tony had told me, his day mainly consisted of intense exercise, seriese after seriese of tests, and a meal.

Some life.

I was so absorbed in my thoughts I didn't even see Tony standing over me until he called my name. His look of cool professionalisim made it impossible to tell whether what he was about to say was going to be good or bad.

What could he possibly want?

"Y-yes?"

"I need to have a word with you in my office." Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked out of the room.

My entire body went numb.

Once the door clicked shut I shot up in a panic. In his office? He had never discussed anything with me in his office before.

Was it just me, or did he sound angry?

The clearing of a throat snapped me out of my frenzied thoughts. Looking in the direction the sound had come from I found Jayce was still in the room.

He was doing his best to fegine casual indifference, but I watched as it faltered a little when Jayce looked between me and the door.

What the hell? Tony had never left me unsupervised with Jayce. Not even if there was another scientist in the room with us.

My hands started to shake and my stomach twisted in knots. Oh this was bad.

This was so bad.

"Will you require my assistance?" The sincerity in Jayce's eyes momentairly caught me off guard.

Like if I had said the word Jayce would have went with me right then, no questions asked.

I shook my head, fighting to remain calm. "No, Jayce. I will be fine."

He clearly did not like that answer, scowling at me, "Anna..."

The door swung open and in walked the ever pleasent Dr. Short, breezing past me like I wasn't even there. His face was pinched in a grim sort of look.

Oh my god. Did he know too?

I ducked out of the room before he could see me and set off to find out what was so important Tony felt he needed to see me in his office.

I was a nervous wreck by the time I stepped through the door into the dimly lit office.

The walls were all two toned grey, at the opposite end of the room sat a desk and chairs. A filing cabinet sat tucked in a corner behind the desk and a potted tree stood in the other.

That tree was the first green living thing I had seen sense moving to this place.

Tony was sat at his desk with his hands resting over the scattered papers on top. He watched me with an unreadable look.

He definitely knew something.

He motioned to the two chairs on my side of the desk. "Please, take a seat."

I claimed the seat closest to me, twiddling my thumbs nervously. "Well... I am here."

Moments ticked by in silence, with Tony wathing me under his scruitinizing gaze.

I, clearly, was a nervous wreck, but if Tony took notice he hid it well.

"There is something we need to talk about." He laced his fingers together, leaning forward until his forearms rested on top of his desk.

I laughed. "Oh please don't give me the birds and the bees talk, dad."

Tony's eyes widened.

Did I mention the dumbest crap comes out of my mouth when I am nervous?

"What? No!"

I swallowed, bracing myself for what was to come.

He took a deep breath, blowing it back out before he started to speak. "I know, given all that you have been through this last year, (and espcially these last few months), you must be feeling lonely and are no doubt confused about much that goes on here."

I didn't speak, curious to see where he was going with this. I finally had to clasp my sweaty hands together to keep them from shaking.

This was it. I couldn't be more certain of it.

Tony cleared his throat. "With that being said, I understand if your plans for the future are far from the forefront of you thoughts. However, I would prefer to bring this matter up now so you have adequate time to consider my offer."

I frowned. He was making me an offer? For what?

Clearly we were not having the same conversation. Wasn't he supposed to be yelling at me or something? "Umm... I am not sure that I follow, Tony."

The features of his face started to warm as he smiled ever so slightly. It was enough I could feel myself begin to relax.  He hardly seemed to smile, so this had to be a goood sign.

"What I am saying is, seeing as you are registered as my apprentice and are living here, you could have a career here with us. If you so chose to stay, I could teach you everything I know and, eventually, you would be ready to take over my position when I retire."

Oh...he was offering me a job. Somehow this was the only scenario I had not thought of. Thank god I had not already run my mouth and said something to undoubtedly incriminate myself.

"You... want me to work here?" I asked, still not sure if I fully comprehended what he was saying.

This still could be a trap...

"Now," Tony started, nodding. His smile had grown considerably sense he had started talking, "I know this seems like an awful place to live, given the limited access to, well, everything, but money does talk. Your salary would equal out to two hundred an hour for a thirteen hour day. Roughly, that is twenty six hundred dollars a day- or seventy eight thousand every thirty day pay period."

I felt my brain beginning to fry just thinking of all the math Tony had to go through to tell me these numbers off the top of his head like that... Or maybe he had it wrote down. Maybe he had an entire speech wrote out on the papers scattered across his desk.

I found myself leaning forward to take a peek at the papers, only to find they had nothing to do with what Tony was offering me.

I sat back in my seat, shifting under his gaze. He was probably wondering what in the hell I was doing.

Keep wondering, Tony. I am as clueless as you.

Two hundred an dollars an hour? I had been excited when my day job back in Santa Clara had paid ten dollars an hour- but this had the potential to have me earning nearly a million dollars a year...

"Your housing is all paid for," Tony went on with his sales pitch, a smile still spread across his face, "so are your meals, which means you pocket nearly every dime you make, with the exception of your own personal expenses. But, this is not even the best part. The best part, if you are employed through us and retire through us, you will never pay a dime in taxes again."

"Never?" I asked. Only now did it occure to me that Tony has worked for this place sense before I was born- twenty-two years as a matter of fact. Making that kind of money and having absolutely nothing to spend it on, Tony had to be a multi millionaire...

"I mean not one cent. When I retire from here I will never have to work another day in my life. Speaking of retirement, I plan to do so whenever Jayce is declared ready to be moved from our facility, however, I would extend  my stay for the duration of your training if you decide to persue a career with us."

At the mention of Jayce I dropped my gaze to the desk. That same heaviness of guilt that weighed on me last night was settling on my chest again. "That sounds nice and all, Tony, but I don't think I could do to another living being what you all have done here."

His face fell. Whatever hint of happiness that had been there moments ago vanished. "I understand, Anna. It is a hard thing to ask of another, and it does not come without its difficulties. Training yourself to view Jayce as anything less than human, when his apperance is quite deciving, is not an easy thing to do, and it takes time. But, the truth is, Jayce is not a person; he is an alien."

I knew that... Looking at him it was obvious, but I also knew he had thoughts and somewhere, hidden deep inside, he had feelings. He had the basic principals that defined what it meant to be human.

"I will admit," Tony continued, leaning back in his seat with a sigh, "I have raised Jayce from infantcy, I dedicated the last twenty-two years of my life to him, and I can count the number of days on one hand that I have not seen him."

Silence engulfed the room when Tony stopped talking,

"It is not that I don't understand, Tony. I do," I muttered, staring down at my hands, "I just don't agree with it."

He nodded, that professional mask sweeping back over his features. "If I do not lead the study, Anna, someone else will."

"I just feel like he deserves better than this." I huffed. I had really expected Tony to get angry with me for disagreeing with his life's work, instead he looked like he had been expecting as much.

"I understand, Anna. Perhaps, eventually, you might change your mind."

I met his eyes, now more than ever he appeared as a stranger to me. If it weren't for the similarities we both shared I would never have believed we were related.

"I just hope you know, I am not a bad man, Anastasia. I do what I do because there is no one better equipped to do this job than me. I do it in the name of science, and for the greater good of humanity."

I did not believe Tony was a bad person, just that what he was doing was wrong. I understood that Jayce could pose a potential threat to humanity, and that studying him was the only way we would ever understand him.

It was for the Jayce that had never been given a chance that I felt the most sorry.

Jayce was that lost looking dog who had spent their entire life in a cage, the dog who did not even know what a dog was- utterly oblivious to the world around them.

"You know I wish I could have been there for you more. I miss your mother every day." Tony spoke, quietier this time.

I smiled in spite of the lump that suddenly got lodged in my throat and the flood of bittersweet memories that came with the mention of my parents.

"You remind me so much of her, Anna. You have all of her best qualities."

I wanted to acccept my uncles compliment, but something continued to hold me back. Tony spoke like he knew my mother, but the truth was, they were as good as common strangers.

Tony had spent his entire life avoiding my family. I had gone years without seeing him, and the number of times he and my mother actually talked was not much of a step up from that.

He had no grounds to tell me he missed my parents. I was the one who had lost them and I was the one alone.

"Why are you telling me this?" I snapped, not really caring to hear what he had to say anymore. He was talking like he understood what it was like to really hurt, to really lose someone- but he was not there when it happened. He had no idea what it was like.

"Because, Anastasia, I do not want you to think ill of me. I loved your mother- I want you to understand that, I might not have shown it, but I never stopped caring for my family and leaving
I believed was the only way to do what was best for them." By the time he was finished, Tony was breathing heavy his hands clutched into fists where they rested on his desk. No doubt this had to be the most personal thing Tony had shared with anyone in years.

"That's the problem with all you scientists," I spat, rising from my seat, "You spend so much time locked away in your own little world studying and probing things for 'the greater good' you fail realize you are running out of time with those you care for the most. You are shutting out the people who love you and need you the most." With that I left a rather deshleved looking Tony sitting at his desk, his office door slamming closed behind me.