Metis' whole core reacted to Jones' fearlessness. Her stomach twisted into knots upon knots. She could not look away from Jones, her eyes burned through her, she tried to turn away but she was locked in that stare. Jones' words coursed through her as if entering her blood stream and made her blush. She cleared her throat to try to collect herself but her face grew redder as the stare-off intensified.<br/><br/>Finally the nurse interrupted:<br/>"Heart rate is normal," the nurse said, fibbing slightly, no patient ever had a steady heartbeat. Metis finally broke away from watching Jones and smiled. Partially ignoring the nurse, gesturing with her head for the nurse to move away which she did without argument.<br/><br/>She reached for the injection and approached Jones' chair. Metis took a deep breath and forced out a smile. Emotion was sometimes hard for her to show, but she knew that people liked it when she smiled; it made her seem more human. She sometimes doubted that. Years at the facility had sucked the humanity out of her. Now she was a puppet; a very talented masterful puppet but as soon as her string break she would be locked away just like her test subjects. She could not let her years of hard work go to waste.<br/>"Was that a threat, Iris?" Metis asked. She hissed the final consonant of Jones' name, her smile shaking. "You may have toxic saliva but you're hardly in a position to make a move. If I go down, a security team will be in with their weapons trained on you before I reach the floor. It's a horrible thing to say but that's just how the world works. So how about you be a good girl and take the injection, okay?"<br/><br/>Metis rubbed the crook of Jones' arm looking for a viable vein. Her reassuring smile grew faker and wavered.