((I know they don't apply to this world, but bear with me on the Buddha comments.  Too tempting.<img alt=":-D" src="./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif" title="Very Happy"/>))<br/><br/>Santi watched as Tim reacted like a deer in the headlights, as though caught in a lie.  He protested, then looked confused... then suddenly went into a ridiculously impromptu meditative pose.  She looked at him for a few seconds, and shook her head.  If Santi had still been in his belly, he would have even had the Buddhabelly to look the part.<br/><br/>Sam was completely unfazed by the boy's reaction, and went into the explanations she'd wanted, or had thought she did.  Cytco?  Sounded like an oil company from the Ratio side of the Wall or something.  Which, come to think of it, might well be appropriate...<br/><br/>She let him finish his quick explanation, trying to remember the things she would want to ask as he went.  When he stopped, she swallowed, tried to ask... and realized she'd forgotten them.  The possibility he'd invoked, yet again, that she might not heal on this side of the Wall had thrown her.<br/><br/>"Okay... okay, so they... try to make Will things happen, with Tech," she summarized.  "So we... Timmy and me," she glanced at Buddha-Tim, who was at least calm and quiet now, "we're some kind of... test objects... and the thing that makes us heal, in our blood, it's tech of some kind."  She frowned.  She didn't really like the thought that there was something wrong with her blood.  That she healed on her own was one thing, but that it be somehow<span style="font-style: italic">artificial,</span>that bugged her.<br/><br/>"You... said..." a lot of what he'd said made little sense to her.  She'd always lived on the streets... big news and big companies weren't something she paid attention to.  "They were being... investigated..." she trailed off, and looked at Tim for a moment.  "They did... something... to me, and to Tim.  I don't..." she slicked her lips, "remember much, but I think they took me... took me off the streets.  I didn't volunteer."  She looked at Sam.  "I don't suppose I need to ask, huh?  They<span style="font-style: italic">are</span>doing... criminal things.  They have the money to..." she recalled the black-dressed men at the apartment.<br/><br/>"And..." she stared down at her hands for a few seconds.  She hadn't understood most of what he'd said about her and Tim, only enough to grasp that he really didn't think they would heal over here.  She was very,<span style="font-style: italic">very</span>tempted to find out... she didn't mind pain, usually.  But maybe, on this side of the Wall, pain would be real to her, and wouldn't give her wierd pleasure.  But if that was the case... his comment about<span style="font-style: italic">acid</span>scared her, too.<br/><br/>"All right..." she whispered.  She looked at him again.  "I... I know you said you were making things up as we went, but... now what?  We can't just... stay here forever.  Or hide in the sewers."  She'd done that before.  There had been some things down there, though whether real or imagined she wasn't sure, that she didn't want to face again.  "They'll find the helicopter sooner or later... and, and Tim might want to go back for Shari..." she glanced at Tim, and frowned at his posture... at the way he had reacted.  She looked back at Sam.  "I'm guessing that, by the way that how he's acting doesn't bother you at all, that<span style="font-style: italic">most</span>of us from...<span style="font-style: italic">there</span>... are completely insane?"