I only slept for a few hours due to my nerves. The longer I laid in bed, the more I realized that Brittock had a specific smell that was everywhere. I was surrounded, suffocating in a sea of confusing... attraction.

When the sun came up, I gently crawled out of bed, grabbing my backpack and slipping out the door.

After I had showered, I went searching for Gerry, hoping to simultaneously scavenge for food.

Thirty minutes later, I found him drinking coffee in his kitchen on the third floor...

With Brittock.

"Morning" I waved with a smile.

"Morning you!" Gerry said cheerily.

Brittock just nodded slowly, obviously hung over.

"How is everybody this morning?" I asked, trying not to seem overly friendly or courteous toward Brittock.

"I'm great" Gerry poured me a cup of hot coffee," but Boss is a little confused. Do you by any chance know what happened to him last night? He says he went to the roof, then he woke up in bed".

"No... I, uh, went up there to sketch and left before midnight" I shrugged, sipping my coffee.

Brittock glared at me over my coffee cup, obviously trying to recall some lost memory.

He didn't remember last night at all...

"Thanks for the coffee" my feet moved backwards toward the exit as I tried to keep my upset frustration from surfacing. "Hey, umm, do you think you could come with me to get my pod?"

Both men stilled instantly, Gerry's cup clinking as he sat it down and Brittock's chair creaking as he turned to look at me.

"What?" Gerry definitely required clarification if his expression was any indication.

"My... my pod? I want to go get it"

"You want to bring your pod here?" I felt Brittock searching for the reason behind my request with his eyes as Gerry asked all the verbal questions.

"Yes, it's inconvenient having it far from where I am"

"Yeah... Yes, we can help"

"Good, thank you"

___________________

"I came down here dozens of times and I never came close to finding this place" Gerry whistled in appreciation.

"I know, I was watching you"

"Well that's not creepy" he said. I wasn't sure if he was calling me or the skeleton he was nudging with his toe 'creepy'.

"I did what I had to do" I mumbled. When we reached my cove, I looked around, realizing I actually missed my little hovel.

The only thing personal left in my old home was my glowing pod. Gerry had brought three men with him to help carry my pod up to the surface and into a military humvee.

Brittock had come, but never left the vehicle, choosing instead to stare out the front window.

I had attempted, unsuccessfully, to sit in the back seat, but Gerry had kiboshed my plan by forcing me into the front, next to Brittock.

Needless to say, the trip to and from my hideout was awkwardly tense.

I quickly tried to jump out of the vehicle as we pulled up to The Penthouse, but Brittock grabbed my forearm in a powerful grip.

"Take the pod to her room" Brittock ordered Gerry. All the men left the vehicle, meaning Brittock and I were alone.

"What happened last night?" he asked immediately, not loosening his vise grip.

"I don't know, you're the one in charge of your actions" I mumbled.

"Stop... lying..."

"If you can't recall, it must not have been anything worth remembering!" I snapped, getting in his face.

His expression was sharp, angry... until it wasn't.

"Why do you do that?" His face suddenly more forgiving.

"Do what?" I snapped, ripping my arm from his grasp.

"Why do you choose not to defend yourself? To fight for what you know to be true?"

"You remember?"

"Of course I do... Even intoxicated, I do not forget entire situations"

"Then why did you look confused at breakfast this morning?"

"Because you refused to acknowledge me when you walked in. That and you disappeared this morning from my room" he practically chided.

"You got mad because I ignored you?"

"No, that is not what I said" his tone had grown a frustrated under current.

"And why did you lie to Gerry?" I shot back, the fact that he was chastising me for lying really irritating me considering he had lied too.

"I did not"

"That's a lie, he said you forgot, meaning you told him that you remembered nothing from the night before" I was going to catch him in this fallacy.

"No. He asked why I looked like hell. I told him I was hung over. He asked what I did last night and I answered him with silence. His deductions are not my responsibility" pinned with his gaze, I felt like I was immobile.

"Well... you could have told him" I added childishly.

"I could have, but I chose not to. I am more interested as to why you did not tell him, but instead chose to lie" he was turning up the intensity, putting me on the spot.

"Because if you didn't remember, I wasn't going to bring it up" my voice trailed off to a whisper. Honesty, honesty, honesty.

Honesty sucks.

"So if I had forgotten, you would have let me go on in oblivion?"

"Yes" I answered without a doubt.

"You would have let me forget laughing for the first time in a millennium? Forget telling you my beginning? Forget the moment when I realized how you see me through your eyes?"

"You-you were drunk. I couldn't take anything you said seri-"

"I was drunk. First time in history, and for once, I relaxed and enjoyed myself. If anything I have ever said needed to be taken seriously, it was everything that came out of my mouth last night" so many... words. I can't process his actions and words when he's like this. Even if he's not expressing emotion in his face, he was expressing it through words.

"Then... then I am sorry I lied. It was wrong" I whispered.

He nodded and exited the vehicle. I quickly hopped out of the humvee and skittered to the grill.

"So knowing this, can we talk about what you said last night?" Please please please let him-

"No"

...Well damn...

"But-"

"Why is Lunkfield out of his cage, in my foyer, uncuffed?" he asked suddenly.

"Oh well because I let him... out... uncuffed" Rodney stood at the large glass doors, looking every bit like the puppy dog left at home while their master went to work.

"And why is that?"

"Whoa, calm that testosterone, you're still the boss, I'm not trying to usurp your power or anything. I just... he's my friend. One of my only friends. And we had a heart to heart the other day and I just... realized I forgave him and I'm not mad and that he-"

I cut off my rambling when Brittock threw the door open. He strode powerfully and angrily across the threshold. I hesitantly followed, watching as he briskly walked away. Rodney, who had taken a step back from Brittock, eyed him wearily, as if preparing for attack.

"What's wrong?" I asked, attempting to ease the situation. He took long strides to match pace with me as we followed Brittock, at a distance.

"I'm trusting my instincts. He's angry" he explained with a nod toward Brittock's broad back.

"Uhhh I guess... sorta" I replied, scratching my head.
"Don't know why" I added under my breath.

"Oh I can guess" he said cryptically. At the confused look on my face, he sighed and continued "whatever happens, say and do nothing, just watch. You need to see this". Mumblings including 'stupid, stubborn, and blind' were also added in whispers as we approached the elevators.

"Wha-"

"I think we should move back to the house on the edge of town. I liked it there. A lot" Rodney yelled rather loudly, picking up his pace and getting very close to Brittock's personal space.

"Well I mean we cou-"

Before I could finish, Rodney "accidentally" bumped against Brittock.

The sequence of events that followed occurred so quickly, I couldn't have intervened even if I had been allowed.

Brittock spun around, grabbing Rodney by the neck. Using the momentum of his spin, he picked Rodney up inches off the ground and slammed him against the wall parallel to the elevator doors.

I made to take one step forward but stopped when I remembered Rodney's words. Instead, I took a step back and observed.

Rodney had both hands wrapped around Brittock's forearm, his face red from oxygen deprivation. Brittock leaned in and whispered something to Rodney, then slammed him against the wall again. Brittock then released Rodney, who leaned against the wall with a light grasp in his neck.

Brittock climbed into the elevator, slamming his hand against the close door button. He did not turn around as the doors slid closed.

"What the hell was that?" I snapped at Rodney, knowing that Brittock's reaction was excessive but that Rodney instigated it.

"Curiosity killing the cat" his tone calm as he massaged his throat.

"Ha-ha very funny. Seriously" I pressed.

"I wanted to show you something and I experimented and received my answer. Please tell me you learned something?"

"Why did you just take his attack? You could have fought back" Rodney was the most confusing-

The even keeled ginger sighed, again, and said "Because there are rules. In the animal kingdom there is a hierarchy. He's the Alpha, you can hate and resent him all you want but when push comes to shove, he wins. I started a fight, he finished it. And in this situation, I'm not just a Beta, I'm an Omega. By all rights and procedures, I should be bullied or dead. But all of this is irrelevant and not what I wanted to show you, however you are too dense to get it on your own" he explained, growing progressively more agitated in tone, which took quite a bit of emotion to break through his blunted emotional status.

"But he shouldn't have reacted like that just because you bumped into him"

"He did not react like that because of the tap on the back" Rodney pressed the call button so the elevator would come back.

"Then...?" my tone ended with quizzical curiosity.

"You two are both insufferable"

"Insuff-... Whatever. What did he tell you?" I asked, crossing my arms and pouting a bit at Rodney's insults.

"Basically?" Rodney asked, turning to me, "Basically, he told me to quit my shit". The elevator doors slid open and Rodney got on, waiting for me expectantly before pressing the floor button.