I stop short of the door leading into Levi's room so they can't see me yet. What are they going to tell me? Am I ready for whatever it is? I only found out about whatever it is yesterday, but it feels like an age of not knowing. Maybe it's the fact that finding out has me realising they kept whatever it is hidden the whole time I have known them, so it feels like it was all a lie. Especially after finding out about Gerard. Are they just being my friends because Gerard, who they obviously respect, told them to. What do they really think of me? I did not expect to find eight boys who I have become increasingly attached to, two friends who have stuck by me through thick and thin, a stalker who was crazy enough to pull a gun on me, and an uncle I didn't even know about, in LA. It's been a whirlwind, and I am afraid whatever is on the other side of that door is going to make the whirlwind destroy some part of my life, whatever it may be, good or bad. I've got to think about Sophie through all of this as well. She's already been through a lot by moving from England and everything that has ensued, and I don't want to cause her any more harm or upset.

The door opening has me looking around. I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I forgot where I am and what I am doing.

"There you are, we were just going to check that Gerard hadn't scared you off," Jesse jokes, but the underlying expression under the humour shows me that his "worries" were partially true. Did he think that Gerard told me?

"Not yet," I reply similarly, hoping that my joke will only be that. I steel myself for whatever is about to come and step forward, following after Jesse.

I'm probably working myself up over nothing! What's the worst that they can tell me? My mind keeps going from the plausible to the utterly insane.

I look around the room, which hasn't changed much since yesterday. There was a card on the table next to the bed, but everything else was exactly the same. Levi is sitting up in bed, his cheeks holding more colour and looking better all around. Sophie is sitting at his feet. My eyes go to his covered leg, and then back up to his face. His green eyes look regretful and worried. My mind going back to Storm's words about Levi not getting the texts I feel guilty again that I exploited the fact that he was in hospital, and guilty that I probably made him feel guilty about telling me and then left him to wonder how I reacted. I give him a grin to show him I'm not mad and he doesn't need to worry.

"Hi," I say. I weave my way through all the chairs that the guys have seemed to source and place around the smallish room and to an empty one beside Brody and Levi. Although I talked to him earlier on the phone, I look down at his leg again.

"How are you feeling?"

"Alright," he responds as I feel his eyes on me. I look up and see that he is watching me curiously.

"What about you?" he asks. I swallow, knowing he's not just talking about me getting drugged.

"Could be better," I say honestly. I'll be a lot better once you tell me everything, I admit internally but he seems to understand that fact. He gives me a sympathetic smile.

  "Thanks for the food," he mumbles just as Ryder begins to talk, looking directly at me.

"Are we ready to go back to school tomorrow?"

"I don't think Tanner would dare to show up,"

Hm," I say as I look to where Sophie is sitting.

*^*^*

We've been here for an hour, and now Sophie is napping next to Levi. We've been skirting around the subject all afternoon, and have been talking about small things. After a while of them not bringing up the subject, and glancing at Sophie, I realised that they were waiting for her to either leave the room or fall asleep. At first I didn't understand, but then slowly I respected and was thankful for them for doing that. At least if I find out first, I can work out if I want Sophie to find out, and how she finds out. It also gives me some time to get everything straight in my mind.

I bring my legs up and rest my feet on the edge of the chair, hugging my knees, waiting and hoping that it might be barrier to whatever is coming.

The guys exchange looks, and I see Jesse close his eyes, before standing abruptly.

"I can't do this, you can do it without me, I don't want to lose someone else," he says before walking quickly out of the room. I let my hands fall away from my knees and go to stand up and go after him, however Brody's hand raises telling me to leave him.

"Gerard will talk to him," he assures me. I bite my lip looking after Jesse, before slowly sitting back down again. My eyes keep going to the room, waiting for him to return. A text tone goes off, and Trystan pulls out his phone. He nods at the others.

"We can go ahead, Gerard's talking to him."

"Well, um, we've never told anyone before, so we don't exactly know how to start. It all started when we were six as you know..." Ashton starts, looking around at the others as he talks. "Gerard, a scientist and doctor, was looking for a group of children for some..." he stops, clearing his throat before continuing "experiments."

"Experiments?" I ask, my head not quite getting what he's saying.

"Yeah, he was looking to see whether genes could be altered, and possibly modified..."

"And you were the test subjects," I state not knowing how I feel about it. This is stuff of films and books.

"Yes," Brody says taking my hand, but I let go of it needing some space to take it in, and if he's touching me, I won't be able to think clearly. Brody looks hurt for a moment, but continues with the explanation, with a slight humorless chuckle. "Well, it worked, he was able to change our genes and gave us all a different skill which came naturally to us."

"In the process he also made the healing process shorter, meaning I will be out of here in a week, like I told you this morning instead of the couple of weeks which is usual," Levi lets me know.

I blink a couple of times, trying to register everything.

"Wha- What are your skills? Are you the only ones?" Hundreds of questions go through my mind but only the two are able to come out.

"We are the only ones, he tried on girls as well, but they didn't have the Y chromosome which Gerard found was what helped with the changes," Ashton answers. "And as to what our skills are, I am the scientist of the group, so when you asked if I was a doctor, I answered truthfully. I find it very easy to take on medical knowledge."

"Arts," Brody answers simply. My mind travels back to Colton's surfboard, and the vase. He was an amazing artist.

"I'm good at sports," Colton says as he smiles at me. They are all looking more relaxed as time goes on as if he's had a weight lifted off their shoulder.

"Survival skills, especially tracking," Levi tells me. He was the one that would always go when I said that I had seen Tanner, and he was the first to arrive at the car when Tanner had me at gun point.

"Music," Trystan says, a small smile coming to his lips. "Like this morning."

I look to Storm who still looks hesitant. Even though I can't remember them telling me the first tine, I do remember he, Jesse, and Ryder were the ones who objected to me knowing.

"I think you can guess mine, from the garage," he says.

"Fighting?"

"Yes, pretty much every kind." I look to Ryder. He looks at me for a moment, and then around the room.

"Languages," he supplies before slipping into Spanish. "Espero no haberte asustado con lo que hemos dicho. Me preocupo profundamente por ti y no quiero perderte. How are you feeling about it all?" he asks.

"Not sure," I admit, looking to Sophie on the bed. I know she wouldn't care about them being different, but do I?

"Mine is technology or mechanics," Jesse says from the door. I jump looking to him, to see his stare is intent on me.

The room goes silent as my brain ticks over everything, and they wait for my response. I never expected something like this. Why would I? I stare off into the distance, feeling myself get emotional. I know that this is something you don't introduce yourself with, like "Hi, I'm a science experiment" but part of me feels as if they could have told me sooner. I trusted them with knowing my secret about Sophie and even then they didn't open up to me fully. I thought that the trust was going both ways but obviously not. They were the first boys that I felt were being fully open with me about their intentions and who they were. Jack pretended to be one person and that ended badly, and I can't go through that again. I feel tears start to fall down my face. I know if this was any other time I would be reacting differently but after finding out about Gerard and as a result of the after effects of the drug, it's all too much.

There has been too many secrets kept from me for a lifetime. I wipe my face as I look around. I see Jesse is bunching his brown hair in his hands.

"I knew it! She thinks we're freaks! She's going to leave us," he starts to shout.

"Wh- N-" I start to say as Storm admonishes Jesse for shouting.

"Keep it down," he hisses at him.

"All this does it cause so many problems! I wish I never did it. I lo..." Was he going to say what I think he was?

"Be. Quiet," Storm says getting louder himself.

"Why? You wanted to say it first, huh? Is that it? Is it going to be like when we were younger we're going to fight over her like a toy?"

"That's not fair," Brody argues as I see Storm's hands clench.

"Stop!" I cry standing up.

"Mummy?" Sophie asks sleepily.

"Please stop fighting! You are such good friends and I'm getting in the way of it." Before today I never thought about how I would affect their friendship. I always thought we were just that friends. I'm not going to let them fight over me.

"If I'm just going to cause problems then I'm going to go," I tell them as I feel tears streaming down my face, everything they told me going to the back of my mind. "Sophie," I say extending my hand for her. She looks around hesitantly but doesn't argue when she sees my face. She takes it and crawls off the bed.

"I'm sorry," I say as I walk to the door and past Jesse, holding back a sob as I pick a tired Sophie up walking to the lift.

What Ryder said: I hope I did not scare you with what we said. I care deeply for you and I do not want to lose you.

Here you go!

I'm not entirely happy with this part (it took me a couple of goes to get it perfect and that's why it was later than I thought it would be), but it's got most of the information needed. We now know what the boys' secret is. Were you expecting that, and how do you feel about it?

What did you think?

What will happen next?

Thanks for reading, voting, commenting, sharing, and following!

CC ;)