Birdhouse in Your Soul

[Spectre]

It must be awful when even you could not tell what was real and what was fantasy. Spectre's determination to get the girl out of this place and into some damn fresh air was absolute.

"As icky as it sounds, when Ms. Harmon comes back you are going to switch places with her. She'll stay here with the collar, so you don't have to wear it. The three of us will walk out the front door, but you have to stay looking like her until we're gone. Can you do that?"

Spectre would make sure that Ms. Harmon remained happy in the thought that she was a little girl who was ready to curl up, watch some Princessly animation and pop off to sleep...

[Jamie Morrigan]

Jamie nodded expressively. That would be easy! ...If a bit icky.

"I could also make myself invisible," she suggested. "Oh! I could make you invisible if something goes bad. Or make it look like we've got a whole team of secret agents fighting for us--"

The door opened, and Jamie clamped her mouth shut. Ms. Harmon walked in with a metal collar in-hand, and as soon as she saw the girl, she smiled.

"Well, now, I guess you've decided these two aren't so bad after all?" she said. "Now, all we need to do is put this on you like Dr. Dunwich asked."

[Dragon]

Dragon stepped behind the nurse and surreptitiously pushed the door shut. "Excuse me, Ms. Harmon, could I take a look at that?" He swooped in and took the collar out of her bewildered grasp. "That's interesting - you're still using thorium ions? Magnetically driven?"

"Er, well, yes," Ms. Harmon stammered. "What else would we be using?"

[Spectre]

Jamie was far more interested in this little jail break than Spectre thought she would be. It would make the whole thing so much easier..

"Patricia...." A sing-song voice called, from over by the television.

"What will you watch before you go to sleep, sweetie? Cinderella..? Beauty and the Beast?" Spectre turned and with her bright green eyes locked on the nurse, started advancing on her.

Now, Jamie.

"Let's just get you ready for sleep, ok Pattie?"

[Jamie Morrigan]

Jamie watched breathlessly as the matronly, condescending expression she'd come to expect from Ms. Harmon drained away from her face. The woman with the silvery-gold hair was hypnotizing her!

"C-C-Cinderella," the nurse said, her voice slurred and... and lisping!

Jamie was so dumbfounded she almost forgot what Spectre had asked her to do. In a moment, Ms. Harmon was standing in her place, and a very sleepy-looking Jamie was crawling onto her bed and watching the dark TV under her heavy eyelids.

"What do we do now?" the image of Ms. Harmon whispered with Jamie's voice.

[Spectre]

"Now.. we put Pattie's collar on her before bed, and then we three walk out of here, very quietly ok...?"

Spectre was impressed with the projected illusion. She couldn't see any flaws at all, save for maybe the voice, but as long as Jamie didn't have too talk much.

"Dae-Jung, if you'd be so kind...", she said, maybe too sweetly..

[Dragon]

John unhooked the collar and managed to fit it around Ms. Harmon's neck - it was tighter than it was supposed to be, because the nurse's neck was thicker than the little girl's it was intended for, but it wasn't tight enough to restrict her breathing. The nurse-turned-girl didn't even seem to notice. She'd already fallen asleep.

[Jamie Morrigan]

"Wait, before we go..."

Jamie leaned her head forward out of Ms. Harmon's belly. "What are your names?"

[Spectre]

The sight was disturbing, to say the least. A girl's head popping out of the woman's stomach. Spectre shook it off, not wanting to give the poor child a complex.

"I'm Spectre. This will be easy, Jamie. We just have to make them think you are really Ms. Harmon and we'll get in a car and go away and you won't have to wear collars, or be stuck with needles of be caged up in a hospital room ever again.."

She glanced over at Dragon who was finishing up with the slumbering girl-nurse. He could make his own damn introductions, she wasn't about to start helping his cause, not when she was this close to getting the girl out of here and back to the mansion..

[Dragon]

The latch snapped into place with a click, and the collar automatically went active. John released it immediately. He could feel its ugly influence even from the outside.

"And I'm John," he said. "Jamie, can you stay between us? Spectre, you can take point." Anticipating her objection, he added, "You're the doc."

[Jamie Morrigan]

Jamie looked between her two rescuers, and then grinned at Spectre. "Your name is cooler," she said.

And then she disappeared again, and Ms. Harmon came to life, surveying her two colleagues with clinical disinterest. "Well, shall we be going?" she asked - the voice was uncanny.

[Spectre]

She grinned at the little girl's approval of her name. Opting not to let her know that John's real name was Dragon, as far as she was concerned. Dragon was a pretty cool name.. even if it belonged to the enemy.

Jamie's version of the nurse, complete with her voice now was great. "That's perfect Jamie, really great.."

Spectre went to the door, chart in hand for visual purposes. She opened it and stepped out, talking to both 'the nurse' and her 'colleague' as if Jamie were still in the room, just in case the halls were under surveillance.

"Excellent. We'll let her sleep for tonight and return in the morning for the trip back to Montana..."

[Dragon]

Dragon brought up the rear and nodded to the two guards. Without a word, they closed and locked the door.

And then they began the long walk back to the elevators. Dragon noticed that Jamie faltered a few times at intersections - she didn't know her way around like Ms. Harmon did - but she corrected herself and followed after Spectre. They passed a few orderlies and a few guards who didn't spare them a second glance.

[Jamie Morrigan]

But then a balding man in a labcoat joined them from a side hallway. The ID around his neck said Aldus Roken.

"Oh, pardon me, Doctors, do you mind if I borrow Patricia for a moment?" he said cordially. "Patricia, I wanted to prep the Levance boy for the next round of nucleotide treatments, if you could just come pull up his charts for me?"

Ms. Harmon froze. And inside, Jamie scrambled to think of an adequate response, but it was all she could do to keep up the illusion in the face of the man who scared her more than anyone else!

[Spectre]

Spectre could feel Jamie's uncertainty and knew she would have to intervene somehow. There was a prickling sensation in the back of her mind, warning her toward caution.. but they didn't have time to play around, not with the girl's doctor, who surely knew her quite well.

"Hello doctor.. Ms. Harmon was just walking us out, for security purposes. She'll return to you shortly, we must be on our way to review our own files before the transfer to Montana tomorrow."

If he didn't accept that story, she would just have to write him a new one that he would accept...

[Jamie Morrigan]

"I can have a guard escort you outside..."

The doctor put a hand to his radio, but his eyes fell on Dragon first. "Who are you? Why aren't you wearing identification?"

[Dragon]

Dragon quickly leaned in with an extended hand. "Dr. Dae-Jung Park. I'm one of Dr. Dunwich's associates."

Roken made no move toward Dragon's hand. "No, you're not. Dr. Dunwich was coming alone."

Dragon darted forward and seized Roken's hand off the radio, spun him around, and put him in a vise-like hold. But something small and metallic dropped out of the doctor's other hand. It clattered to the floor and began squealing loudly.

He could hear bootsteps around the corner. He forced Dr. Roken's head into the wall, dropping him unconscious to the floor.

"Jamie!" he hissed. "Make us all invisible!"

[Jamie Morrigan]

Ms. Harmon vanished, leaving only a very frightened girl. Jamie tried - she really tried... but she was too afraid to concentrate.

"I can't!" she wailed, backing into Spectre.

[Spectre]

Spectre cursed. Jamie's mouth droppped open at the offensive language. She whirled toward the direction of the elevators, but guards were already running toward them.

Stay close Jamie..

Leaving Dragon to deal with the guards coming up the hall, Spectre retreated with Jamie close on her heels. She waved ahead at the guards approaching from the other direction.

"Help!" She called, pointing at Dragon.

"He's trying to kidnap Jamie Morrigan.", and they too went after Dragon..

"Get us out of here! I'll take her somewhere secure." She demanded of one guard.

He hesitated. "Ma'am.. procedure states quite clearly that in this situ........" The guards discertation on proper procedure was cut short, he reached for the elevator controls, and the doors opened...

[Jamie Morrigan]

What had begun as a game had turned into something terrifyingly serious. Jamie didn't understand what was going on - she could barely keep her stumbling feet underneath her as Spectre dragged her into the elevator.

As the car lurched upward, she looked up at her rescuer with a worried face and asked, "But what about John? Are we leaving him?"