For the second time in one day I woke up groaning, my head killing me. But that was where the similarity ended between the two experiences. This time I woke to find myself handcuffed to the metal bars of a window, sitting in a chair inside a small room. Besides myself, the chair, and the window, the room was featureless and barren. The only other object in the room was the closed door. I also noticed that I was wearing my half destroyed police uniform. Instantly, I remembered what had happened.

“Max!” I yelled angrily, pulling at the handcuffs.

No response. I sighed in frustration. This sucked.

With nothing better to do in my prison, I began to reflect. My mind began to wander to the image of Alec in nothing but his boxers, but I forced myself not to think about that. Instead I thought about how I’d been thinking these past couple days about how much Alec had changed, when really I had changed a lot myself. I didn’t think of everything in terms of a mission anymore. I’d developed a personality other than the hateful, stubborn soldier of Manticore. I’d become a girl who enjoyed racing motorcycles, playing pool, watching television, reading books, and just relaxing with my friends. All things that one didn’t indulge in at Manticore. I’d discovered my favorite color was blue, I liked the pre-Pulse rock music that Kira listened to, and loved pizza. The last time I had seen Alec when he had been 494, I had still been 613. Since then, slowly, over time, I had become Jess. Sure, it was still hard to shake the old Manticore habits, but that was to be expected. I’d lived there for about nineteen years after all. It was hard to believe I’d been out for almost a year now. Almost a whole year as a free person. The familiar fear that I might wake up and find this had all been a dream came to me.

No, it was definitely not a dream. I felt too much like hell at the moment for this to be a dream. The next twenty or so hours were going to be absolute hell. Especially when I had the memory of how close I had been to just getting it over with.

Alec was so hot.

“Stop it.” I ordered myself.

Well, he was.

This was crazy. I was crazy. I would go crazy if Max didn’t let me out of here. It would all be over so quickly if I could just get out of here.

Alec sure was yummy.

I just used the word yummy. This had to stop.

“Max!”

I was about to yell again when I heard the sound of an argument outside my door. I listened closely. I couldn’t really tell what they were saying, but I could identify the voices as those belonging to Max and Alec.

Alec...

“Hey, babe.” Alec’s voice came through the door.

“Alec!” I called, trembling with need all over again just from the mere sound of his voice.

“Oh, please don’t talk like that.” Alec pleaded, “I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry. I’m sorry I...I couldn’t stop myself. I should never have even let it go that far. Thank God Max showed up. Anyway, once again I’m sorry and I’ll...uh...see you once you’re better.”

“Please don’t go!” I called.

No response. I almost felt like I would cry in frustration. I struggled to get control of myself.

“So, Max.” I called, “How’d you find us?”

At first she didn’t reply. And when she did her voice was reluctant. But I was grateful for the distraction.

“Well, no one in TC has been in heat before. We’ve only been barricaded in here for twelve days. But I remembered what you said about the guys and pheromones. So, I followed Yang. He was acting weird. Had a hunch it was because of you.”

“So you’ve never been around other X-5’s when you’re...like this?” I asked, pulling at my handcuffs again.

“Nope. And now that I know what’s gonna happen, I’m really not looking forward to it.”

“Back at Manticore, they’d quarantine us as soon as they found out what was going on. They’d run tests, drug us sometimes. Not too fun, but better than reeking havoc on he unit.”

“So...you’ve never...done anything while you’ve been in heat?” Max sounded surprised.

“No.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness from my voice as I thought once again about Alec.

“Hey, you’re lucky. You have no idea how much it bites to deal with the repercussions.”

“Not like we can help it.” I shrugged.

“Yeah, well, most people don’t get that. And it’s hard to explain to them that because our genes are spliced with cat DNA that we get flipped out horny every once in awhile. Besides, I for one don’t want to give them any more reason to treat us like animals.”

Now, she was the bitter one.

“This sucks, Max.” I said finally.

“I know.” she agreed, “Just hang tight. We’re going to beat this bitch.”

I sighed.

“Does Kira know where I am?”

“Already on it. Alec went to find her.”

Good. Kira would think of something to pass the time and keep me distracted. Keep me from thinking about how Alec’s pecs had felt under my hands. Keep me from thinking about how it felt to have his tongue in my mouth, exploring. Keep me from thinking about the way he had looked at me.

Oh, God. I had to stop this.

The small room I was in felt like a sauna. I peeled off my jacket, letting it hang on my handcuff chain. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself.

“Jess, it’s me.”

Kira. It was about time!

I watched closely as the door was unlocked and Kira entered. She nodded to Max who closed the door behind her, locking her inside with me.

“How are you doing?” she asked me.

“Peachy.” I said sarcastically.

My attitude was never very good when I was in heat.

“I’m sorry.” Kira apologized, “But it’ll be over soon.”

“Right.” I sniffed skeptically. I glanced out the barred window, trying to gage what time it was by the light that shown through it, “What time is it now anyway? 1400, 1500?”

Before I could turn back around to look at Kira, I felt a sharp prick on my arm. I glanced down and saw that Kira had raced over and injected me with something. I tried to jerk my arm away, but she was already finished.

“By the time you wake up, you’ll be out of this.” she assured me.

My vision was already starting to blur. I growled at her angrily, but was unable to muster the strength to yell at her. My body felt very heavy. I struggled for a moment, but failed to stay awake. My eyes closed with finality and I fell asleep.

I woke up panting, in a state of real panic. I looked around quickly and realized that I was in the barracks. The rest of my unit were all still asleep.

I woke up from my dream and was reassured by the fact that I wasn’t at Manticore. Manticore would never allow sky blue paint on the ceiling.

I’d dreamt of my first dream. I’d been about three. It was one of my first memories. I’d woken up from dreaming and hadn’t known that it wasn’t real. And logically, since everything that didn’t make sense must be some sort of test, I had deduced that this was just another strange simulation that Manticore had put me through.

Apparently, it was rather abnormal for me not to have dreamt before. I was informed that most children dreamt before they were even born. But I wasn’t like most children in many regards. What was one more abnormality?

I sighed and looked around the room I was in. It was a pleasant room. There was a large window to the left of the bed I was laying in, framed by dark blue curtains. A bed-side table next to me held a small lamp and an alarm clock. The door was across the room from the foot of the bed, painted white.

I rolled over to look at the other side of the room and discovered that I wasn’t alone in bed. I pushed myself up on my elbow, careful not to disturb the person next to me. He was turned away from me, sleeping with his head resting on his arm. But his short brown hair left his barcode exposed.

It was Alec.

I felt like maybe I should be surprised, but I wasn’t. I felt...peaceful, happy. I smiled a little and watched as Alec slept. His face was relaxed and peaceful. He looked innocent. I felt a distinct twinge in my chest as I watched his mouth open slightly as he expelled a sigh. A word arose to describe him that I had never thought I would ever use in conjunction with X5-494: adorable.

Alec began to stir and his eyes slowly opened. He rolled onto his back and looked up at me. A smile played across his lips.

“Good morning.” he said softly.

“Morning.” I replied, not wanting to move, enjoying the moment.

“Sleep good?” he asked.

“Fine. You?”

“I dreamt about you.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I dreamt about that time you were in heat. You know, when you couldn’t resist my sexy bod.” he grinned at me and winked. I gave him a patient smile in return, “Remember how upset we both were after it was all over? And then, all of a sudden, I burst out with ‘I love you.’ You were so shocked. But trust me, I was just as surprised as you were. I’d been trying really hard not to have feelings for you at all and then all of a sudden I loved you? Plus, I was half-expecting you to laugh at me or something. Boy, that would have sucked.”

He paused and cocked his head as he looked at me.

“But you didn’t laugh. You smiled. And you hugged me. And you said you loved me, too.” he smiled, “I knew then that you were out of your mind.”

I would have responded with a smart remark, but I wasn’t feeling very good. Something had to be wrong with me because I couldn’t remember the scene Alec was describing. I frowned.

“Something wrong?” Alec asked, concerned.

I shook my head and forced a smile.

“Of course not.”

“Good. ‘Cause I don’t want my girl to be unhappy.” Alec said, reaching out with his arms and pulling me down to him. He planted a kiss on my lips, “Besides, you know Kira would kill me if I didn’t keep you happy.”

“How could I be unhappy when I’m with you?” I answered truthfully.

Alec smiled again and rose to get out of bed. I took in his appearance, naked except for his boxers, and recognized the pair as the same ones he had been wearing when I’d been in heat in Terminal City. Funny how I couldn’t remember anything past that. I wondered how long had past since then.

“Come on, beautiful. You’ve got to get up. We’ve got stuff to do.” Alec prodded over his shoulder as he dressed.

I nodded and slipped out of bed. I looked down as I stood, taking in my appearance. I was wearing what appeared to be a pair of Alec’s boxers judging from their size and a sports bra.

“I’m going to want those back.” Alec said, also looking at the boxers I was wearing.

“What if I don’t give them back?” I asked, relaxing.

I must have just taken a blow to the head recently. My memory would come back. There was no point in worrying about it or getting Alec worked up about it. Besides, how could I be upset when everything around me was so perfect?

“Well...” Alec said slowly as he approached. I watched him warily, “I might just have to take them then.”

He grabbed the hem of the boxers and pulled, causing me to stumble forward into him. He kissed me again and I sighed into the kiss. The twinge in my chest came again and I felt a swell of emotion. This all felt so right. Being here with Alec, kissing him,...loving him, it was all so right.

“I love you.” I whispered as he pulled away.

His eyes sparkled as he looked at me.

“I know, babe. I love you, too.”

I gasped and opened my eyes. I was sitting on a hard chair in a dark room, chained to the bars on a window. It had been a dream. Oh, god. It had been a dream. Of all the injustices of life, this one was unduly harsh.

As reality set in, I let go of my anger at having been cheated the life in my dream and realized what the dream had shown me. I had stronger feelings for Alec then I thought.

I smacked myself hard in the face. I would not allow myself to be this stupid. I would not drawn conclusions from heat-induced dreams. That would just be inviting trouble. I was attracted to Alec, he was my friend, he understood me. I was going to leave it at that. That was enough to accept for now.

“Kira? Max?” I called.

The door unlocked and Kira entered. She smiled at me.

“Welcome back.” she said, “You’ve been asleep for longer than I thought you would be.”

“What time is it?” I asked.

“1100. You should be well out of it now.” she assured me.

I smiled in relief. Kira undid my handcuffs and I stood, feeling the stiffness in my muscles. But it was worth it. It was over.