Jax stretched and opened his eyes. He noticed a bright glow above him and squinted his eyes. Finally adjusting, he realized it was the moon visible through the skylight. He noticed a strange sensation on his head and reached up in a panic. His hand was grabbed before it ever reached its destination. Jax’s vision darted in the direction of what stopped him. Bren was sitting beside Jax, holding his hand. Bren held tightly to Jax’s hand and said, “you can’t touch it, it needs to heal more.”

Jax scrunched his face looking rather disgruntled and tried to pull away while saying, “it itches!”

Bren smiled at Jax and said, “if that is the worst you have to say about it then I think you must be doing ok.”

Jax relaxed his face as he realized he had successfully come through the surgery and that his memories were still intact, or at least the ones that he knew in his heart were important. He had been consumed with worry over the possibility of losing his memories again. He could feel tears forming in his eyes as he fought back his emotions.

Jax stretched and opened his eyes. He noticed a bright glow above him and squinted. Finally adjusting, he realized it was the moon visible through the skylight. He noticed a strange sensation on his head and reached up in a panic. His hand was grabbed before it ever reached its destination. Jax’s vision darted in the direction of what stopped him. Bren was sitting beside Jax, holding his hand. Bren held tightly to Jax’s hand and said, “you can’t touch it, it needs to heal more.”

Jax scrunched his face looking rather disgruntled and tried to pull away while saying, “it itches!”

Bren smiled at Jax and said, “if that is the worst you have to say about it then I think you must be doing ok.”

Jax relaxed his face as he realized he had successfully come through the surgery and that his memories were still intact, or at least the ones that he knew in his heart were important. He had been consumed with worry over the possibility of losing his memories again. He could feel tears forming in his eyes as he fought back his emotions.

Bren looked down at Jax, his face was bathed in moonlight. His eyes sparkled and seemed to glow in an otherworldly manner. Bren thought to himself that he would never get bored looking at his sculpturesque features. He leaned forward and kissed a distracted Jax, bringing him pleasingly back to his senses as he returned the kiss.

Jax tried to sit up but was hit with a wave of nausea and dizziness and ended up falling back towards his pillow. Bren released Jax’s hand and reached over and placed his hand on his shoulder. “I think it might be too soon for you to get up on your own. Fuchsia said you might have some dizziness.”

Jax looked a little disappointed and said, “did Fuchsia say how long these side effects are going to last?”

Bren shook his head and said, “Fuchsia said this is all new territory for her, but she hopes it will only last twenty-four to forty-eight hours. If you need to get up I will have to help you.”

Jax started to protest but he heard something vibrating and was distracted. He had forgotten that he had plugged his phone up to charge days ago when they arrived at the beach house. The flashing light and vibration was causing him to stress. Bren looked at Jax and said, “stay still I will get it.” He quickly got the phone and sat back down on the bed.

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Jax reached out to get his phone but Bren instead checked it for him. Jax was frustrated that Bren wasn’t letting him check his own phone but he didn’t argue. Bren was silent as he stared at the phone and Jax could tell by the look on Bren’s face it wasn’t good. Jax asked, “what does the message say?''

Bren stood up and said, “Jax, stay here! I need to go talk to Fuchsia.”

Jax pushed himself to stand up despite the nausea, dizziness, and onset of a headache.

He asked again, “what does the message say Bren?”

Bren turned around and rushed back towards Jax in a panic and said, “please Jax, let me go talk to Fuchsia. You need to lay back down and stay calm!” Jax reached out and managed to grab his phone before crashing back onto the bed. It didn’t take but a quick glance at the phone for him to realize what had been messaged.

***

Fuchsia and Sina had been filtering the data she had obtained from Jax’s surgery. Jax’s advanced regenerative abilities were far beyond what she had imagined possible. It appeared that the Blue Cryo was suppressing his regenerative abilities. Although that being said the only reason he was still alive was because even while being suppressed it still was saving him. The amount of Blue Cryo that he was ingesting would have killed any normal person. Even after the short amount of time that he had been off of Blue Cryo he had shown dramatic changes both physically and mentally.

They were also able to identify the seizure as a new type of absence seizure, one that probably only exists under Jax’s special circumstances. The good news was it didn’t seem to be causing any damage to his brain or at least any that his regenerative abilities couldn’t resolve. The bad news was that she didn’t know how to stop the seizures from occurring. That was something they could deal with at a later time after resolving more pressing matters.

When Fuchsia had last checked Jax he was sleeping soundly and his incision area had already almost healed. Now the major concern was getting him through his addiction to Blue Cryo and finding a way for him to deal with his hyperesthesia. The deep brain stimulation should have immediately started helping and only time would tell on how the newly imputed algorithms would work. Fuchsia and Sina were in the process of wrapping it up for the night when they heard a commotion at the end of the hallway.

Fuchsia could hear Jax and Bren yelling at each other and she stood up quickly. She heard a loud crash and went tearing into the hallway just in time to see Jax in a heap on the floor. Bren was leaning over him and telling him to calm down, but Jax was hyperventilating. He tried to stand up again, this time Bren caught him before he fell down again. Fuchsia looked at the two men, she herself livid and demanding answers as she said, “what the hell is going on?”

Jax looked at Fuchsia and managed to say, “they have Keri.”

Fuchsia froze as she placed a hand over her heart. It was beating loudly and she could barely hear anything else. She thought to herself, “I must have misunderstood.” She looked from Jax to Bren. Her voice panicked as she said, “what? What do you mean they have Keri?”

Bren could see Sina standing behind Fuchsia and hoped she would help him. He didn’t want to try to talk about this in the hallway. “Fuchsia, I need to get Jax to a seat. Let’s go talk in the living room.”

Fuchsia looked from Jax to Bren like she was unsure what to do. Sina gently pulled her back towards the living room and got her to sit down and waited on the others to join them.

Bren sat Jax down on the couch and wrestled the phone out of his tight grasp.

Bren held up the phone and said, “Jax got a message from Lance, he said they have Keri.”

“What do they want?” Fuchsia asked.

Bren sat down, he squeezed the phone in his hand and looked at Jax and then back at Fuchsia.

Fuchsia’s eyes got huge and she started shaking her head and said, “please, Bren don’t tell me they said….”

“They want Jax and the data.”