Since their escape from certain death from the facility they all mutually agreed without words to remain together until this situation blows over. Unfortunately for Jane this meant rolling out an extra bed. Or in this case more like finding unique and clever ways to make a bed out of bed sheets, old sleeping bags and pillow cushions. But they made it work.

Upon entering Jane’s apartment everyone was stunned at the scenery. Jane had a theme of cold steel and black being the main colors of decoration in her apartment. Everything was wiped down and polished to a fine shine. There was a computer in one of the corners of the living room and a chessboard with marble pieces all lined up and ready to go. To someone like Io or Samantha, this made them a little uneasy. They were a bit nervous as to where they were allowed to stand let alone sit. As Jane turned around and faced them she spoke in brief sentences.

“Shoes off at the door. Ask first before touching. Sit where you may. Tea will be brewing in a bit. You may have some if you’d like” Jane said as she carefully and delicately removed her lab coat and hung it up on the coat rack. The group fumbled for a bit together as they all appeared to be taking their shoes off at the same time and kept bumping into each other like a small pack of drunk rodents, meanwhile Jane stood there observing her guests as they prepared themselves to enter her apartment. As nervous as everyone else was, Jane was just as nervous. She didn’t know the proper edicate on how one would treat guests. The only guests she ever had to interact with was Evelyn and whoever she decided to bring over. But those nights usually meant that Evelyn would be the main host and Jane could not say a single word to anyone and hide in her room. But now things were different. Jane was to be the main host and Evelyn was one of the guests. She figured she'd start with the basics and work her way up from there. First, a nice cup of tea to soothe the nerves. Jane walked over and started to boil some water. The group funneled in, looking around at decor.

“Heh, looks like not much has changed since I was last here, eh Parker?” Evelyn commented as she removed her black leather jacket.

“No. It has not.” Jane replied as she reached into one of her top shelf cupboards and removed several teabags.

They all pitched in for bedding arrangements and before long little beds and a little tent was set up in the living room of Jane’s apartment for whoever wished to rest in private. Food was served, what little there was, as well as the tea. Meanwhile all this time Evelyn kept glancing over at Jane, expecting a hard word or so but nothing came about. Jane went on about her time helping Io with her bed and making sure the tent that Samantha wanted to rest in wouldn’t cause any disturbances for the neighbors above and to the side. Io decided to steal the couch for the night and graciously accepted a bundle of pillows and a few blankets. The more time passed, the more Evelyn could feel the anxiety crept up her spine. She was anticipating a long lecture. Nothing good would come out of it. It would only make her feel worse than she already does.

Finally Jane walked over to Evelyn. Her red hair was still wound up in a tight bun. It made her look more like a high school principal than an old friend and this made Evelyn’s anxiety a bit worse. It reminded her of all the time she would get in trouble in high school and had to march her way to the principal’s office and sit on the hard wooden bench. Waiting. And waiting. Waiting for the hard words, the criticism. Pointing out her flaws and overall making her feel worse. It was all too familiar.

“Evelyn…” Jane started. Her voice came across as hard, cold and sharp like a knife. “We need to have a serious talk.” Evelyn rolled her eyes.

“Jane...I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Evelyn, I saw you crying today at the church.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Evelyn said as she raised her voice. Jane folded her arms. Samantha and Io sat quietly and watched.

“Evelyn, you have a serious problem-”

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“Fuck you.” Evelyn said as she looked away from Jane.

“I’m serious. You need help. You have been running from something awful your entire life. You can’t keep running.” Jane said.

“Oh yeah!? Fucking watch me, Parker.” Evelyn said in her usual sarcastic tone.

Jane closed her eyes for a brief moment and took a deep breath.

“It obviously has something to do with your father and your late mother. You blame yourself for her death and so does the rest of your family. You isolate yourself from them and cope in a very unhealthy manner.” Jane said. At that moment Evelyn jerked her head, eyes wide full of fury and anguish, towards Jane.

“Drop it! Not here. Not-”

“No! Here. Now!” Jane said in an authoritarian voice.

“What do you want to hear? That when I was born into this world my mother died in childbirth? That my father looked at me with resentment for my whole life? That I caused another death of a good friend, probably one of the few people from my youth who told me stories of my mother and comfort me only to have her push me out of the way of a speeding car and to sit there and have my old man glare at me with such hate that it would make your skin crawl?” Evelyn paused for a moment as she began to cry.

“My father didn’t care about me. He’d just sit there with a glass of wine in his hand staring in silence. That no matter what I did he always just ignored me? And fuck, let’s not forget my big brother, Darren. Darren did everything he could but in the end left me with that miserable man.” Evelyn’s voice started to crack. She could feel the pain she carried all her life pressing hard on her shoulders, the everlasting sadness and misery finally crawling out of her mouth with every word. Her mind started to race. “Is that what you want to hear Jane!? Huh!? Yeah I have daddy issues and I drink to cope.” She said as she wiped away her tears. “But what about you?” Evelyn said as she pointed at Jane with pain in her eyes.

“How’s little miss perfect doing in this world? Do you go out and see your friends? Oh!? What am I talking about? Of course you don’t. You don’t have any friends.” Evelyn said in a scornful tone. “All you do is work. All you care about is work. You were the same in school and you’re still the same now. Good old stuck up Jane Parker. Hey how's your family doing? Oh what's that? You still don’t talk to them? You’d rather hold yourself up in your sad little home all by yourself because you’re afraid of people seeing the flaws and imperfections in your personality. News flash kid, you’re fucking human. Not a fucking machine.” Evelyn said as she scoffed. “But no you don’t care. You do not care about them. As long as you have daddy’s money you’re fin-”

Evelyn’s sentence was immediately cut off as Jane marched up and slapped her across the face with pain on her face and eyes full of tears. Evelyn was stunned at the display. She turned her head away from Jane and stared at the floor. They didn’t say anything to one another at that moment. Both of them couldn’t stand to look at one another with shame and guilt in their eyes. Silence crept up on them as the wind blew through the open window. It was unnerving.

Samantha and Io stood by in silence. Io was a hair away from leaping off the ground and pulling the two away from each other. But when she realized that the two were standing there in silence she decided against it and let them be.

“Evelyn..” Jane said finally, as she sniffed. “Evelyn… I’m sorry. And you’re right. It has been a long time since I spoke to my family. All I did and all I ever do is work. And I get nothing out of it. I feel so empty and hollow sometimes.” Jane said.

“Yeah...Same. And I’m sorry too.” Evelyn said she took a deep breath. “Jane...I do need help. I know that. But…” Evelyn said.. “Shit Parker…” Evelyn said in a calm tone as she slipped her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. “Fuck...We’re both a real mess. Guess that’s why we got along so well before.”

“Pot and kettle.” Jane said with a weak smile.

“More like two halves of a whole idiot.” Evelyn said as she returned the smile.

At that moment both of them felt like they finally got something heavy off their chests that's been weighing them down for years.

“I’m...gonna go lie down and sleep. Heads a bit dizzy from all this armchair psychology.” Evelyn said as she started to walk past Jane. Jane reached out and grabbed ahold of Evelyn’s arm.

“Evelyn, about your issues-” Jane started but Evelyn rolled her eyes and spoke in a playful tone.

“Yeah yeah yeah. I know. I’ll give my therapist a call after…” Evelyn started and then briefly looked over at Samantha before looking back at Jane. “After all this gets settled I’ll go back to my AA meetings. I’ll get my license back. I promise.”

“Scouts honor?” Jane asked. Evelyn gave her a grin.

“I’m no scout, Parker. You know that.” Evelyn said as she and Jane let out a small laugh. “All right. Dibs on my old room.” Evelyn said as she grabbed a blanket and a pillow and walked down the hallway. She opened the door with ease, looked in and laughed.

“You never did anything with this?” Evelyn asked as she looked back at Jane. Jane only shook her head. Evelyn let out a roar of triumph as she walked into her old room and closed the door.

Samantha turned to Io. “Well that was a rather difficult and cumbersome situation. Samantha whispered to Io.

“Eh, yeah it was.” Io replied in a hush tone.