[@WhiteAngel25][@Days][@Estylwen]


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And then Stella started her lecture. [i]Lovebirds[/i]? It was more of an emotionally stunted and empathic paring, if anything. And both Nick and Thierry knew it, even if neither man would verbally admit it. Not even to each other. But Lovebirds? Seemed like a bit of a stretch. One that was up for societal debate. Daddy issues times midlife crisis, at best, if you didn't look beyond the superficial. But before Nick could register a smart retort back, Thierry turned to him. Thierry, having worked and then lived with Nick for an extended period of time, knew Nick's explosive temper rather well at this point. It was a temper that could easily take Thierry's on a run for the money.

The Frenchman pointed at Nick and spoke with a stern tone, [b]"[i]Not a word[/i]."[/b] Before turning back to Stella and losing the hand gesture, [b]"[i]Please[/i]. Mind your own business until you understand the [i]full story[/i]."[/b] While the remark was stern in nature, still one of cordiality. Which was nothing of what Nick was about to say, [b]"But other than that, I,"[/b] Thierry paused glancing with a head turn to Nick, [b]"[i]We[/i],"[/b] then back to Stella, [b]"Apologize for our recent lack of self control."[/b]

First Galloes, then Stella and now his husband? What was this shit all of a sudden? Find your nearest disgruntled blonde and make him angrier by treating him like a Himbo [i]day[/i]? Out of the five of them, he was [i]the only one[/i] that was supposed to even be down here in the [i]first [/i]place! That meant something, right? Right? Right. Clearly. It had been a long day. A long month. It didn't matter that he'd gotten his happy ass captured on enemy territory and then needed to be rescued. Right? Yup. Surely HiveMind would have released him out to the wild again eventually. Sure it might have taken longer to get things sorted out, but it still would have happened! Just. Ugh.

Admittedly it was hard for Nick to not bicker back at Thierry, but at this point, he was so damned tired anyways, that being quiet just seemed easier to do. But he knew. Nick knew full well that it looked like he was [i]taking orders[/i]. Yes, [i]Daddy.[/i] He didn't care what the others thought of him. Well... he [i]did[/i]. He'd never openly discuss this, but realized it probably was obvious at this point. He just wished people would treat him with decency. Not even necessarily respect. Just human decency. He wondered what Stella would be feeling right now, if she were in his shoes. Embarrassed like him?

He just... wanted to go [i]home[/i]. Where ever the hell that even was. Once this was over, Nick decided he was going to figure out how to have the augmentations removed and retire from field work. Call his old therapist and get back on Zoloft. Maybe file for divorce while he was at it. Good God he was tired. Tired of archeology. Tired of life. [i]His[/i]- his head was foaming at the mouth with emotion. Nothing new by any means, but this particular trip? This run. This mission. It felt different. Felt strange. A different color. A different beast entirely. He'd never been captured on this sort of level before. Never.... [i]experimented[/i] on before. A human sized lab rat.

Just as he was about to follow the others through the rubber path Stella had made, he froze. What was once full of buzz words and toxic self thoughts, were gone. Just... gone. All of it. Like a program being control alt deleted. F5 or esc being pressed repeatedly. A syntax error that caused a Blue Screen of Death. Nick stood there, but not so much. His body stood there for sure, but it was only a warm shell that his former self had inhabited. The feeling would have been odd, but Nick wasn't there to feel.

There was commotion in the hallway. There was a new Voidlight agent down here now too? Thierry finally realized what was going on with Nick. Cries of [i]Help him![/i] and feverish typing filled the air before Thierry started in on Ramses. The Egyptian hacker had just openly admitted it was [i]his fault[/i] that the Louvre Doctor Spy had picked the Mute prototype for Nick's augmentation. Bickering between Ramses and Thierry soon found Aaron in the mix as well.

All this noise however, was met with nothing but silence. Subject #6425 stood there, steadying himself. He was trying to figure out if he wanted to follow the order of [i]Kill Museum Agents[/i] or not. Why? Yes, the entire group of agents he'd been tasked with were right there in the room with him. But it was a HiveMind order and he didn't entirely [i]feel[/i] like it. Somewhere in the thought process of deciding whether or not to kill Thierry, Aaron, Ramses, Stella, #3, and the Voidlight agent, Subject #6425 had collapsed to his knees. [i]A failed experiment.[/i]

Upon seeing the lack of participation, willing or otherwise, Von Galloes would probably be very angry if he was watching the live feed through Nick's prototype augmentation. It was only now that individual words and voices could be heard again. Nick's chest was tight. His face hot. Both with his own natural reactive tears to what had happened, as well as the warmth of Thierry. His husband had pulled him tight, wrapping arms around him and repeated just one word with whimpered breathing, [b]"Sil vous plait."[/b]

[b]"Sil vous plait. [i]Sil vous plait[/i]."[/b]

[b]"Sil vous plait."[/b]

Had the command word really just been Thierry saying please? Or was it much deeper than that? It was a parting gift from the Louvre spy. Something that Galloes couldn't, despite maximum effort, reprogram: [i]love[/i].

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