The coffee mug crashed dramatically to the desk, the dark liquid sloshing around in the cup. The owner of the beverage didn’t notice that some splashed out over on her desk. Eileen Gomez was too angry to notice such trivial things. She stabbed a quick sequence of keys on her computer, then snatched the print off that the printer produced.

She stormed out of her office, causing several other instructors to blink. Eileen didn’t storm, she didn’t scowl and she certainly didn’t ever look this angry. She was the quietest, calmest teacher in the school, and even the other teachers were concerned when they saw her like this. It meant something was amiss.

At the front office, she shoved oven the door and marched up to Gracie, the secretary. The woman’s eyebrows rose at the sight of an angry Eileen, but she didn’t flinch when the woman shoved a printout under her nose. “What is this?” Eileen demanded.

“That appears to be a print off from a student’s file,” Gracie said calmly. She’d seen more frightening things in her time here than Eileen, and It showed on her face.

“No, this,” Eileen snapped, stabbing her finger into the paper.

Gracie peered. “That appears to be a roommate assignment.”

Eileen saw she was getting nowhere and switched tactics. “Why is Kazuo Kanai listed as Morri’s roommate?”

Gracie quirked an eyebrow. “Because Sarah requested a roommate transfer, and with it being so close to the beginning of the semester, we matched Morri with who was left.”

“Of all! Damn it!” Eileen flailed her arms in impotent rage. “Who decided that?!”

“I did,” Dr. Drumm said, standing in the doorway. “My office, Ms. Gomez, if you please.”

Setting her shoulders, Eileen stomped into his office, her cute face twisted with anger. “What the hell were you thinking!” she demanded the second the door closed.

“I was thinking several things, like how much I’d just saved on my auto insurance,” Dr. Drumm said. At the choked sound that Eileen made, Drumm held up a hand. “Sorry,” he said before continuing. “Eileen, I chose Mr. Kanai for several reasons. First, he’s not the kind of person who takes advantage of the weaker. His history proves that. Second, he’s not so soft-hearted that he’d baby Morri. She needs help, not a mother-hen. And third, perhaps most important, he’s one of the few students in the school who can take the kind of punishment that your ward can administer while not having the raw power to just kill her in a fight. She’s going to fight, Eileen. We all know it. And if we can keep her around people who won’t kill her and she can’t kill, we’re not going to have corpses stacking up.”

“I don’t like it,” she said.

“I know you don’t,” Dr. Drumm replied. “But I spent quite a bit of time on the issue, and I think it’s the best match.”

“I hope you’re right,” Eileen said. She didn’t want to think about all the ways this could go horribly, terribly wrong.

It was a simple matter to pull Kazuo Kanai's schedule. Eileen then just had to consider what to do with it. Her initial thought was to offer the young man money to move out. His record suggested he might be moved by that. Her next thought was that Drumm would probably frown on that, in the extreme.

That left her with only a few options, one of which was very unsavory. But she decided that talking to him, no matter how personally irritating she found the idea, was probably for the best.

She knew she wasn't being fair. She'd have nothing against Kazuo save that he'd ended up as Morri's roommate after she'd gone through all the trouble of finding the perfect roommate for her. It wasn't that she didn't trust Drumm's logic; it was just that he didn't know Morri the way she did. She was sure that his opinions were somewhat flawed. He'd made a good choice, based on the information he had; he just didn't have good information.

She found him walking between buildings, going from one class to another. The tall Japanese native was hunched into his jacket, looking like the New York cold disagreed with him. She was much the same; the winters were so hard on someone who had grown up in a more tropical climate. Licking her frozen lips, she hesitated, thinking. Should she do this?

She thought of Morri, sweet, innocent, lost Morri, and felt her resolve strengthen. "Mr. Kanai!" she called, picking up her pace enough to intercept him. "Do you have a moment?" She knew that he did, class-wise. He had just gotten out of his last class and should have the time.

Kazuo turned to see the school's therapist heading right for him, and immediately felt his gut clench. It wasn't that Eileen Gomez was seriously hawt that caused his gut to clench up (though she really, really was), but rather it had to do with the hideous flaw that marred her otherwise pristine beauty: she was a therapist.

Bracing himself for the worst (which would be that she wanted to practice her profession on him), Kazuo stopped as she approached and said, "Sure, I guess. Wutcha need?"

And there it was - many students were nervous around her because they were afraid of being poked and pried some more. Eileen laughed, a charming sound. "Relax," she assured him. "This is personal, not professional."

He looked at her, not sure he believed her. "I understand you're rooming with Morri," she said, pulling her jacket tighter. "I have a personal interest in her, and I was wondering how it was going with you two. Are you comfortable? Is she? Do you feel that things are going well?"

She really hoped he'd hate having Morri as a roommate, and she could open the possibility of a transfer. Someone here would be willing to room with the Morrigan, someone more appropriate.

Damn! She even conversed like a therapist! 'Do you feel that things are going well?' Who asks questions like that?

Kazuo shrugged his shoulders and tried not to look impatient. "Things're fine, I guess. I dunno."

He could tell his answer wasn't really what Eileen was looking for, so he quirked an eyebrow and tried to elaborate, "Look, I don't give a shi- uh... I mean, I don't really care who they stick in the room with me, ta be honest. But all things being equal, Morri's pretty cool I guess. Why?"

Eileen was taken aback slightly. The last thing she'd expected was for Kanai to like Morri's company. "Oh," she murmured, then quickly recovered. "That's wonderful. I'm assuming though, that there have been adjustment issues. Has she tried to hurt you? Threatened you? Scared you?"

Maybe if she was unsuitable to be anyone's roommate, then Morri would get a room alone. That would be a long shot and would probably require her to go through several roommates, but it might truly be the best option.

Her expression was earnest and without guile as she watched him. But he could tell that this wasn't a professional or even casual interest. She was digging for something; he'd had it done to him enough to know the signs.

Kazuo's eye narrowed in suspicion as he watched Eileen. "I just said things're fine, didn't I?", he said with what he felt was just a touch of impatience and irritation, but was in fact rather a lot of impatience and irritation. Subtle, Kazuo Kanai was not.

"Look, if I'm in trouble fer somethin', just say so, alright?" The scarred youth glanced around as though reassuring himself that he was being clandestinely observed from a distance by some, as-yet-unknown cohort of Eileen's, and then turned back to her, "An' if you think I'm gonna inform on any of the other students - especially my own frickin' roommate - yer dead wrong. Ma'am."

"I don't expect you to inform on anyone," Eileen said, deciding to shift gears. "I have a special interest in Morri - I'm the one who rescued her from her slavery and got her here. I've had to teach her how to be civilized, enough that she can be here. I want to make sure she's doing alright, that she's getting along with people and is happy. As her roommate, I'm sure you know by now how hard it is to communicate with her, so I'm asking those who know her."

She tilted her head, her gaze becoming a little more stern. "And if you were in trouble, I'd tell you at the start. This is literally just about me checking up on my ward."

Why was it that conversations with a shrink always seemed to be more confusing than they had any right to be? It was obvious to Kazuo that this chick had an agenda, but damned if she was gonna come right out and say what it was. He could feel a headache coming on already.

And her taking a 'stern' tone with him when, by her own admission, he wasn't in trouble? Talk about your poor decisions...

Kazuo frowned at Eileen with annoyance as he said, "Yeah, well I gotta be honest, lady; to me it don't sound like you gotta very high opinion of yer 'ward'. Like yer expectin' her to screw up."

Then something Eileen had just said clicked in Kazuo's brain. "Hey, wayduminnut - wudya mean ya rescued her from slavery? She never said nothin' about that!"

Eileen smiled sadly. "Do you think she can articulate that? I know how far she's come, but right now, she can barely handle rudimentary words and concepts. When I've talked to her about it, she shuts me out. She doesn't understand it, but she knows that it's something that she doesn't like. Normally, I don't discuss students with one another." She studied him quietly before saying, "But you should know, for your own safety."

Eileen gazed out over the snow, gathering her thoughts. "I'd heard about a mutant in Africa named the Morrigan. I'd heard that she was being used as a weapon by a man, but it wasn't until I found the photographer who took the 'Face of Blood' picture that I was able to confirm..."

Eileen was tired. The trip had taken much out of her, leaving her weary. She had no time to rest; she had a limited window of opportunity. She'd had to drive three hours across war-torn Sudan with only two locals for protection to meet the photographer. Then he'd sent her six in another direction altogether to find the man she sought.

The American was just as described: hair-haired, well-built and in his early thirties. He was also deep in a bottle. Eileen could deal with that - that was actually going to help things. She approached the seat next to him and sat down, waiting for him to notice her. When he did, it was with the sloe-eyed squint of someone who was only half-here. Smiling at him, she cautiously nudged his emotions a bit closer to where she needed them. He smiled back, and they began to chatter.

Within an hour, she had him talking about his work. As he went on and on about the delicate balance of chemical receptors in the brain, Eileen listened with growing disgust. She pretended an ignorance she didn't really feel as she made up her mind: her sources were right. The girl was a de facto slave.

"This is all so interesting," Eileen said, her smile slipping. "But how do you feel about being a slaver?" At the same time, she nudged his guilt, already substantial, up a bit more.

"I... what?" he slurred at her, his own smile fading.

"How. Do. You. Feel. About. Being. A. Fucking. Slaver?" she hissed, barely restraining herself from opening the gates wide on his guilt. But that might set him off, rather than cave him in. Better to let him develop it in his own time.

But all it took was time: by the end of the night, she'd convinced him to let her see the feral mutant. Gazing down into the bar-covered pit where they kept her, Eileen touched the mind she'd come so far to find - and found only rage and fear. There was nothing human there anymore; only a terrified animal, fighting for its life. The girl growled at her, pacing the cage wildly. Very carefully, Eileen began to adjust those emotions, beginning a careful balance that would take her over a month to perfect...

"I don't know exactly what she endured, but I do know that they used her like an attack dog, and left her collared and caged the rest of the time," she told Kazuo, her voice soft. "The damage from the drugs has given her total amnesia. She is slowly repairing the damage, but we don't know if the memories themselves will be restored. She might spend the rest of her life unable to remember anything before being collared, caged and drugged into submission." She watched him closely as she finished, waiting for his reaction.