The Subject

CH1

Oklahoma City, 11:52pm

Sully sits in a quiet bar, sipping a generic brand of beer by herself. Her eyes stayed on her drink, peering down at the bottom of her glass. She couldn't stop thinking about the contract she signed a few months ago. Becoming lost in the flood of her thoughts, Sully snapped back to reality when a man sat next to her and ordered a less generic brand of beer. The man payed little attention to her as he waited patiently for his drink. Once it reached him, he sipped it calmly and pulled out a small sketchbook and started to doodle with a pen. Sully discreetly watched, hoping he wouldn't notice her interest. Once a nice sketch was produced with a pen by the hand of the man, Sully decided to comment on it. "I like it." She smiled sheepishly at him. He looked at her with a charming beam. "Thanks." He replies and sips his drink. "What's your poison?" Sully struck a conversation with him to avoid an awkward silence. "Miller 64." He said, glancing at his bottle. "You?" He asks. "Coors Light." Sully said and introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Harper Sully." She says, holding out her hand. "Dean Heart." He shakes her hand firmly. "Nice to meet you, Dean Heart." She says. "You too, Harper Sully." He laughs softly. The two talk more about themselves and end up exchanging numbers. "Where are you from?" Dean asks when he sees her unfamiliar area code in her phone number. "North Carolina." Sully replies, brushing her long, curly red hair from her face.
"Wow, that's far away. What are you doing here, if you don't mind me asking?" He asks.
Sully had to think of an excuse quickly. She couldn't just say she was there to perform an extremely illegal experiment for an exchange of $60,000,000.
"I'm here to visit family." She lies. "Oh, nice." Dean nods, finishing his drink. "Well," Sully sighs at the clock, "I should get going now."
"Do you need a ride home?" He asks, concerned. "No, no. Thank you though." She smiles. "Okay, well, I'll talk to you later then." He says, looking down at the napkin Sully wrote her number on for him. "Yeah, I'll text you later." She grins as she puts the napkin Dean wrote his number on for her in her pocket. "Bye," Sully says. "Bye." Dean says, almost disappointed to see her leave even though it was about 1 in the morning.
Sully leaves and gets in her car, driving back to the apartment she shared with Fitz. They rented the apartment with the small portion of money they were given labeled "the budget" for the experiment. Once she arrived, she slipped the key in the lock and quietly stepped inside. Fitz was asleep in his room with the door closed. Sully goes to her own room and puts the napkin on top of her dresser, collapsing in bed.

She blinked and it was suddenly 10am.

She hears a knock on her bedroom door. "Harper?" Fitz calls out. She sits up and rubs her tired eyes. "Yeah?" She replies, her grogginess filling her voice. "Come out, I gotta talk to you." He says and walks away to the kitchen. Sully sighs and gets up slowly, stretching her sore muscles and adjusting her clothes she slept in before emerging from her room. She sits at the kitchen table and focuses on keeping her eyes open. "Where were you last night?" Fitz asks as he makes coffee for them both. "At the bar downtown." She says. "You were there for a while. I got worried." He says. Sully chuckles. "You sound like my parents." She smiles. "Sorry, it's none of my business." He says as he pours her a cup of coffee. He hands it to her and she takes it, mumbling a 'thank you' before taking a sip. He nods and pours himself a cup. When Sully finished, she returned to her room to properly prepare for the day. Once she was dressed and clean, she left the apartment without telling Fitz where she was going. It made him curious, but he had to refrain from asking because again, he was not her parent.

Fitz wandered into his partner's room, looking for some of her panties to smell. Before he could go through her drawers, he saw a napkin on top of her dresser. What drew him closer was the number written on it. He picks it up, realizing it was a phone number. Before he could remind himself that he wasn't her parent, Fitz calls Sully about it. He dials her number and waits for the ringing to be replaced by Sully's voice.
"Hello?" Sully answers.
"Hey, it's Fitz. I have a question."
"What is it?"
"I found a napkin in your room with a phone number on it. Who's number is this?" He asks.
Sully furrows her brows. "Why were you in my room?" She asks.
"I was looking for a phone charger." Fitz lies.
Sully scoffs. "Sometimes I swear you're my parent." she says, slightly annoyed.
"Sorry, I'm just curious. I need to know."
"Its someone I met at the bar last night."
"Oh. Why did you get their number? "
"Does it matter?"
"I'm asking if it's someone we could test on." He says.
Sully fell quiet for a moment.
"Hello?" Fitz wasn't sure if she were still there.
"I don't know about that." Sully replies suddenly, responding to his previous question.
"Why?"
"I just don't think so."
"They're potential, aren't they?" Fitz says.
Sully doesn't reply.
"You're going to call them, okay?" He says.
"No." She says. "Not for that." She adds.
"Did you forget about the contract we signed? Did you forget about all the money we'll get? Did you forget about what they'll do to us if we break the promise we made?" Fitz raises his voice. She stays quiet and ends the call.

She barely knew Dean. For God's sake, she just met him last night and she's already been told to ruin it by 'testing' on him. She was angry about it, but she had to remind herself that Fitz was right. She did sign a contract. She signed it knowing that there was no turning back now. If she did, they would kill her without a second thought. She couldn't get caught up in some random boy and ruin everything.
She decided that she'd call Dean in a few days and invite him to dinner at the apartment. By that night, Fitz and Sully had their whole plan sorted out.