Twins


Three years and four promotions took Michelle to the Pretender Project. It took one man who pronounced her name Me-shell for it to come crumbling down.

He wasn't the most qualified of the doctors - though you couldn't tell to talk to him. Sydney knew exactly what he was talking about, and if he didn't know the answer he asked Jacob who would.

They first met in the infirmary; Jarod had been hurt in a Sim, (the controlled reaction reacted badly to the addition of a foreign substance Jarod would later tell her). Michelle was doing a bit of work on immunities to disease in Pretenders. There wasn't much to the work; Pretenders were proving to me much like normal children. Even if they had a few less antibodies than the norm due to being trapped in the Centre for so long.

Sydney came in with him, holding his hand as they wheeled the crying boy in - a major rarity among the careers. Michelle had seen Dr Raines hit one or two of his own subjects and the others weren't much better. Perhaps that was what drew her to him - that and his good looks. Many people couldn't tell them apart. Michelle could easily. Sydney had a less severe expression, except when he was worrying about Jarod, and he had small laugh lines around his eyes. Those who could tell the difference between them felt that Jacob was the more attractive. Whenever Michelle thought of Sydney she was reminded of when he had first introduced them, that morning he wore a strained kind of smile as though he was expecting the worse and was practising his face for it.

That afternoon Michelle kissed him for the first time.