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emotional reactions I had when he was around and when he wasn’t.
    He was right to want to take things slow between us.  The last thing either of us needed was to give the damned juice any more openings to mess us up.
    “In your letters and stories, I was surprised that when you met Keaton in Philadelphia you didn’t collapse in panic,” I said.  I had fallen into the Crow headspace so much the whispering came naturally to me and my predator effect was gone.
    “Compared to the Beast Men who held me, Keaton was comforting and confusing.  Dealing with Beast Men is instinctive for a Crow.  Terrifying, but instinctive.  I seem to understand when I’m in danger from them and when I’m not.  I don’t have these instincts around Arms.”  He paused.  “She did panic me into sicking up on her.  I had been in a state of panic for so long, because of my captivity, that I had in some fashion gotten used to being panicked.”
    He didn’t say anything, but I read in him his initial reaction to Keaton: ugly, dour, monstrous.  He hadn’t appreciated the beauty of Arm musculature then.  He did now, although I think his current reaction to Keaton was more ‘handsome’ than ‘beautiful’.
     
    ---
     
    “No, Carol.  This is Keaton’s private place.”
    Well, yes, but I wasn’t sure why this agitated him.  I mean, it was just torture.  The poor man down there deserved what happened to him.  Probably.  I listened to Gilgamesh, though.  I had come up with a rule: if Gilgamesh gave me advice, and meant it, and I could understand his advice, I should do it.
    I used the free time to amuse myself by abusing Keaton’s gym.  I soon figured out how to sprint across the floor, run up a wall, step across the ceiling and grab one of her climbing ropes from the top.  Speed and momentum.  Once upon a time I would have been able to put what I did down in numbers, but now I found things more fun to just do.
    Keaton, refreshed, walked into the gym just after sunrise.  I smiled and leapt down to greet her.
    She reacted with body language, freezing me in place.  Well, this is what she wanted me to do, and so I did so.  She examined me minutely, asking me questions, and getting the test results from Gilgamesh.
    “You’re on your way back for real now, Hancock,” Keaton said.  The love in her voice I remembered from before my trip was gone.  “I’d rate your predatory presence as similar to when I first met you as Larry Borton.”  Baby Arm levels.  Gaah.  “Your ability to read people’s off the charts, as usual.  Your metasense needs work.  Or something.”
    “I believe this is a real change from the directed withdrawal scarring,” Gilgamesh said.
    I found myself hauled in the air, legs churning madly, and slung under Keaton’s arm.
    “Well, your comment definitely got a reaction,” Keaton said, deadpan.  I heard her eyeballs roll in her voice.  I wasn’t sure what I had done or why, but my body overflowed with adrenaline.  I think I had forgotten about Gilgamesh and took his whisper as some sort of attack.  I took deep breaths until the bad emotions cleared out.
    “Sorry, ma’am,” I said, still slung under Keaton’s arm like a package.  “Something set me off.”  I went back through my memories until I found the magic moment.  “Somebody did directed withdrawal scarring on me?  Who?”
    “We don’t have a clue,” Keaton said.  “According to all the information we have, the only Transform near you while you were in withdrawal was yourself.”
    Ooh, a locked room murder mystery.  When I was a normal I loved to read those.  I missed being able to read.
    A memory inside of me wanted to free itself.  “Freaky,” I said, regarding the mystery of the directed withdrawal scarring.  “Oh, and if you don’t mind, I have a memory inside of me who wants to talk to you, ma’am.”
     
    Gilgamesh: April 12, 1968
    “Go ahead, let’s hear this,” the Skinner said.  She placed Carol