"Byers! Wake up, man!"

Byers realized he'd fallen asleep at his keyboard. Langly was gently shaking him awake.

"I think I'm onto something. I found a phone that's been making dialup connections at the same time as packets have been going to Krycek's web server."

Byers was instantly wide awake. "That's great! Are you sure?"

"Well, it doesn't prove anything, but the correlation's pretty convincing. It's worth checking out physically, at least."

"Good work, Langly! Superman himself couldn't have done better. Where is it?"

"A motel in Greensbelt."

"The Western Comfort?" asked Frohike, entering the room.

"How the heck did you know that?" asked Langly indignantly.

"Yves just called and asked us to meet her there."

"Looks like Catwoman beat Superman to it," Langly grumbled to Byers.

Krycek had Jimmy by the balls, literally, but so far he hadn't physically hurt him. He'd just made a lot of sickening threats that Jimmy was powerless to react to. Finally he seemed to get tired of that. He put the manodots back into Pain Mode and amused himself by lightly stroking Jimmy on the chest, belly and legs. Each touch on his raw nerve endings set off waves of pain, but Jimmy was unable to react. He couldn't squirm in a vain attempt to evade the merciless fingertips. He couldn't even cringe. Without trying to be stoic, he was taking it all in silence, without so much as a single moan.

After what might have been a minute of that, Krycek sighed. "This is no fun. The only way I can tell I'm getting to you is by your breathing. I like watching your arm muscles flex when I torment you." He handcuffed him back to the headboard and adjusted the controls. Jimmy found he could move again. Krycek reached out and stroked him one more time, and seemed to enjoy watching him thrash around uselessly in reaction. After just a few strokes, though, his tormentor stopped and made another adjustment.

"What are you gonna do to me now?" Jimmy asked, feeling completely defeated.

"I've decided not to punish you anymore. I don't blame you for trying to escape. Anyone would have. And I don't like to hurt men that I like." He ran a finger lightly down the center of Jimmy's chest.

Jimmy gasped. The creep had set it back to "pleasure" again, and the slightest touch brought unwanted waves ecstasy. Jimmy thrashed and tried to knee Krycek. Krycek backed off and did something with the controls, and Jimmy's legs went limp again.

"This should be a good compromise. You don't have to wear yourself out resisting anymore. You've got no choice." He touched Jimmy's helpless body again. Jimmy shivered and bit down on a moan. He didn't want to give Krycek the satisfaction of a response, any more than he could help.

"C'mon, why don't you relax and enjoy it? I might as well set it back to pain mode, for all the gratitude I'm getting."

"You're gonna use this to control other people, aren't you? And you're forcing me to help you try it out."

"Oh, it'll be useful for controlling people, sure. I've even used an earlier version that way, to extort things from a man in a powerful position. That one didn't come out quite right. The nanobots took hold in his cardiovascular system instead of his neural system."

"His cardy-what?"

"His blood vessels. It worked out to almost the same thing, just clumsier. I could push a button, and presto: instant heart attack. I could also cause pain, or cut off his blood flow and make him collapse. But the version you've got gives me much more direct control."

"You gonna offer this guy an upgrade?"

Krycek laughed and patted his stomach, almost affectionately. It felt weird, something like doing a belly-flop, but the sting was replaced by an odd sort of pleasure. The closest thing Jimmy could compare it to was the way his cock felt when squeezed hard by a strong hand.

"Do you expect me to like the idea that you're gonna put other guys through this after you finish experimenting on me?"

Krycek paused, then said, almost bashfully, "I haven't told you the main reason I'm doing this experiment."

"You said--"

"Controlling people is just a useful spin-off application. What I'm really interested in is inventing a cybernetic arm."

"Oh. You mean like the bionic man, on TV?"

"Exactly. A prosthetic arm hooked up to my nerves through nano-machines, so I can actually feel with it!" Krycek sounded enthusiastic, and wistful. "Then I just need to figure out how to do motor control."

"I... I didn't know. Did you invent this stuff yourself?"

"Of course not. I've got connections to a startup company that's doing proprietary -- that means secret -- experiments on worms and frogs, and slowly working their way up to mice. But at the rate they're going, I'll be an old man by the time they get permission to experiment on human subjects." He looked grim. "If I live that long. If anyone on Earth lives that long. So I've been doing it for them, and slipping the researchers data."

"I had no idea that's the reason you kidnapped me."

"Well, it's not. I'm mostly holding you hostage until your friends do a little work for me. But as long as I had you, you were too good to waste." He stroked him again.

It was hard to speak with that going on, but Jimmy managed to get out the words, "I'll make you a deal."

"A deal? You think you're in a position to make a deal?" More stroking.

"Let Byers go, and I'll help you. Willingly. For as long as you need to experiment."

Krycek stopped in mid-stroke and stared at him. "You'd do that? It could take a year."

"Yeah, exactly, and you can't count on holding me prisoner that long. Sooner or later I'd escape. Or someone would find me. Isn't one willing slave better than two unwilling ones? I'd be glad to do it, knowing I was saving Byers. Besides, it's even a good cause. I might have even volunteered for a few weeks in the first placed if you'd just asked nicely when you came in."

"Yeah, right."

"I would have! I liked you. And it would be an incredibly cool invention that would help lots of other people like you. I would have wanted to help."

"This is all easy for you to say now, when I have it set to feel good." He traced circles on Jimmy's sensitive belly to emphasize the point. "But it wouldn't always be like this. Remember how you cramped up when I tried motor control mode and it didn't work right?"

"What you're -- oh god! -- doing to me now doesn't feel 'good,'" Jimmy managed to say.

"No?" Krycek's fingers lightly traced a line from his chin to his navel. Jimmy moaned. "Doesn't feel good, eh?" Krycek asked mockingly.

"OK, so it feels good. But it's disgusting!"

"Can't stand the thought of another guy making you feel this good?" he taunted, running his fingers through Jimmy's pubic hair.

"I told ... told you before--"

"Maybe you should close your eyes and try to pretend I'm--"

"What I can't stand is the thought that you've got a man I really care about tied up in another room and that you've been torturing him!" he roared.

"Maybe you should close your eyes and pretend it's actually a decent human being who's touching you," Krycek said quietly.

"I wish!" Jimmy thought Krycek looked almost hurt, like he actually cared about his captive's opinion of him. He added honestly, "But you know what? I think you do have a decent streak in you, Alex. I wish I could see more of it."

Krycek actually looked a little ashamed. "You know, it's not often I deal with people like you. I'm used to people who mistrust everyone. But you... I break into your secret headquarters and sneak up behind you, and you want to make friends. I kidnap you and torture you, and you still believe I have a streak of decency."

"I guess I do. Or at least, I want to believe."

Krycek winced and turned his face away. "Some people," he said, sounding wistful, "are suspicious from Day One, without knowing the first thing about me."

"Maybe they're just a better judge of character than me."

"Somehow I doubt that. No, he's just paranoid."

Jimmy wondered who Krycek was talking about, but didn't interrupt.

"I showed him nothing but friendliness. Well, maybe I was a little too pushy when he tried to take the case away from me. But as far as he knew I was a young agent on one of his first assignments for the FBI -- yeah, don't look so surprised; you knew there's some shady stuff going on in the government -- I was an eager new agent, and all I did was point out that technically it was my case, and insist on going with him. Maybe if I'd come on a little less strong he'd have been a little more trusting, and things could have turned out different."

"Well... sounds to me like you were within your rights. I felt the same way on my first story. Man, I was so excited! When Byers handed me--" He stopped. For a minute there Krycek had almost got him to like him again. "I can't believe you would hurt a man like Byers, take him prisoner, treat him like a slave! Yeah, I trusted you. And look where it got me. I was wrong. No one with a shred of decency would do things like that to anyone, especially not to a man like that."

Krycek was silent for a long time. Was he actually feeling guilty, or was he coming up with some new threat to make against Byers, just to see Jimmy's reaction?

"Let my friend go, Alex," he whispered. "Please. I'm-- I'm begging you." Damn, he was on the verge of crying again.

"Let me show you something," Krycek said quietly. He went and got his laptop and spent a few minutes with the mouse. Jimmy dreaded what was coming next. Krycek was probably about to tell him that he couldn't release Byers, because it was too late. He could be bringing up a coroner's report or a news article right now. Or a later picture, taken after... after...

He disconnected the laptop and brought it over to the bed. Jimmy forced himself to look. It didn't show him any new horrors, just the same picture of Byers that had been haunting Jimmy since Krycek had stuck the original under his nose.

"So you scanned it," Jimmy said tearfully. "You gonna put it on the Internet or something?"

"Watch the picture, Jimmy." He did something with a menu, and the picture was replaced with another picture of Byers. In this one, he was in the same position, but magically healed of every bruise and every cut.

"I don't understand," Jimmy said, staring at his friend's healthy and unblemished skin.

"This one was the original picture. I cropped it from this." Krycek zoomed out to show Byers lying on a beach towel on the sand, wearing swimming trunks.

"So... the first picture you showed me is a fake?"

"Byers is perfectly OK. He was never my prisoner in the first place. I told him to meet me on the beach if he ever wanted to see you alive again."

"So that's what it takes to convince the guy to get out in the sun. But, why the beach?"

"Supposedly that was so he couldn't hide any gadgets in his clothes, but really I wanted to get a picture of him in a bathing suit."

"So you could fool me with a fake picture?"

Krycek grinned. "It took about an hour of editing."

"You can do that on a computer? I know you can paste pictures into newspapers, and fiddle with the color balance and stuff, but making up a fake picture?"

"You're working for too honest a newspaper. With the right software, you can do almost anything to a picture. See, here's a picture of you. I can make your skin look green, like this... Even distort it make you look thin as a post."

"Cool!" Jimmy said, impressed despite himself. "But that wasn't a printout you showed me. It was a real picture!"

"I have a printer in the next room that can print right onto photographic paper, the same type a film development lab would print onto. It's just another kind of paper stock."

"So Byers isn't in the next room? That's--" he stammered excitedly, "This is-- Byers is really okay?"

"You look awfully happy for a guy who's been kidnapped," Krycek observed with a grin.

"And Langly, and Frohike?"

"I haven't touched a hair on any of their--" Krycek stopped short, and chuckled. Jimmy wondered if he saw something funny about Langly's hair. "Um, let's just say I haven't hurt them or kidnapped any of them. As far as I know they're safe at home right now."

"Oh, man, is that a relief!"

"Still think I'm such a bad guy?"

"Can I have my shorts back now?"

Krycek laughed. "OK, as a gesture of good faith." He pushed Jimmy's feet together. The touch of his hand on Jimmy's bare feet made itself felt all the way up to his knees. The feel of the soft cotton shorts being slowly drawn up his legs and over his pelvis was almost too much to stand.

"Feel a little less naked now?"

"Not really," Jimmy admitted, every nerve still tingling. The parts of his body that were still exposed felt every bit as sensitive as anything that had been covered.

"It's too bad I don't really have Byers. It might have been fun to see how he reacted to the nanobots in pleasure mode."

"Why did you tell me you had him?"

"I had to do something to keep you under control until the nanobots took hold. Would you rather I'd held a gun to your head and threatened to blow your brains out?"

"Yes."

Krycek looked taken aback. "Well... I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much as I enjoyed messing with your mind. And I'm in charge here." He ran his finger lightly down Jimmy's chest again.

"Wait. You thought you could control me better if you had Byers tied up in the next room? That doesn't make sense. It just made me try to take you out so I could rescue Byers."

"Why do you think I did it, then?"

"I think you enjoyed having that much extra power over me. Making me suffer. You've got a real mean streak in you."

Krycek laughed nastily. "Just a streak?"

"Well, yeah. Like I said, I don't think you're that bad a person deep down. I think other people have hurt you, and you're trying to get back at them. Like, maybe you were kidnapped yourself once."

"I suppose you could say that. Technically. Yeah, I was beaten up and kidnapped by an agent of a foreign government."

"Wow!"

"Twice. Once at the Hong Kong airport. Where are the local authorities when you need them? And once..." He shut up, seeming upset by the memory. Jimmy noticed that his eyes flicked down to his missing arm.

"Does it have to do with how you lost your arm?" he asked gently.

"Yeah." He drew a ragged breath. "And the thing of it is, I still respect the guy who got me into that situation. He and I, we're really after the same thing. We just go about it differently."

"What do you mean?"

"We're both trying to prevent some really horrible things from happening. Things that most people don't want to believe are even possible. They're living in their safe little illusory world where nothing really bad ever happens, while some of us are fighting behind the scenes to stave off a nightmare." He sighed. "And I've had to do some horrible things in that fight. Things I'm not proud of."

"To that foreign agent?" Jimmy asked eagerly.

"No. Never to him. I've had to... hurt some of the people around him. To protect him. But I've never wanted to hurt him. I hope I never get desperate enough--"

Jimmy was surprised to realize that Krycek was actually weeping. He turned his face away now to hide it, but Jimmy could still hear it in his voice. Very softly, he said, "It's okay to cry in front of me, Alex. I'm not gonna tell anyone." Thinking about that, he added wryly, "Especially seeing as how you're gonna kill me."

Krycek laughed and cried at the same time. "I'm not gonna kill you, Jimmy. You're no threat. The one man who I really need to kill is the one man I--" and he broke down again. Jimmy let him cry. There was only so much comfort he could offer while chained to a bed with his legs paralyzed.

Finally Krycek calmed down. He looked around the room, maybe for a box of tissues, but the only tissues were in the bathroom. Instead, he spotted the pile of clean fluffy white towels that the maid had made him take. He went over and grabbed a small one from the top and wiped away his tears.

Then he dropped it and doubled up, choking and scrubbing at his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Jimmy asked.

Krycek didn't answer, but groped his way back to the nightstand. He took his hand away from his eyes, which were shut and streaming far more tears than before, long enough to feel around for the palm-top. He fumbled with it, trying to hold it and work it one-handed, and dropped it. It bounced off Jimmy and came to rest propped up against his armpit. Jimmy managed to grab it with his mouth and transfer it to his hand.

At that moment, the door lock clicked, and the door was opened a crack by someone on the outside. Some kind of gadget on a pole poked in through the opening.

Before Krycek could get it back, Jimmy smashed the controller against the headboard as hard as he could. That wasn't as hard as he would have liked, because of the limited windup the handcuff chain allowed him, so he tried again. One the second smash, the pointy part broke off. On the fourth smash, the screen went dark. On the seventh, the whole thing fell apart in his hand. Satisfied, he watched as the gadget poking in past the door felt around and grabbed the chain and slid it back. The door opened all the way, revealing the three faces he wanted to see more than anything else in the world. The guys rushed into the room and grabbed Krycek, who was kneeling on the floor, scrubbing at his eyes with the edge of the sheet Jimmy was lying on.

"Oh, man, am I ever glad to see you guys! How'd you do that? He was wiping away his -- um, his sweat," Jimmy said, remembering his promise just in time, "and he just doubled over and started clawing at his eyes."

"Chalk it up to the latest in chemical magic," Frohike said.

"It's basically powdered tear gas," Byers explained.

"And it's got the Good Housekeeping seal of approval," said Langly.

"She tricked me!" Krycek said, still wiping his eyes. "How much did you pay her?"

"She drove a hard bargain," Langly said. "We promised her the data from your laptop. And we get nothing. As usual!"

"I wouldn't say we get nothing," Byers said, looking at Jimmy.

"What would a maid--" Krycek began. Frohike punched him in the stomach, hard, ordering him to shut up.

"Hey, go easy on him!" Jimmy pleaded. "He roughed me up a little, but nothing too bad." This wasn't like Frohike, to hit a man when he was down. Jimmy tried to swing his legs over the bed, but found that they still didn't respond. That was strange. He'd smashed the controls. He glanced at the broken pieces, but it was obvious they didn't need any more smashing.

"That wasn't for you, it was for Scully. This is the man who murdered her sister. In Scully's apartment, thinking she was Scully." He kicked him. "He also killed Mulder's father."

"The authorities will see that justice is done, Frohike," Byers told him gently, putting a hand on his arm to forestall another punch. But instead of placing himself between Frohike and Krycek, he stepped over to Jimmy's bed and leaned over him anxiously, his hand resting on the sheet just inches from Jimmy's bare shoulder. Jimmy looked up into those blue eyes he'd been afraid he'd never see again. Byers looked haggard, and the knot in his tie was slightly askew.

"You look like hell, buddy," Jimmy told him hoarsely. That was only half the truth. His familiar features were also the most beautiful sight in the whole world right now. But he looked like he'd been through something worse than Jimmy had. "Are you okay? Krycek told me he was lying about having captured you too. Or was he lying about that?" He paused to try to untangle the convoluted thoughts of whether a liar can lie about lying, then gave up. "He showed me how he faked the pictures on that computer there."

"What are you talking about?" Langly asked. He let Frohike sit on Krycek while he inspected the laptop. After a few seconds Langly said, "You were fooled by this crappy work, Jimmy? The lighting is totally fake looking."

Byers went to look over his shoulder, and winced at what he saw on the screen. He looked back at Jimmy with that look of compassion Jimmy had seen him give to so many people.

"This doesn't even look like real blood," Langly continued.

"Langly!" Byers said warningly. Langly shut up. Byers went back to Jimmy. "Krycek never had me," he said gently. "The picture is a fake. If I look tired, it's just that haven't been sleeping much lately."

"Because of me?" Jimmy was touched.

"Because of you. And now I have you back. I mean, we have you back. There's nothing wrong with me a good night's sleep can't cure. The important thing is, are you okay? This must have been pure hell for you."

"It was no picnic, but he didn't mess me up half as bad as what he made it look like he did to you."

"He did torture you, then?" Byers asked grimly, glancing at Krycek, whose arm was being twisted behind his back by Frohike.

"Believe me, the worst thing he did to me was convince me he was torturing you. Sure, he roughed me up a little, but it coulda been worse. Don't you think you should get him a wet washcloth to wipe his face?"

"Langly? Could you see if you can find an untainted one, or a tissue?" When Byers turned back to Jimmy, he hesitated, then admitted, "I was really afraid for you. Are you sure you're okay?"

Then he did it. He put his hand on Jimmy's shoulder. Man, this was intense! The manodot stuff had definitely not gone away when he smashed the control. The warmth of the friendly touch radiated down his chest, rippled through his stomach, tingled in his groin, bounced back to sizzle up his sides, and wrapped around his neck like a hot washcloth. At the same time, the firm pressure of his friend's hand went right through his shoulder muscles, through his armpit, and spread down his chest. His whole chest felt the illusion of flesh pressed against flesh, as though Byers had gathered him up in his arms and was pressing their bodies together. After taking off the jacket and shirt he was wearing. And all he'd done was put a hand on his shoulder!

Jimmy had never felt anything like it. It was like the difference between a teammate patting you on the shoulder on the field when you're wearing shoulder pads, and the same teammate resting a warm hand on your bare shoulder in the locker room. After all, there's a good reason that the shoulder is not a football player's favorite place to pat his teammates. Now Jimmy felt like he'd been wearing invisible shoulder pads all his life, and Krycek had forcibly stripped them away. Maybe he'd done it for his own reasons, like because he wanted to torment Jimmy. But it was worth it now, just to feel the touch of a friend with nothing in the way! He heard himself moaning, and realized he'd squeezed his eyes shut to concentrate on the feeling. Then he felt the waves of sensation begin to ebb and realized Byers had taken his hand away.

"Does that hurt? Did Krycek break your shoulder?" He whirled around and took a step toward Krycek, who was smirking at him.

"No," Jimmy gasped. "It's-- oh man, you have no idea."

"Let's get you out of this, and we'll take a look. Where's the key, Krycek?" A minute later he had him uncuffed. Seeing the marks the cuffs had made in his wrists -- little did he know that those were from Jimmy struggling to get loose when Krycek had claimed that Byers was his prisoner -- he took Jimmy's wrist between hands and began rubbing circulation back in. "Sorry, I know this hurts." It didn't hurt. Just the opposite! He could hardly believe it was only his wrist that was being rubbed. The part about blood rushing through his veins in response to his friend's touch was easy enough to believe, though. He half expected to feel the arm to fill up and get three times as long, just like the other body part it felt like. And then, just when he thought he couldn't take any more, he felt him start on the other wrist! Oh, man! To have two of them!

"Sorry. All over. Just rest there a minute, and I'll get your clothes," Byers said. Carefully avoiding his shoulder, he patted him in the middle of his chest. Jimmy arched his body involuntarily, and Byers jerked his hand away.

"Krycek! What have you done to him?" Byers demanded over his shoulder, without moving from Jimmy's side.

"He injected me with these manodot thingies," Jimmy was finally able to explain. "They let him shoot different stuff at me from his palmtop computer. The last thing he did made me really sensitive. It feels like..." He lowered his voice for Byers alone; this was something he was embarrassed to say out loud. "The entire front of my body is as sensitive as -- well, the underside of my cock," he whispered.

Byers recoiled a little and stared at his hands. "I'm sorry, I had no idea!"

"The trouble is, it's also keeping my legs from moving."

"Can you feel them?" Byers asked, sounding alarmed. He put his hand on Jimmy's leg.

"Ah! Oh man, can I ever! I just can't move them. I thought that when I smashed the controls, everything would go back to normal."

"Oh, Jimmy..." Byers said despondently.

"It always works that way in the movies," Jimmy said lamely.

"Well, in real life," Langly put in, "it means you're stuck with whatever setting the nanobots were in, and there's no way to control them,"

"You mean I'll be this way for the rest of my life? My legs, and, and the rest?"

Byers sighed. "It wasn't supposed to turn out like this, Jimmy. We assumed Krycek would use the towels the next time he took a shower, so he'd be empty handed. We're lucky he didn't go for the knife. Well, relatively lucky."

Jimmy pictured Krycek being naked, dripping wet, and shivering right now on top of everything else, and almost felt sorry for him. But at least he wouldn't have dropped the controls right where Jimmy could smash them.

"I can reset the nanobots," Krycek said suddenly. "I have the command codes memorized. I can program my other palmtop to shut them off."

"At what price?" Frohike growled.

"All you have to do is let me walk away."

"Murderer!" Frohike said, wrenching Krycek's arm.

"You need me, or your friend will never walk again," Krycek said through gritted teeth.

Frohike sighed and eased up on the pressure.

"Looks like Krycek is going to get away scott-free," Langly observed. "As usual! And all thanks to Mr. Smash Everything You Don't Understand."

"Maybe not." Everyone looked at Byers, who went on thoughtfully, "No one would design an experimental system to stay in its last commanded mode in case of communication failure." While Jimmy was trying to work that out, Byers looked directly at him and explained, "Think of a cell phone. If you destroy it in the middle of a call, the system breaks the connection a few seconds after it loses the signal."

"Wow! How do you know all this stuff?" Jimmy asked him, impressed as always.

"I've read the specs, so I know the theory. Also, I've seen it happen once or twice while I was talking to Mulder." He turned to the others. "There must be a command loss timeout. That's how autonomous spacecraft are designed. Nanobots would be designed the same way. They'll go into a neutral 'safe mode' if they don't hear any commands after a set period of time."

"Is that true, Krycek?" Frohike demanded, twisting his arm again. Krycek clammed up.

Langly went to the desk and disconnected and untangled some computer cables. He began winding them around Krycek's ankles. "Let's leave him tied up here for a few hours with Jimmy. If Byers is right, the paralysis will time out and Jimmy can kick his ass."

"No!" Krycek said. "Byers is right." Jimmy felt a little insulted at the panic in his voice, like he was sure Jimmy would tear him limb from-- well, limb from torso. Sure, he'd like to even the score a little. Maybe a few lashes with his belt, to match the stripes Jimmy could still feel as a dull ache across his back and his butt. But all in all, his former captor would probably be better off left to Jimmy's mercy than anyone else's. He'd been the one to tell Frohike to go easy on him. Frohike still looked about ready to kill him. Jimmy would settle for humiliating him.

"What's the command loss timeout?" Byers asked him. Even Byers, compassionate and ethical Byers, looked like he wanted to carve Krycek into little pieces. Someone had already carved one big piece off of him, and Jimmy felt that was enough for one lifetime.

"Half an hour from the time it was smashed," Krycek whispered.

"I think we're better off waiting it out before we move Jimmy," Byers said. "We'll attract less attention if he walks out than if we have to carry him."

Jimmy imagined how it would feel right now to have Byers's hands gripping him under his ultra-sensitive armpits while Langly took his limp but equally sensitive legs. He shivered with pleasure at the thought. And if they dressed him first ... all that cotton sliding over him, the hands everywhere...

"I'm sorry, Jimmy," Byers said. "I know you must want to get out of this room. We can at least get Krycek out of your sight."

Frohike and Langly hauled their prisoner roughly to his feet.

"Will you be okay staying here for just another twenty minutes or so, Jimmy?"

"As long as you stay with me, Byers."

"Of course," he said, taking his hand. "Oh, sorry. Your hand too?"

Jimmy squeezed his friend's hand firmly to try to keep him from letting go. The pressure felt better than a warm embrace along his entire body. A warm, naked embrace. His fingertips could feel every soft hair on the back of Byers's hand, and could sense the blood pulsing through it. It tingled all the way down to his shoulder. His own pulse tried to race to keep up with his friend's heatbeat.

"You're a lucky man, Byers," he heard Krycek say.

"What do you mean?" he heard Byers ask him, but he didn't hear an answer.

Hearing the door open, Jimmy opened his eyes to gaze longingly at the brief glimpse of invitingly blue sky. Later, he told himself.

"I have information you'll really want to hear," Krycek was saying as they left. "It would be a big mistake to turn me in." The door closed.

He was alone with Byers. Same room, but it no longer felt at all like a prison. Simon had been so right!

Byers squeezed his hand and let go. "Just hang in there another fifteen or twenty minutes. I know you must want to get out of this room more than anything else in the world."

"You know, you're wrong about that, Byers," Jimmy said. "There's something else I want a whole lot more."

"Something you can have right now?" Byers leaned over him.

"I sure hope so, buddy." He watched to see if Byers would take the hint, and also to see if he objected to the familiarity. He didn't exactly see himself as Byers's equal, but they'd been through so much together that Jimmy was beginning to feel he deserved to use the word.

Byers didn't seem to mind being called his buddy, but he seemed slow to figure out what Jimmy's desire was. "Whatever it is, you deserve it, after what you've been through. Is it something I can get for you?"

"Sorta." He grinned hopefully at his friend.

Byers raised his eyebrows and waited for him to explain. He could be really dense about certain things.

"For the next fifteen minutes, the whole front of my body is a sensitive as the underside of my cock. How often does a man get a chance like this?"

"Oh... You want to be alone for awhile." Byers was blushing. "I thought you said--"

"Um, no. I don't know how to put this..." He hadn't expected him to be so clueless about this. Byers was usually the first one to put the clues together, like that thing about the loss timer. "I, uh, kinda thought you might help me out here."

"I don't think there's time to hire someone, if that's what you mean," Byers said uncomfortably. "I would if I could. The very best."

"I don't want some stranger!"

"Well," he said doubtfully, "Yves is still here, but I don't think--"

The thought of letting Yves see him like this did not appeal to him at all! "Um, Byers? What I'm getting at is..." This was hard to say, since he wasn't sure Byers wanted to hear it. But he was sure being slow-witted at picking up on Jimmy's hints. So it was the direct approach, or nothing. He reached up and squeezed his friend's shoulder, feeling the expensive fabric and the muscle underneath. "It feels good... it's hard to explain, but it feels good when you touch me."

Byers's jaw dropped. OK, so now he understood.

Jimmy let his fingers stray to the nape of his friend's neck, just above the starched collar. "It's indescribable. I wish..." Impulsively, he unknotted Byers's tie. "I wish there was some way I could make you feel the same way." He pulled the tie off, the silk sliding sensuously against his hand.

Byers stood up and backed away a few steps. Then he rushed over to the door.

Oh man, now he'd done it! He'd screwed up everything. This was exactly why he'd been afraid to say anything all this time. It was so important to him to be able to work alongside these guys, where he could really make a difference in the world, that he'd been afraid to lose it by making a pass at Byers. Now he'd lost that, and Byers's friendship, and everything in the world that mattered. He'd sacrificed what could have been a lifetime of friendship, all for a few minutes of pleasure. For a minute it'd seemed worth a try, and he didn't exactly have all day to work up to it before the effect wore off. But man, what a stupid gamble! Why would he think a man like Byers would ever be interested in someone like him, even if he was gay? "Byers--" he began, but his voice caught in his throat. He struggled to a sitting position.

Byers was at the door. He didn't reach for the doorknob. He picked up the dangling chain and attached it, then double-locked the deadbolt. Jimmy breathed a sigh of relief and watched as Byers peeked through the drapes, staring down at something and muttering, "Good, she took the bug away," then fiddling with them to make sure they were completely drawn. After checking the door to the adjoining room carefully, he turned back to Jimmy, looking nervous. "Jimmy..." he began.

Jimmy didn't want to push his luck by opening his mouth again, but finally, when Byers didn't go on, he said tentatively, "If you feel weird about this, you don't need to do it just cause you feel sorry for me."

"It's not that, Jimmy. It's just the opposite."

"The opposite?" Could that possibly mean what he wanted it to mean?

"I feel I'm taking advantage of you. I wouldn't exactly call this an appropriate time."

"The clock's ticking, buddy. You gonna just stand there with the ball in your hands?"

Byers blushed again. "It's just that I can't believe you know what you're asking. Why now, of all times? Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I spent a lot of time thinking of what I missed most, being held captive. And if he killed me, what I would feel sorriest about never having done. Or said. Like: Do you know how crazy I am about you?"

"You've always said how much you admire the three of us."

"Well, that's sure true. I still can't believe I have the privilege of working with you guys. All of you, dedicating your lives! Fighting for the lost causes! You're my heroes. But you, Byers. You're the only one who actually believes you can win those lost causes. And you really seem to care about the people you help. Even me."

Now Byers approached him, and knelt by his side. He didn't seem to know what to do with his hands.

"I think my face still feels like it usually does," Jimmy suggested.

Byers reached out and tenderly touched his cheek. "How's that feel?"

"Normal." He grinned. "Natural."

Byers took his hand away, looking uncomfortable.

"Maybe we should just shake hands." Jimmy offered an outstretched hand, grinning.

Byers looked amused. "I see. Why have the appearance of impropriety when you can have the real thing and make it look innocent?" He took Jimmy's hand in a standard handshake grip, but of course it didn't feel at all like a standard handshake. Jimmy closed his eyes and sighed in pure contentment. Then his eyes flew open as he felt a new sensation: Byers was stroking the palm of Jimmy's hand with his thumb. He moved up to the wrist, then along his inner arm. Jimmy moaned. But Byers stopped entirely too soon.

"Can I really make you feel that good just by touching your arm?"

"You can make me feel good just by smiling at me like that."

"Then I'll have to try to smile at you more often. I like making you feel good."

"Well, I'll tell ya, you're never gonna have an easier time making me feel good than right now."

"Jimmy..." Byers said with an exasperated sigh.

"C'mon! Just a little more? Please?"

Byers smiled. "Did I ever tell you how much my heart melts whenever I see that puppy-dog expression?"

"Really?" he asked hopefully.

Byers gave an affectionate laugh. He reached out hesitantly, looked at him for encouragement, and then stroked his fingertip down Jimmy's chest. Jimmy gasped, his back arching. The pleasure was so intentse he actually blacked out for a few seconds.