Anthro, Domination, New World Order, M/F
Most recent update: August 22, Line 3095

I've gotten some questions about world building across a few threads and compiled them here (hopefully to be organized later): 
"Anthro Alliance" World Building / FAQ:
https://pastebin.com/wfE7rmLC

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Call of the Waifur 
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===== Part 1: Bagged =============================

In the early part of the 21st century a fortuitous combination of technologies allowed for a breakthrough in artificial biology. Man could now create new beings from only his imagination. The technology quickly became regulated and the ethics of it hotly debated. But other more subtle technologies were steadily unwinding the social order. The free flow of information through the internet destabilized a great deal of power in the world. Social media, after quickly figuring out how to game the motivation and attention of the masses, spread fear and general unrest through the developed world.
 
People withdrew from society, young men especially. Many of these men sought to make new companions for themselves. They skirted the laws against cloning and making humans by creating human animal hybrids that fell outside of any legal definition. Governments around the world played cat and mouse with increasingly esoteric laws and the enterprising criminals who broke them. Outlawing the creation of such creatures was seen as practical, but governments found themselves mired in controversy whenever they tried to deal with the sentient non-humans that were already living.
 
Demand drove innovation and soon the once sterile creatures were made fertile to fill the desire for families. Social disorder compounded as the 'furs (a dignified shortening of the internet slang waifur) came to establish themselves with expanded rights and equality. Many women bought their own companions but at nowhere near the rates of men. The human women also rarely broke replacement birthrates, while 'furs seemed to prefer large families. Demographics shifted quickly in the richer developed countries where the 'furs were concentrated. A baby boom of young 'furs spelled conflict on the horizon, there were not enough men to go around and the free governments of the world too weak to stave off the growing unrest.  
 
The 'furs, unified by an obsessive instinctual desire for human husbands and started to subvert the checks and balances that maintained rights within their own societies. The nations with the largest 'fur populations fell first. Quickly norms were inverted, men soon found themselves being owned by the 'fur wives they once purchased. Woman found themselves as second class citizens, or worse in some cases, and a mass exodus occurred as nations fell to the control of their rivals. This new society had little respect for the freedom of anyone, with the 'fur majority mostly concerned with securing access and exclusivity to their men.
 
These new governments, unbound by the treaties and consensus of the old world, fully realized the potential of artificial biology in the domain of war. War machines that were grown cheaply outnumbered and outclassed the machine dependent armies and guerilla forces of the world that would oppose them. In addition task specific eunuch creations known as "Anthros" were created. Anthros became the uncomplaining backbone of the labor force as well as the loyal foot soldiers and peacekeepers of these new regimes.
 
A campaign of total global domination began, with multinational superpowers forming in the Americas, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Nuclear deterrence was all that kept the so called "Anthro Alliance" at bay from other countries and their allies. The regional powers focused inward on reform and hunting down free men that had fallen through the cracks of their new empire.
 
Jake Hastings was one such man. He and his companions were overrun by a pack of lupine anthros in the remote regions of the former nation of Canada. After two years in the wild they had been tracked and chased for less than a day before being captured. It was child's play for the eight foot tall wolf-men to power through the snow and seize them.

They were afraid, but everyone in their party knew it was a strict policy that men were taken alive. The Anthro Alliance would sacrifice a dozen lupines to bring back a live human male. So it was no surprise that they were quickly bound and carried back to a rendezvous point. As a helicopter descended into a clearing some of the men began to struggle; they were quickly given a mild sedative. Jake was compliant, he wanted to keep his wits about him in case an escape opportunity presented itself. 

The chances of escape quickly dwindled as they were well secured in the helicopter. They flew for hours. Bright lights behind a hill revealed an encampment. Tall fences, barbed wire, lupine patrols, the recently constructed outpost was the forefront of the reclamation efforts. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of men had escaped to a frigid nomadic lifestyle in the north rather than be slaves in civilization. 

The helicopter landed in a concrete courtyard. Even with his heavy clothes the lack of cover caused the winter air to bite at Jakes skin. He recognized the ridge line beyond the fence, this encampment wasn't here six months ago. Some of the men believed that they were safe in the wilderness, that they weren't worth the Anthro Alliance's time. This encampment put that theory to rest. Even if they had evaded their captors today it was doubtful they would have kept their freedom much longer. This place was proof that the 'furs were willing to push deep into the wilds in their totalitarian desire to find men.

A snow leopardess approached them. Jake looked around, his three friends were all sedated, the six lupines that had captured them were lined up behind them proudly. She smiled at Jake briefly before reaching past him.

"Good boy" she said sweetly as she scratched the chin of a lupine. The massive creature wagged its tail giddily. She went down the line praising each of the creatures similarly. "First patrol of the quarter and you captured four wild men, you all get double rations tonight! Take these three to medical" she said motioning to Jake's friends. Four of the lupines carried them away to a building in a far corner of the facility.

Cupping Jake's face with her paw she asked "How long have you lot been out there?" He would have pulled away but the two remaining lupines were holding him tightly in place.

Jake said nothing. Her eyes narrowed as the silence drew on. Then something caught her attention. She pushed down on his collar and exposed the scar on his neck to the light. She ran a clawed finger over it. "You burned off your old ID tattoo." She turned his head to look him in the eye again. "That means at least two or three years then. We have much better ways of tracking you boys now. Tell me..." she leaned in so close to Jake that the heat from her breath pushed away the cold air "... was your mistress really worse than life out here?" 

Jake didn't give her the satisfaction of a response. She gave no impression that she cared as she ordered the two lupines to send him to "processing". A large anthro with an unfamiliar mix of species stripped him of his clothes. His hair was buzz cut to a centimeter length, and his beard shaven off. He was quickly washed off with a hot water sprayer and no soap. The anthro documented his many scars and inspected him for any obvious injuries. He was photographed front and back as well as a useless close up of his tattoo burn. Finally he was finger printed and given a one piece jumpsuit to wear. A lupine escorted him to a cell with a bunk on the floor and a hole in the ground for a toilet. 

Jake stared up at the camera in the corner for a long while. After running his hands through his shaven hair got boring he laid down and went to sleep. He awoke hours later when his door opened. It took a moment to remember everything that had happened the day before. A lupine was standing in the doorway. Jake was expecting food, instead he was pulled to his feet. A heavy blanket was thrown over him and he was rushed out into the cold to a large transport helicopter. Jake was being shoved along as his bare feet struggled to run over the frozen concrete. He was pushed into a small cell inside the transport and felt it quickly lift off. 

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===== Part 2: Tagged =============================

Through a slit in the door Jake yelled into the cargo bay of the helicopter "Charlie! Dean! Don! Are you guys here?" A lupine banging on his door with a low growl was the only response he got. Jake's hunger disappeared as he suspected that his past was catching up to him. Hours in the copter, a rough transition to a van, hours more driving, all with no word from anyone to tell him where he was headed. Winding country roads turned into highways. Jake's sense of direction was good enough to know they were heading south and to the coast. Maybe Vancouver was their destination. 

The van left the highways. Another hour and they pulled up to a large building seemingly in the middle of the forest. More fences. More barbed wire. Over the gate hung a sign "Cascades Rehabilitation Facility" Jake had heard about these places. There were rumors of "reclamation centers" springing up within the Anthro Alliance when he left. Human males were too valuable, even the prisoners. These places were an attempt to make "anti-social" human men more acceptable to the world being built by the 'furs. But that was all he knew for sure, there were horror stories of lobotomies and torture with the Anthro news insisted they were places of healing and therapy.

More processing followed inside the facility, though it was mostly a change of clothes. A Raccoon 'fur of modest build in a lab coat interviewed him, with a lupine guard on either side. 

"Is your name Jake Hastings?" she asked plainly. He refused to answer. She folded her arms. "This is a formality, I have your prints. If you don't want to answer my questions we can skip to the part where I throw you in solitary and the lupines rough you up for giving me a hard time."

The shifting weight of the huge guards gave Jake second thoughts about seeing if she was bluffing. "Yes" he said finally.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, my name is Jake Hastings"

She went back to her tablet "You need to be chipped. Lay face down on the table." Jake looked at what appeared to be a sinister massage table with an over abundance of restraints. This time she didn't give him a second chance, with a nod of her head the lupines quickly hoisted him onto the table and started strapping him down. He was secured face down with his hands palms up. 

"These are standard RFID's. If you struggle I'll miss the mark and possibly hit an artery or bone. So hold still."

Jake's arm went cold as she wiped it down with a disinfectant. He took a deep breath as he felt the metal nozzle stick to his arm. Then a sharp stab followed by gauze and medical tape.

"Doing the other arm now" she said with clinical detachment. She talked as she repeated the process "These will grant you access to areas within the facility. Privileges are granted for good behavior and greater restrictions are imposed for bad behavior. Do not open doors for anyone other than yourself, or all privileges will be rescinded."

She finished dressing the other arm. "Now some clever guys get the idea to dig these ID's out before making an escape attempt. I wouldn't recommend it; they just as often hit an artery and almost kill themselves. But worse than that is, for security sake, we have to install a third one after they do. Down here." A claw poked him in his back to the left of the base of his spine. "That one you can't get out without a real surgeon." 

"I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but between your attitude today and what I read in your file I'm going to go ahead and hook you up with the spinal special."   

Jake struggled briefly, but the restraints were too tight. With a deep breath he clenched his hands into fists "Go ahead" he said finally. Out of sight of Jake the 'fur maneuvered a mechanical arm with an injector robot into position over his back. She pulled up his shirt. 

"Whoa" she said softly. His back was covered in scars. Scars from claws. She picked up a tablet and scrolled through some files, a few long minutes of reading and she moved the machine out of position and lowered his shirt. "Never mind, I got a lot to do today, but remember what I said about digging those guys out of your arm."

"Don't" Jake said simply, she patronizingly patted the back of his head and said nothing else. His restraints were removed by the lupines. Jake clenched and unclenched his fists a few times hoping to dull the ache in his arms. The raccoon didn't look up from her tablet while he was escorted out. A series of hallways and stairs brought him to a large well furnished waiting room. Jake looked at the open door with the "Warden's Office" plaque on the front as he walked past. 

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===== Part 3: Used ===============================

A 'fur secretary motioned the guards to take Jake through another set of double doors. The large open office looked very new but was designed with an older aesthetic, more like an office from the 1950's with the heavy furniture and large bookcases along the walls. The windows looked out over the treetops of the forest behind the facility. Snow topped mountains could be seen in the distance. 

"Guards, wait in the lobby" a feminine voice said. Jake was left standing between a pair of chairs. "... and close the door."

The large chair spun around and a small 'fur walked around her desk. The doors closed loudly behind Jake. The warden couldn't have been taller than five foot even. She was a mix of species that Jake couldn't identify. Her cream colored fur was freckled with light brown spots. Her tail was long and bushy enough to be seen from her front. The tips of her ears and the tip of her tail were jet black. Her modest skirt suit was a burgundy which Jake realized matched her eyes as she approached him.

The slight 'fur showed no sign of being intimidated by the 6'3" Jake as she extended her hand to him. "Charlotte Priestly" Jake hesitantly shook her hand. She didn't let go, instead she rotated his inner arm to inspect his bandage. "Freshly chipped I see. I hope there were no complications." Before Jake could answer she ripped the bandage away and he flinched. 

She smiled and made no apology "Do you know where you are?" 

"A reclamation center"

She clicked her tongue disapprovingly "No, we don't call them that anymore, this is a rehabilitation facility." She led him by the hand to one of the chairs "Take a seat." Jake sat down slowly. She hopped up on to the desk and sat across from him. The low chair and the tall desk meant he was looking up to her now. 

"I'm very excited that you're here. We don't get many of you alive" she said with a discomforting grin.

"You don't get many live men?" he asked confused.

She laughed "No we have plenty of those. Well, you might argue that most of them aren't really men or not really alive. They've all had their edges dulled in one way or another."

Her eyes were piercing him hungrily now "No, I meant killers. Real killers are rare these days."

Jake shifted in his chair, but he didn't break eye contact with her either. 

"You killed your wife right?" she said picking up a tablet from behind her "The tigress, Marilyn Hastings. You smashed her skull in three years ago and then ran away? You were tried in abstentia and found guilty, which is why you're here. Looking through the records painted a real tragedy of the whole affair, scandalized the community, no one knew why..."

Jake sat stone faced. Those memories were as fresh as the day he made them. Marilyn in the kitchen. The stitching on his back painfully pulling at his dressings as he carried the splitting maul from the garage. Her face as she turned around. That smug grin fading to terror as he swung. Fast as she was, she wasn't faster than that eight pound wedge. The spray of scarlet that covered the table and his face. A second hit wasn't necessary as she twitched and bleed out on the tile. He didn't know how long he stood there, but the wounds on his back had opened up from the swing, the trickle of blood bringing him to his senses. A hasty blur of cleaning himself and packing. Then the final memory, one last look at the body in the dimly lit kitchen as the sun set before he got in the car and left that life behind forever. 

Charlotte's voice brought him back to the office "... one look at your back sort of answers all those questions doesn't it?" Jake just stared at her. "I would like to see that" she said. Jake squinted, unsure if that was a request or just some odd comment. She crossed her legs and set down the tablet. "Now" she said, then she cleared her throat and clarified "I would like to see that now." 

Jake leaned back though he made no move to take off his shirt. She smiled "Jake. If I tell you to do something, you do it. There's lots of rules here but that really is number one. So take off your shirt, now. Unless you want to spend your first week here drugged up in a padded cell pending a psych evaluation."

Jake stood up and pulled the shirt over his head. Charlotte's ears pressed back, she wasn't expecting the quickness of his movements. He wasn't lean, but it was clear that roughing it in the north had hardened his body in a way that was rare for human men these days. Everywhere she looked his skin was punctuated by claw marks, small ones and large ones. In several place there were four parallel strikes where the tigress had just ripped into him with a full swipe. Scars crisscrossing scars. Bite marks on his shoulders and a really prominent one on his left bicep. 

She swallowed "Could you turn around?" she asked, though with less authority than she intended. Jake complied. A giant X on his back formed by two full palms of claws dragged from his shoulders to his kidneys. His back was as scarred as his front, but that distracting feature dwarfed all the others. Charlotte was breathing heavily. 

"The photos really don't do it justice" she said. Jake turned back around. Charlotte's tail was fluttering behind her. Her eyes met his "What was the breaking point? It must have taken years to collect that many, so what was the final straw, before you did it?"

She was rubbing her legs together in a way that truly disturbed Jake. "I'll do whatever you tell me. But I'm not answering questions like that." Jake immediately regretted those words.

"Okay" she said biting her lower lip "Then take off your pants and come closer." 

Jake compromised with simply stepping up to the warden. She pressed her foot on the hem of his prison pants, gripping and tugging at them with her toes. "Off" she said authoritatively.

As Jake dropped them and stepped out of the pant legs Charlotte's attention was fully on his flaccid member. With no warning she grabbed it and started stroking him to an erection. "So you killed your wife and then ran off into the woods... You must have hunted out there, all sorts of animals. Did you ever kill any furry little creatures like me to make your meals" she practically moaned those last words as she said them.

Despite himself, Jake's body was having the typical response to her stimulation "I've never seen any animal like you" he said unable to hide some mild disgust.  

If she took that as an insult it didn't show. "Yeah, I bet. I'm hard to pin down, daddy went all out when designing mom. A little bit of civet, some Fennec fox, some ferret, and a half a dozen other minor tweaks to get her look just right" She hiked up her skirt as she spoke. She wasn't wearing panties and was sopping wet. Jake wondered if she was wet from the beginning of the conversation, since she had obviously been building to this point. 

"Pick me up" she ordered huskily. Jake grabbed her by her buttocks and lifted Charlotte up to his chest. Her lithe figure was even lighter than he anticipated. Her tail was swinging wildly and she was breathing heavily on his neck. Her arms wrapped around his back. She traced the path of his scars with her finger pads. "Pierce me" she whispered to him with just the tip of her canine nipping at his ear. 

Jake slowly lowered her until his tip kissed her eager sex. In any other circumstance he would have been concerned with being gentle with such a small partner, but this 'fur deserved exactly what she asked for. With drop of his arms and mild thrust he entered her fully to the hilt. She yelped, her crimson eyes went wide, and her dull claws pulled at his scars with no effect. 

Jake thrust and pumped her hips against himself, she was light enough to use however he pleased. If she had any protests she was in no state to say them. Yelping between panting breaths seemed to be all she was capable of at the moment. She began to quake in his arms as a rolling orgasm overtook her. She clamped down on him with surprising force. Once she stopped twitching in his arms he set her down on the desk. 

She was catching her breath as he put his pants back on. "You didn't cum" she said, almost in a disappointed tone. Jake ignored her comment as he put on his shirt. She jumped down from the desk, though her legs didn't seem like they would catch her at first. She straitened her skirt and walked back to her chair to the best of her ability. 

Jake simply stood in front of her desk waiting for her to say anything that would get him out of this office. "There's a communication terminal built into the wall of your room. Review your orientation materials there. Breakfast is at 0700. Report..."

"I haven't eaten since we were caught two days ago." Jake interrupted.

"Do not speak over me." Charlotte said, a dangerous look returning to her eyes. "The mess is already closed so you won't be getting anything tonight. Breakfast is at 0700. Report to my office immediately afterwards." She smirked just like his wife, his ex-wife, used to as she said that last sentence. 

She pushed a button on her desk "Come escort Mr. Hastings to his room." The lupine guards entered the room, one of them grabbing him by the arm. Jake was led through a labyrinth of halls and checkpoints, his fresh chips scanned at every step of the way. He was put into a single bunk room, he sat on the bed and the terminal built into the wall came on. It was the size and shape of a decent sized television. He rolled over and ignored the orientation videos auto playing behind him. If he couldn't get something to eat he at least hoped to catch up on some sleep.

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===== Part 4: Wildman ============================

The terminal in the wall started blasting a morning alarm. Jake rolled over just in time to be blinded by his ceiling lights turning on automatically. The alarm kept blaring, he eventually yelled out "turn off" in frustration, and it worked. The screen displayed a time of 0630. He had slept quite a while and was quickly awake. 

A brief inspection of his cell showed more features than he expected, including a shower. The door to his cell, which he thought was just a reinforced glass of some kind went opaque when he moved over to the toilet and shower. Looking around he saw two cameras in his cell, on opposite corners of the ceiling. Between the motion tracking and the fancy features he wondered if all the cells were like this or if the warden had upgraded him to nicer accommodations. 

At five till seven his terminal told him to head to the mess hall. He waved his arm over the panel next to the door and walked out. He didn't need to be told where the mess hall was, following the parade of other prisoners was enough. The entrance had a series of turnstiles that prisoners had to scan in to get through. The place was oddly quiet and sterile for a prison. Maybe it was the off white uniforms and slippers making everyone look more like mental patients than convicts. 

Jake joined the line, his tray was some kind of biodegradable cardboard. The only utensil was a spoon made of similar material with a thin veneer of wax. He had expected long benches, but the tables were small and round with four chairs apiece. The whole place could only seat 200 prisoners at a time. As he went through a turnstile to enter the dining area a number flashed across the display, he realized the tables themselves were numbered and made the assumption that he was assigned a seat. 

Before he could start eating two men joined him. An older black man and a younger pudgy white guy. Jake nodded at them. The old man smiled and enthusiastically said "You must be the wildman!" 

"Jake" he said extending his hand for a quick shake. 

"I'm Marcus, this is Tyler"

"How did you know I was a wildman?" Jake asked with some amusement at the term.

"They brought you in in one of those long haul vans from up north. All the other guests come in through a bus from the city. We don't get many like you but they all come in that way" Marcus said as he dug into oatmeal delicately with the flimsy spoon. 

"Guests?" Jake asked with a laugh.

Tyler softly spoke up "They call all of us guests, they're really insist on terminology like that." 

Jake sighed and continued eating. Marcus started "I'm old enough to remember what real prison was like, this place ain't that bad. But they are really strict on some things."

"Like what?"

"Violence mostly. They really don't want the men fighting each other." Jake laughed and Marcus continued over him "I'm serious, we're a valuable commodity. You start hurting other men and they'll give you the snip."

"What?" Jake asked unsure he heard correctly. 

"They will cut your balls off, and if that don't take the fight out of you they'll just put you down." Jake wasn't sure if the old man was fucking with him or not. Marcus folded his hands together and started telling a story "I like watching nature documentaries in here. I saw an interesting one about endangered rhinos, back when humans were trying to save the species. There was only like twenty of these things left in the world and there was this old bull rhino that chased off all the young males, but he couldn't mate anymore. He even killed a young female trying to get it on. So the people in charge of the park auctioned off a hunt for him. Some dude from Texas payed like 300 grand to the park and shot himself an endangered rhino. After it was done, I realized we're like them rhino's now. The 'furs want us to be happy and healthy, but if you threaten what's left they'll take you out"

Tyler wanted to interject throughout Marcus's story but waited for him to stop. "It's not like that, you have to behave pretty badly before they are going to do something that extreme." 

Marcus scoffed "Cuttin' off a mans balls is pretty goddamn extreme to me, and they do that often enough around here."  

"Really?" Jake asked, more to Tyler, he still couldn't tell if the old man was embellishing or not. 

"I've been her two years, there's like 2,000 people here and I've only heard of maybe a dozen guys getting it done."

Jake opted to change the subject "2,000? so where's everybody else?" he said gesturing to the relatively small mess hall. 

Tyler answered "They do a couple shifts of meals here, but this is the nicer side of the facility. There's over a thousand other guys in the general population down below. Being up here is supposed to be a privilege." There was a sickening hint of pride in Tyler's voice on that last statement.

"Don't let anyone give you shit for cutting in line" Marcus said "Wildmen start out up here and only get kicked down if they don't behave. They don't do well starting out in general population. Going straight from the wilderness to sharing a bunk and being stuck behind four walls... they cause too many problems." 

"What was it like?" Tyler asked "Being out there alone?"

"I wasn't alone. I had three friends with me. We met up along the way sneaking out of the cities and stuck together. I don't think I'll be seeing them again. We all got caught at the same time, and I guess if they did anything worth being in here they would have made the trip with me." Jake said, the reality of how much his situation had changed in such a short span of time made him sadder than he would have thought. He always assumed he was mentally prepared for being captured, but it had been far more fast paced and weirder than he ever anticipated.  

Neither Marcus nor Tyler said anything and left Jake with his thoughts. "But, I mean, what was it like?" Jake said going back to the first question "It was hard, way harder than anything I've ever done before. There were points where I was sure we were going to die our first winter. But we made it, eventually, and we were free" he smiled "For a while anyways." 

There wasn't much time to say anything else. The mess hall was starting to rotate out and tables were being ordered to clear out by a large board on the wall. Jake was dreading heading back up to the wardens office, but currently he was frustrated with trying to find the damn thing. He went back to his cell. An itinerary popped up on his terminal. He was due in her office at 0800. He asked for a map and was pleased to see the interface actually provided one. Now he had to go there. 

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===== Part 5: Encore =============================

Jake arrived a few minutes before eight. The doors to the lobby were locked and closed. He didn't have to wait long until the secretary arrived. She was a rather plain looking calico 'fur. She seemed startled once she noticed him waiting at the end of the hall. She adjusted her glasses and approached the office more slowly. 

"Mrs. Priestly requested I be here at eight" Jake said not wanting to impose on the secretary.

"Well, you can wait out here until she arrives" she said without looking at him. She unlocked the door "and its Ms. Priestly, for the record."

Jake didn't think someone like the warden would be unattached. He just assumed she was getting her kinks out at work while her husband was cleaning house. Another set of steps coming down the hallway made him turn around. It wasn't the warden though, a lupine guard lumbered past him and stepped through the door into the lobby. Jake had no idea how long he was waiting for before he heard softer footsteps approaching. The warden was wearing a black skirt suit today, she seemed rushed and her tail was disheveled. 

"I assume you arrived on time?" she asked Jake. 

He nodded. "I left early to get around the construction and I still wound up running late" she said shaking her head. She stopped in front of him. "Well" she glanced towards the office "get the door." 

Jake did as he was told and opened it. She entered and he followed. "Morning, Diana" the warden said with a quick glance to the desk in the corner. The secretary returned the greeting with a "Good morning" of her own. 

Charlotte did a double take after noticing the lupine guard "What is he doing here?" she asked the secretary.

"I just..." she couldn't help but glance at Jake "...wanted to be safe ma'am." 

With a slight shake of her head the warden said "It's fine," dismissively "call down to the infirmary and reschedule my meeting to whatever is convenient for Rebecca. I won't have time to read over the reports she sent me by nine." 

Once Charlotte and Jake were in her office she pulled a large brush from a drawer. "I don't suppose you have much experience brushing fox tails do you?"

Jake shook his head, but Charlotte had already thrown the brush on her desk and "What am I thinking? There's not point brushing my tail before..." she unbuttoned her skirt and shimmied out of it. "Jake, don't expect me to help you like yesterday, you need to fuck me all on your own."

Jake had continued to hold out hope that this mornings meeting was going to be platonic, that perhaps yesterday was just a spur of the moment fling from the warden. She stood at the edge of the desk and leaned forward until her stomach was flat on it, her legs dangled over the edge, unable to reach the floor any longer. Her tail swayed back and forth as she spread herself exposing her glistening sex. 

Jake hated that her pert butt and presenting posture was all the encouragement his lower head needed to get in the game. A full belly and a long night of rest did wonders to restore the libido. He didn't want to be attracted to this 'fur, even just on a purely physical level. He dropped his pants and approached her all the same. He inserted himself without warning and grabbed her narrow waist to start thrusting. 

"Take.. off.. your.. shirt.." she ordered as she gripped the desk tightly. Jake stopped and quickly pulled it off. "I want to feel your skin against my tail..." she said "...when we do this in the future ditch all of your clothes at the start."

Jake threw the shirt down with unnecessary force. The fact that she so casually declared that this was going to be a regular occurrence frustrated him more than he liked to admit. Luckily he had something to take that frustration out on already wrapped around his dick. He grabbed her hips with less restraint than before and started thrusting again. 

She was once again reduced to a yelping mess with little effort. Her tail brushing into his chest with gusto. He leaned forward slightly to thrust down and grind into her g-spot. That was enough to get her to orgasm, this time her spasms provoked him into cumming as well. She wrapped her legs around his thighs "Don't leave just yet" she whimpered. He stood there as she milked him with the minor quakes and aftershocks for a moment a longer.

Charlotte dropped her legs and Jake took that as permission to exit. He dressed himself. She spun around into a sitting position on the desk with her tail brought around to her front. She started to brush it with a self satisfied smile on her face. "I don't have time to teach you the finer points of tail brushing today. Did you watch your orientation materials last night?" 

"I fell asleep after it started" Jake said as he turned back to her.

She paused her brushing to make eye contact with him as she spoke "When I tell you to do something you need to do it. Normally I would deduct credits for disobedience." 

Jake nodded slightly as Charlotte realized he wouldn't know what credits are without the orientation materials. She sighed "You receive ten credits a day to spend on items in the commissary or on entertainment purchases through your terminal. Entertainment items are more expensive than necessities."

Jake nodded again "I'll go and watch the orientation stuff now" he suggested hoping that she would let him out of there. 

"Like I said, I should deduct credits, but you need to purchase some toiletries. Buy the plain soap and shampoo" she sniffed her tail "I don't want you covering up your scent with anything artificial. Also, buy a shaving kit, I expect you to be clean shaven every time I set an appointment for us." 

Jake wasn't surprised by these demands. Most 'furs were focused on things like scent and seeing as much skin as possible on men.

She continued "You may have noticed the surveillance in your room. It provides us with very useful data; how much you sleep, health markers, activity levels, even how often you masturbate." Jake couldn't help but chuckle at that. "You're not allowed to do the later, no pornography either. You are to save yourself for me, understood?" 

"Yeah" Jake said "believe it or not I didn't actually have many opportunities for self pleasure in the wild. So it's not a habit of mine." 

"That's good to hear" Charlotte said "I was worried you might be a homosexual." 

If she expected that to provoke a response Jake did not give her one. She cocked her head "What? A bunch of men spending years in each others company secluded from a society of wives willing to dote on them? It's not an unreasonable suspicion."

"You couldn't have been too worried about my preferences, you didn't even bring it up until after using me twice." Jake said.

"Keep clever observations like that to yourself" she said with her trademark glare. There was a long silence after that. She finally jumped down from the desk and put her skirt back on. 

"Finish your orientation materials this morning. I would suggest going by the commissary between lunch and your afternoon appointment with Dr. Hopper" she said casually as she returned to her chair.  

"Who?" Jake asked. 

"One of our resident therapists. Most sessions are done through the terminal in your room, but we do prefer in person sessions until a report is established."

Jake shifted his weight uncomfortably. Charlotte sighed "Of course, none of you think you need therapy. I assure you; if you're here then you need it. Especially the ax murders who run off into the woods." 

Jake let the insult go by. He silently wondered if she meant to imply the staff needed therapy as well.  

"I need to get back to work, your terminal can answer any other questions you have."

"I do have one question for you" Jake said remembering his breakfast conversation.

"Make it quick" she said without looking up from her tablet.

"Do you really call the men here guests?" 

"I'm not a fan of the euphemism, but that's the rules" she looked up at him incredulously "Does that really bother you?"

"It's dishonest. Hotels have guests, this place has a warden and guards" 

She shrugged "I'll schedule our next session in your itinerary. You can leave."

With that the conversation was over and Jake left her office. The lupine guard was still stationed next to the secretaries desk. She refused to look at Jake as he walked through the lobby. There was no way she didn't know what was going on. That meant the warden didn't care that she knew. Jake didn't have enough information to know if Charlotte was that secure in her position or just that reckless. 

As he walked back to his cell he considered another possibility, maybe all the 'furs had some side action here and he was just the wardens latest boy toy. If she had her pick of prisoners maybe that explained the lack of husband. He would have to ask around to get a better feel for what everyone else knew about her. He sat on his bunk and leaned back against the wall, his terminal turned on, and he requested the orientation materials. 

==================================================
===== Part 6: Echoes =============================

Dr. Helen Hopper was an older 'fur. She was one of the earliest generations and was sterile as a result. After spending fourteen years with her husband, he died and she never desired to remarry. By that time society was rapidly changing, and it wasn't anything exceptional for a 'fur to pursue a career; she chose clinical therapy. The wallaby had never been able to get her husband to admit if he chose her species based on his last name, but it no longer bothered her. If anything the name provided a disarming introduction to the troubled men she now had to treat.

She was particularly concerned with her newest patient, Jake Hastings. Reading through his file painted a troubling picture. Not the worst she had ever dealt with, but easily one of the more violent individuals to come through the facility in recent times. She reached for the terminal at her desk and messaged Dr. Upton in the infirmary. 

"Rebecca are you free right now?" she asked through the facility's internal messaging application.

Helen was surprised by the near instant response "Priestly just canceled my meeting with her, whats up?"

She asked about Jake, and Rebecca invited her to come down to the infirmary to talk since her hour was free. When she arrived Helen greeted Rebecca warmly "How are you and the husband doing?"

The raccoon smiled as she sipped her coffee "Just fine, as always" Helen was one of the few coworkers she held in high regard at the facility. Her genuine concern for the well being of everyone she encountered played a large part in that. "What do you need to know about Jake?"

"Anything you found out at all. Everything I'm reading in these files details a completely unprovoked attack. Something far too simple to be the whole story. Did he seem unhinged when you interviewed him, or irrationally hateful?" 

"He was uncooperative at first" Rebecca said. She continued with a guilty head nod "To be honest I wasn't too happy sticking around after hours to check him in either, so the attitude problems were mutual. Looking back, for a guy who had been chased down by a hunter pack and dragged here in a van, he was remarkably restrained" She sighed because she didn't like what she was going to have to show her friend. "You'll want to see this though." She brought up the photos of his identifying marks from the outpost processing. 

Helen adjusted her glasses "Oh my lord..." 

"Your intuition was right, the domestic bliss presented by those old records wasn't the whole story" Rebecca pointed to the prominent X scars on the back. "Those right there would have required hundreds of stitches, he would have been bed ridden for weeks to prevent them from opening due to their length, particularly where they intersected. It may have been months to fully heal if there were any complications" she waved her hand  "This is years of being torn apart, over and over."

Helen leaned back her hand over her mouth "Why?"

"I asked the same thing..." Rebecca said pulling up her tablet "which is why I wasted the rest of my night looking up everything I could find about Marilyn Hastings instead of going home at a reasonable hour." 

"Here is the cause of death of her first husband, Mr. Temple, the one that ordered her" She handed the tablet to Helen.

Dr. Hopper read through it "septic shock from a prolonged infection" she said out loud.  

"The coroner also recorded multiple scars on the corpse." Rebecca gestured at the pictures of Jake. "I don't get it, was she defective or psychotic?" 

"No honey," Helen said sadly "She was most likely made exactly to Mr. Temple's specifications. A man with a masochist fetish that wanted a tigress to do what tigers do. See here in the coroners report; in addition to the scars from cuts there were burn patterns and amateur piercings as well." 

Rebecca had not seen that, she took back the tablet and read it herself. Helen continued "He might not have died from anything Marilyn had done. Manky kinds of piercings can be life threatening if infection sets in, and his body tells a story of a lifetime of recklessly indulging in that sort of thing."

Rebecca tried to summarize "So some pain freak makes a mirror image freak wife, only to die from a freak lifestyle, and then she goes on to torture someone who never agreed to any of it. Until he reaches a breaking point years later and murders her in the kitchen."

"We're all carrying inherited trauma through this life" Helen said "At least 'furs can look under the hood and know where it came from." 

If anyone else had said that Rebecca would have scoffed at such a platitude. "You don't seem to carry any trauma" she said smiling weakly at her friend. 

"I wouldn't call it trauma, but I'm as artificial as she was. I'll never love anyone like my Harold" she teared up even saying her late husbands name. "I know he didn't intend for it to hurt me, but his absence does, it always has and it always will" she said as she wiped away the tears she could no longer hold back. 

Rebecca leaned forward to comfort her "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have said that." She knew how difficult it was for Helen to talk about her husband, even after all these years. The imprinting instincts of early waifurs like her were too strong. So many 'furs like her survived their husbands death but could not survive the loneliness that followed. Helen had found purpose in helping others.

"Don't apologize" Helen said with a genuine smile. She patted Rebecca's hand on her shoulder reassuringly "I never can tell whats going to set me off either. I don't regret being like this, really I don't. I had love and that's worth all the tears in the world."
 
==================================================
===== Part 7: Shopping =========================== 

Jake finished the orientation materials before lunch. Most of it was obvious. The expectations of good behavior and the implicit threat of punishments that everyone had reminded him of already. More tellingly were the things it didn't cover, such as the length of his sentence or the process for getting release or probation or whatever they called it now. 

He did find out that scheduling activities via the itinerary was more important than he realized. With only a few exceptions he wouldn't be allowed to go anywhere unless it was approved ahead of time, and things like access to the gym and other activities were restricted by demand. There was some preference given to prisoners with good behavior or on activities recommended by staff. 

After filling in for lunch he was a little surprised to see Marcus and Tyler already at his assigned table. He asked if the facility ever switched up who they dined with.

Tyler answered "You sit with the same people for all three meals in a given day, then its shuffled everyday. You have some control if you make sure to pick the same dining shift, but they want you to get enough social activity without forming strong relationships. They don't want gangs or cliques..."

"Or friends" Marcus interrupted "They want us out of here. Anything that makes you too comfortable works against that."

Tyler countered "We're supposed to be getting rehabilitated. It's not a social club."

Marcus flashed Jake an eye roll that said he wasn't buying what Tyler was selling. Jake seemed to agree so Marcus changed the subject "They set you up with a therapist yet?" 

"Yeah, um, I'm seeing Dr. Hopper this afternoon." 

Marcus nodded as he chewed "She's good. Some of them are too pushy, but she listens. She'll hook you up with comped entertainments if its therapeutic. She got me access to my documentaries." 

"You couldn't get them normally?" Jake asked. 

"Most of them are from before the 'furs took over. They keep that stuff under wraps."

Tyler jumped in "They want to prepare us for the world out there, not reminiscing about one that's gone. It's not healthy." 

"They do care about your health, I'll give them that." Marcus said "Can't get a damn cigarette to save my life." 

Jake laughed. "I thought people could get anything in prison."

"Old prisons, yeah" Marcus said as he leaned back from his finished tray. "Those had human guards, and they were crooked or lazy enough to let just about anything in. All the guards here are those damn wolf things and they only take orders from 'furs. We don't get visitation either so nothing comes in that way. Even if you got one of the 'furs on staff to bring in contraband it wouldn't matter. They always watching" he pointed lazily at the cameras dotting the ceiling. 

Tyler excused himself, since he was done too. Marcus waited until he was out of earshot "They got him, hook, line, and sinker. A lot of younger guys are like that now."

"What did he even do to get in here?" Jake asked. He couldn't see Tyler ever saying or doing anything the 'furs didn't approve of.

"That's another thing that's changed" Marcus said with a smile "We used to never ask that, but hell now these kids wind up in here for the dumbest shit, there's no shame in it. He had a young wife, but she was one of those bigger 'furs, not exactly the little woman in the kitchen type and she must have scared the hell out of him. He ran off and didn't think it through. Got snatched up and they took him right back. After his third runaway they granted him a divorce and a stint in rehab." 

"You get prison for divorce now? Fuck, man." Jake said shaking his head. "I bet everyone's asking about what I did, huh?"

"Motherfucker, that's all anyone has said to me since we had breakfast 'what he do?', 'what he do?', 'what he do?'" They both laughed. "Don't worry about it, I don't expect you to say shit."

Jake briefly considered telling him, but it was far less troublesome to talk about Tyler "He's in here for two years, for running away?"

Marcus shrugged "Nah after 18 months he got cleared for release. Now he's waiting on a sponsor. Some 'fur will take him in as a trial run back out in the world." 

Jake raised an eyebrow "Sounds more like husband shopping to me."

"That's cause it is. We don't get to see all the requests, they just send them one at a time. You get a short profile of the 'fur and a video call or two and then you have to decide if you're going to accept."

"So why hasn't Tyler accepted any? If they're dragging us out of the woods I assume demand for husbands must be high." 

"Demand in general, sure, demand for Tyler, not so much. A short, fat, triple runaway is a tough sell for an ideal husband. I hear the government's picky too, they won't let just anyone be a sponsor cause they don't want us coming back after being rehabbed. Got to keep them statistics up." Marcus shook his head. "I know he turned down one, but that was his old wife, she was first in line."

"You're joking, they would send him right back to her?" 

"Oh, hell yeah they would. A little trouble in paradise, hubby gets a few months of rehab, and now the happy couples back together. The government loves that kind of shit, proves how effective the program is. I mean, from the 'furs point of view that's the whole point right?"

"So no one walks out of here unless its hand in hand with a 'fur?" 

"Yep, and Tyler's only got another six months to find one. A year after release they start going right back down the list asking if anyone still wants you and you get no vetoes."

"With his ex sitting at the top of his list" Jake said in disbelief.

"Bingo." 

Since it was just him and Marcus Jake thought it would be worth a shot to ask about Charlotte. "What do you know about the warden?"

"Not much, she makes a little video when people get out that goes out to the whole prison. She doesn't seem to care that much though, I guess they make her do it for encouragement. As far as I know that's the most anyone here ever sees of her. Why?" 

"Just curious, trying to figure out everything I can about this place." 

Marcus looked at Jake skeptically, but didn't say anything.

"I need to hit up the commissary, you want to show me where it is?" Jake asked, he remembered that being one of the few places you could freely visit outside of a schedule. 

"Sure. They gonna kick us out in a few minutes anyhow" Marcus said getting up. 

==================================================
===== Part 8: Therapy ============================

Jake got his essentials at the commissary. Marcus showed him over to laundry as well so he could get a towel and a change of clothes. He got cleaned up before his appointment. The terminal had a mirror mode that helped him with the shaving, which is also how he found out about the high definition camera built into the screen. It made him wonder how many cameras were employed to watch the prisoners aside from the obvious ones on the ceiling. 

He arrived on time at the office of Dr. Hopper. It was an intimate and comfortable room. "Do I need to lay down?" he asked glancing at the couch. 

"If it helps you relax, if not, sitting is fine" she said gently. Jake opted to sit.

"Jake, this is just an introductory session. We don't have to talk about anything you don't want to. In fact I think it would be good for you to ask me as many questions as you like. I understand it's been a few years since you've had contact with civilization, is there anything you want to know about the world outside?" 

"Yeah, why did you guys bring us back?" he asked. He realized that might have been too confrontational of a question so he changed his tone and clarified "Not me specifically, I understand why you would want me back for what I did. But none of my friends did anything like that, why all the effort to chase everyone down in the wilderness?" 

"That's a big question. The simplest answer is the government has made promises to the people and this is one way to deliver on it." 

"No I understand that, I mean..." he paused gathering his thoughts. "We made you, the 'furs, because men wanted them. Now the 'furs want men, why can't they use the same technology to make more?" 

"Oh" she said, surprised that he was asking a much deeper question. "Well, I won't say we haven't tried, but they didn't work out."

Jake tilted his head curiously, which was all the prompting Helen needed to continue. 

Helen asked him "Are you aware of the uncanny valley problem?"

"Yeah, when something looks almost human, but isn't. So it creeps people out" he said.

She explained "That 'creepiness' comes from a confusion of your senses. A robot can look like a person and move, but you can still subtlety tell everything that it lacks. We 'furs have hyper developed senses, especially in regards to paying attention to human beings. So every attempt at making artificial humans falls into an uncanny valley for us. They don't move through the world like a man that has grown and aged normally. It's hard to understand because most humans, ironically, can't tell the difference. It's like we're looking at a digital image through two different resolutions, and only 'furs can tell it's poorly edited."

"That's really messed up" Jake said. Helen's body language prompted him to keep talking. "We made the furs to make us happy without regard for the consequences. Then the furs took over to get what they wanted only to find out they can't make it. Now no one gets what they want."

"Maybe on a large scale it just looks that way" Helen suggested "when really this is the growing pains of figuring out those consequences of artificial biology. We don't have to be made the way we are, humans or 'furs, but the initial exploration of that technology was so transformative that we are all being more cautious going forward."

Jake rubbed his chin, still not used to the lack of whiskers "Is it caution or the establishment of a new status quo? What if no one gets fixed, because we're all too broken to move forward?" 

Helen sighed at not having a better answer at hand. "It really is messed up" she said. Helen hoped that Jake would take this opportunity to share more of himself, but experience taught her to expect him to back off at this point. 

Jake leaned back and crossed his arms "What about clones?"

Helen smiled "Clones are just normal humans and humans start out as babies. We have immediate demographic problems and babies are a twenty year solution" she paused and changed the subject. "Let's go back to why your friends were captured; the hunter packs are being deployed because there's a downturn in military activity so more resources are free. It's not much, but that's the only answer as far as the timing is concerned."

"You wouldn't have any way of looking up what happened to them would you?" Jake asked.

"If you know their real names, I could look and see if they have been transferred into the rehabilitation system" she offered. "But there is no way for me to facilitate communication for you with them so long as you are here." 

"I would still like to know if its not too much trouble." 

"Of course" she said as she got out a pad of paper and a pen to hand to him. As he wrote the names down she asked "I understand that men can form very strong bonds in such survivalist situations, are you adjusting well in their absence?"

"I miss nature more" Jake said to deflect that line of questioning. "I just want to keep track of them in case I ever do get out. Actually, that's something you might be able to tell me, how long am I in here for?" 

"Rehabilitation doesn't really work like a prison sentence. There's no minimum or maximum amount of time you can stay in the system." Helen paused, unsure if Jake was going to have a negative reaction to that news. He didn't say anything so she pressed on "This facility is only for those making progress, if there's an indication that a guest is merely coasting or trying to prolong their time here they will loose privileges and maybe even get transferred to a facility with less individualized care."

Jake had a more pointed question to follow up "I've heard of castrations and executions being given as punishment, is that true?"

Most therapists avoided talking about these things and would insist on changing the subject. Helen found that such deflections were an impediment to building trust. "Regrettably, yes. Though executions are not performed at this facility and castrations are exceedingly rare. Both require repeated violent aggression on behalf of the guest before either are considered. I personally don't approve of their use at all." 

"Who does approve? I mean, who makes the decisions for those punishments or when we leave for that matter?" Jake asked. 

"The surveillance AI gathers massive amounts of data on each prisoner. It builds a profile regarding stress, aggression, and anxiety that no person could hope to match in terms of thoroughness. How do you respond to being annoyed, or challenged? How often do you lie? Are you overstimulated or depressed? We can extrapolate all sorts of personal problems, often before you're aware of them. It even tells us whether therapy is working, so it's reviewing me a little bit too and giving feedback. Not every therapist listens to the feedback but I find it exceptionally useful" she said with a soft smile. "Everything we gather in here is then compared to post release reports with a focus on minimizing recidivism. We have scaled back those extreme punishments in recent years, because we are genuinely getting better at rehabilitation." 

Jake wasn't sure if he was impressed or horrified "So I'm here until a computer puts me somewhere worse or lets me go? Do you have any say in it?" 

"Sort of, your progress in therapy contributes to the overall profile and often I can veto certain punishments if I think they are counterproductive. But its a very detached process, it doesn't even factor in why you're here. If someone has anything in their past that they haven't dealt with it will reemerge in their current behavior." 

The tabla rasa approach of the facility was hard for many guests to wrap their heads around. Most didn't believe it at all, especially those with severe crimes like Jake. Helen could tell he was thinking over her words carefully. 

Jake on the other hand was confused for entirely different reasons. The raccoon doctor had threatened him with solitary and being roughed up by the guards, and the warden threatened him with a whole lot more. There was a disconnect between the impression they gave about this place and what Helen was now telling him about it's administration. 

"I've heard of people being put in solitary confinement or held for psych evaluations as well, what about that?" he asked cautiously. 

"The staff have the ability to order such things as temporary interventions, but their use are thoroughly reviewed and rare. Those are reserved for an emergency." She wasn't sure if she should follow up with a question as he seemed to be working through his own thoughts.

"What about the warden, does she have veto powers over anything like you do?" Jake asked.

In the years that she had been working at the facility Helen had never gotten a single question about the warden. "No, Jake. Why are you so concerned with punishments? You haven't even been here a full day yet." 

She wouldn't tell him this, but the program was in fact more lenient with new arrivals, an adjustment period was accounted for as the AI built it's profile.

Jake shook his head "None of it makes sense, I'm being told too many different things by different people. You seem nice enough, but you also keep calling us guests. Guests aren't locked in with barbed wire and soldiers. This whole place is built on that lie. If this is how 'guests' are treated what am I supposed to believe about 'rehabilitation'?"

Helen folded her hands on her desk, before she could respond Jake started again "Is rehabilitation really in my best interest? Or is that just whatever you people call making men more compliant, whether they like it or not? Every time I get an answer to a question, I get the impression I'm going to have to suffer to find out what the real truth is."  

Helen wasn't sure what was provoking him to say these things, but she defaulted to gentleness when a patient became agitated. "Rehabilitation is aimed at reintegrating you into society, that's how we define it. You know what that society is like, including it's flaws. This place reflects many of those flaws. I wish the well being of our guests was our number one priority, but I often have to settle with helping you make the least bad choice."

She made sure Jake was looking her in the eyes "I don't want any of you to suffer, not anymore than you already have."

Jake felt that she was trying her best. He knew he was mostly upset at the warden and shouldn't take it out on the first sympathetic ear he found. Still, he had nothing more to say. 

"I have to say most first sessions aren't this energetic or far reaching" she offered a slight smile as a peace offering "There's a researcher I've been reading who has some interesting views on human and 'fur relations. She's considered somewhat controversial for her criticisms of many of the choices being made today and their possible long term consequences. If you would like, I could give you access to the audio book so that we can have something to discuss in our next session."

"Sure" Jake said "Thank you" he added as an afterthought.

==================================================
===== Part 9: Restless ===========================

Jake had the rest of his afternoon to himself. He tried to relax, but he wasn't willing to listen to the audio book just yet. He browsed through the entertainment selection instead. It was full of 'fur focused films and shows. Music was similarly restricted in variety. The interface kept trying to direct him to use free meditation and therapy related stuff. There were a couple "sounds of nature" music selections in that category that he played just to end the silence of the room. 

He browsed through other items he could special order. Nothing really caught his eye so he switched to trying to figure out what he had access to via the itinerary. While he was searching for that he was notified of a new appointment. After dinner in the administration wing. Charlotte.  

He had three hours until dinner and nothing to do. There had always been something to do in the wild, even if it was just walking. The time crawled by to the point that he was waiting at the door when he was scheduled for dinner. Marcus and Tyler talked among themselves while Jake ate. About halfway through the meal Marcus tried to bring Jake into the conversation "What's a matter man, therapy not go well?"

"No that was... fine" Jake said, though he didn't feel like reexamining that either "It's just that cell. Not having anything to do stressed me out."

"You got to get in the gym" Marcus said.

"That was never my thing." 

Marcus folded his arms and looked at Jake like he was an idiot. "If you were out there today what would you have done?" he asked pointing towards the window.

Jake looked out at the overcast sky and greenery "We were further north and inland, so we already had some decent snowfall. We probably would have made it to the lake by now. Ice fishing was pretty reliable and we would get some fire wood out of our stocks and take the time to cut down some more and dry it out. Smoke as much fish as we could carry before moving on. We never camped anywhere for too long." 

He stared out the window until Marcus spoke up and brought him back "That sounds like a lot of hard work."

"It's that or starve" Jake said plainly.  

"Wildman!" Marcus said almost yelling "You can't go from doing all that shit to sitting on your ass in here getting three meals a day handed to you. You'll go crazy!"

Jake hated to admit that something that obvious had escaped him. But he had avoided gyms in his old life too. He self-consciously scratched at his shirt before promising Marcus he would start scheduling some time in the weight room. 

Tyler wanted to ask more questions about living in the wild and Jake was happy to oblige since it filled the time before he had to visit Charlotte again. They stuck around until the big screen ordered them to clear their table. 

Jake skipped going back to his room and went strait over to the administration offices. The door to the lobby was open and the secretary had already left. He knocked on the door to the office proper and Charlotte told him to come in. She was working on her tablet as he approached. She set it down and got up from her chair. 

"Take off your clothes and sit here" she said as she turned her chair to face the floor to ceiling window. Jake quickly undressed and took her seat. The leather pulled at his skin oddly and he adjusted himself as Charlotte removed her top. She walked past him naked and picked up his shirt from off her desk. Jake thought she seemed distracted compared to the last two times he was in the office.

She stood directly in front of him and looked at his body, weirdly he felt more naked sitting in the chair than when he was just standing in her office. Of course he examined her as well as he had not seen her completely naked yet. She wasn't as skinny as he thought she was. Those suits she wore made her seem more narrow than the well proportioned creature standing before him. With the backdrop of the winter sky and the green tree tops stretching into the distance Charlotte looked as though she was the focus of some surrealist painting. 

"This will work better if you move more to one side of the chair, sit at a diagonal with your legs here" she said softly as she put her hand on his right armrest. Jake adjusted himself with the leather fighting his movements. She turned around and sat herself across his lap. She leaned against his chest, but she kept slipping off his leg. "Put your arm around my back and keep me here" she said balancing on his thigh, his hand come to rest on her own thigh as he pulled her closer. She swung her legs over the left armrest and Jake set his hand on her knee. 

She seemed comfortable with her position because she threw his shirt over herself like a blanket and leaned against him. "Tilt the chair back a bit" she suggested. Jake did so until she was laying against him with no effort. "There" she said with her head resting on his shoulder. "Just stay like this" she said softly with a deep breath. The office was so quiet that he could here an old clock that he hadn't noticed before ticking from somewhere on the bookcases. That and her breath were the only sounds he heard for many minutes. 

"So... just sit here?" he asked breaking the silence. She closed her eyes and rubbed her face into his chest before responding. 

"Yes, I set an alarm on my tablet to make sure you have time to get back to your room before nightly lock down. But I want us to sit here until then."

"Okay" Jake said, unsure of what all this meant, or if it meant anything at all. She adjusted herself slightly and the shirt dropped away from her. Jake used his free hand to bring it back up over her shoulders. If the glass of the windows had been more reflective he might have seen the slightest of smiles cross her face for an instant, instead he only saw the grey sky. Even without feeling the air he had the impression that a storm was headed in. 

It was rapidly getting dark out there. Jake wasn't sure if he was seeing things at first, but soon wisps of snow were dancing in front of the window. Not long after that it was coming down steadily. 

"It's snowing" he said to Charlotte. She lazily opened her eyes and turned her head to see. 

"Shit" she muttered softly "I need to leave before that starts coming down any heavier."

Jake lifted his shirt off of her and straightened up the chair. They got dressed and Charlotte spoke to him in her usual business like tone "I've already set our itinerary for next week. You'll need to be here Monday morning. Don't forget." 

Jake paused, he knew it was Friday from looking at his schedule all day, but it had been so long since he assigned any significance to the weekend that he hadn't considered Charlotte wouldn't be around for the next two days. He opened the door for her and they both exited through the lobby. She locked the door behind them and they took the elevator to the second floor where the checkpoints separated the administration building from the prison. She faced Jake and said goodbye, though she lingered just long enough for Jake to question if she wanted to say something else. 

Jake made his way back to his cell while struggling to fit what just happened into his understanding of Charlotte. Meanwhile she went through the higher security checkpoints to exit the building. As warden her dedicated parking spot was right next to the entrance. Her car was already warmed up; she had started it with her phone before leaving the office. She still had to run briskly through the cold air to get into it. She shivered in the drivers seat briefly before situating herself.

Charlotte sat back and breathed deeply. Jake's scent still clung to her fur. Its presence triggered a complex combination of emotions to well up inside of her. A tear formed at the corner of her eye. She shook her head and wiped it away. She clenched her hand into a fist and pounded the steering wheel several times in frustration. The outburst wasn't capable of holding back the response and she let out a single defeated sob before clearing her eyes with her sleeve. Ignoring the slight pain in her hand she hoped to distract herself by beginning the drive home. 

==================================================
===== Part 10: Perspective =======================
 
Jake woke up earlier than his alarm. He wasn't sleeping well. Marcus's advice echoed in his head and he realized that a lack of physical exertion was catching up to him. He tried to schedule gym time but nothing was available for Saturday or Sunday. He checked out what Charlotte had scheduled for him. Monday morning like she said as well as an after dinner session for every day of the week. What happened last night still perplexed him. He couldn't help but think his opinion of her might be totally different if that had been their introduction.
 
His dining mates for the day were a middle aged guy named Bill and two younger guys. Breakfast and lunch were filled with questions. Bill barely spoke but the young guys were insistent, especially in asking about his past before he went to the wild. It was an unwelcome source of stress as he tried to fill his time.
 
Calisthenics helped but he could only do so many push ups, lunges, and squats. Without the ability to do more full body movements he was just wearing out a muscle or two instead of getting a proper workout in. A pull up bar or even a heavy object to move around would have helped. It was just another reminder of how spartan the room was.
 
He tried listening to the book Dr. Hopper recommended but after thirty minutes his restlessness would set in and his mind would wander too much to pay attention. He even tried some of the meditation suggestions and he thought it might be useful with practice, but he was in no state to do much of it today. He did manage to kill some time looking at the items he could purchase and doing the math on how long it would take him to save up for anything to put in the room. A simple desk would take a month of points. He could skip out on getting a chair by sitting at the edge of his bed. A house plant or two wouldn't hurt either, they were worth about a week.
 
There were options to volunteer for work within the facility; stuff like cleaning, cooking, and running the commissary that paid a small amount of extra points. Clearly the guests volunteered more out of boredom than greed. But he was restricted from requesting work until his "observation period" was over, another 28 days. He hoped that maybe Dr. Hopper could get special permission for him or work something out.
 
He checked the inventory of the commissary, they had a simple journal and writing implements that he could afford right now. He thought about going to get them immediately but it was only a few minutes until dinner, so he decided to swing by afterwards. Dinner was quieter, the young guys seemed to be all out of questions. Jake had a sneaking suspicion that Bill had given them a talking too after he left lunch early to get away from them. Still Jake made some small talk.
 
"Why can't I get any time in the gym on the weekend?" he asked.
 
"No one has therapy or specialist activities on the weekend, so gym time fills up quick. If you don't request it early in the week you're not likely to get it" Bill said with a drawl.
 
It turned out Bill wasn't much of a conversationalist but a quiet dinner was better than getting waterboarded with questions again. Jake stayed in the mess hall for as long as he could. He also took his time walking to the commissary to get his journal. Once back to his bunk he stared at the blank pages for a while. The situation with Charlotte meant that he didn't feel safe documenting his time in prison. He was tempted to start doodling like a kid bored in class. After a few moments of frustration he finally decided what he was going to do with it.
 
He described what happened after he killed his wife. He didn't write about the murder itself just what he did immediately after; when he got in the car and drove through the night. He kept writing, describing as best as he could recall his journey. He was surprised by the alarm from the terminal for lock down. Putting his memories to paper had actually passed a great deal of time. Though as he went to sleep he did notice his hand was sore from holding the pen.
 
Jake was back in the woods and he was walking along a glass wall. Strangely, despite the darkness, he could see far into the forest as he walked. He was searching for a door or some way to climb over, but the wall stretched endlessly through the forest. He didn't know why, but he needed to get from this side of the wall to the other. Then he saw movement. It was Charlie, Dean, and Don struggling to run through the woods in the snow. Almost as soon as he recognized his friends lupines rushed in and overtook them. But they didn't stop with capturing them. They tore into them with tooth and claw. His friends were ripped to shreds by the writhing pack of monsters, which in the dim light seemed to blend into one another. Jake didn't move; he just watched from behind the glass with no response to what was happening. But then the glass wall disappeared and the monsters turned to face him. As they charged at him he woke up from the nightmare.
 
Jake rolled over and tried to make sense of it. Remembering the journal he reached for it under his bunk and opened it from the back. He wrote what details he could remember and hoped that he wasn't scrawling gibberish in the darkness. I can fix it tomorrow he told himself, I just needed to get a few details on the page for now. He tried to go back to sleep but all he managed to do was close his eyes until the alarm went off.
 
Tired as he was Jake still looked forward to breakfast. He was joined by a Japanese American guy named Hiroaki that went by Hiro, as well as a middle aged guy named Tony.
 
"You look like shit, Wildman, not sleeping well?" Hiro asked
 
Jake was amused that that nickname seemed to be catching on. "Yeah, I'm pretty restless. Hopefully getting in the gym next week will help me out with that."
 
"What times you got scheduled?" Hiro asked. Jake told him but they didn't have any overlap in the weight room.
 
Tony spoke up "I'm in there on Monday morning, I'll be leaving when you're coming in."
 
"Cool. Hey, do I need to go by laundry first? I can't imagine lifting weights in these pajamas, there has to be something else to wear." Jake asked them.
 
"They got clothes in the weight room, I'll show you how it works when you get there" Tony said.
 
"Thanks" Jake said. They had some more idle chat as they finished the meal and went back to their bunks. Jake was able to get into a more productive routine this morning compared to yesterday. He would write in the journal until he couldn't think of how he wanted to say something or until his hand hurt. Then he would do some calisthenics or try meditation again. Lunch was uneventful, save for Jake finding out Tony was really funny once he opened up a bit.
 
Jake tried to take a brief nap after lunch, but that completely failed. He never used to sleep during the day and despite his tiredness it simply wasn't going to happen. His lack of focus for the afternoon was much like the day before. Time crawled by until dinner when he was glad to be able to talk to Hiro and Tony again. He explained the mixed progress he was having dealing with restlessness.
 
"Didn't you say you had friends out there. When youse up north?" Tony asked.
 
"Yeah" Jake said not sure what he was getting at.
 
"Transfer downstairs, maybe you need to be around people more" he said.
 
"I thought downstairs was like a punishment?" Jake asked.
 
"Who told you that shit?"
 
"Tyler and Marcus"
 
Hiro and Tony chuckled. Hiro started "Marcus is a grumpy old man, and Tyler..." he paused thinking of what to say about him.
 
"Tyler's a fucking weirdo" Tony said, he tapped his temple "hes not all there. He would think living around other people is a punishment, guys like him used to never leave mommas basement. Marcus is fine in small doses, but he wears on people. Try playing a game of cards with him sometime and you'll see."
 
Hiro laughed at Tony's characterization of them, but he didn't dispute it. "Yeah, the guys that like it down there say stupid shit about us too; that we're all antisocial, or we need to be alone for close observation. Like we're all on suicide watch or something."
 
"So what is it really?" Jake asked, getting a little pissed off at the pattern of all the conflicting information hes been getting.
 
"It's just en suite living. You get a smaller bedroom, sure. But 2-5 guys share a common space and they're just roommates" Hiro explained. "All it is, is the difference between extroverts and introverts. For some guys being stuck in a room by themselves for the whole day is torture, other guys go crazy if they're not by themselves for at least eight hours a day. Rehab just wants you to be in a place where you have the right amount of socialization to keep making progress."
 
"For Tyler and Marcus that's basically none" Tony added.
 
"Okay. But my therapist said people get transferred for not making progress" Jake asked trying to make sense of this.
 
"She meant a different facility, like throw you in a van kind of transfer" Tony said. "To a psych ward or hospital. Maybe an assisted living kind of deal for some old fuck."
 
"When they give up on rehabbing you, you're going to wind up in a place where they are just going to take care of you and not much else" Hiro said.
 
"Don't worry about that shit, kid" Tony said "You got years before any of that's a problem, but maybe going downstairs is something to think about if the walls are closing in on you. What other stupid shit they tell you?"
 
"What about the executions then? Dr. Hopper said they do it, but she didn't say what for."
 
Hiro shook his head "They'd send you to psych first. But were talking like homicidal psychopaths or violent schizophrenics before they give up on you. They used to do lobotomies and extreme drug trials, but that got a little too close to human experimentation and they backed off of that real quick when the public found out. The 'furs tolerate mercy killing a little more than the idea of someones brain getting fucked with until they're left drooling in a room waiting for organ failure to set in."
 
"How do you know all that?" Tony asked, just as curious as Jake.
 
"My wife's an AI researcher. She consulted on the personality analytics for rehab."
 
"No shit" Tony said, impressed. "Mine cuts hair real good, that's about it."
 
"Okay" Jake said "you guys have wives, how does the sponsorship thing work for you?"
 
"As soon as we're cleared for release we're out a week later" Hiro said with a smile.
 
"Lot's of guys get divorced when they go in though" Tony said "Gives their 'furs time to shop around. She'll be put to the front of the line when it comes time for release anyhow, so they always got that as back up. That can go both ways tho', some guys find out the only rehab they needed was getting away from their wife and now they got options."
 
They kept talking for a little while, Tony told more of his funny stories about the stuff he used to get up to on the outside. He freely admitted he was in rehab because of his temper and he kept "starting shit" with people until he landed in here. Hiro didn't volunteer any more information about himself, other than that he was close to release according to his therapist. Jake was relieved that neither of them asked about his past while they were on the subject.
 
Once back in his bunk Jake listened to the audio book until he felt like he was going to drift off. As he turned out his lights ahead of lock down he hoped he was tired enough to not have another nightmare.

================================================== 
===== Part 11: Overexposed =======================
 
Jake slept soundly though he still woke up before his alarm. He felt a bit weird because after the boredom of the weekend he was almost looking forward to his morning session with Charlotte. To chase those thoughts away he went over his workout routine that he had planned for the day. Among the free materials on the terminal were some instructions on weightlifting that he used to refresh his memory from the class he took in high school. He had managed to kill a little bit of time memorizing it instead of simply writing it down.
 
Breakfast was uneventful after introductions. The guys today mostly talked among themselves. Jake thought about what Hiro and Tony had said, about the introverts and extroverts thing. The weird rotational dining arrangements made a bit more sense through that lens. If he kept this shift he would wind up sharing meals with the same person once about every two weeks. So Marcus's point about discouraging friendships didn't have much weight once he did the math. The administration could easily force shift changes on people and make it so they never see each other. He would talk with Dr. Hopper about it, if he could easily transfer downstairs then it really was just a matter of preference.
 
Once again he arrived early to the Warden's office. The secretary asked him to wait outside, like before, but at least she didn't call up a guard while he stood around. Charlotte was not far behind her this time, eight o'clock on the dot. Her only greeting was a brief nod as they entered. As soon as the door to her office was closed she began to undress and Jake took the hint to do the same.
 
"Move my chair over there" she said gesturing to the corner next to the window. Jake rolled the heavy piece of furniture away.
 
Her phone rang, she looked down at it and sighed heavily. She met Jake's eyes and held her index finger up to her mouth. He nodded and she answered the phone. It sounded like she was talking to her boss, which amused Jake somewhat as she was leaning against her desk naked while doing so. He turned around and inspected the bookshelf while he waited.
 
The section of the bookcases closest to her desk held a large double door display case. It had some personal items of Charlotte's. Her college degree, her masters, a few civil recognitions and awards. His eyes wandered down to a set of photos. He leaned down to get a better look at the largest one. It was Charlotte. She was standing with her arm around a man in US Marine dress blues, in front of them was a younger 'fur... Jake did a double take. The photo, the man's clothes, it was too old. He looked closer at the little 'fur girl, that must be Charlotte. These were her parents.
 
Jake recalled that waifurs didn't have genuine genetic diversity until fairly late in the population explosion. Early models would just outright clone themselves to make daughters. Others could vary epigenetic qualities like a computer randomizing characters for a game, but at root those were superficial changes. Usually aging helped hide these design short cuts. But in this photo her mother was only a few years older than Charlotte is now. Without the slight differences in the pattern of their spots, they would be identical.
 
Jake stood up. As his focus shifted, he caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the glass. It was hard not to notice that he somewhat resembled the man in the photo. Judging from how her father and mother stood next to each other it seemed Jake even shared a similar height. The conclusions drew themselves, and Jake's stomach turned slightly. Now he had even more questions as to what exactly he represented to Charlotte.
 
"Jake!" he heard from behind. Charlotte had finished her phone call and Jake was pretty sure that wasn't the first time she had called his name while he was distracted by the photo and his thoughts. She hopped up onto her desk in front of where her chair normally sat.
 
"Come here" she said, reclining back. Jake worked himself to erection as he approached.
 
"I want to try something different" she said as she snaked her arms up his back. "Once we start, look in my eyes and don't look away."
 
"And start with your fingers" she said spreading her legs a little more for emphasis. Jake put a hand on the small of her back and reached down to trace the silken fur of her entrance with his rough hands. As he initially parted her lips he felt the muscles of her back tense up. Her tail was rubbing against the back of his hand and he searched her eyes for a response. Aside from a sharp intake of breath, she gave him none. He explored her further with two fingers.
 
Charlotte could feel the excitement welling up inside her, but she wanted this to go on for longer. She closed her eyes for a few seconds to hold onto that feeling. Jake was so strong that it took him such little effort for him to manipulate her. If he wanted to take her, any way that he wanted to take her, there was nothing she could do to stop it, and yet he did everything she told him to. Her breath hastened and she opened her eyes again, he was still staring directly at her. That almost made her surrender by itself.
 
"Now" she panted, granting him permission more for her sake than his. As he entered her she thought she was going to be picked right up off the table, but he controlled her position entirely. The hand on her back moved to wrap around her waist, his other hand found rest on the middle of her back allowing her to lean away slightly and maintain their eye contact. He pulled her to the very edge of the desk and she wrapped her legs around him.
 
She was close again. As instructed, his eyes stayed with her. Charlotte had to break away. She tucked her chin into her chest and leaned into him as she came. That warm ecstatic feeling that spread throughout her body was tinged with the shame of failing the very task she set for Jake.
 
A part of Jake wanted to stop as soon as she was done, but her new position allowed him to pick her up. The temptation to finish was too great. After a few breaths of hesitation he grabbed her buttocks and lifted her up and used her to satisfy himself. Curled up against his chest Charlotte said nothing. She was lost in his scent and her own afterglow. The warmth of his release made her cling more tightly to him. She said nothing, unable to trust herself to not confess something stupid.
 
Jake gently deposited her on the desk. He regained his composure and cursed his own indulgence in the heat of the moment. He put his clothes back on as quickly as he could without facing her. When he finally turned around he found her lounging on the desk starring up at the ceiling. He looked past her to the display case and a thought occurred to him.
 
"Are you trying to get pregnant?" he asked, knowing that there was no point in trying to ask such a thing delicately.
 
She turned to him, with nothing but anger on her face. "No" she spat.
 
"Don't ever ask me personal questions" she said getting up hastily. "What we do does not entitle you to know me, at all."
 
Jake considered apologizing. But she wasn't owed that. Apologies are for people that care about each other. The moments of intimacy made the situation confusing and he had to remind himself what his position in all of this was relative to hers. Without looking at him Charlotte ordered him to leave. She wasn't even fully dressed yet when he made his exit.
 
Even though Jake was going weightlifting soon he took a warm shower as soon as he got back to his bunk. He didn't try to pass the time after. He just sat on his bunk lost in thought. He stared at the terminal until it reminded him to leave.

================================================== 
===== Part 12: Revealed ==========================
 
Jake shook off the weird feelings from the morning as he walked into the weight room. The entrance had a checkpoint going to a long hall with security glass providing a view of the gym. At the end was a second checkpoint. Lupine guards were stationed at both. At a glance somewhere between thirty or forty guys were in there, though that appeared to be the capacity. He guessed that after a weekend of no activities Monday mornings were pretty busy.  
 
Across from the entrance hallway at the other side of the gym was a sort of observation room. Two staff furs, a vixen and an avian of some kind, plus two lupine guards were inside. The fact that the facility felt it only need two or three guards at the ready to potentially deal with forty men should they become unruly didn't escape him. The air lock like quality of the weight room made him suspicious that other crowd control measures existed, hidden in the walls or ceiling.
 
Upon entering he looked around for Tony. However he was quickly distracted by something else. None of the men were wearing shirts, they only had cotton shorts and ankle high socks with rubber soles. His self consciousness about his scars suddenly eclipsed his desire to find Tony. He wondered if there was a punishment for simply leaving and forfeiting his time in the gym. Unfortunately he didn't get the opportunity to make that call as Tony walked up to him.
 
"Hey Jake! Come over here" Tony said as he led him to some dispensers for clothes. "Get your shorts, towel, and socks here. Word of advice: go up a size on the shorts if you got fat legs or a big dick."
 
Jake laughed a little despite still being nervous. The lockers were right next to the dispenser. "Lockers free if the handle has a green ring over it, red if its occupied. Don't worry about keys or nothing, just remember the number. If you forget, the staff will remind you, but they'll be shitty about it" he said as he pointed to the 'furs behind the glass.
 
"It sucks, but you gotta change back into your old clothes when your done. Grab a fresh towel and wipe down, take a shower when you get back to your room. Do it right away too, no one likes guys who do other shit after being in the gym. They stink up the place."
 
Jake had replaced his slippers with the socks and changed out his shorts. He paused before taking off his shirt.
 
"Hurry up kid, I don't have much time left and I want to introduce you to some guys."
 
Jake exhaled. He reminded himself that with this many people living this close to each other everyone was going to find out eventually. He bit the bullet and took off his shirt. He hung it in the locker and turned back to Tony who was starring at his chest.
 
"Shit, sorry I didn't mean to..." but his voice trailed off as he looked away. He did look back at Jake briefly, but in the face this time with his brow furrowed in concern. To his credit he didn't ask anything.
 
"Don't worry about it" Jake said. He became painfully aware that the sound of weights and people moving were disappearing. He looked out to the gym, everywhere his gaze fell heads that had been staring at him turned away.
 
A female voice cracked over a loudspeaker "Gentlemen, use your time wisely" Jake looked at the observation room, where the avian was standing up from a microphone. Both of the staff were locked on him, but after a quick glance to each other they decided to stare at their tablets instead.
 
Tony introduced him to a couple of jacked guys at the squat rack and then left. Jake could already tell that he was going to have to get used to the furtive glances and guys inelegantly staring out of the corner of their eyes. Once he got in the rack though he had something else to focus on. He spent his time figuring out what his working sets would be on a variety of exercises. By the time he was ready to leave he felt good enough to admit it was worth it.
 
When he got back to his cell the terminal had a notification. His after dinner appointment in administration had been canceled. He tried not to think about what that meant as he showered, but he couldn't help to consider the options. Maybe this mornings friction had convinced Charlotte that she wouldn't be able to maintain what they were doing. Perhaps she just had something to do in the outside world and had to leave early. The one thought that lingered most bitterly was that maybe Jake had correctly guessed what she was up to.
 
None of the other sessions were canceled for the week, so he just didn't know. He was at her beck and call. He wasn't allowed to know.
 
Lunch clued him in to how quickly word spread through this place. The chatterboxes he met at breakfast said nothing; not to Jake and not to each other. It was particularly uncomfortable for the poor guy who sat across from him. He didn't look up from his tray the entire time Jake was at the table.
 
Jake considered lying. He was in the north for two years. Everyone might buy that he got attacked by wolves, actual wolves. But he thought the less attention brought to it the better. Since he might be here for a while he was probably better off not making up a cool story everyone wants to hear. He left lunch early so that the guys could have some semblance of a normal meal without the elephant in the room.
 
His afternoon went by much better than the previous days. His focus was back and he listened to the audio book from Dr. hopper and actually absorbed some of it this time. About a half an hour before dinner he received a series of notifications. He had an appointment for a physical with a Dr. Upton on Thursday morning before gym. Dr. Hopper had scheduled another therapy session in person on Friday. Lastly Charlotte had added their after dinner session back to his schedule this evening. Jake got up to shave off his five o'clock shadow before dinner.
 
He started the meal off by setting the guys straight. "You don't have to walk on eggshells around me, I'm the same guy you had breakfast with. Pretend we're back to that" he said. It took them a few minutes to get into their normal banter, but they relaxed eventually. Jake was fine to stay on the periphery of the conversation until dinner was over.
 
He was barely insides Charlotte's office before she was giving him instructions. "Don't say anything. Take off your clothes and sit in my chair until the alarm goes off" she said tersely.
 
They sat together like they did on Friday. An hour ticked by and Jake was struggling to stay awake. It was some comfort that Charlotte was starting to do the same. Except she didn't struggle against it like he did and soon she was asleep on his chest. Her tail started to wag underneath his shirt, which was distracting enough to keep him awake. He couldn't help but notice her smile and once again everything about this conflicted him. Why couldn't this just be nice, by itself? Why did it have to be surrounded by everything deceptive and controlling that he ran away from? Why did he have to hate her smile?
 
The alarm thankfully destroyed his introspection. She jumped awake. With some reluctance she climbed down from his lap. They dressed in silence. She looked at her phone and told him "I'm canceling Thursday evening. Be here in the morning instead."
 
"I have a physical Thursday morning" Jake said.
 
"At 0930" she said with no emotion "be here at 0800. You can leave now. I'll walk myself out."
 
Jake left and distracted himself for the rest of the night with writing.
 
The next two days fully established his routine, with the gym and Charlotte being his anchors. He pushed himself as hard as he could with the weights. Living in the wild made that level of physical exhaustion a kind of normal he didn't know he was missing. It was difficult to get the same thing out of just an hour, but he managed with some coaching from the other gym rats.
 
Any hope of being known as Jake rather than "the Wildman" was completely snuffed out by his scars. He remembered old movies about prison where everyone had a nickname, Wildman wasn't the worst thing to be stuck with. Of course, nicknames usually came in three varieties; either a distinguishing feature of someone, or an inside joke about them, or, as in Jake's case, something ironic. Luckily the Wildman's reputation for being level headed seemed to travel just as fast, so he didn't have any more uncomfortable meals.
 
Charlotte had settled firmly on the side of keeping him at arms length. She was curt and direct when talking to him at all times. Since she was only seeing him in the afternoon she was getting both her sex and cuddling in a single session. Jake had resigned himself to mirroring her emotional distance. He could live with this, he had lived with worse. He kept reminding himself that he might be here for a while so there was always the possibility the novelty could wear off for her. Though 'furs tended to develop stronger attachments with this sort of thing the longer it went on.
 
Thursday morning went a little different since she normally had as much time as she wanted for an after dinner session. She seemed intent on keeping him for as long as possible. Right up until he had to go in for his physical. Jake was surprised to find that Dr. Upton was the same raccoon that had chipped him when he arrived. She let him settle into the exam room though her demeanor seemed softer.
 
Rebecca had thought a bit more about Jake since her conversation with Dr. Hopper. In retrospect she regretted how she had treated him that first night. She had let her presumptions impact her impartiality and professionalism. That was not in keeping with the mission of rehabilitation nor up to her own personal standards for that matter.
 
"Mr. Hastings" she began "I'm Dr. Upton. I want to apologize for my conduct when we first met. It was late and I have a long drive home, but that's no excuse. I regret that that was your introduction to this facility and it's staff. If you're uncomfortable with my serving as your doctor I can arrange for someone else to fill in."
 
Jake was pleasantly surprised. She seemed guarded, even when apologizing, so it was difficult to gauge her sincerity. Offering a second chance still seemed easier than permanently souring a relationship with one of the staff.
 
"Don't worry about it" he said "we all have bad days, sorry I was one of yours."
 
Rebecca didn't smile much, but Jake got as much of one out of her as any other guest had. They went over the basics; medical history, allergies, his blood work (she informed him that a sample was taken when he was chipped), and finally injuries.
 
"Regarding your scarring" Rebecca began "do you suffer any persistent pain issues that may need treatment?"
 
"No" Jake lied. The deep ones on his back had started aching in the last year. He had done his research a long time ago. Deep or internal scars can become a source of pain, even years later, as nerves regenerate. His had finally caught up to him.
 
"Were they treated in a hospital?" she asked.
 
"No" Jake said, but this was the truth. He tended to many of the small ones himself. His wife had been a nurse. She would stitch him up after tearing him apart, if he needed it. She kept the wounds clean and applied fresh dressings. After her first husbands death she was obsessed with doing so. It was a strange relief for Jake because she always waited for him to heal before wounding him again.
 
"I can't do much for them here" Rebecca said "but once you've left rehab, there are some very effective therapies for extensive scarring like yours. It's stem cell based. If you have pain or impaired movement the treatment can alleviate most or all of it with a series of shots, no surgery."
 
"I've carried them this long..." Jake said. The slight frown from the doctor prompted him to add "but I'll look into it. If anything comes up."
 
She nodded. "Most of your vitals are gathered by the surveillance but I still have to do a physical inspection. So remove your clothes please."
 
Jake smiled to himself as he did so. He was already used to getting those same instructions with far less politeness. He sat on the examination bench but the doctor had not approached him.
 
Rebecca had been curious about a smell surrounding Jake since he arrived. It felt familiar but she couldn't quite place it. With the simple act of taking off his clothes he drowned the exam room in it. She recognized the scent of the warden on Jake along with the tell tale notes that betrayed their intimacy. She was so shocked by the revelation, as clear as if Jake had blurted it out in words to her just now, that he had to get her attention to continue the examination. She did her best to complete the physical as she was processing this new information. She knew that humans weren't aware of such things so he couldn't have revealed what he revealed intentionally.
 
"Mr. Hastings..." she began, thinking carefully about what to ask him "I realize this may sound hypocritical coming from me, but is anyone on the staff mistreating you in any way?"
 
Jake assumed she must have felt much worse about their introduction than he initially suspected "Not that I can think of."
 
"Are you sure there isn't anything you want to tell me about someone else on staff?" Rebecca prodded.
 
Now Jake was less certain of what they were talking about. He didn't know what she suspected or how. But when faced with a choice of lying to the doctor or the unknown consequences of betraying the warden he would take the safer path for as long as it was available.
 
"No" he said with conviction.
 
Rebecca let him keep his secret. "Well, that's good. You can always send me a message through your terminal if anything comes up. Medical related or otherwise."
 
"Thank you" Jake said.
 
There was a long pause between them. Rebecca finally spoke "I need to visit other patients, I'll leave you to get dressed."
 
She was out the door before Jake could say goodbye. He went to his cell to wait out the half hour he had left before going to the gym.
 
Rebecca ducked into another exam room just long enough to tell the guest that she would reschedule. She canceled and moved his exam on her tablet as she made her way up to the administration building. She crossed through the lobby of the warden's office so fast that the secretary only looked up in time to see the doctor's tail disappear through the door.  
 
Charlotte muted the meeting she was in and turned away from her tablet "Rebecca, What can I do for..."
 
"What in the hell are you doing with Jake Hastings?" Rebecca interrupted, too mad to let the warden's false politeness continue.
 
==================================================
===== Part 13: Feral =============================

The secretary had gotten up and ran to the doorway, already apologizing for not stopping Rebecca. Charlotte leaned to the side and speaking up said "Diana, give us some privacy." She stopped trying to apologize and exited.  

The two 'furs stared at each other with mutual tension until the latch of the door clicked. Rebecca was not going to repeat her question. Arms crossed, she waited for Charlotte to say anything. Charlotte went back to her tablet. She turned the meeting on and spoke "Hey, I think I'm good on what we've gone over. I've got something here at the facility that's needs my attention. So I'm leaving the meeting early. Big thanks to everyone who contributed in putting these reports together and I'll see most of you this afternoon."

Charlotte closed the meeting as soon as a few people recognized what she said and turned to Rebecca. "Did he tell you?" 

"He didn't have to, I could smell it on him." 

Charlotte sighed. Of course, she had been greedy with Jakes time earlier and forgot to tell him to go back and shower before his appointment. "Well then you already know exactly what I'm doing with him. What's the problem?" 

"It's completely inappropriate!" Rebecca said, coming as close to yelling as she was capable of. "I took a look at his ID logs on my walk up. You've had him come to your office everyday since he got here, sometimes twice. He couldn't possibly be consenting to anything five minutes after meeting you and living out there for as long as he did." 

"Oh, we're suddenly concerned with the guests consent are we?" Charlotte said coldly. 

"Yes, we are" Rebecca said indignantly "I felt bad all week because I was rude to him when I had to get him chipped, just to now find out that as soon as I sent him out of my office he was headed into your claws!" 

"But you chipped him anyway, didn't you?" Charlotte retorted "I know you care as a doctor, but I think you believe in the mission of rehab a little too blindly."

"That's better than believing in nothing, which is what I seem to be getting from you right now." Rebecca flung at her. 

Charlotte sighed and attempted to deescalate "Listen, I know we've butted heads in the past..."

"Don't!" Rebecca said speaking over her. She stepped forward and pointed a finger at the warden. "Don't pretend this is the same as some argument over staffing or budgeting or anything like that. I will go to Sandra over this." she said, referring to the Regional Administration Director for Rehabilitation. Charlotte's boss.

"She already knows" Charlotte said plainly.

"What?" Rebecca asked, disarmed. 

"I filed a DIS last Friday" Charlotte said. She browsed through her tablet "I can show you the submission and even the email I got from Sandra congratulating me." 

Rebecca stepped forward to read through it. A Declaration of Intent to Sponsor form was standard practice for when a 'fur developed a relationship with a guest within the rehab program. Casual flings were discouraged and heavily punished in the case of married guests. But if the man was single it would be allowed to continue so long as the 'fur submitted the formal paperwork to declare that they would serve as his sponsor. The 'fur had to forfeit the ability to issue punishments or grant privileges even just for submitting the request, but that was often abused. It's not as if co-workers couldn't trade favors regarding boyfriends just as well as anything else. Many 'furs regarded the ability to shop for a certain kind of husband as an unstated benefit of working in rehab. 

"Does Jake even know?" Rebecca asked.

"He'll find out if or when he's granted release. I have plenty of time to tell him before that if I choose to." Charlotte stated. 

"What I meant to ask is: does Jake understand the consequences of a DIS? Does he know that he doesn't have to meet with you, and that you aren't allowed to punish him?" Rebecca asked sliding the tablet back across the desk. 

"He hasn't asked" Charlotte said, getting as close to the truth as she was going to.

"I didn't ask if he asked, I asked if you had fully informed him. But I guess I got my answer" Rebecca said in disgust. "You've never done anything like this before. I can barely get you to even look at the guests when they need approval for out of facility surgery. Why the sudden interest in getting a man?" Rebecca's asked, more astounded than curious. 

"I have my reasons" Charlotte said. 

"Why Jake? You couldn't have picked a worse one, by the way. You have one fling in your career and you choose to force yourself on a man whose last act in civilization was murdering an abusive wife? He's not a typical guest, he could have throttled you to death the first night he was here. Right in your office before the guards could do anything about it."

"Well, he didn't" Charlotte replied "I have my reasons for picking him as well." 

"So that's it. Fuck what's best for Jake and take what you want?" Rebecca asked.

Charlotte returned to her more severe demeanor "Don't pretend that you or this organization cares about him either. If you wanted what was best for Jake then the first night he was here, before you chipped him and sent him up to my office, you would have given him some warm clothes, as much food as he could carry, and walked him out the front door yourself." 

"I don't believe that" Rebecca said "We can help him".

Charlotte laughed grimly. "No we can't. That's ALL I've been talking about ALL week long. Meeting after meeting about it. It's been five years since we started pulling the ferals out from the woods and now we have all the data on their outcomes in rehab and it's terrible." 

"Ferals?" Rebecca asked confused.

"Yes that's the new vocabulary we're using for the 'wild men'. We've had so many arguments about just that" Charlotte said shaking her head "We were using reclamations for a while, but that brought up too many bad memories about the old program. Someone actually suggested 'wild caught' at one point, like they're a bunch of salmon." she said with a laugh, though Rebecca was in no mood to find anything funny. 

"We finally settled on ferals since most of them are escapees. The negative connotation is intentional. That way rehab looks better no matter their outcome. We get to say we turn feral humans into good husbands now. Or when we fail, which is far more likely, it's because they're just too savage."

"What do you mean?" Rebecca asked with concern.

Charlotte reached for her tablet "Let's see, uh, here's the summary. Ferals have a 60% chance of attempting suicide in the first three months of rehab, with a very high above average risk after that. They're more successful at it too, nearly half of all attempts by ferals result in death. They are the overwhelming majority of escape attempts, even a few had success at getting past the fences before the lupines caught up to them and got them back. The vast majority of assaults on staff or other guests are by them..."

"Oh here's one I can ask you about; how many ARSI's did you sign off on in the last year?" Charlotte asked. 

Rebecca thought about it. Aggression Reducing Surgical Intervention, the official term for castration. "We've done five or six in the last year." 

"And four or five of those were ferals right?" Charlotte asked. She took Rebecca's non-response as agreement and continued "Yeah, that's about right. Something like four out of five ARSI's now are on ferals. These are the most aggressive, least agreeable, and independent men that we bring in. Suicide attempts go way up after an ARSI too. They're also a growing number of the execution orders, though it takes us longer to sign off on that, so five years means we're only just beginning to see the surge on ferals in those statistics." 

Rebecca continued saying nothing and Charlotte set the tablet down before continuing "Less than one in twenty actually get released, ever. Those also have the highest run away statistics and recidivism. For the last month, we've been struggling with how to polish this data so it isn't completely damning of the whole program. That's what I'm going to this afternoon, all the facility admins and directors are going to be there to spin a lie to the press and the general public. Drinks! Dinner! Big speeches! All of it to make sure no one looks at the numbers."

Charlotte gave another dry laugh "The messed up thing is that the truth is even worse. Dr. Harris, the chief consult on the therapy program, did a multivariate analysis on the ferals looking for patterns and she found something pretty disturbing, but we're not reporting it."

Rebecca finally had something to say "What could be worse than all of that?"

"When divided up based upon how long they had been in the wild, the good outcomes overwhelmingly come from the ferals that were out there for less than a year. She hypothesized that most men aren't prepared to go from civilization to living like that immediately and if you get them in the first year they consider it a relief. They pat themselves on the back for trying, but they get with the rehab program. However, if they've been out for more than a year the anxiety goes away. Once they've survived every season they start to enjoy it. The worst problems come from multi-year ferals" Charlotte said solemnly.

"Jake's had two and a half years out there" Rebecca needlessly reminded her.

"Including three winters" Charlotte said "We're not reporting any of Dr. Harris's work since time in the wild mostly comes from self reports of ferals. We've decided that's not an 'objective measure for outcome assessments'. The one thing they are trying to tell us is that they don't want to be here" Charlotte sighed. "Too many people in high places have a political commitment to bringing in ferals and they're not going to let a little thing like data get in the way."

"None of this has anything to do with Jake" Rebecca said, reminding Charlotte why she was here in the first place. 

"No one cares what happens to him. I think that's relevant" Charlotte said "Even without being a feral we both know that men who murderer their ex's don't have many 'furs lining up to be their sponsor" 

"I don't know whats crazier; that you're trying to justify this or that you're willing to sponsor him just to do it" Rebecca said "Have you considered what might happen, if after all this he does get release? Maybe he won't do anything to you here because he's afraid of retribution. But you're running the risk of inviting him into your home if you're his only sponsor and he agrees." 

"I don't care" Charlotte said, though her voice wavered. The mad thought of taking Jake home caused a tear to form in the corner of her eye. Charlotte pretended to rub the bridge of her muzzle in tiredness to wipe it away. "I have a lot to do before going downtown, are you satisfied?" 

"No" Rebecca said "I'm going to talk to Hopper about this. She'll come up with a way to break the news to Jake, hopefully without making him hate every single one of us in the process. He doesn't have do what you tell him and it's sickening that you've led him on this long."

"Well then you have something to do other than be in my office" Charlotte said bitterly. Rebecca clenched her fists and marched out. 

While waiting for the elevator Rebecca sent a message to Dr. Hopper "I have to talk to you about Jake Hastings urgently. If we can't make time this afternoon I need to see you after hours."

==================================================
===== Part 14: Reviewed ==========================

Dr. Hopper was in the middle of a video therapy session with a guest when she saw Rebecca's notification. Once the session ended she read it with curiosity. She checked Jake's schedule and saw that he had had a physical this morning. She worried that Jake had a serious undiagnosed medical condition, given how long he was in the wild that wasn't uncommon. She told Rebecca that she was free at 1630 and continued her therapy sessions through the rest of the day. Many of these guest were mostly through rehab and these sessions didn't require hard questions on her part so her mind naturally wandered back to what could be wrong with Jake. Rebecca was at her door five minutes early. Helen waited for her current guest to wrap up and then buzzed her in. 

"Look at this" Rebecca said forcing the tablet into her friends hand. The DIS request from Charlotte was already brought up on it.

Helen read over the document "Really?" she said looking up to Rebecca "with Priestly? How did they even met?"

"She put it on his itinerary as soon as he arrived. He went straight up to her office after I processed him. I didn't even know. How often do you check a brand new guests itinerary?" Rebecca asked rhetorically as she sat down on the couch. 

"Did she know him before he ran away?" Helen asked.

It had actually never occurred to Rebecca to ask that. But based on Charlotte's conduct in their conversation earlier she felt confident that wasn't true. "I don't think so. I'm pretty sure she would have told me when I called her out on it" Rebecca said with a sigh. She summarized how she had found out about their relationship during the physical and the subsequent confrontation with the warden. 

"I don't know what's wrong with her, but I'm almost certain Jake has no clue as to the impropriety of what shes done. She might have threatened him. I know for a fact she hasn't told him about the DIS, so that alone means he's in the dark about a lot" said Rebecca who was really beginning to regret not having a drink for this conversation after going over everything again. 

Helen wouldn't reveal what was disclosed in therapy, but Jake's odd question about the warden now made complete sense. As well as his focus on punishment and accountability within the facility. He had had a very unfortunate introduction to rehab. 

"It's all very out of character for her" Helen said.

"She's always been a bitch" Rebecca responded dismissively. 

Helen was attempting to understand more before judging. It would have been rude to ask but she had suspected the warden's lack of husband and seeming lack of desire for one was a result of some failure of her imprinting. Naturally born 'furs like her were known for complications in that regard. Her sudden and almost obsessive interest in Jake added to that hypothesis. 

"So without ever meeting Jake before, she invited him up to her office alone? And she had only ever seen the processing photos of him or read what was in his file?" Helen asked.

"Yeah that's what makes it so crazy" Rebecca said "We don't know what they did. So when did they start being intimate? It could all be a voluntary arrangement and she just refused to tell me about it. That seems really doubtful when I say it out loud though." Rebecca speculated. She didn't have access to the surveillance gathered from within the warden's office or she would have looked already. The infirmary was organized under the administration part of facility so she was restricted from spying on her boss for obvious reasons. 

"Well, I hate to do it, but I'll have to take a look." Helen said. The therapists of the facility were organized under rehabilitation directly, which was intended to give them a check on the administrative side. "I'll put in a priority request to access his time in her office, hopefully I'll be able to get it and review it by morning. I have another session with him tomorrow afternoon." 

"She still has a session for herself scheduled with him after dinner on Friday" Rebecca said "It might derange the therapy a bit, but he needs to know he doesn't have to go." 

"Of course" Helen said "But I think you're discounting the voluntary possibilities. I'm still very unsure about Jake." 

"Maybe" Rebecca shook her head "but how much bad luck can a guy get? Runs away from one psycho wife just to find himself in the clutches of whatever Charlotte is."

"I'm still unsure if he ran away from his wife" Helen said "He hasn't talked about her at all yet, so I don't think I'm violating anything ethically by saying this: But I can't tell if hes traumatized from living with his wife or traumatized from killing her." 

"What's the difference?" Rebecca asked.

"He endured that treatment for so long. No runaway attempts. No one in the community expected it either, that's why it was so scandalous. So he kept the secret for years, never taking off his shirt in public. They went out with friends, on vacations, and visited family. They were well regarded by their neighbors, as a couple. I don't think he actually killed her over the abuse" Helen said sadly. "Then there's the fact he ran off into the wilds. He choose a very hard life, to get away from a hard life he was already used to" Helen sighed "I don't know, it's too early to say anything significant." 

"A very unique feral" Rebecca said with mild disgust. She sighed, and really wishing she had a drink now, explained the second half of her conversation with Charlotte.

"We've all noticed the poor outcomes, anecdotally" Rebecca said. "But the fact that rehab would just recommit to running this program when they know full well it's not working makes me sick. Maybe the ferals need a dedicated facility or something. This data is an opportunity to reassess and pivot, not double down." 

"That's politics, sweetie" Helen said.

Rebecca lounged back, fully aware what that implied in a therapists office, but she was tired and the couch was comfortable. "Do you worry about what we're doing to them? Like, collectively? What we're doing to humans. Chipping them, castrating them, putting them down, now were calling the ones that don't want to live with us 'feral'. We're treating them like dogs, like something that needs to be domesticated, not our husbands."

"Have you been reading Camille Kerr as well?" Helen asked bemused.

"Who's that?" Rebecca asked. She sat up, already feeling weird about lying down in the office in the first place.  

"A social commentator. Her book is actually titled "The Domestication of Man". I authorized access to it for Jake. He was offended by some of the euphemisms we use around here, so I recommended a book by a 'fur that echoed those sentiments. Something neutral for us to talk about, while also opening doors for him to say more of what he thinks" Helen explained.

"Yeah, well I feel he's going to be a lot more offended about how things work around here after tomorrow" Rebecca said "I don't envy you breaking this news to him." 

"Thank you for bringing it to my attention" Helen said.

"I wish I hadn't been the one to find out" Rebecca said realizing she was already late for heading home.

"I'm glad it was you" Helen stated earnestly "Not many around here would have gotten angry enough to confront the warden over it. Quite a few would have just kept it to themselves." 

"I hope this doesn't turn out to be one of those 'no good deed goes unpunished' situations" said Rebecca before finally saying her goodbyes and making her exit. 

Helen stuck around and submitted the request for the video feeds before leaving. By morning she had a response from her supervisor to clarify what she was asking for. She made the video call as soon as she got to the office. After Helen explained the situation her boss had a warning for her "I'm granting you access for everywhere this Hastings guy goes. But we have to tread carefully, we're already getting raked over the coals in the press for that disastrous presentation about the feral statistics yesterday. Just using the word 'feral' alone is already causing massive push back and we're preparing to get more scrutiny on the program than ever before. We can't have some wild man killing the warden of a facility over a lovers tryst gone wrong." 

Helen was glad to get the access she needed, but the disturbing politics of all of this was echoed by the call. No one was concerned about what happened to Jake, or what was currently happening to him for that matter, he was only a concern in that he had the potential to embarrass the program further. She pushed those thoughts aside as she began her review of the video. 

Despite her clients sharing their most intimate details, Helen often felt like a voyeur when watching them on security. Especially now that a co-worker was so prominently featured. She listened to their conversations and fast forwarded through their intimate moments. Unfortunately, it was much as she and Rebecca feared, with the warden making threats to a new guest who didn't know any better. 

She quickly knew what she needed to tell Jake, however thoroughness required her to review all their meetings together. This revealed a more complicated picture to the therapist. Charlotte was not merely fulfilling lust. The long sessions of skin contact where they simply sat together, often for hours, were an unexpected discovery. Also what she saw after Jake left, when the normally stoic warden was alone and barely able to control her emotions. 

Helen had worked with violent men for years, she knew how to keep seperate her lack of empathy for what they had done from the necessary sympathy required to do her job and help them. Nevertheless it was odd to now find herself going through the same feelings regarding the warden. Just behind that controlling and vindictive demeanor sat a person who was clearly in pain and struggling to navigate it alone. Helen briefly wondered if her own loneliness was making her too sympathetic with what she saw in the warden, but she ignored that kind of introspection and reminded herself to do what was best for Jake.

To that end she began to review Jake's surveillance reports. Broadly speaking the most concerning thing seemed to be his very low emotional register. He socialized well enough with other guests, but the readings from his biometrics showed a remarkably dulled response to anger. Something that she had seen first hand with his interactions with the warden. This wasn't necessarily a problem, many success stories from therapy yielded similar results as the guests learned self control. But given Jake's past, she had to weigh that consideration against the likelihood of this being trauma related emotional suppression.

The other issues, such as his restlessness, weren't indicative of anything to her just yet. He had only been here a week, adjustment time was necessary. As well as the mitigating factor of what had been occurring with the warden. She took a few notes to keep an eye on those issues, but had to defer to looking into them deeper for a later day. She was already behind because of the need to review those videos and she had many other guests to attend to. She skipped lunch to make up for the lost time, but largely avoided thinking about Jake again until his session in the afternoon.

==================================================
===== Part 15: Exits ============================= 

Jake was in a pretty good mood. He had just gotten the notification that his gym time for the weekend was approved, even though he had requested it earlier in the week. A few of the guys in the gym said that was likely since he was new. The situation with Charlotte was probably as good as it was going to get, they barely talked to each other and she was making less demands on his time when they first arrived. He was looking forward to a clear headed weekend to put his thoughts down. It was time to start putting a plan together; how to get through rehab as quickly as possible and what to do once he was out. 

Jake thought about that as he headed to therapy. He hoped to subtlety ask about the few things he didn't have full answers for yet. Was going downstairs a punishment or not? What happens if he gets release and no sponsors? Those were the big ones. 

Helen gave Jake time to make himself comfortable after he arrived. She began "I have something very important to tell you, but I want to make sure you have no questions for me before we go over it."

Jake didn't like the tone about the "very important thing" but he wasted no time asking his questions.

There was often confusion about the upper and lower facility so Dr. Hopper had no problem explaining it to him. "It is mostly about guest preferences. However the closer we get to capacity more guests may be forced into higher volume living areas and conversely some guests are kept in single rooms for closer monitoring. The upstairs facility has tighter access controls than downstairs so it's easier to manage those who may be a danger to themselves or others."

So it was a little mix of everything else Jake had heard. He actually wasn't feeling that anxious anymore so he wasn't going to ask about a transfer just now. He followed up with his question about sponsors. 

"Well that brings me to what I needed to tell you" Dr. Hopper said with a heavy sigh. "It has come to my attention that the warden, Ms. Priestly, has been manipulating you to come to her office for the purpose of sex. That she has threatened you in order to get you to comply with her requests. I want you to know that she no longer has authority over you to do so and that you can ignore her requests or delete them from your itinerary at will with no negative repercussions. I, and others, will be monitoring the situation in order to prevent anything retaliatory from happening."

As soon as Dr. Hopper mentioned the warden's name a chill went down Jake's spine. But he stayed calm and heard her out until she was finished. She gave him as much time as he needed to come up with a response. When he didn't say anything for a while she decided to continue "I'm deeply sorry that she was such a major part of your introduction to the facility, but going forward..."

"Is she going to be fired?" Jake interrupted suddenly "I'd think an abuse of power like that would warrant something along those lines."

"I don't think that is likely" Helen said. This was going to be the difficult part. She knew the flaws and assumptions built into this system and that the warden had taken advantage of them to leave herself in a better position. 

"So nothing happens to her and I'm just supposed pretend it didn't happen?" Jake asked getting more agitated. 

"It's too early to tell what the consequences will be" she offered.

"You said it's not likely, why is that?" Jake asked quickly

"These incidents often have to be observed as a pattern before termination is suggested. She's never done anything like this before, and actually had very low tolerance for this kind of thing out of the rest of the staff. Her record stands as her shield, and if this gets escalated some kind of reprimand might occur. But it's unlikely to be severe for those reasons, based upon my experience" Dr. Hopper stated. Jake could tell she was mildly upset as she said the words. He recognized that she wasn't defending anything, merely describing it. 

That didn't stop him from being mad though. "You're saying shes not allowed to issue punishments or anything, what happens if in six months she gets cleared and starts back at it or retaliating. Or if I'm here for years and you quit? At the very least shouldn't I get sent to another facility like this one?"

"She filed paperwork that will prevent her from ever getting those controls back over you. Inter-facility transfers are only authorized in the event of something extreme" she said, though she regretted her word choice. There was no way Jake didn't view this as extreme.  

That wasn't what Jake focused on however "Filed paperwork? After she was caught?"

"No, she actually filed the paperwork shortly after your second encounter" Helen set about explaining the DIS and it's consequences. 

Jake had to stand up and pace as the situation dawned on him. "So even if I never see her again while I'm inside, she's first in line as my sponsor?" he asked staying as calm as possible. 

"You'll have the opportunity to reject her offer just like any other" Helen reassured him. 

"Yeah, but if she's the only one then it's a sealed deal right?" Jake asked.

"There's no reason to assume that. Plenty of men who come back from the wild find sponsors" Helen said. Despite the discussion she had with Rebecca about the difficulty men like him had in just getting to that point, she didn't intend to treat Jake any differently. He had as much opportunity to benefit from rehab as anyone else. 

"That's nice, but I'm talking about men who murder their wives" Jake said, looking in Helen's eyes this time. 

Helen stopped trying to respond. She realized how tense she had grown in the conversation. She straightened herself up at her desk before looking back up at him "I'm sorry". 

Jake felt she was sincere. However, honest answers could only lift his mood so much right now. He laughed darkly "I'm not surprised by any of this." He thought about what Marcus told him regarding Tyler "When I first got here I was told about a guy going through his release, his ex is at the top of the list. He's only in here because he ran away from her in the first place. Now he's going to wind up being forced right back into that situation."

"Why wouldn't you guys force me to marry her?" he asked rhetorically. Helen didn't say anything. 

"That's what release and sponsorship is right, just another way to pretend that you guys are helping us and that we have choices?" 

Helen knew the reality. Less than ten percent of sponsors didn't marry their sponsee, and it was largely the sponsors choice. "The last time we were having a difficult conversation about the facility I told you that I often have to help patients make the least bad decision available to them. You haven't been left with many choices and the only thing I can offer you is time. Rehabilitation takes time and Charlotte could withdraw her interest long before your release. The best option for you is to ignore her."

"No" Jake said "I need to talk to her." 

That got Helen's attention. She spoke up forcefully "I would not recommend that. It's possibly the worst decision you could make."

"I think I'm owed at least one real conversation with her" Jake said, finally sitting back down on the couch. 

Helen did not have the authority to stop him. Charlotte could schedule meetings and he could cancel them but that was it. If Charlotte gave him access to the administration building for the purposes of meeting her it was within the terms of the DIS. Jake's past and even the words of Helen's boss from this morning were not without consideration.

"Do you trust yourself to have a conversation with her?" she asked.

Jake didn't miss the implication. He also didn't feel like talking about his ex-wife right now. It felt weird, given the power disparity of their stations, that there was still concern about what he could physically do to Charlotte if they were alone in a room together.

"I've played along up til now. What makes you think I would stop?" Jake asked after a while. 

"I'm sorry, again" Helen said "I wouldn't normally be bringing up the past until we've had more time to talk about it. I can't help but draw parallels with your current situation and the one you left." 

"I'm not talking about it today" Jake said. "For what it's worth; this is nothing like the situation with Marilyn. I loved her."

Helen had no idea what to do with that statement, that required familiarity and context. Far too many men had unhealthy relationships with things they claimed to love. 

"I keep some rotating hours available for emergencies. Would you be willing to have a do-over on Monday for this session as well as your regular session on Friday? We don't have to talk about anything related to Charlotte or your past, just how you're adjusting and anything else you do want to talk about" Helen suggested. 

"Yeah, that's fine" Jake said. He thanked Dr. Hopper for informing him of everything. The bleak truth was still better than the lies that Charlotte had been perpetuating. He went back to his cell to mull things over. He had gone into the session thinking about forming an exit plan. It seemed like Charlotte and the facility had already laid that out. 

He looked at his ID tattoo scar as he shaved. He remembered when he and the guys burned them all off after they had gotten through the first winter. He thought about that snow leopard at the outpost and the surveillance in this place. "We have better ways of tracking you boys now" she had said. It's not like the north was safe anymore and the world had changed. He wouldn't actually know what the escape options were until he was back out in it. 

He didn't participate in dinner conversation much. He still hadn't decided if he was going to see Charlotte. Dr. Hopper's advice made more sense, but part of him couldn't leave this hanging. Despite everything that had happened he still couldn't think of what he would even say to her. What point was there in coming up with questions if her answers didn't matter or effect anything? He left the mess hall as soon as he was done. 

It was only when he was a few steps past his cell that he realized he had made up his mind. He went up the familiar path to the administration building. The secretary was gone and the door to the office was slightly ajar. He walked through. Charlotte was sitting in her chair. It was turned away to face the window. She stood up and looked towards Jake. 

"I'm surprised you came" was all she said before he closed the door. 
 
==================================================
===== Part 16: Avoidance =========================

Jake still hadn't figured out how he wanted to verbalize all of the things he had to say. A long pause left him with nothing other than "Why?"

"Do you plan on coming back?" Charlotte asked. She stepped up to her desk and rested her hands on the surface.

"I don't know yet" Jake said, surprised at his own honesty. "Depends on how this goes."

"If you don't know then don't waste my time" Charlotte said casually.

Jake took a few steps forward through the dark office until he was standing behind the guest chairs. Charlotte quickly moved her hand to under the lip of the desk. "Stay there" she said as her ears laid back. "There's a button under here and if I press it you're not going to like anything that happens afterwards."

"Just give me one honest answer" Jake said standing up straight. Charlotte didn't move. "When I asked you if you were trying to get pregnant? Did you tell me the truth when you said 'no'?"

Charlotte searched his face for any clues as to what he wanted to hear. She sighed and dropped her head. "Yes" she said softly. "That's not what I wanted." 

Jake exhaled and relaxed. He removed his shirt to the confusion of Charlotte and walked around the far side of the desk. She never took her hand off the button as he sat in her chair. "I don't know if I'm coming back. So if you want to sit with me this might be your last time to do it" he said holding his shirt loosely in his hand. 

"Get out of my office" Charlotte said.

Jake turned to her "No. We can talk or we can both leave. I'm going to sit here until you take your hand off that button and make a choice without forcing me." Jake looked out the window and waited for her to make her decision. It was already night out, he couldn't see the moon but just from the brightness he could tell it must be full, or nearly so. The skies were clear and the snow on the mountains shined in the distance against the backdrop of the stars. 

Charlotte let her hands slip from the desk. She turned to look out the window as well. "Why do you care why I did any of it? You don't have to participate anymore."

"Because as I understand it, you're my sponsor" Jake said "probably the only one I'm going to get too. So why would you do what you did to me and sign up for that?"

Jake turned the chair slightly to look at her better. She met his gaze but didn't answer.

In truth Charlotte was exhausted. She watched all the administrators get hounded yesterday at the press announcement. The lack of hard data given to the public, the vague statements from politicians, and choosing to use the word 'feral' had resulted in the event being a complete disaster. Her whole day had been filled with all hands meetings to try and salvage the situation. Yet the confrontation with Rebecca, and what that likely meant regarding Jake, weighed more heavily on her nerves than the crisis itself. 

She exhaled through her nose and looked down at the floor "You didn't do anything the first night you were here, so I figured there was no harm in covering my tail with the right paperwork."

Jake noticed the tiredness in her voice "Still, you took a huge risk with that. You had no reason to think I would play..." 

"I didn't care, alright!" Charlotte said raising her voice to speak over him. She took a deep sigh and turned away. 

"The offer to sit with me is still open" Jake said, though he offered more out of hope she would calm down and open up than out of genuine desire for her company. A flick of her tail betrayed her interest in the proposition. 

"No" Charlotte said "no, I'll be fine." She took a deep, labored breath. More than anything right now she wanted the familiar comfort of his embrace. She had struggled to keep him at a distance, emotionally, in order to better resist that desire of hers.

"Sponsorship means nothing unless you get release" Charlotte said. But if she was being honest, that was more to remind herself of Jake's chances in rehab than to dismiss his concerns. 

Jake spun the chair to face her fully "Do I seem like the kind of man who lacks patience?" 

Charlotte turned back to him, unsure of his tone. Her eyes were drawn to his chest. The glossy flesh of his largest scars seemed like silver bands in the moonlight. "Are you threatening me, Jake?" she asked. 

"No" he said with a slight laugh "That's not what I meant. I plan on getting release and leaving this place. It doesn't matter how long it takes. You've already given me what I want; a path out. I'm just trying to figure out why."  

Charlotte shuddered as Jake talked about leaving, her emotions almost overtaking her. Jake paused as he watched her collect herself. She wanted to tell him that she knew how crazy it was to do what she did that first night. That she was just so tired of being lonely. But all of that would require her to believe that he stood a chance in rehab. That it was worth trusting him.

Charlotte hardened herself and took a step forward. Crossing her arms she said "I did what I did because I wanted to. That's it. I didn't expect the fun to end so soon but here we are. I'll keep my evenings open for you if you get tired of staring at the ceiling when you play with yourself. How's that sound?"

Jake stood up and Charlotte fought the impulse to reach for the panic button. He put his shirt back on, silently pressing the Velcro 'buttons' together. When he looked down at Charlotte she couldn't help but notice he was clean shaven. Did he do it out of habit or to mock her on his last visit? 

"It sounds like you're not going to tell me the truth" Jake said. He went back around the desk the way he came, to avoid walking past Charlotte. He didn't stop when he reached the door of her office and exited. Charlotte sat in her chair, still warm from Jake's body. She pulled up her tablet, and watched his ID scan through the checkpoints until he was back in his cell. She went ahead and added their evening sessions to next week before packing up her things and leaving. 

Jake, for his part, felt pretty good about how that went. He could put Charlotte out of his mind and ride out the rest of his observation period in peace. Over the weekend he noticed the meal changes weren't nearly as interesting as when he first got here. Then again, he had fewer questions now too. But mostly he got the impression that Marcus was right. Many of the guys in this place weren't exactly here for anything extreme, a lot of them were kind of soft. 

His observations on the prisoners and the audio book gave him something to talk about at his fill in session with Dr. Hopper on Monday. "I get Kerr's point about all the tight controls and what it's doing to men. Some of the kids that are in here, they seem terrified to make their own choices. But she lost me with the femininity masculinity thing. I kept tuning out" Jake said sitting on the couch. 

Helen nodded "Yes, it seemed that section perhaps deserved it's own book. I think her main point is that the creation of 'furs may have inadvertently destroyed femininity." 

"Yeah, I didn't understand how she got there though" Jake said. 

"Well, she starts with a traditional view of the male and female; conceptualized as the pursuer and the perused. It's the males job to seek out his mate, and the females job to reject the unworthy. Many people would disagree with that, but that's where her argument starts" Helen said. "With the creation of 'furs men took a shortcut and designed mates that were as infatuated with them as they were with women."

"So the chaser became the chased and lost his purpose" Jake said. "Now that makes a bit more sense of what she was saying about 'furs being superficially female. They like being mothers and wives, but they also had no problem taking over society to get what they wanted."

Helen nodded "I don't know if she would draw the contrast that starkly. I think her point is more that when you take these qualities that evolution divided for selective purposes and recombine them into something new, they don't stay discrete. Artificial biology allows us to mix any number of characteristics, so according to Kerr we no longer have the feminine and masculine to assure the stability of society. Every previous institution was built, often unconsciously, on assumptions of how men and women behave."

"Did you know pink is not a real color?" Jake mused.

"What?" Helen said, unsure of his turn in the conversation.

"I mean we see it..." Jake said. "But it's not on the light spectrum, there's no 'pink' wavelength of light. If we see the right proportion of red, green, and blue then our brain creates pink when those light receptors are activated. It exists on a color wheel that's only in our heads. One of the guys explained it to me when we were out north. Anyways, Kerr is thinking of the 'furs like that. The biology is real, but the creations are more than the sum of the parts. If it was just a matter of particles or physics we wouldn't be able to make the mistakes we're making." Jake shook his head "I don't know, I'm rambling..."

"No, I understand. That's an interesting observation" Helen said. She paused "Jake, is there any reason that you only completed high school? You strike me as thoughtful and curious, why didn't you pursue a higher education?"

Jake laughed "Well, I don't think most of my high school teachers would agree with you. I'm pretty sure some of them won a few bets by me being here. I didn't like school, I liked my job. I worked as a bricklayer last two summers of high school, and some weekends and breaks. I kept doing it until the anthro builders finally pushed us out."

It wasn't an uncommon story for guests of a certain age. Many manual labor jobs had been displaced. Job specific anthro teams, much like the lupine guards of the facility, were being deployed for all manner of work. "How did you feel about loosing the job you liked so much?" Helen asked. 

"A lot of guys were sore about it" Jake said "Some of the really good guys started making more money after the general construction ended. They charged a premium for being artisans, jobs that the drones weren't any good at. Personally, I wasn't good enough to do that but I didn't have much to be mad about. Marilyn was already working as a nurse and we had paid off the little bit of debt we had from the cars and her school. She was happy to get me out of construction anyhow." 

Helen didn't want to press him on anything specific to his wife just yet "What did you fill your time with after you quit working?" 

"That's when I actually started reading a lot" Jake said "I think I hated school because we were always using tablets. I hated staring at screens all day long. But when I was, I don't know, twelve or eleven, I got a set of Hemingway's novels as a gift. I was already turned against school by then so they collected dust. I regretted never giving them a chance as an adult so that's what I did the first month that I was out of work." 

"Turns out I like Hemingway, and I like books too. The actual physical book" Jake said as he mimed holding a book in his hands. "I read a bit of everything after that, but I kept coming back to guys like Hemingway, Frost, Jack London and a lot of early to mid 20th century stuff."

Helen wrote some things down on her notepad and prompted Jake to continue. Jake tried to think of something else to bring up "Oh, I started writing in a journal" he smiled "but I'm not journaling, I'm just writing."  

"What are you writing about?" Helen asked, as she took another quick note.

"My, uh, journey into the wild, I guess" Jake said. "We weren't keeping records while we were out there, so I figure I should probably write as much as I can remember while I got the time."  

Helen was curious as to how conscious Jake was avoiding talking about his wife. Even his writing avoided her. 

"You probably want me talk more about Marilyn though" Jake said to her surprise. 

"I don't want you to feel obligated to talk about something that makes you uncomfortable Jake" Helen offered.

"There's no discomfort left. I talked about Marilyn a lot, up north. All the guys talked about their wives and their problems too. It still hurts" Jake said. He became aware of the dull ache in his back as he talked and he sat up to stretch "but it was a very complicated situation. I can jump right into it on Friday if you want." 

"Whatever you feel like talking about is fine, it's your time" Helen reassured him. "Speaking of your friends I did get a response back from rehab central about them."

"Oh, really?" Jake said perking up.

"Yes, lets see..." Helen paused to bring up her tablet "Dean is in a rehab facility similar to this one in Montana, Don and Charlie are at a lower security facility near Calgary together. But that's about all I can say."

"I don't think they saw me getting taken away. I know I can't communicate with them, but could you send a message to someone there and just let them know I'm alive?" Jake asked.

"I've already talked to the people at their facilities, I trust they'll pass the word along" Helen said with a gentle smile. 

Jake nodded and then laughed "Actually where is this place? No one's bothered to tell me now that I think about it."

Helen's tablet chimed, signaling the end of the session. She silenced it and turned back to Jake "We're about halfway between Seattle and Vancouver, but closer to the mountains than the coast." 

They said goodbye and Jake made his way to the weight room. Helen had a half hour before her next session. She checked the ID logs and saw that Jake did meet up with Charlotte Friday evening. She considered not looking at the security footage, but eventually decided that she was given access for a reason. She watched their conversation and took more notes before setting the issue aside to look over reports on other guests.  

==================================================
===== Part 17: Marilyn ===========================

Jake had just gotten back to his cell from lunch when he saw a notification on his terminal. He had a package waiting for him in the commissary. Which he found odd because he hadn't ordered anything. He made the trip down and the attendant at the counter directed him to the staff window. It was the avian 'fur that he occasionally saw supervising in the gym. 

"Hello?" Jake said to get her attention, but she was focused on her tablet. He thought he was being ignored then he realized this booth had the same intercom system as other staff areas. He tapped lightly on the glass and her blue crest popped up in surprise. She set her tablet down and turned on the intercom "Yes, can I help you?"

"I was told I had a package, but I didn't order anything" Jake said. 

"Scan your ID and I'll check" she suggested. He did so and she turned to the row of lockers to open one. She pulled out a letter sized package and put it into a bin by her waist. She pushed a button and the compartment on Jake's side rotated around. He opened it to find a tablet. 

She had gone back to her own tablet and Jake tapped on the glass again. "You don't have anything else" she said.

"Like I said, I didn't order one. What's the deal?" he asked.

"Oh, right! You're the wild... guy" she said. "Since you didn't have a DAP they had to make one for you. That's why it took you a while to get the standard issue tablet. You're limited to the facility intranet while you're here. It won't work outside of your room and there's a charging port next to your terminal." 

Jake stopped pushing the power button after she said it only worked in his cell and looked back up "What's a DAP?" 

"Digital Access Profile" she said like it was obvious. She considered Jake's confused expression then smiled and said "Oh wow you were out there for a while. Uhm, yeah, every internet connected device requires you to log in with your DAP. It's all controlled by the Department of Digital Security now."

"All devices?" Jake asked, slightly disturbed. "Including outside the facility?"

"Yep!" she said displaying an odd comfort with the idea. "This is my personal tablet" she said as she held it up "but since my job is tied to my DAP I have access to all of my work stuff automatically and when I go home it lets me manage the house or set access to things for the kids because their DAPs are linked to mine. If I bought a new tablet everything would carry over immediately. Since you were gone all the digital stuff was brought under DoDS supervision."

"So where do I get my password?" Jake asked, now wondering just how much and how quickly the world outside had changed.

She laughed silently behind the glass before turning the speaker back on. "No password needed it's all managed by your ID" she said as she pointed to her wrist. 

It took Jake a second to process that "You have a chip too?" he asked bewildered. 

"Yeah" she said with a shrug "That's what your DAP is keyed to. Everyone has them." 

"Thanks for the info" Jake said. She smiled back at him and gave him a slight nod. He walked back to his cell staring at the seemingly dead tablet. Small dots on his forearms were all that was left of the wounds from where his ID's were inserted. He assumed they had just been part of the facility, a thing for prisoners, but finding out the outside world worked on the same principles had truly shocked him. How much was the outside like this place?

He spent the next few days figuring out what he could do with his new device. Mostly it was just a way to interface with the same tools the terminal had. There were some ways to socialize through apps. This was how Tony and Marcus had "played cards". Since the tablet and terminal were synced you could see video feed and talk to other prisoners on the terminal while playing your hand on the tablet. It was pretty neat, but it was a poor substitution for genuine socialization and he hated poker. There were more free books available in text form, but Jake wasn't sure he would get desperate enough to use it. Between reading a tablet and hearing a voice dictate through the terminal he preferred the latter. 

He spent some time that week thinking about what he wanted to say about Marilyn to Dr. Hopper. It was good that he no longer had trepidation when talking about her but it was still a lot of complicated things to cover in an hour. He felt confident when he walked into her office on Friday morning and sat down. 

"We met when I was 20 and she had been made 14 years prior" Jake said. "That always weirded me out a bit when I thought about it. That manufactured furs start life as adults and I was still a kid in so many ways. So she was more mature than I was, but there was no history there. She didn't have a childhood; no stories to tell about her youth or parents to talk about."

"It's a common gap in communication" Helen said, having had the same experience herself. 

"Well, anyhow, the population boom hadn't set in just yet, so I was still a bachelor and had my choices intact. She walked up to me at a bar when I was with some coworkers and introduced herself. We hit it off pretty well and less than a year later we were married" Jake smiled "I guess I was young and dumb, but it was nice. On our honeymoon was the first time she cut me" he said as he pointed to a space under his ribs. 

"She said it was an accident, I got a patch up and we kept on with the vacation" he sighed "but it was just the start, a nick here, a cut there. I didn't see it as a big deal. She tried those claw covers but they popped off. We tried trimming them but she had these full on tiger claws so that didn't do much except make the cuts less clean."

"Is that all you tried?" Helen asked unsure if he was aware that he was making excuses for what happened. 

"Oh, I understand now that wasn't enough" Jake said. "We exerted so little effort to prevent me from getting hurt and so much towards covering it up, that's obvious in hindsight. I know I participated in it and why, I didn't back then, but I do now." 

Helen decided to set her concerns aside for the time being and let him continue. 

Jake leaned back "On our two year anniversary she gave me a full swipe on the chest. She went into a panic trying to clean me up. I was still working then so I took a week off, after the weekend I was good enough to go back." Jack exhaled heavily "When I came home on Monday she was passed out on the bed. Empty bottle of pills, barely breathing. I called 911, the hospital pumped her stomach and did a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. It took her a while to come back. I was next to her when she regained consciousness and she just burst into tears. I did too."

"I know it's hard to believe given how it all ended, but I loved my wife. She even had this smug grin when she was getting her way" Jake smiled as he remembered. "I hated it! And I loved that I hated it, ya know?"  

He sighed "After her suicide attempt and recovery we had some long conversations. She finally told me about her first husband, this real reckless masochist of a guy that gave her these urges. He died from an infected double septum piercing he did on himself. She had chased off a few boyfriends after that because she just didn't know that most guys weren't into that sort of thing. She tried to control it with medication, but it destroyed her personality or worse." 

"Psycho-pharmacology is frequently ineffective or paradoxical on 'furs" Helen said. 

"That's what the doc said" Jake affirmed. "She told me that she put it off as long as she did with me because of how much she cared." 

"So I told her it didn't matter" Jake said as he looked Helen in the eye. "I'm strong, I could deal with it, for her. So long as we could be honest about everything I told her I could endure whatever she did. She still tried to restrain herself, but there wasn't any guilt or suffering about it when it did happen since we both knew. She became a nurse, mostly to learn how to patch me up."

"I think that's when our marriage really began, when we committed to that total honesty. Despite everything that meant" Jake said gesturing to himself in reference to the scars. "At the time, I thought those five years were the best of my life."  

"So what changed?" Helen asked, genuinely curious now.

"The world mostly" Jake laughed darkly "I lost my job. I considered getting an education, embracing the love of literature I didn't know I had, maybe become a teacher? But we would have to move to a nicer neighborhood. It wasn't really safe for me to be out unaccompanied and everything was changing so quickly." 

"You see, Dean and I got away from similar situations" Jake said as he sat upright. "His problems were less physical, but manipulative all the same. We both played along with what was happening to us. He and I talked about it a lot up north and we kind of agreed that we each did that as a way of reckoning with the changing world. I found a way to be strong for my wife as everything got smaller and scarier. I enabled a bunch of behaviors I shouldn't have and made excuses for her. But Marilyn didn't have those problems and she wanted something else."

Jake shrugged and sighed "She wanted kids." 

"I take it you didn't?" Helen asked.

"I did" Jake said, though with less conviction than before. "I did, but I couldn't help but see what was happening. It was 'recommended' I get a neck tattoo two years earlier. I couldn't even leave my house alone, how could I bring a boy into the world? Or what? A daughter just like Marilyn, with all of her problems? Cause those were our only options." 

Jake sighed again "She was insistent and I wanted her to be happy. I was still pretty delusional about the marriage then. So, eventually, I agreed" Jake breathed in through his nose "and that was the night she ripped my back up."

He paused for a long while before continuing "She was distraught, but focused on cleaning me up. I wanted her to call an ambulance, but she wouldn't. That should have been my first clue things had changed. She wasn't the same person that had almost killed herself out of grief anymore. I wasn't able to process that right then. Eventually she cleaned out the wounds and managed to stitch me up. I was mostly bed ridden for weeks."

"I had lots of time to think and I was older now too" Jake said as he folded his arms. "I finally realized she was cutting me because she loved me, not in spite of it. She was so happy she was going to have kids that she damn near killed me. That was her nature. It wasn't her fault, but how could I give kids to someone who expresses love like that? How could I risk it? I thought about just leaving. But I kept telling myself it would break her heart. I didn't think she could survive it. I didn't want to think about her suffering and then try to kill herself again, or even consider the possibility of her succeeding."

He shook his head "She had decided she was going to have kids and I tried talking to her about it, but her mind was made up. I don't know, something about the world changing changed her too. I think years earlier she might have listened to me more and heard what I had to say. Or maybe I made her accustomed to the idea that I would bear the burden of anything for all those years."

Jake looked to the door "Like I said I had a lot of time to think. I thought about every decision 'we' made, how I was the only one whoever compromised anything. I realized I was just being a hopeless romantic. 'She couldn't survive loosing me' I had been telling myself, but she had already done that with her first husband." 

"By the time I could walk again, without opening up my whole back, I knew the love was gone. The whole relationship had been a lie. She had been truthful as she could be; the lie was just buried deep inside her. She couldn't love without hurting someone and she wasn't bothered by her own behavior anymore. She wasn't going to change her ways or her mind. I couldn't live with leaving her just to let her have the chance of doing it again to someone else."

"You can stop there" Helen said. The police reports told the rest, she wouldn't force him to relive the gory details. 

"I guess every murderer you talk to has a story where they aren't the bad guy, huh?" Jake asked in a low voice. 

"But Jake, you do think you're the bad guy" Helen said. His eyes were red and wouldn't meet hers. "That's why you're still hurt by it." 

"I killed my wife, how could I not be?" he asked cradling his head in his hands. 

"Because you were trapped, and that made you desperate" Helen said. The government was more cruel then, Marilyn would have had all the power if he was caught running away. Things were so bad then that his scars might not even have assured him a divorce, and it wouldn't have prevented her from getting another husband even if he did. 

In recent years studies about 'furs with 'design flaws' much like Marilyn's had been published. Jake was right, his wife was very likely to express her love for her children in much the same way she did for him. In addition there was the growing likelihood that Marilyn's recklessness would assure Jake the same fate her first husband had inflicted on himself. Things were different now, but there would have been no way to tell that reforms were coming at the time. Jake had very little reason to hope. 

There had been no chance of walking away for Jake. There had been no way of fixing Marilyn or protecting her children from herself. So he did something terrible and ran as fast and far away as he could. Helen was impressed that his self assessment was accurate. He had clearly talked about these troubling things many times, with people he trusted, to get to this place. She would not expect many clients to tell her their story like this for quite some time. 

"Without condoning or condemning; I understand why Jake" Helen offered. "We can stop here for today. I want to thank your for trusting me enough to share everything you did." They sat in silence while Jake decompressed. Helen discussed scheduling another session and nothing else before he left.

==================================================
===== Part 18: Reunion ===========================

2 Months Later

Jake had been working in the mess hall for six weeks now. They gym bros had recommended he request that work detail to get access to some extra food. Things were loosely tracked enough that sneaking a few extra eggs and other protein sources was easy enough to get away with. Real food was way better than the snacks on sale in the commissary and they weren't worth the points. 

Another advantage was that the guys who made the meals all ate together, which was more to his liking than the meal roulette. He was only allowed to work two meals a day, breakfast and lunch, since it was high demand work request. But that provided him with just enough socializing to where he had grown comfortable with the remaining solitude of his day. He still saw Tony, Marcus, and some of the other guys he liked once in a while at dinner too. 

It was Friday after his lunch shift and he was headed to the commissary to pick up another journal. He hadn't filled up the old one, but he was disappointed with his attempt at documenting his journey. He missed too many things and found himself going back to write in details in the margin. Plus his handwriting had improved dramatically with two months of solid practice. He wanted to make a second go of it with a brand new journal and he would keep using the pages of the old one for observations, book quotes, and any of the weirder dreams he occasionally got. 

The strange dream he had about the guys getting killed by lupines never came back. But he did frequently dream about that place, the forest divided by the wall of glass. Usually he was just walking along the wall and looking for a way over it. After talking about Marilyn with Dr. Hopper he had a few where a tiger stalked him on the walks, but he could never tell if she was on the opposite side of the glass or traveling behind him and casting a reflection. The tiger went away after a week or two. 

More disturbingly Charlotte had appeared in the dreams. It started when he saw the first of her release announcement videos. It was just a few minutes of Charlotte sitting in her office announcing which guests had been granted release, and the ones who found a sponsor and were leaving the facility. She congratulated all of them and Marcus had been right, she showed very little enthusiasm through the whole thing. Apparently she did it once a month, or twice a month if the number of releases got high enough. Jake dreamed about her that night. She followed him and walked on the same side of the glass as himself. Since then she would appear randomly.

Dr. Hopper didn't go in much for dream analysis, but she encouraged Jake to write them down if only to help him organize his own thoughts about them. Jake had never been a heavy dreamer before, but Hopper told him that was likely due to a lack of stimulus compared to when he was living in nature. They had switched to video sessions a few weeks ago. Hopper was unable to tell him anything useful about his release status. Though he thought it was foolish to hope for much within his first few months in the facility. She did assure him that by whatever standards they used he was making progress. 

When he arrived back at his cell he set the new journal down next to the old one on his desk. He popped the tablet out of the wall charging slot and turned on some music. Jake had grown to tolerate reading from a tablet in recent weeks, having no choice helped him along in that regard. He checked his itinerary before opening his latest read. 

True to her word, Charlotte had kept scheduling meetings for them after dinner. Jake thought for sure she would have stopped after the first month. He had been tempted to go on a few occasions. Jake ignored the impulse to do so mostly by acknowledging that in those moments he wasn't thinking with his head. His libido was up from the working out and he never got comfortable enough around the surveillance to deal with it himself.

He still needed Charlotte for release from the facility. If he went back to talk to her it would only be with the goal of making sure to not sour that part of the relationship. By now he had talked to enough people to know an escape plan after release was going to be much more complicated than getting in the car and driving north like last time.

From what the other prisoners described the outside world had very nice window dressing on even better social controls than when he left. The days of neck tattoos and street patrols were gone. They had been replaced by ID's, drones (biological and robotic), constant surveillance, and tight digital access management by the DoDS.

His only path out, if he even found a place to go to, would be to transfer to a region in South America where controls were less stringent. Permanent movement between regions was heavily restricted. The 'furs weren't evenly distributed across the Americas and free movement risked causing a migration crisis or civil conflict if they went looking for husbands in droves. Regional transfers were only authorized for married couples and in limited numbers per year.

Jake finished the book he had been reading about an hour before dinner. He did a twenty minute meditation, another thing he had not expected to get into, but he found it helped him reset after finishing something. When done he checked his face in the mirror, he cold go another day or two without shaving, but he decided to take his time and clean himself up. As he did so, he couldn't help but consider that he was already committing to go and seeing Charlotte just by shaving. 

Jake thought about her often, despite himself. The dreams kept reminding him of her existence whether he wanted to or not. Two months of total absence had done a lot to assuage his anger at her initial treatment of him. Weirdly, the more comfortable moments had formed the stronger memories. For better or worse it seemed like they were still attached by the whole bizarre sponsorship system. By the end of dinner he had convinced himself to head up to her office. He figured, worst case scenario is she goes back to being a total bitch and his curiosity is satiated for another month or two.

Jake arrived at the lobby door which was open as usual and he entered through it. He turned to great the secretary, but the calico girl was gone. Instead there was a monkey girl with golden fur who Jake greeted with a casual "Hello."

She glanced up, then did a double take and screamed. Jake held up his hands out of confusion and yelled "I have an appointment!" not knowing what else to say. Luckily, before the new girl could remember to push the panic button, Charlotte burst through the office door and calmed her down. Jake stood aside as Charlotte walked out into the hall and told the other office workers who had come out to inspect the commotion that everything was fine. 

Charlotte pinched the bridge of her muzzle as she walked past Jake back into her office. Jake mouthed a silent 'sorry' to the new secretary before following Charlotte through. He closed the door and took a seat in one of Charlotte's guest chairs.  

"Long time no see" Charlotte said in her usual blunt manner as she sat down. 

"Yeah" Jake said. He pointed back to the doors "What happened to, uh, Dana? was it?" 

"Diana" Charlotte corrected "She quit. Her sponsorship seems to have worked out for her and shes getting married. So she found a job that isn't an hour and a half commute from home" Charlotte paused as though she just remembered something. She pushed the intercom button "Shani, could you look through the wedding registry Diana sent the facility and find something nice in the four to five hundred dollar range for me to send her?"

The secretary responded with a "yes, Ms. Priestly." 

Charlotte sighed "She'll do well, but I wish one of them would stick around for more than the year or two it takes to get a husband. If I had known, when I first started, that so many of the girls that work here do so to get married I never would have been so generous with the first wedding gift I bought. Now it's expected." She exhaled with frustration, unsure why she was bothering to engage in chit chat. "Why are you here?" 

"It's been two months" Jake shrugged "Honestly, at this point, I'm curious why you kept making the appointments and you haven't pulled out of the sponsorship. You told me that was just to 'cover your tail with the right paperwork'. So what's the deal?"

Charlotte stood up and undid her belt. She slipped out of her pants and tossed them at Jake "The deal is I'm scheduling these sessions for one reason, and one reason only. So either get with it or get out." 

Jake folded up the pants and leaned forward to set them on the desk "You're so full of shit."

"Leave!" Charlotte said with her ears laying back in anger.

"Can you just talk to me like a normal person for ten minutes without trying to control everything? It didn't take long for me to figure out it was an act" Jake said standing up.

Charlotte said nothing as she folded her arms and leaned against the desk. She was refusing to let her ears up as she glared at Jake. "I don't know what you're talking about" she spat. 

Jake couldn't help but smile at her stubbornness "Come on, someone who just wants a lay doesn't fall asleep in my arms smiling like you did." Her ears popped up at being called out, but she went back to her angry glare before Jake continued "That much was obvious by the third or fourth time."

"When I was here last I asked you something and you told me the truth" Jake said "so lets do that."

"I don't want to tell you everything" Charlotte huffed. "Yeah, it's not just about 'getting laid'," she said with a contemptuous eye roll, her voice softer but still guarded. "but I need it to stay simple." 

"How's this then? When I come up here I'll have a question for you. You don't want to answer, fine, I'll leave. Maybe I'll think of another one, or if it matters I'll press you on it. After that we'll do whatever you want" Jake suggested.

Charlotte turned away. She had hoped a prolonged absence would have made things easier if he did come back. But it didn't, and she was as conflicted as she was during the last night he was in the office.

Jake could see her struggling to accept the proposition "How about we start with an easy one? Were you ever married before?"

Charlotte faced him as she considered her answer. If it had been a harder question it would have been easier for her to reject the offer. If she went along with this it wouldn't be on her terms. But also, if she turned down this simple of a question would Jake even bother asking again? A one word answer and she could have what she longed for.

She closed her eyes and surrendered to her own desire "No" then a brief sigh "no, I've never been married."

Charlotte opened her eyes to Jake removing his shirt. She wouldn't admit it to him, but she checked in on him through the surveillance often. She had seen his progress in the gym pay off over the past two months, but she was still taken by surprise at seeing him in the flesh. He had lost that bit of winter paunch he arrived with and bulked up considerably.

She was so busy drinking in the sight of him that she was caught off guard as he walked up to her and picked her up. Jake had never had difficulty moving her around before, but this was done with such effortlessness that she almost yelped out in surprise. He pressed her back gently to the window and she wrapped her legs around him.

Jake dropped his pants and found her tail swaying happily against him. Charlotte wanted to tell him to stop or order him to do something else. She had never let Jake take charge like this and she both regretted and was exhilarated by the change. She licked at his neck as he inserted himself slowly. She gasped, mostly in shock at how much she missed this. 

Jake didn't realize how pent up he had been until they were fully into it. He had been starved for physical contact of any kind and she was soft and warm as always. The way she pressed her lithe form against his body when she was lost in the moment was something he had almost forgotten about.

"Look at me" Charlotte panted. No mater how much she wanted it she wasn't expecting the effect of him looking down at her would have. Even though they had just began she was already so close to coming. His gaze was all it took to put her over the edge. 

Jake was surprised at how quickly she reached climax. He kept going as she clung to his back with all her strength. Had she missed him that badly?  As he moved to adjust her he finished as well and shamefully asked the same question of himself. Without setting her down he stepped back and collapsed into her chair. 

Charlotte squirmed to bring her legs around to a more comfortable position. She removed her top as Jake reached for his shirt to blanket her like she preferred. The sun was setting behind the building. They both looked out at the play of light and shadow across the treetops in silence for a while. 

"Did you miss the view, at least?" Charlotte asked.

Jake smirked "Yeah."

She wanted to ask if he missed her as well, but even thinking the question made her feel too vulnerable. "I have a pretty nice one from my condo too. I don't appreciate it enough" Charlotte said instead. 

"Trying to entice me with pretty views?" Jake asked.

"You already had your one question for the day" she said defaulting to her stern tone. 

Jake scoffed but didn't follow up with anything. He simply reached up to put his hand on her head. He felt her tense up at first, but then she lowered her ears and closed her eyes. Jake stroked the slightly longer fur along the nape of her neck and Charlotte purred. Jake stopped petting her and started laughing. 

Charlotte pulled away and with an indigent look and asked "What?"

"I didn't know you could purr" Jake said through his laughter.

"Shut up" she said, apparently embarrassed. If she was genuinely upset it only lasted for a few seconds before she returned to leaning against him. Jake didn't attempt to make her purr again and simply sat with her like they used to. 

The door opened and the secretary entered "Ms. Priestly, I'm going to..." she looked up and saw Jake and Charlotte, who clutched at the shirt; the only thing covering the pair of them. The secretary interrupted herself by throwing her tablet in front of her face "I'M SO SORRY" she yelled as she quickly backed out of the office. 

A few seconds passed and her voice came on over the intercom "I'm sorry Ms. Priestly. I completely forgot your, uh, friend, I mean the guest, was here, I'm so sorry..."

She continued to hastily apologize as Charlotte attempted to talk over her "Shani, Shani, SHANI!" finally silence came from the other end. "In the future; knock."

"Yes, ma'am" she said softly "I finished the reports..."

Charlotte interjected "Yes, thank you. You can go home, we'll go over them Monday."

"Yes, ma'am" Shani said "I'll be leaving now." 

Charlotte sighed looking up at Jake "You should probably be going as well. I need to do some work before I can get out of here too."

They quickly dressed. Charlotte considered asking when he was planning to come back, but she ignored the impulse to do so and went to work on her tablet. Jake said a quick goodbye and left. He took the elevator to the main checkpoint and he almost barreled over the secretary in the landing. She was standing in front of the elevator door and patting her eyes with a tissue. 

"Sorry, I'm in your way" she said as she stepped aside. She must not have been expecting Jake by the look on her face when she turned around. 

"Are you alright?" Jake asked her. 

She nervously rubbed her hands together before confessing a quiet "No." She stuffed the tissue in her purse and held it tightly to her side "I feel like I don't know what I'm doing and Ms. Priestly is going to fire me any minute. She doesn't seem like she's happy with anything I do and I really messed up today." 

"I don't know what to tell you. I know she can be kind of... abrasive" Jake said. He wasn't really trying to defend Charlotte as much as comfort the poor girl. "She said you'll do fine, if that's any help." 

"Really? You guys, talked about me?" she said with a wince.

"No not like that" Jake said waving his hand "we talked before... I just asked about her old secretary and she made a comment in passing." Shani didn't seem convinced. "You know what? Don't listen to me, I've never worked with her. Do you have the contact info for her old secretary, Diana?" 

"Yeah" Shani said more hopefully.

"Talk to her, she worked for Charlotte for more than a year, so if anyone can tell you what to expect she can" Jake suggested.

She nodded "I'll do that." She smiled a little and said goodbye to Jake before walking off. He went back to his cell and decided to start on rewriting the journal. 

==================================================
===== Part 19: Agreement =========================
 
Over the weekend Jake struggled with changing his relationship with Charlotte. He knew that he was fully to blame for Friday. He had safely ignored her requests for two months and he wasn't exactly sure why his curiosity finally got the better of him. He was in the uncomfortable position of having casually broken their separation. Which now meant he felt a greater share of responsibility for whatever happens next. His introspection was made worse by the fact that he had not told any of the other prisoners about his connection to the warden. So his usual confidants were of no use here.
 
By Monday he had decided to put off all future meetings with Charlotte until he had a chance to talk to Dr. Hopper about it. It wasn't urgent enough to request an emergency session so he would wait til Wednesday for the regular one. The first thing he did after breakfast was cancel the meetings Charlotte had scheduled on Monday through Thursday and sent her a message that he would be there Friday. He figured that would give him enough time to think after he talked with Hopper. He deliberately put the situation out of his mind as he went to the gym.
 
*****
 
Elsewhere that Monday afternoon a digital meeting was getting ready to take place. In the months since the disastrous policy choices picked by the rehabilitation program they had decided to redesign their approach to dealing with the "wild men" from the ground up. The five participants in the meeting would decide what the new policy going forward would be and this meeting would formalize their commitment to it.
 
The Administration Director for Rehabilitation, Sandra Lind was early and the first on the call. She was a coral snake patterned scaly and was reclining under her heat lamp as she waited for the others to join. Soon she was greeted by the Facilities Director, Maria Milano, a vixen of slight build. As they were exchanging greetings Anne Wester, a fixed fur of deer and equine features, and the Head of Public Relations joined the call.
 
The three chatted as they waited for the last two. Kathleen Daugherty, a mixed fur of various predatory cats, came onto the call with her typical high degree of enthusiasm. She was the Therapy Director. Soon she was joined by her Chief Consult Dr. Lisa Harris, a rather stern looking grey wolf 'fur.
 
"Alright everyone" Sandra said, once all the pleasantries were done with. "I've compiled everything you've sent me over the last few weeks regarding the wild men situation and we're going to start with what we are not doing. Maria do you want to go over the new facility questions?"
 
"Yes" the vixen began "we think it's inadvisable at this time to construct a special facility for the wild men. We could physically build one in six months but it's not a good idea outside of time or funding constraints. Firstly, we are projecting that 95% or more of the wild men will be caught within the next three years, based on estimations of wild populations and the efficacy of the capture programs."
 
"I know I'm going to get asked about this, so what about new escapees?" Anne interrupted.
 
Maria continued "New escapees have virtually been eliminated as a factor. Most are captured within 100 miles of their residence. The few that do make it to the sparsely populated north are getting picked up by regular lupine patrols. We estimate the rate to be about 5 in 10,000 runaways making it back into the wild and that's accounted for in our projections of the recapture program."
 
Maria looked at her notes "Secondly we find that putting too many wild men in the same facility quickly cultivates an 'us vs. them' mentality and grinds rehabilitation efforts to a halt. A dedicated facility would likely be impossible to manage without unnecessarily draconian measures. Thirdly, Kathleen and Dr. Harris have informed me that even with a dedicated facility it might take years to develop novel therapies for wild men. That fact combined with the expected phasing out of the wild men problem overall means that a dedicated facility would likely produce too little results far too late."
 
"That seems straightforward enough" Sandra said "Anne do you have something to say about messaging?"
 
Her ears twitched as the deer woman began to speak "Yes we've completely dropped the word feral from all communications internal and external. Wild men or wild man is the preferred nomenclature going forward." She kept her statement short for a reason. She had been the main advocate for the term 'feral' and recent weeks had been filled with mea culpas to her colleagues for the problems it caused.
 
"Very good" Sandra responded. "Kathleen you have a few programs you want to push for in order to improve outcomes for wild men within the existing facilities?"
 
"YES!" the therapy director said with more volume than was warranted. "First we need an orientation program. Full stop. These wild men have been away for years and naturally have cut themselves off from all contact with society. We found that many of them are traumatized by the tagging process alone. We launched a pilot orientation program immediately after our recent bad press at one facility under my direct supervision. Wherein we give them a dedicated therapist on call 24/7 for the wild man, so that he can have any questions answered. That has greatly reduced anxiety and made them comfortable enough to participate in rehab to a much greater degree. We found that after a few weeks we can greatly reduce despair and the resultant attempts at self harm. I don't see any reason to not immediately mirror this program across all facilities that house wild men."
 
"That sounds fine" Sandra said "We have a surplus of therapists at the moment anyway. Rehabilitation outcomes have been steadily improving and occupancy in rehab is continuing to decline year by year. So we may be able to launch that program with no new hires. Now your second proposal I'm less sure of, so lets go straight to that."
 
"I know this is controversial" Kathleen began "but I think we can safely lower standards for wild men and grant them early release." There was some uncomfortable shifting among a few of the meeting attendees. The AI driven metrics had greatly improved outcomes in rehab several years ago and it was very difficult to find people willing to argue against its effectiveness. "This stems from a few observations we have made. What we've found is that wild men peak early in their rehab metrics, but they don't peak high enough to qualify for release. The AI was trained on all of our guests and I think we need to accept the exceptionalism of the wild men. So the AI keeps waiting for the wild men to reach the same level of satisfaction as the general population, and many of them just don't get there. So they actually start to backslide and often develop behavioral problems over many seasons and years stuck in rehab."
 
"I believe, and I think Dr. Harris agrees here," she said waiting for a brief nod from the quiet wolf "that if we lower the release standards for wild men by 20% we can grant them early release and they will have improved outcomes. We think that the heavily constrained environment of rehab is too stressful compared to what they have become accustomed to in the wild. We think their condition will be improved by putting them back into society where they have a greater degree of freedom, not as much as they had in the wild obviously, but greater than what we can offer within the facilities."
 
Silence greeted her summary. "I would also like to point out that if we released all previous wild men at this lowered threshold we would have avoided nearly 75% of the violent outcomes we have seen in previous wild men cases. In every single case we saw stress and anxiety indicators grow from the point at which I would have them released until a breaking point was reached. These men are simply different from the general population and we have to recognize that if we are going to improve outcomes" Kathleen said authoritatively.
 
Anne spoke up "If we're looking at previous cases the obvious worry is that the violent outcomes that occurred within the facilities would now simply be transferred to outside of them. An early release program may be a hard sell on it's own, but we will have a PR catastrophe if there's an uptick in crime as a direct result of early release."
 
Kathleen enthusiastically countered her concerns "I looked into that. Most of the violence, including self harm, occurs within facilities. Once released that trend disappears almost entirely. We mostly see them attempting to run away once they are on the outside. But, as Maria has already covered, our ability to capture runaways has never been better. Compare that to the lack of improvement we've had in rehabing wild men I think we're better off risking a greater number of runaways than keeping them too long in rehab where we know violence is more likely to happen over longer time frames."
 
Sandra was inclined to agree with her but wasn't quite convinced yet. Before she could speak her concerns, Kathleen decided to continue "There is also another issue we have to deal with. That is why I insisted Dr. Harris be included in this meeting. Doctor would you like to tell everyone here what you told me last week?"
 
The wolf sighed and spoke softly "As you all know I requested an in depth data analysis of the wild men outcomes and the findings went unreported at our latest event." She paused as at the slight discomfort that statement caused. Though Anne had led the charge in saying Dr. Harris's analysis presented too bleak a picture, everyone else had agreed to leave it out of the presentation as well. The doctor continued "In the last week three figures from the media have questioned me about the content of the report, including Camille Kerr. I have refused to comment so far, but I believe it's safe to assume the report has been leaked and if we don't get ahead of the problems we have with wild men in rehab we are going to have a much tougher job getting the public to trust any decision we make."
 
"What did you tell them?" Anne asked aggressively.
 
"Like I said, I declined to comment" Dr. Harris responded.
 
"I should have been brought in" Anne insisted.
 
"What should I have done? Told them to talk to the Head of PR about a report with my name on it? A report that I was told to 'pretend didn't exist'?" Dr. Harris asked calmly. Anne did not like having her own words thrown back at her but she had no response.
 
Sandra needed to deescalate "For better or worse it sounds like it's out there now. Perhaps the timing is lucky, since we were going to announce the results of this meeting soon. I think the early release program is worth moving forward on. The sooner we can demonstrate we are making changes with wild men the sooner we can get ahead of any bad news. Now Anne and Kathleen have been jointly working on something as well, would you like to talk about that?"
 
"I'll let Anne explain" Kathleen said hoping a change of subject would help her colleague save face.
 
Anne grabbed her notes "We think it would be a good idea to launch a PR campaign featuring wild men prominently. We find that there is a significant bias against them among sponsors. Adding more robust profiles as wells as advertisements featuring particularly interesting individuals would help keep them from getting overlooked by higher quality candidates. I've pulled out a few profiles of wild men who are likely to have very safe outcomes and think we could benefit from featuring them prominently in the ads."
 
Kathleen was waiting for this part to interrupt "While I also agree that a program to educate the public about the wild men is a good idea, I think we need to take a different direction in the men we focus on. Again, we can't ignore how unique some of these men are, and we need to play that up. We might get higher quality candidates who would never consider the sponsor program if they recognized that a different kind of man is on offer."
 
Anne pushed back "I think we should play it safe and focus on the men with chances of the best outcomes. Then we can do follow-ups as the campaign progresses and tell more compelling stories."
 
Sandra was looking over the documents Kathleen and Anne had sent her. They both wanted to focus the ad campaign on three men and she recognized one of the names Kathleen had suggested "Jake Hastings", but she couldn't recall from where. She entered his name into her terminal and found his profile with the attached Declaration of Intent to Sponsor form. She recalled the conversation she had with Charlotte Priestly a few months ago now. She went back to watching the meeting as Kathleen and Anne continued to go back and forth. Sandra spoke up "Ladies", silence followed "why not both? we can run both of the campaigns side by side and see which group of wild men gathers the most attention."
 
Anne objected "Sandra, some of the candidates Kathleen has chosen are, in my opinion, unnecessarily risky. How deeply did you read over all of them?"
 
Sandra nodded "I'm looking at both your selections right now."
 
"So you saw this Hastings fellow? How in the world did you think he would be a good selection?" she asked Kathleen.
 
"He's tall, handsome, and he survived in the wild for years, but he also shows remarkable stability according to the surveillance. I think to a certain kind of 'fur he represents a rare kind of man not easily found anymore" she said with salesman like enthusiasm.
 
"Because he murdered his wife! In cold blood!" Anne said exasperated "You can gloss over that in a meeting but we won't be able to ignore it if we make him the center piece of an ad campaign."
 
"Did you look at his file?" Kathleen asked.
 
"Yes" Anne said, insulted.
 
"Did you look at it? Not just read it, I mean look at it. Look at his processing photos and tell me what he did was in cold blood." Kathleen said smugly.
 
Anne took a moment to do what Kathleen suggested. Even Maria, who had largely zoned out of the meeting by now, was brought back by the energetic exchange and had her curiosity piqued.
 
Maria was the first to speak. "Did that happen to him in the north?" she asked hopefully, despite the near certain feeling that she knew the answer.
 
"No" Kathleen said "That was all his wife. His physical from the facility confirms it. I think this Hastings guy serves as a two pronged public relations effort. On one hand he does appear strong and dangerous, and that alone makes him alluring to some candidates. But on the other hand he ran away before most of the reforms and he clearly ran away from something that represented the worst parts of those days. I think it's a subtle way of telling the public that these men didn't reject society, they rejected an unjust situation and now we have a duty to welcome them back. You want to tell interesting stories Anne? I dare you to find anyone in our facilities with a more intriguing story than him."
 
"He's too controversial" Anne said, though the photos she had just looked at did dull her resolve some. "We can't encourage the public to take in a potentially dangerous man like that."
 
"I think Jake is an excellent candidate" Sandra said, to the surprise of everyone. "He's less risky than you all think. I already have a DIS in hand from someone at his facility."
 
Kathleen and Anne let out a simultaneous "What?"
 
"He's been involved with someone at the facility for almost two months now and I won't say who, but I trust her judgement. So hes already going home with a sponsor. There's no harm being posed to the general public if we make him a figurehead of an ad campaign."
 
Anne was starting to feel as though she had less and less influence in these matters. They were talking about a massive public relations campaign, and her opinion as the head of PR seemed to count for nothing. Even though it had been months her reputation had not recovered from the poor choices made in the initial wild men presentation. She reached out for help rather than mounting another objection "Dr. Harris, you've been quiet about this. Do you have an opinion on this Jake Hastings?"
 
"I've never interviewed him. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on his fitness for release or his chances of re-offending" she said coldly.
 
Maria was curious as well now too "You're the expert on wild men, we all know it. We won't mistake your advice for an official diagnosis. It would be informative if you could offer anything."
 
The doctor sighed, she was out of her element in giving presentations, especially impromptu ones. "He's in the highest risk category as far as time in the wild goes, but we don't know what an early release program might do to mitigate those problems. We have very few releases for men from his category, and we've only been observing them for a very short time. I can't say anything about him, in a novel scenario, with confidence."
 
"What about violence?" Anne asked hoping for anything to help her make her point.
 
"Without knowing the details of his past, there's nothing I can say on that. It would be best to consult with his therapist for anything specific" Harris said.
 
"We already plan to begin talks with all of their therapists before we authorize any of this" Kathleen said confidently.
 
"What about Jake?" Harris asked. Both Kathleen and Anne seemed confused by the question.
 
"At what point were you going to ask the guests themselves whether they wanted to participate in the campaign?" the doctor asked, slightly disappointed that the obvious question had apparently never crossed either of their minds.
 
"Their likeness is managed by rehabilitation while they are guests, their input isn't necessary" Kathleen stated.
 
Anne huffed "That isn't a satisfactory answer. We'll include the use of their likeness as part of the condition of acceptance into the early release program. All the wild men who sign up for it will be informed that their image might be used as part of the new campaign."
 
They all knew that it was the same result achieved by a different means, none of the men would reject the opportunity for an early release. Sandra waited to see if anyone else had something to say and when no one did she decided to conclude the meeting. "So in summary, 'no' on the new facility, 'yes' to "wild men", 'yes' to the orientation program, and 'yes' on the early release program?" There were head nods across the terminal screen. "Good, we can announce all that tomorrow. We'll try and get everyone signed up by the end of the week. Next week we'll finalize the advertisements. That should give us plenty of time to interface with each of the therapists and make any cuts if necessary."  
 
They all said their goodbyes and logged off. As soon as Sandra closed the terminal she received a call from Anne.
 
Anne spoke quickly "I didn't want this to be logged into the meeting minutes so I hope you don't mind the call."
 
"Not at all" Sandra said, now curious.
 
"Do you think Harris leaked that report herself? She was awfully mad that it wasn't included in the presentation" Anne said.
 
"I don't think anyone has ever seen Harris get mad" Sandra joked. "But I considered the possibility. There's nothing to be done about it now. We just have to focus on reforming the program and regaining public trust. Besides, anyone could have accessed the document if they filled a public information request. We're not the military, that report isn't state secrets."
 
"Someone would have told them what to look for though" Anne said with growing nervousness in her voice.
 
Sandra did the best she could to reassure Anne. She knew why her colleague was scared. It was going to come out that the Head of PR buried a report that detailed negative outcomes for a flagship program. Anne's career was on the line and she had barely survived the disaster of the first announcement. Sandra could easily dismiss concerns that only stemmed from self preservation.
 
*****
 
Jake was heading to the mess hall. He had heard through the grapevine that Hiroaki had gotten his release and by luck they were on dinner shift together. It was a happy evening as everyone who walked by gave him their congratulations and he talked about his plans on what he wanted to do when out. Moods were always lifted when a guy everybody liked was able to get out of the facility.
 
==================================================
===== Part 20: Biases ============================
 
It was Wednesday and Jake was headed back to his cell from the gym. He had enough time for a quick shower before his digital therapy session with Dr. Hopper. Meanwhile in her office Dr. Hopper was reviewing the literature she had been given on the new early release program. Jake was the only guest she had has a client that qualified. The philosophy behind the program seemed sound, especially when compared to the negative outcomes so common for wild men.
 
She was slightly worried about one aspect of the agreement. She feared the standards had been set too low and that Jake might be out in as little as three months if he continued on his current trajectory. She wasn't worried about him in particular but more that if he was released into care of Charlotte it might not be good for him or her. Though there was talk within the program of additional steps being taken to find more sponsors for men in his situation.
 
Dr. Hopper outlined the program to him at the start of his session. Jake didn't see any reason not to go for it. "What do I need to do to sign up?" he asked.
 
"I'll send the agreement to your terminal. I would suggest you read over it. If you have any questions, message me. But if you're fine with it you can give your digital signature using your tablet" Helen said. "There is one thing I'm concerned about. An early release would dramatically increase the time frame in which you have to deal with sponsorship and Charlotte."
 
"Well, if I reject her offer I still have a year of waiting to see if someone else wants to be my sponsor, right?" Jake asked. He did want to talk about Charlotte but was more concerned with getting these questions out of the way first.
 
"You should read over the agreement. They will be soliciting for more sponsors for men in your situation" she said in an attempt to be reassuring.
 
"Well since we're already on the subject of Charlotte. I thought I should tell you I went to see her last Friday" Jake stopped there to see what Hopper had to say.
 
"Really?" Helen asked "What was your motivation in going?"
 
"I was curious why she was still scheduling sessions for so long and I still want to know why she did it all in the first place" Jake said, though he felt strangely nervous saying so.
 
"What would you have gained from having those questions answered?" Helen asked.
 
Jake smiled to himself realizing the obvious answer "Nothing much I guess."
 
"Jake, you haven't been with someone since your wife. Your prolonged separation from that kind of relationship doesn't mean you've dealt with your own..." Helen began softly.
 
Jake interrupted "You're right, but it's not like I get an opportunity to figure that out on my own." He shrugged "I don't get to walk out of here and just live my life. I have to be attached to someone and I have a choice between figuring out if I can make compromises with Charlotte or roll the dice on a stranger, and I might not even get to do the latter."
 
Helen sighed "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pressed you on it."
 
Jake leaned back, frustrated. He and Helen had hit this wall several times over their sessions for the last month. Often her advice, which he felt was in his genuine interest, became moot in the face of his present situation.
 
"What's the point on working on my relationship issues if I'm forced into one in order to walk out of here?" he asked.
 
Helen had to change her approach "Just be very careful in how you deal with Charlotte. I can't stop you from meeting her, but the behavior she demonstrated is worrying and she may not be someone you want to trust with sponsorship."
 
"I guess I should figure that out while I got the time then" Jake said.
 
They talked for a bit more about his progress on the journal. Jake did want her to read it once he had finished his second pass at it. It wasn't a very productive conversation overall. It left Jake more worried about Charlotte than less. Helen made a note to review the security footage from Jake and Charlotte's last meeting and to keep an eye open for future meetings between them.
 
Later that evening Jake read through the early release program. Like everything else he had encountered in the facility it talked in vague terms of metrics without the specific details that he wanted. It read like any other terms of service contract to where he skipped over most of it and just signed the thing. He found his mind wandering back to the kind of questions he wanted to ask Charlotte.
 
By the time Friday rolled around he had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to ask her. He made his way into the administration building where Shani the secretary was sitting at her desk working on her tablet. Jake greeted her. "Doors open" she said without looking up or returning the greeting. Jake slowed as he walked to look over at her, she was deliberately not facing or looking at him. He elected to ignore it and walk on through to Charlotte's office. She was waiting at her desk and Jake didn't feel like taking a seat.
 
"Hey" Jake said softly pointing over his shoulder "what's up with your secretary?"
 
"Nothing, I'm aware of" Charlotte said, slightly confused. "You're really soft-balling these questions of yours. Should I compile a list of my favorite colors for next week?"
 
Jake couldn't help but smile "That doesn't count it wasn't a question about you." Jake scratched the back of his neck "I still need to know why, why me?"
 
Charlotte sighed. "I'm not really ready to answer that one. I hope you got another one for me today."
 
There was a softness in her voice that gave Jake pause. "What about signing up to be my sponsor then?"
 
"What do you mean?" Charlotte asked unsure of how to interpret the question.
 
"You didn't know anything about me. If you just signed the paperwork to cover what you were doing how much did you think about the risks you were taking with it?" Jake asked.
 
"That's kind of a long answer" Charlotte started. "You were told about the early release program this week right?"
 
"Yeah, I signed it. What's that got to do with it?" Jake asked. He decided to take a seat since this did feel like it might be a longer conversation after all.
 
Charlotte couldn't help but feel better hearing that he signed it. "The outcomes for wild men..." she struggled to judiciously say what she wanted to "were not good in rehab. That's putting it very lightly. From my side of the desk I didn't have any reason to think you were going to be granted release for years, if at all. The early release program is one of many responses being made to improve outcomes for the wild men."
 
Jake looked at the ceiling. It was as if a missing piece had fallen into the puzzle. "Of course it was all a lie" he said. Charlotte looked at him curiously. "Everyone's insisted from the start that this was a place for me to get better, just get with the program. But even with the other prisoners it's always felt like everyone was on edge around me, like they were waiting for me to snap. No one ever expected me to get better, whatever that means, did they?"
 
"It's not on purpose" Charlotte offered. "We were operating on assumptions that turned out to be wrong and we should have recognized that sooner. I will say that you are catching this place at the right time, where we are making the corrections. But when you arrived that was not the case and I made a very cynical choice based upon that."  
 
"Knowing what you know now, would you have done the same?" Jake asked.
 
Charlotte moved uncomfortably in her chair. "Can we sit together before we talk more?" she asked. Jake silently agreed and moved around to the side of her chair. She removed herself and her clothes. He did the same and took his usual place. She quickly snuggled up against him and he draped his shirt over her shoulders.
 
"I don't know" she said after a long silence. "You're different from what I expected."
 
"How so?" he asked. Jake started to stroke her back, but stayed his hand. The more he learned the more he felt the need to keep a distance as well.
 
"It's like you said; you're patient" Charlotte said "I don't know what it is but in the past this place was too slow, or too quiet for the other wild men. Within weeks they were like caged animals. I could never get my head around it personally. They survived so much out there and then they get here and stillness seems to drive them mad."
 
"Stillness is death in the wild" Jake said. "You're always moving, making, hunting, watching. You can't stare at a wall in here like you look at the world out there. Even when we were sitting in silence there was something to notice; a turn in the wind, an animal we didn't see before, maybe a threat in the distance."
 
Charlotte listened to him and she wondered how many of the men the program had failed would say the same. Had none of them been listened to? Had they been telling the therapists, staff, and administrators what the problem was the whole time and no one actually heard them? She reached up with a claw and delicately traced the length of one of his scars. Jake flinched at her touch. "Sorry" she said.
 
"No, it doesn't hurt, I just wasn't expecting it" he said. In truth he was lost in thought about the wilds. He couldn't help it, talking about that place as he looked out at the woods from the high vantage point of the office.
 
"I should say I'm sorry for a lot more" she said. "Would that mean anything to you now?"
 
"I don't know" Jake said, unsure. "An apology would mean something if I could walk away, or had the option to. What does it matter if I'm held hostage?"
 
Charlotte laid her ears back, she didn't like the accusation of being the hostage taker in that analogy. But she also wouldn't contest it.
 
"There's no going back, is there?" Jake asked. "Even if I did everything rehab wanted me to and got a sponsor and found some legal loophole to walk away. I wouldn't just be able to go out there would I?"
 
She could tell without looking that his focus was only on the mountains. "No" she said "not right now. But so much has changed and so much continues to change. Who knows what might be possible soon."
 
They both ran out of words at that. Charlotte wanted to do more with their time, but she couldn't bring herself to break away from comfort of simply being there with each other. The days were getting longer and they had to start getting dressed before sunset now. Charlotte and Jake exited into the lobby. Charlotte stopped once she noticed Shani was still at her desk.
 
"Why are you still here?" Charlotte asked slightly surprised.
 
Jake could see the secretary struggling to answer, it was obvious that his presence was a major factor in her unease. Before she could be compelled to talk he said "I better get going before lock down." He walked past Charlotte into the hall making sure to close the lobby door behind him.
 
"I'm sorry ma'am" Shani said after they couldn't hear Jake's footsteps anymore. "I didn't want to leave you alone with..."
 
"With him?" Charlotte said, betraying some pain in her voice.
 
"Yes ma'am" Shani answered. She didn't feel bad about staying behind, even if it made her boss mad. She had convinced herself through the week that she wouldn't leave so long as Charlotte was alone with Jake.
 
"Why?" Charlotte asked.
 
Shani nervously clutched at her purse again. "Well, I called Diana, just to get some advice on working here. We talked and when I mentioned Jake she warned me about him. She told me where he came from and what he had done..."  
 
"I'm aware" Charlotte said dismissively.
 
"I'm sorry if I did something wrong..." Shani said looking at the floor.
 
Charlotte closed her eyes. It wasn't fair to blame Shani for her concern. She shook her head softly and said "No, no you didn't do anything wrong." There was too much to explain and it exhausted Charlotte to think about trying to. "Let's get going, it's late."
 
They walked out through the elevator and the checkpoints to exit the building. In the parking lot Charlotte paused beside her car. "Shani, you don't have to worry about Jake. He's not going to do anything to me." She surprised herself with how confident she felt in that statement.
 
"I guess I'm still shocked is all" Shani said. "I never would have guessed he could do something like that."
 
"It's best not to make too many assumptions about the men here" Charlotte said. "You're young, you don't yet have the perspective for what many of these men have lived through. I'm not telling you to take chances with anything that makes you feel unsafe, but keep an open mind."
 
Shani nodded though she still couldn't process the little bit of information she had about Jake or Charlotte's interest in him. She knew such questions would be too personal and had to settle with being unsatisfied for the time being. Shani thanked Charlotte for her advice and went to her own car.
 
Charlotte got in her vehicle and drove to the highway. Once there the self driving took over and she browsed her tablet. She connected to the facility and checked on Jake's security feed. He was writing in his journal again, which he usually did before bed. She quickly closed it out. She had tried to only check in on Jake when she was at the facility itself, just for the sake of her own sanity, but she did it almost unconsciously this time. She rode in silence past the familiar scenery until she got to her exit and had to take over the driving again.
 
She quickly approached the Granite Falls Enclave. The small town had been leveled ten years ago and the enclave purpose built in its place to house up to 50,000 people on roughly four square miles. Small towns like this had been converted all across the country into isolated but high density population centers. Essentially turning the place into several well developed city blocks transplanted to a remote location.
 
The populations in large urban areas had been an economic and strategic problem during the conflicts that resulted in 'furs taking over the government at various stages. They continued to be a problem in terms of peace keeping and law enforcement. Other complications arose from rural and suburban sprawl. The enclaves were being constructed as one way of dealing with both issues. The creation of manageable population centers with small footprints greatly increased the efficacy of surveillance and policing.
 
Based on the Singapore model of city planning the enclaves focused on diverse housing availability, efficient foot travel, and access to services. They had all the amenities of a large city; a selection of restaurants, shopping, health services, child care, and entertainment venues. As well as access to the high speed rail network that connected the larger cities and other enclaves. Their remoteness also allowed an abundance of green space and a closeness to nature that took pressure off of high population density living.
 
Lupine posts bordered the enclave, keeping them out of sight until they needed to be deployed into the city, or sent out to find runaways. The surveillance cameras were well hidden, not as obtrusive as the ones attached to street corners and light posts like in the bigger cities. There were fewer gates and control points, but less were necessary thanks to the higher quality of optical surveillance. The illusion of openness helped significantly in reducing resident anxiety.
 
Charlotte pulled towards her building, an ultra-modern cylindrical design for the condos above. Shops and other services existed on the first two floors in an open mall. Her car was able to self drive inside the parking deck to her space. She took the resident elevators up to the sixteenth floor, not quite the top, but there were only four condos per floor at this level. Her two bedroom suite sat on the northeast quadrant of the building, giving her the view of the mountains and looking away from most of the city light.
 
She waved her ID at the door lock and entered. Lights turned on automatically and she set her things down before sliding onto the couch. She turned on her television and searched for something to watch. A long haired tuxedo cat interrupted her by jumping into her lap. She petted the aggressively purring tomcat and smiled "Alright, Chesty, alright"
 
Charlotte abandoned the idea of watching TV and got back up. "I'll get changed and make us dinner" she said. Chesty meowed in seeming approval.
 
==================================================
===== Part 21: Absence ===========================
 
Dr. Hopper arrived Monday morning expecting to catch up on some reports and release recommendations. Shortly after she arrived she received a phone call from her boss. "Morning Helen, I wanted to catch you as early as I could, I have a few questions concerning one of your clients."
 
"Yes, who?" Helen asked still not entirely focused on work yet. The call itself was unusual, since her boss rarely asked about individual clients and never bothered with phone calls if she did have questions.
 
"Jake Hastings..." she said, she paused as though reading over something. The name got Helen's full attention. "We need your opinion on him for early release."
 
"He shows remarkable stability when it comes to aggression and anxiety. I'm worried about how he will fare with the sponsorship program forcing him to partner with a fur so soon. Also, he may be an above average runaway risk" Helen said.
 
Her boss responded with few "mm-hmm"'s but nothing more until she was done. "I'm told runaways are an acceptable risk with the early release program. I'm mostly concerned with violence, given his past and all. Do you think he's likely to harbor some prejudice against furs in general or engage in acts of revenge, if he is granted early release?"
 
Helen wasn't sure what prompted all of this "I'm sorry, but if any of this was an issue why didn't we go over it before having him sign on to the program?"
 
"This isn't about early release, exactly" her boss clarified. "We're going to feature Jake in some promotional material for the wild men to drive up sponsorship. I'm just doing some extra diligence to make sure we don't regret including him."
 
"What sort of promotional material?" Helen asked with growing concern.
 
"Online video features, some regional ads, maybe more; we're not really sure right now" her boss responded casually.
 
"I would not recommend Jake for such a thing" Helen said forcefully.
 
"You think he'll be violent?" her boss asked, surprised.
 
"No, I don't. That's not the point" Helen said. "If he was granted early release I do not think he would be well served for being made famous for his past. There have to be other guests with much less hanging over them to us in advertisements."
 
"I totally agree with you" her boss said with a sigh. "It's not my call. I've got the director breathing down my neck over this guy. It's her idea and you know how Kathleen gets."
 
"So you're not actually looking for my input then?" Helen asked rhetorically "Jake's going to be included regardless."
 
"If you thought he was dangerous enough to not be included in the early release program at all, we would defer to your authority. Kathleen's counting it as a no lose scenario to include him in the ads since he already has a DIS with Priestly" her boss explained.
 
"Did you tell her the nuance of whats going on with that situation?" Helen asked.
 
"Yes, sort of. At least, I tried to tell her. Kathleen's unconcerned with the details so long as its nothing important enough to cut him out of early release entirely."
 
"I need to talk to Jake about this" Helen said.
 
"No" her boss responded quickly "he already signed up. This is purely about whether you, his therapist, thinks he would be a danger to himself or others if released early. It's your veto."
 
"You're not going to give me any time to think about it are you?" Helen asked with some false hope.
 
"Kathleen wants her answer by noon, and Jake isn't the only one I have to check up on" her boss said. "Listen we both know that hes fine, I've read over your reports and looked at his data. The situation with wife was very unique and we have no reason to expect recidivism from him. But we also know that the longer he stays in rehab the worse his chances get."
 
"We don't know that" Helen interrupted.
 
"Sure, let's give him the benefit of the doubt" she said, conceding the point. "He's defied the odds so far. But you recognize it's a gamble both ways. If you're making the best choice for Jake, is he better off in early release or out of it?"
 
Helen hated the idea that Jake's fate would be tied to this one decision. There was a long silence as she tried to weigh the options. Her intuition kept bringing her back to the truth; It would be a lie to say that Jake was unfit for early release even if she didn't think such strings should be attached to it. "I don't think he's a danger to himself or others" she said, with a defeated tone.
 
"Okay" was all her boss responded with.
 
"Let me know when the ad campaign launches, I need to at least show Jake what is being said about him." Helen requested.
 
"Next Monday is what I've heard. They've been working on this for a while. Picking out the individual guests was the last detail. I'll let you know if it gets pushed back" her boss said. "Helen, I know you just want whats best for him, for all your clients. I'm sorry for putting you on the spot like this" she added before concluding the call.
 
Helen sat for a while. She was drained by the call and now unwilling to work on her other cases. While her mind was still on Jake she decided to review the interactions between him and Charlotte, which she had been putting off catching up on. She took notes on that until she had to get around to her morning sessions with clients.
 
By Wednesday she still had not decided if she would tell Jake about the ad campaign. She skipped over it to discuss his changing approach to Charlotte. Helen sincerely felt that everything Charlotte had done disqualified her from being a good partner for him. She speculated that Jake was still stuck in a kind of codependent mindset from his past marriage. That despite everything he said about being over Marilyn; he had normalized behaviors that made him blind to more subtle dependencies.
 
Helen voiced none of her concerns and mostly let Jake talk through his thought process on the matter. He was planning to see Charlotte again Friday and Helen recommended against it. Jake didn't push back but he thanked her anyways.
 
Jake arrived for his meeting with Charlotte on Friday, on time as always.
 
"She's on a call" Shani said to him before he could walk through the lobby.
 
"Ah, I'll wait then" Jake said. Whatever had changed the secretaries demeanor towards him had yet to go away so he stood in awkward silence as the minutes slipped by. For her part Shani kept her eyes on her tablet and stayed quiet. It wasn't too long before the intercom buzzed and she waved him in.
 
Jake took a seat right away. "What did I do to piss Shani off?" he had to ask Charlotte.
 
"Oh, well" Charlotte sighed "She talked to Diana and was given an uncharitable recounting of your past, I think."
 
Jake chuckled. "That's funny. I'm the one who told her to talk to Diana in the first place."
 
"What? When?" Charlotte asked.
 
"That night she walked in on us. I caught her in the elevator landing on my way out and she was really upset. She thought she was messing up the job. I told her to call your old secretary for some advice" Jake said.
 
Charlotte thought for a moment then said "Maybe I should talk to her about how she treats..."
 
"No don't" Jake interrupted. "No one wants their boss to reprimand them over a boyfriend. She can not like me, it's fine." He breathed in deep "I guess my past is a good place to start for my question. How much do you know about my past?"
 
"Just whats in the old reports and your physical" Charlotte said.
 
"So you don't talk to Hopper or read any of her stuff?" he asked.
 
"No, I'm admin. We don't have access to therapy's operations" Charlotte explained. "Hopper wouldn't do it even if I asked, she's very proper in that regard."
 
"Yeah" Jake said leaning forward. "She really doesn't like the idea of me coming to see you anymore."
 
"Oh?" was all Charlotte could respond with at first. "You don't have to talk about it with me, or your past, if you don't want to."
 
"No, I think it's worthwhile" Jake said, though he wasn't really sure of that. "Hopper thinks I would be better off putting everything that happened between you and I in the past and considering other sponsor options. But I don't know how much sense that makes, yeah there's a lot there to forgive, but on the other hand I have to hope someone looks at my past and doesn't judge me for it."
 
It hurt Charlotte to be reminded of these things, and to consider that Jake may pick another sponsor. "I can't think of any advice to give you that doesn't sound self serving" she said.
 
"I'm not looking for advice" Jake said with an exasperated tone. "No one here gives it anyways. I talk to Hopper for a long time and she says 'good job, see you next week'. Then I come up here and talk to you and get a "good job, see you next week'. I'm used to it by now."
 
"I never once told you 'good job' and you know it" Charlotte said sternly.
 
Jake looked her in the eye and laughed. She smiled too. After the room was quiet again she asked "Are you worried that this is just going to be another relationship like with... your wife..."
 
"Marilyn" Jake said with some mood in his voice that even Charlotte's senses couldn't pick up on.
 
"So you worry that being with me, will be like it was with Marilyn?" Charlotte asked.
 
"It won't be that, for a lot of reasons. But that doesn't mean it'll be good either. I think what I'm really worried about is what is it like out there now? I didn't know that everybody has a chip now! I thought that was a prison thing. When one of the staff told me about it I didn't believe her. I had to talk to a bunch of the guys before I thought it was true" Jake shook his head "What the hell kind of world is out there?"
 
Charlotte held up her wrist and spread the short fur to reveal a very small scar where her own chip had been implanted. She looked at it as she spoke "It's weird, way weirder than what we grew up with for sure. But it's not all bad."
 
She looked up to meet his gaze "Then again, my experience out there isn't anything like yours is going to be. Sponsorship itself comes with lots of restrictions, so you won't get the best of it upfront either."
 
"See that's what really scares me" Jake said "That I go through all this and it turns out that worlds not much better than prison at the end of the day."
 
Jake didn't have more to say. Sensing that, Charlotte got up and took her time undressing as she walked around to Jake. He went to stand up and undress as well but she told him to stop and stay seated. She pulled herself into his lap and brought her face close to his. She started to kiss his neck as she softly said "The foods better out there."
 
Jake laughed dryly. She pulled off his shirt as she continued to kiss his chest. "Entertainment options are way better outside the facility..."
 
Jake lifted himself as she tugged at his pants, pulling them down and off. Her muzzle approached his erect member, her warm breath eliciting a twitch from Jake. She licked him slowly before taking him in fully. His heady scent was stronger than she could have anticipated. Charlotte lost herself in pleasuring Jake, who currently had a death grip on the armrests.
 
Oral had not been a big part of his previous marriage. Marilyn having an anatomically correct cat's tongue did not make that a pleasurable experience for him. So it had been a long time since he had been shown this kind of attention, and Charlotte was proving to be quite talented at it.
 
Scent drunk and enraptured by the taste of him Charlotte's rhythm hastened. As she felt him approaching his limit she regained enough agency to stop and stand up. Jake saw that she was already glistening and wasted no time in picking her up. Her legs slipped through the space under the arm rests and she fell onto him with throaty moan. Jake plunged his strong hands into the fur and flesh of her thighs, maneuvering her in time with his thrusts.
 
Charlotte licked at his ear and neck. She had both arms resting on his shoulders gripping the back of the chair. As Jake thrust she pressed herself down and rolled her hips in time. Her tail would twitch onto her back as they found their pace. For Charlotte this was not the quick build up and explosion like she had felt before. This was a slowly rising heat welling up inside her. Her fingers pressed into the seat and her toes curled. Every hair of her fur felt like an electrical contact with a current running through Jake into her.
 
She pressed her face against his and gripped the back of his head. One of Jake's arms snaked up her back to grab her shoulder and take full control of her movement. What started as low moan built into high pitched cry as Charlotte boiled over. Every muscle she had shuddered in ecstasy. Her extremities would feel numb and she would test them against his body only for a wave of pleasure to recoil from the contact. It took time for her to find herself, only then did it occur to her that Jake had finished too. His breath echoed in her ear as she sat with him for as long as she could.
 
With an awkward bit of maneuvering they were able to get her legs out from the space under the armrests. Jake carried her over to the larger office chair behind her desk where they could sit more comfortably. Once Charlotte finally felt like speaking again she softly stated "Also... I have a pretty big bed."
 
Jake chuckled. "Why?" he asked without much thought "I got the impression you were kind of a loner."
 
"Yeah" she said snuggling up to him a little more "Hope springs eternal, I guess"
 
Jake smiled "Priestly quoting Pope"
 
"What?" Charlotte asked sitting up to look at him.
 
"That phrase, 'hope springs eternal'. It's from a poem by Alexander Pope" Jake said.
 
Charlotte gave a confused laugh "How do you know that?"
 
Jake shrugged. He had seen the phrase in something else a few weeks ago and decided to look it up, It was one of many public domain works that was free to access through his tablet. Stuff like that happened a lot with his reading in prison. Chasing tangents like that was one of the few advantages he found to using the tablet over the comfort of an actual book. Truthfully he thought it was too long for a poem and the older style made it difficult to read, but he wasn't going to tell Charlotte any of that.
 
Charlotte shook her head and laid with him until their time was up. They were both relieved that Shani had decided to go home at a more reasonable time. Charlotte self-consciously wondered if Shani had stuck around long enough to hear how loud she had gotten. They said their quick goodbyes and Charlotte drove home in satisfied silence.
 
Once home Charlotte fed Chesty and ordered in for herself. For the rest of the night she found herself looking around the condo and expecting to see Jake. She wasn't sure what surprised her more; that he wasn't there or that the rational part of her brain expected him to be there at all. She eventually realized his lingering scent was playing tricks on her.
 
Charlotte took a long shower. She thoroughly shampooed her fur, tail, and ears. She savored her time in the drying stand. The comfort of the warm air made her sleepy even though it wasn't very late. Jake's scent was completely gone now, and it was like there was a lingering hole in the apartment. As confusing as the phantom feelings were from earlier the total absence was worse.
 
She had not felt like this in months and had hoped it would not reoccur. She prayed that maybe, this time, the emotions wouldn't come on so strongly or so suddenly if they spaced out their meetings to once a week. That proved to be a false hope.
 
She slipped under the creme colored sheets of her king size bed. Charlotte reached for someone who wasn't there and she couldn't stop the tears from coming. Chesty hopped up on the bed and curled up against her back, his contact distracted her from what she felt by a little. Her condo had similar floor to ceiling windows as her office and she stared out at the mountains as she cleared her eyes of tears. She told the home control system to close the blinds. The city light was extinguished and the room darkened. Even with her tiredness the vague ache she felt made her unable to go to sleep for a long while after that. 

==================================================
===== Part 22: Adverts ===========================
 
It was Sunday evening at Dr. Rebecca Upton's home, which meant date night for her and her husband. The kids were staying with her parents and her Mike had prepared dinner for the two of them. They ate and talked about their weeks, though she rarely found things worth sharing about her job with him. He usually had interesting stories from the ad agency to make up for it and this week was no different.
 
They were done with dinner and Mike decided to share the last story he had left "We're still under the non-disclosure until tomorrow but I think I can tell you about it now and not hurt anything."
 
"Are you sure it's safe?" said Rebecca, jokingly indulging him as she picked up their plates.
 
"I don't think they'll fire me over this one" he said as he helped her. He went to fetch his tablet to show her what he was working on. Though he usually showed his wife whatever he found funny, or ads so bad they became funny, he considered she might actually have some interest with this one given the subject.
 
"These are for rehabilitation" he said as he thumbed through the screens.
 
"Oh, don't show me that. The sponsorship ads are all so depressing" she said as she finished loading the dishwasher.
 
"No these are completely different. Well, some of them are. We have a few that are like the old style. 'Mr. Down-on-his-luck' types with sad biographies. But these new ones are crazy" he smiled and shook his head "I mean this one guy lost half his toes to frostbite and apparently killed a bear. They literally caught him wearing a bear skin. That got tossed by processing but they had us photo edit one onto him for the ad."
 
"What?" Rebecca said in disbelief.
 
"Yeah, that's what make these so weird. Like they want us to play them up as being extreme or something. It sort of works, I'm way more interested in bear skin dude than all the other rehabs so far" he said. He scrolled some more.
 
"This one I don't like. We were trying to go for the whole redemption angle but it's a bit much for an ad. I mean just look at the guy" he said handing off the tablet to Rebecca.
 
Rebecca instantly recognized Jake. The ads had him wearing a severe expression that she didn't recall ever seeing on his face. The images auto scrolled. He wasn't wearing a shirt emphasizing his scaring. One of the photos was his bare back with his most prominent scars on full display. "I know him" she said softly.
 
"He's at Cascades?" Mike asked.
 
"Yeah, I'm his doctor" she said flabbergasted.
 
"Damn, I hope they gave you a couple of guards when you had to deal with him" Mike said with concern. "We spent a long time going over his bio to try and make it look better, but he seems like damaged goods at this point."
 
"No, he's actually a reasonable guy" Rebecca said. "Did they make him pose for all these ridiculous pictures? It's like they made him into a different person."
 
"They gave us access to the video data from their rooms, we can make composite photos of anything we want, then touch up the details of whatever we want to add. But the rehab people were real specific about playing up their 'look' to fit each story" he said. "The bear skin guy is the 'survivalist', another guy is supposed to be like an 'adventurer'..."
 
"What did they want Jake to be?" she asked.
 
"A 'savage' was how they phrased it. But the prompt read more like 'killer' to be honest" Mike took the tablet from her. "It's like they want him to be the brooding, dark, love interest from some trashy romance novel" he said setting the tablet aside.
 
"Sorry, I wouldn't have brought it up if I thought you might know any of them" Mike said grabbing her hand.
 
"No" she said "I think it's better I find out early rather than from randomly watching something."
 
"Sponsor ads are only targeted at single 'furs, so I would be very upset if you were seeing them" he said wrapping an arm around her waist.
 
"How do you know I don't want to trade you in for a survivalist?" she asked giving him a peck on the cheek.
 
"Hey, I'm the only reason they didn't put a racoon skin hat on him for the ads" he said.
 
She laughed. "I'm serious" Mike said "the bear skin thing only got through because its just the fur, no head. I said anything with tails might be going too far in the same direction so they scrapped the hat."
 
They continued to tease each other as they made their way to the bedroom. Rebecca quickly forgot about Jake as she focused on the purpose of having weekly alone time with her husband.
 
She still hadn't forgotten about it on Monday and messaged Dr. Hopper to ask if she wanted to eat lunch together, privately. Hopper agreed and Rebecca joined her in her office at midday. She told her what was on her mind as soon as they sat down together.
 
"So yeah, you can bring up the ads on your tablet and I'll show you what Mike showed me" Rebecca said.
 
"I knew the ads were coming out today but I wasn't told what the content would be" Hopper admitted as she brought them up. She let them play in the background as they talked.
 
Rebecca shook her head "It's completely unfair to Jake. Even if he does get more sponsors, what kind of weirdo is going to be attracted to that ad?"
 
Helen was reading through the attached biography. It was inaccurate, but still better than what the images alone presented. "As far as I know they still haven't lowered the standards for sponsors. So it might break even and do what they hope. Something shocking to draw attention, then rehab can filter out the sponsors not worthwhile. I get their thinking, but I agree with you. It's unsettling."
 
Helen got an alert on her phone. She let out a sigh. "What's the matter?" Rebecca asked.
 
"Today is going to be an interesting day for the rehabilitation program" Helen said.
 
"Yeah, these ads are going to be pretty confusing in the wake of that mess they caused a few months ago" Rebecca said as she finished off her salad.
 
"No I meant this" Helen said. She loaded up a webpage on her tablet and handed it over to Rebecca.
 
Rebecca looked at the article and her eyes grew wide as she read. It was an expose by Camille Kerr on the outcomes for wild men in rehab. Most of it was sourced from that report by Dr. Harris that Charlotte had showed her. There were also a bunch of transcripts showing how the rehab program was fully aware of the problems and the head of PR aggressively pushed to suppress the findings. Kerr's incisive writing style produced a compelling tear down of the callous leadership displayed in the documents and communications.
 
Rebecca was stunned she hadn't heard of this yet, she scrolled up to look at the time it was posted. It was only just a few minutes ago. "How did you know about this?" she asked.
 
"It's out now so there's no harm in telling you" Helen said. "I was already in communication with Kerr, she sent me the link just now. She's working on a new book aimed at the evolving criminal justice system for men. I was helping to consult her on rehab since I've been with the program for so long. When I found out about the report from Dr. Harris I had to tell her."
 
"You leaked it?" Rebecca said.
 
"No, no, no" Helen said softly. "Nothing that direct. I told her what to ask for in an information request. She was already filling so many of them while writing the book that it wasn't that unusual. I thought she would save it for the book, but I guess she decided it was worth an article on its own."
 
Rebecca shrugged "I'm not surprised, I've heard people talking about it through the admin side of things too. That initial report went out to a lot of people, and even if most of them didn't read it I'm sure it raised enough eyebrows to where it was going to come out eventually."
 
"I think Kerr was just early on the story" Helen said. "She had the advantage of already working on the book after all."
 
"Who knows? Maybe no one will care" Rebecca said.
 
"It's possible. But I didn't expect that other presentation to get as much push back as it did either. Now that military operations are winding down I think people are starting to focus more on domestic issues" Helen said.
 
"Maybe" Rebecca said as she packed up her garbage from lunch. "I just know I wouldn't want to be upstairs today."
 
"I'm more worried about telling Jake about the ads" Helen said.
 
"He doesn't know about them?" Rebecca said with shock.
 
"No, they didn't think it was worth informing him" Helen said dejectedly. "I could have vetoed the ads if I told them he was dangerous, but they would have kicked him out of the early release program."
 
A look of disgust crossed Rebecca's face "They didn't learn anything from all that bad press did they?"
 
"Looks like it" Helen said sadly. "I don't know if I did the right thing keeping Jake in the program though."
 
"It's a tough call" Rebecca said, thinking about it herself. "Yeah the ads are terrible, but if the sponsor filtering is still stringent, it at least gets Jake options that aren't Priestly."
 
Helen nodded, she had no reason to tell Rebecca about Jake re-initiating his meetings with Charlotte so she didn't. Even if she had wanted to their lunch hour was in danger of creeping into work and Rebecca had to go. Helen looked at her free hours, she didn't have any left for the day, but she still had some time open on Tuesday. She sent Jake a message and asked if he would be willing to come to her office to discuss something. As an afterthought she reminded him to bring his journal, if he was ready to share it with her.
 
==================================================
===== Part 23: Remembering =======================
 
Jake headed to his session with Hopper, journal in hand. The updated version wasn't quite done yet, but he felt like handing it off to Hopper at this point. At the rate he was going in rehabilitation he would probably wind up writing it a third time. It had been a few months since he had seen the doctor in person, and was surprised at how much he was looking forward to it. He greeted her upon entering her office and sat down.
 
"How have you been?" Helen asked. The surveillance made that question unnecessary, but niceties like that kept the client-doctor relationship personable.
 
"Better" Jake said, also a little surprised that he meant it. "It's actually been good talking to Charlotte. I don't know everything I would like to know but it's been nice."
 
Helen nodded, she wasn't going to derail today's session by repeating her warnings about Charlotte. "I'm glad you are getting something out of it. Is that the journal you've been working on?"
 
"Yeah" Jake said, handing it over to her.
 
"I'll try to read it before next week, and we'll do another in person session at your usual time" Helen said.
 
"I was wondering about that" Jake said. "You usually don't request a session on such short notice, what's up?"
 
Helen set the journal aside "Yes, unfortunately I do need to show you something. Rehabilitation does some advertisements to try and drum up the numbers for sponsors, normally they're quite tame."
 
"Normally?" Jake asked, hesitant as to how this related to him.
 
"They've decided to take some advertisements for wild men, such as yourself, in a different direction. A new campaign launched yesterday and you feature prominently in it" Helen said with a sigh. She opened up her tablet to the rehabilitation website. She handed it over to Jake.
 
Jake looked at himself in the ridiculous poses, and winced a little bit at the ones with his scars. But the longer it went on he couldn't help himself and started to laugh. Helen leaned back concerned as Jake continued to laugh. Finally Helen asked "Are you alright, Jake?"
 
"It's just so... so..." he was at a loss for words between chuckles. "Why should I expect anything else at this point? Mind if I look through the rest of these?"
 
"No, go ahead" Helen said, still unsure about Jake's response.
 
Jake scrolled through the rehab site. He saw a guy in fur coat of some kind, and then a familiar face. "Hey they have Dean on this thing too." He held up the tablet, showing an ad with another wild man dressed in outdoor leathers, carrying tools and a coil of rope. "They're trying to make him look like Indiana Jones. Whoever picks him based on this shit is going to be disappointed" Jake said with a laugh. He went back to scrolling before adding "Dean hated the wild, he was only there because he hated his wife more."
 
Jake sighed. He went back to the main site and looked at some of the other ads of different men. These were more tame, guys in everyday clothes, with short but sympathetic by-lines about each one. "You know what this reminds me of?" Jake asked rhetorically before going on "It's like those old pet adoption ads. This one was abandoned, this one ran away, this one was abused."
 
Helen frowned at her agreement of his assessment. She had seen many of her clients misrepresented in the ads over the years. As a therapist she had little oversight in that area. However Jake's reaction was not what she was anticipating "Well, I'm glad you're not angry about it" she said.
 
"Oh, I'm furious" Jake said with a joyless laugh. "Not a damn thing I can do about it though is there?"
 
Helen agreed. "I'm sorry..."
 
"You didn't do it" Jake said, handing the tablet back.
 
"I did have the option of getting you out of the ads, but I would have had to say that you were likely a violent re-offender, and I don't believe that to be the case. They would have taken you out of early release as well if I did" she confessed.
 
Jake looked her in the eyes. "That's shitty for them to put it all on you like that. But if those were the options I would rather go for the early release."
 
Helen felt some relief that she had made the same choice for Jake if he had been offered it himself. Jake leaned back. He thought for a moment and said "You know after I left I always wondered what our friends thought about what happened with me and Marilyn. I wonder if any of them are going to see this stuff now?"
 
"Maybe, the rehab ads are targeted for single 'furs. But like anything else they can get shared around the internet" Helen said. "Did you ever consider going to your friends before leaving?"
 
"I know I said 'our friends' but really they were Marilyn's friends, and their husbands" Jake shrugged. "Nice enough people for having over for dinner, but I didn't trust any of them. I think one or two of them suspected something was up with me and Marilyn, especially when I was bandaged up for a while and we would turn down social offers because of it. They didn't ever see me bandaged up, but we would be unavailable for weeks sometimes for no good reason. I guess nobody wanted to rock the boat though, and when I made up my mind to leave I never considered asking any of them for help."
 
"You didn't regret loosing those relationships?" Helen asked.
 
"It didn't take me long to realize that none of those were real friendships, once I was away from them. Half of the people involved were hostages, how could any of it have been genuine?" Jake asked.
 
"But you wouldn't want to contact any of them, even to apologize?" Helen asked.
 
"Apologize for what?" Jake asked.
 
"For killing Marilyn, their friend" Helen said solemnly. Jake felt the sting of that accusation more than he expected. Marilyn had no family, and truthfully he didn't like most of their friends. Still, he had never considered how his wife's death had effected the people she knew. Now, so many years later, he felt a measure of shame for that callousness. It didn't help that he required Helen to point it out to him either.
 
"I never felt like I knew those people" Jake said. "I imagine that most were horrified by what I did to Marilyn, but would they have felt anything if they knew the truth about our relationship? Looking back, maybe some of them would have been sympathetic and tried to help me. But a lot of them, just based on how they treated their husbands in public; well lets just say their opinion isn't worth anything" Jake sat for a while. A melancholy mood had overtaken him, which frequently happened when he thought too much about his days with Marilyn.
 
"I know you said most of your journal has to do with your running away, have you considered writing about your marriage itself at all?" Helen asked.
 
"I've been tempted. There's a lot in there about the relationship, because of the conversations me and the guys had" Jake said. "I guess I've been avoiding it."
 
"There's no reason to judge yourself harshly for that. You've made very good use of your time here. But you can't expect to process years of information with a few months of reflection. Take your time with it" Helen suggested.
 
"Thanks, I should probably start anyways. I've made writing a habit and honestly that journals done" He said pointing at the one on her desk. "I was thinking about doing it again, but after what you said I think that would just be avoiding writing what I really need to write about."  
 
"If it gets difficult, I will always be available to help talk you through it" Helen said with a smile.
 
Jake thanked her and then thanked her again for telling him about the ads. He left for his lunch work shift. Helen took the time to read through the first few pages of his journal. She was curious about where exactly where he started the journey. It began with Jake in the car pulling out of the driveway. There was no mention of Marilyn at all for the first few pages she read. Her tablet rang a reminder for her next session and she set the journal aside.
 
*****
 
It was later in the afternoon and Shani was preparing to go home. She had been debating what she was about to do all day long and finally summoned up the courage to push the intercom button "Ms. Priestly, I'm done for the day, but can I come in and talk to you before I leave?"
 
Charlotte thought for a moment. She was very tired. The ads had landed yesterday which resulted in meetings about messaging and all new programs in the pipeline for wild men. Then that expose broke around lunch causing emergency meetings through the afternoon, which spilled over into today as well. She was getting behind on the normal administrative duties for the facility itself. It seemed like the higher ups were pulling people into meetings more out of desperation than actually looking for solutions. Anne Wester was likely going to be forced to resign from public relations when it was all said and done.
 
"Ms. Priestly?" Shani's voice came through again, more hesitantly this time. That shook the errant thoughts out of Charlotte's mind. "Yes, of course, come on in."
 
Shani had not asked much of her boss. She was proving to be quite independent and capable at her job. If she needed to talk about something Charlotte assumed it must be important. The mane-like fur of the monkey girl bounced softly as she walked quickly in and found her seat.
 
"It's about those new ad's, ma'am" she began. Shani continued with some trepidation "the ones about Jake I mean."
 
Charlotte had seen them, and kept her opinions to herself in the meetings. She wasn't sure if Sandra had told anyone about her DIS with Jake and she didn't find out Jake was going to be used in the ads until they went live. Ultimately she decided against having a chat with Sandra about it, but felt insulted that no one had bothered to tell her all the same. She nodded to encourage Shani to continue talking.
 
"Is it true?" she asked with an odd mix of sadness and concern.
 
"What part?" Charlotte asked.
 
"The scars... That was just photo editing for the ads right? They made those guys look so weird, that had to be fake too right?" Shani asked.
 
"No" Charlotte said sadly "That's probably the truest part of the new campaign."
 
Shani looked up, her eyes filled with pain. "So his wife really did all of that to him?"
 
"Yes" Charlotte said.
 
"Why?" the younger woman asked in confusion.
 
"I don't know" Charlotte said "I'm not going to force him to talk about it."
 
"Why did it have to come to that, why did he have to kill her, why couldn't he get someone to help..." her questions came like a flood.
 
"Shani" Charlotte said authoritatively, ending her distressed questions. "Three years ago you were in school, right?"
 
"Yes" she said with a nod.
 
"Well, three years ago Jake was on his seventh year of marriage. During those last two years he lived in a territory where he couldn't even leave the house unaccompanied by his wife. There were curfews, and nightly patrols, and near constant runaways. They were hunted down aggressively, and there was basically no consideration given as to why a particular runaway happened before he was immediately returned to his wife's home. There were a lot of murders then. Suicides too. Often one then the other" Charlotte explained.
 
"In those days the attitude of the government was 'order at any cost', Jake is not that unique in his situation. But he is fairly unique in his escape and survival." Charlotte looked at the shocked face of her underling. "I've been warden for almost five years now so I saw the truth of it all from the top down. I saw it get worse and worse as the press and government downplayed everything. I saw the kinds of cases that went through rehab, and rehabs struggles to deal with them."
 
Charlotte softened her tone and continued "I hope I don't sound like I'm lecturing you. But this is what I meant last week about having perspective. While you were in school in Vancouver thinking about getting a job and finding a husband, Jake was surviving years of what was effectively house arrest with an abusive wife."
 
"Until it broke him" Shani said.
 
"I don't think it did. Not now; at first I thought the same. That may sound bizarre given the end result, but I think Jake would have been broken if he stayed. Violent as it was, I think his exit from society was him taking something back for himself" Charlotte said. "This place has a better chance of breaking Jake than his wife did."
 
"You're talking about that report thing?" Shani asked. She hadn't kept up with the news on that but based on the furor it had caused for her boss she assumed it wasn't very good.
 
"Mostly" Charlotte said, guiltily thinking of the part she had played in Jake's stay at the facility. Shani still seemed very distressed and Charlotte thought perhaps the girl had too sweet of a disposition for working in rehab.
 
"Listen" Charlotte began "Things are much better now, across a lot of regions. But one of the problems of rapid changes like this is that it's easy to forget what was done in such a short span of time just a few years ago. It happened so quickly that you didn't even know it was going on."
 
Shani took a deep breath. She thought about what she had heard and didn't hear growing up. There were always stories, but the news made everything seem so stable. Some of her friends were more worried, but she thought they were taking things too seriously. Having fun in high school, then focusing on her secondary education, she had safely ignored it all and now felt guilty.
 
"Should I say something to Jake?" Shani asked suddenly "I've been rude to him lately."
 
Charlotte smiled "I think he's fine. Just count it as a lesson learned going forward."
 
"I will ma'am" Shani said with a nod. She still had so many questions about Jake, about her boss, about the past. But it had been a busy day and she was already feeling bad about stretching it out further. She thanked Charlotte and left for home. Charlotte had decided at some point in the conversation that she did need to have a talk with Sandra and found an open spot on her schedule Friday morning to request a meeting. A few days would give her time to organize her thoughts on the matter and also give time for everyone to calm down about the recent publicity.
 
==================================================
===== Part 24: Apology ===========================
 
Friday approached quicker than Charlotte would have liked. The derangement of her schedule earlier in the week had abated but she had been catching up with her normal duties ever since. Sandra had approved the meeting she requested and it was time for the call.
 
"What can I do for you Charlotte?" the snake woman began sweetly.
 
"Why did no one tell me about Jake's inclusion in the new ads?" Charlotte asked bluntly.
 
"You weren't aware?" Sandra said surprised. "I thought Kathleen told you. There must have been some miscommunication between her and I during the rush to get the campaign launched. I'm so sorry, I take full responsibility for it and hope you can forgive me" the words poured out of her effortlessly. Charlotte knew the apology to be completely hollow. Years of working with Sandra had taught her that. Charlotte had simply been forgotten about and no one above her expected her to say anything about it.
 
"How are things with you and your boy?" Sandra asked to break the silence.
 
"Well enough. I hope he isn't made too infamous by these advertisements" Charlotte said.
 
"He's certainly getting popular" Sandra said with some small amount of glee.
 
"How so?" Charlotte asked.
 
"Active sponsors have placed him and all the other 'high-risk' candidates on their watch lists." Sandra said. Furs that were already through the approval process for sponsorship could maintain watch-lists for guests that had yet to be granted release. Sandra continued "And the new sponsor applications have never been higher. It's incredible!"
 
"Even with the bad press we've been getting?" Charlotte asked.
 
"I guess it's true that there is no such thing as bad publicity. If anything the controversy has inspired furs to get men out of the rehab program as quickly as possible. The ads are doing so well we're already working on a second round in the same style" Sandra said. "All I'm saying is that I hope you have that boy of yours good and loyal by now" she said with a smirk.
 
"Jake's fairly popular then?" Charlotte asked. Though it pained her to consider it, she hid it well enough through the video call.
 
"He's in the lead in terms of getting on new watch lists. He'll be spoiled for choice when he gets to release" Sandra said. She quickly backtracked as she realized what she was implying "You're still in the top category by filling the DIS, don't worry about that."
 
"I'm not" Charlotte said. "Well that's all I really needed to know. Thank you for the meeting."
 
"No problem" Sandra said "and again I'm so sorry about leaving you out of the loop."
 
They ended the call and Charlotte neglected going back to work for a while as she thought about the information she had received. She had been looking forward to her afternoon meeting with Jake and now it seemed spoiled by the conversation with Sandra. She didn't get much work done as she waited for the end of the day to come.
 
Jake made his way up to the administration building. The secretary greeted him warmly. He wondered if Charlotte had said something to her after all, but the greeting felt genuine and not forced. She talked to him like she had done before she found out about his crimes.
 
Jake didn't say much to Shani before moving on to Charlotte's office. He took a seat and quickly got the impression that something about Charlotte seemed off. Normally she was excited to see him, even as she struggled to pretend she wasn't.
 
"Are you alright?" Jake asked after saying his hello.
 
"It's been a busy week is all. How are you doing? I'm sure Hopper told you about the ads by now" Charlotte asked.
 
"I try to put it out of my mind honestly. I can't do anything about it so there's no point wasting my time worrying about it" Jake said. "Actually, Hopper gave me the idea for my question for you."
 
"She did?" Charlotte said with a little surprise.
 
"I mean not directly of course, just what we talked about made me think of it" Jake said. "What's your social life like? What kind of friends do you keep outside of here?"
 
Charlotte smirked "I don't have a social life Jake. My best friend is a slightly overweight house cat, with a rotating pool of secretaries taking second place."
 
"I'm surprised" Jake said. "You don't seem like a 'pet' person."
 
Charlotte laughed and Jake grinned. "But seriously," he said "you don't have many friends?"
 
"It's hard for someone in my situation" Charlotte said. "Most married furs only want to be friends with other married furs, they're too overprotective of their husbands and keep us single ladies at a distance. The singles mostly just talk about finding husbands, which bores me."
 
Jake looked at her with concern. Charlotte decided to soften what she had said "Of course, I'm kind of a homebody to begin with. I didn't make many friends in college either, and we were all single back then."
 
Jake had suspected as much about Charlotte over time. She did not strike him as a social creature, but people put on different faces when at work so he thought it was still worth the question. "We'll I guess that's all I've got for today" he said as he started to unbutton his shirt.
 
"Jake, I think you should go back to your room" Charlotte said to stop him.
 
Jake paused and looked at her "What's wrong?"
 
"Everything about this" Charlotte said reluctantly. "I found out today the ads seem to be working in your favor. When you do get release, you'll have a lot of sponsors to choose from." She sighed heavily "You don't have to keep trying to make me happy. I'll stop scheduling the sessions and you can ride out the rest of rehab as if I don't exist."
 
Jake was confused "What brought all this on."
 
"A lot of things" Charlotte said. "You once said an apology from me wouldn't mean anything because you didn't have any other options. Well it looks like you're going to have those options now, and I want you to know that I'm sorry for how I treated you." She was fighting back tears as she attempted to maintain her composure.
 
"It doesn't sound like this is what you really want" Jake said, struggling to understand the motivation for all of this.
 
"It's not" Charlotte said. "But I'm prepared to not get what I want. I guess that's part of the apology too."
 
Jake stood up. He wanted to say something but her change in attitude had him at a loss for words. He took a few steps towards the door. He stopped and turned back around "You never explained why you went after me in the first place."
 
Charlotte sighed "It wouldn't make you feel any different."
 
"It might" Jake offered.
 
"I don't want to find out if it makes you feel any different" Charlotte said in her stern tone. "I don't think I can explain myself without feeling like I was making excuses and that would hollow out the apology." She rotated her chair around to look out the window and end the conversation. She was also on the verge of loosing her composure and didn't want Jake to see.
 
Jake stood, staring at the back of her chair for a long time. So many half sentences came to mind and were quickly abandoned. He didn't know what he felt or thought about this change in Charlotte and as a result had nothing to say despite wanting to. He opened his mouth one last time and when no words came to him he exhaled, turned, and walked out the door.  
 
Shani watched in shock as Jake marched down the hall. He didn't seem angry but he was leaving early and didn't say goodbye to her. He also left both doors open in his haste. Shani got up and closed the door to the lobby. She approached the office door and loudly knocked on it.
 
"Ma'am?" she asked to the back of her bosses chair.
 
"I'm fine" Charlotte lied. "Close the door. I have work to do and I'll be staying late."
 
Shani did as she was asked. She put the strange events of the afternoon aside and quickly finished up her own work. She wanted to check in on Charlotte one last time before leaving, but opted to tell her through the intercom instead. Charlotte wished her a happy weekend and Shani left while still feeling uncomfortable about the whole situation.
 
*****
 
Jake spent the weekend distracted. His dreams about the glass wall in the forest came back. Charlotte used to be on his side of the glass, now she was on the opposite. Jake was still trying to get to the other side in the dreams. He didn't like that change in them. It no longer felt like he was just trying to get to the other side of the wall, but that he was trying to get to her side of it.
 
He had picked up a third journal to start writing about his marriage and Marilyn. But this wasn't coming to him like writing about the escape to the wild did. After what happened Friday he couldn't sit down and think about anything other than Charlotte. She had cleared the schedule of their sessions on his itinerary like she said she would.
 
All of this resulted in Jake walking into his session with Dr. Hopper with much to say. He let her start by going over his journal first, to get that out of the way. She found it well written and informative.
 
"I still think you would be better served by writing about the relationship itself" Dr. Hopper said. "There are many points in your conversations with friends where you skip through the relevant details of your past and merely write about the conclusion you and your friends arrived at."
 
"Yeah" Jake said, nervously thumbing through the pages of the journal.
 
"What's wrong Jake?" Helen asked.
 
"Charlotte said she was canceling our sessions" Jake said. Then he quickly added "She also apologized for everything she did. But she wants me to finish out rehab 'as if she doesn't exist'" he said using finger quotes.
 
"Why do you think she did that?" Helen asked. She was deeply concerned about this new development, and not just for Jake's sake.
 
"She told me the ads are being effective. I'll have lots of sponsor options apparently. So I don't need to have anything to do with her anymore" Jake said.
 
"You sound like you're upset by this development" Helen stated as neutrally as possible.
 
"I don't even know how I feel about it. I don't know how I feel about her anymore" Jake said, curling up the journal in his hands. "It pisses me off, I shouldn't feel anything, or just relief. Instead I'm just confused and that makes me feel stupid."
 
"Jake" Helen said "the main reason I was opposed to you going back to talk to Charlotte is that this is not a normal context for a relationship. Even by the highly constrained standards of the outside world. Any amount of affection, in a place like this where you are starved for it, will have a disproportionate impact on you."
 
"It's only natural that emotional attachment would follow physical affection" Helen said softly. "That's a fact exploited by abusers all the time. Even if Charlotte is no longer operating like an abuser, the confines of the facility are going to force that pattern to repeat."
 
Jake sort of got it, but he had another frustration to voice "She never even told me why. Why she went for me and never anyone else. I don't know that that would change anything, but it still feels like an explanation I'm owed."
 
Helen sighed. "Jake, I'm going to tell you something I probably shouldn't. Back when I first found out about how Charlotte was exploiting you I was granted access to the security feeds of her office, when you were present, including some time before and after you left. I've been listening to the conversations you've had, to help inform my opinion of what was happening with both of you."
 
Jake leaned back and looked Helen in the eye "So you've seen, and heard, everything?"
 
His voice sounded on the edge of anger and Helen wanted to calm him. "Yes and I'm telling you now in the interest of transparency. I didn't like doing it, but someone had to review what happened between you and Charlotte, and that fell to me."
 
Jake calmed himself. It shouldn't have surprised him, the cameras were everywhere. He had no reason to think he had any more privacy in Charlotte's office than in his cell. It just shocked him that it was Hopper watching. "So why are you telling me now?" he asked.
 
"Because you weren't the only one being distressed by the relationship" Helen said.
 
Jake laughed darkly "How was Charlotte getting distressed by getting what she wanted this whole time?"
 
"I don't want to try and make you empathize with her. But 'furs are different from humans, and they're different from each other too. Some, like your ex-wife, can easily move onto another partner, others become very attached, others still are monogamous to the point of experiencing pain at separation from their partner" Helen sighed heavily. Taking a moment to take control of her emotions as the conversation skirted her own problems.
 
"I witnessed Charlotte have several emotional breakdowns after you left her company" Helen said. "She is struggling to deal with some part of herself that she has not faced in years. As a second generation fur, she may have never experienced it at all."
 
Jake slightly shook his head in disbelief "No, I don't believe that. Not her. She liked having me around, obviously, but..." His voice drifted off as he thought about all the effort Charlotte put into maintaining a 'distance' as she put it. He began to reconsider what Helen was saying.
 
"Jake there's a reason she picked you, and you may just have to accept that she will never share that reason. I won't show you the video of her breakdowns. I think that would cross another line and I'm already over one by just talking about this. But you really need to consider that she is honestly trying to break off from a situation that is bad for the both of you" Helen suggested.
 
"I just think I could understand it all better if I knew the truth" Jake said.
 
"The truth doesn't always make things better, Jake. Charlotte apologized and is telling you to forget about her. I think you have to accept that that is as good as you are going to get out of a situation you never asked to be in. That doesn't make the past right. I don't know if anything can make the past right, even the truth" Helen said.
 
Jake nodded and looked down. He realized he had slowly coiled the paper journal into a tight roll as the conversation progressed, and undid it. "I want to say I need to think about this, but I've spent days doing that and I'm not better for it" he said.
 
"I believe time and distance will be more useful than thinking right now" Helen said.
 
"I guess I'll find out eventually" Jake said. "I hate all of this. I'm back to trusting the same people that put me here and slapped my face on some goofy advertisements to play matchmaker for me with sponsors."
 
"When that happens I can help you through it" Helen offered.
 
"Thanks" Jake said dryly. They ended the session there. After Jake left Helen immediately went to her terminal to play the conversation between Jake and Charlotte from Friday. She took her notes and hoped Jake could finally start to progress in dealing with his own issues now that he was free of Charlotte.  

==================================================
===== Part 25: Leaving ===========================

4 Months Later.

Jake found that Hopper had been right, time and distance had let Jake get over the ambiguity of how things ended with Charlotte. He went back to his daily routine, two shifts kitchen duty, weight lifting, meditating, reading and writing. He had not made as much progress as he would have liked with his attempts at writing about his marriage. His therapy sessions usually revolved around him trying to remember something, or figuring out if he misremembered it by talking things out with Hopper. 

The more he probed into the past the more clearly he saw things previously overlooked. Things that he had once thought were the normal arguments of couples revealed how far apart he and Marylin's expectations were even at the start of the relationship. There were warning signs that had been there all along, but he was too young and inexperienced to see them. 

It was still frustrating to talk about relationships given that he was awaiting sponsorship, but he came to accept that it was just going to be the thing he and Hopper talked about. The rest of his week he read what he wanted and that maintained the mental distance between the weekly sessions so that they didn't wear on him. 

Jake had let his hair grow out. It was getting close to four inches now and even in the wild he would have cut it back before it got to its present state. He had decided to let it grow as much as possible since those ads had him wearing a close buzz cut. Jake thought it might be best not to look like the caricature the ads had made him into. Which is also why he didn't wear a beard. Carefully shaving every day was also a great way to take ten minutes off the clock in his constant war against boredom. 

He had seen a few of the other prisoners get released over time. Tony went back to his wife, a few of the gymbro's had rotated back to the world. Even poor little Tyler had lucked out with a sponsor, the ads for the wild men had helped increase sponsor applications overall and he managed to get interest from someone other than his ex-wife. But there were always new guys coming in who needed to be shown the ropes. 

There were even two new wild men, though Jake still retained the nickname once everyone found out they had only been out for eight months. That and the fact that they mostly survived by monthly raids on remote small towns for food and clothes didn't help them get the reputation they thought they deserved. 

They had tried to talk Jake into an escape attempt once. He gently reminded them that if they couldn't outrun the lupines the first time, they weren't going to outrun the ones at the facility. He could barely believe that he said it, but his advice to them was to stick with the program and aim for a quick release before trying anything too desperate. He never found out if they took his advice to heart because they soon transferred down to the lower facility and he didn't hear from them again. 

It was the first Monday of July and Jake was headed into work at his lunch shift. As soon as he arrived one of his friends from the gym walked up to him enthusiastically. "Wildman! Congratulations!" he said loudly, as he gave Jake a heavy slap on the back. The other guys in the mess hall spoke up and gave him similar greetings.

"What's going on?" Jake asked, ignoring the sting in his back put there by his well meaning friend. 

"How do you not know? Warden put out a message this morning. You got release, man!"

"For real?" Jake said with shock.

"Yeah, you got to read your messages. Usually they send you something in your terminal before the warden does her little video thing" he said.

"I guess I've just been distracted" Jake said. It was true that he usually ignored his messages, the only ones he got were reminders for his work detail, gym appointments, and therapy.

The good mood passed quickly as everyone got to work, though plenty of the other prisoners yelled out their congratulations to him as lunch proceeded. Jake still hadn't processed how to feel about it yet. Hopper had been telling him he was close. But he had heard that for a month and had long stopped trying to get her to clarify what she meant by 'close'. He had figured it would happen when it would happen, and now that it had he found himself unprepared for what it meant.  

After lunch he went back to his cell. Sure enough there was a message in his terminal detailing his release. Hopper had also sent him a message for scheduling an in person session so she could walk him through the details of the release process. It was pure coincidence that he got his notification the same day Charlotte did her video. Since she had broken things off he hadn't bothered watching any of her release announcements. He always found out about the releases he cared about from the others anyways, so he had no reason to go out of his way to see her again.

This video was about Jake's release though and the temptation was too great. Against his better judgement he played it. As soon as the video started he felt it was a mistake. The lingering unidentified feelings he had came back as he watched her talk. She still did the videos as though she couldn't care less, which Jake found amusing in the moment for some reason. Until she got to his name, when she stuttered, paused, and had to repeat it. She took a deep breath before continuing and Jake ignored the rest of the video. 

Jake realized it was definitely a mistake to have watched it. Questions he hadn't cared about in months plagued his thoughts for the rest of the afternoon. He would see Hopper on Wednesday. If he found a sponsor soon he could be gone in a few weeks, maybe a month from now. Then he wouldn't have to think about Charlotte again. 

Jake distracted himself with reading for the rest of the afternoon. He had consumed a truly remarkable number of books with his time in rehab. He had surprised even himself with his appetite for literature, though he had found himself at a loss for someone to talk to about what he read. Hopper wanted him to focus on his past obviously, and few of the prisoners were reading things similar to him. He settled for writing his own thoughts down in yet another journal he had acquired for that purpose. That night he had another of his recurring dreams and Charlotte made an appearance for the first time in months.  

By Wednesday he was looking forward to hearing how the release process worked from Hopper. She greeted him warmly, they had not seen each other since she returned his journal to him and they had discussed Charlotte. 

"Well, firstly, congratulations" Helen said, taking her seat behind her desk. Jake gave a quick thanks before sitting as well. 

"I'll get right to it" Helen said. "You can already access the sponsor page via your terminal. It'll allow you to post a statement as to what you are looking for from a sponsor and any questions you would like the sponsor to answer. In a week the first round of sponsors will post an introductory video of themselves and you'll have access to a brief bio for each of them. You can request to schedule a video call with them or dismiss the sponsor from there." 

"I thought I only got to see sponsors one at a time?" Jake asked.

"Not quite" Helen said. "In the past sponsors would be posted to your account as they came in, and you only have a limited amount of time to respond or dismiss, to be respectful of the sponsors. They can only make a request of one guest at a time so we encourage guests to be quick about either moving forward or dismissing a sponsor as an option. Before the recent advertising push most guests would only get one sponsor request at any given time even though the system limit is twelve requests at once."

Jake nodded along "So are you expecting me to get a lot of sponsors then?"

"Yes" Helen said as she checked her tablet "You have a large number of approved furs with you wait-listed. Overall about a third of wait-lists turn into sponsor requests, but that varies a lot from guest to guest. You'll want to finish out your profile as quickly as possible. Even though you've received release internally, your wait list won't be notified until you've completed it." 

"That's it? I just post a dating profile and they send their responses?" Jake asked.

"Yes that's about it" Helen said, but she noted his hesitation and asked "were you expecting something different?"

"Well, I mean" Jake waved his hand as he spoke "with all the surveillance and data gathering I thought there would be more, like, I don't know? Match-making, I guess?" 

Helen understood his confusion "Ah, well we only have information on the guests and up until recently we didn't have a large number of sponsors to draw on. So maybe something like that will be workable in the future, but right now we just don't have enough of the relevant data."

"That's something I've been curious about" Jake followed up "why were there so few sponsors in the past? I got the impression lots of furs were still looking for husbands." 

"Rehabilitation has very strict standards to cut down on recidivism" Helen said. "They want financial stability, a lack of criminal history, a lack of substance abuse, a lack of serial divorces. They filter out a lot of prospects along those lines. Also the reverse is true, in that 'furs that make would it through the filters often don't find guests up to their standards."

"Recently there's been a lot of focus on the rehab program, both critical and supportive" she added. "That and the recovering economy are helping to bring in the attention of more high quality sponsors." 

"Interesting" Jake said. He now had to make a hard choice about whether he should bring up Charlotte again or not. 

Helen mistook his uneasiness for general anxiety about the whole process. "You should know what happens post sponsorship as well."

"Isn't that just marriage?" Jake asked, thankful for a new subject. 

"For many it is" Helen admitted. "Once released from the facility you will be given contact with a rehabilitation liaison, whom you can ask questions about the sponsorship process as it goes."

"So a probation officer?" Jake asked bluntly.

Helen smiled "Effectively, yes. You can communicate with them if the sponsorship is not working out. In which case you may be allowed another round of sponsorship post release, or in an emergency be brought to a halfway home. Whatever happens you should err on the side of talking to your rehab liaison; they have access to many resources to help you in your transition out of the facility." 

"What about you?" Jake asked "Will you still be my therapist?"

"No, unfortunately I'm not allotted time for releases" Helen said with a hint of sadness. "I would be willing to give you my contact information and help you find a new therapist if you think it would be beneficial to continue having sessions."  

"I'd appreciate that" Jake said with a small smile. They quickly finished up and he headed back to his cell.

Jake did as Hopper suggested and filled out his profile as quickly as possible. He kept it short and simple. Mostly talking about his appreciation for books, his need to work out, and his preference for some time to himself to do both. There were also standard questions to answer; some serious with others clearly intended to be 'fun'. The fun questions were typical of dating profiles, favorite seasons, favorite foods, things like that. But he did struggle with one of the serious questions regarding children. 

He had not thought about having kids in years, and he had not thought about it at all outside the context of his last marriage. He wrestled with putting a hard "no" down for a while before finally deciding to say that he was "open to the idea" to cover his bases. Truthfully he still was open to the idea of having kids. But he would have to learn a lot more about the outside world and his sponsor before having certainty on the issue. 

After a few days Jake could no longer pretend to not be excited. Even though he knew the sponsor requests wouldn't be coming in yet he still checked the sponsorship page randomly throughout the day. The prospect of actually leaving rehab was too enticing, even if it came at the cost of sponsorship. Part of him felt it was a form of manipulation, to make this place so dull that any alternative seems like an adventure, but he decided to save any bad feelings he might have about that for when he was outside the facility. 

Jake was starting to appreciate his dinner guests more. He realized that he had not had the opportunity to say a proper goodbye to some of his friends in here. He knew when they got a release but unless he was lucky with a dinner assignment he often didn't get to talk to them in person before they were gone. So he was happy when Marcus showed up to his table over the weekend. It had been a while so this would likely be their last meal together, and by luck they had a table to themselves too. Marcus congratulated him on the release and asked if the sponsors had started coming in yet. 

"Not yet" Jake said "should be next week sometime." 

"That's good, man" Marcus said. He hesitated, then added "I'm on my way out next week."

"What? I didn't hear about that." Jake asked.

"I'm not getting release" Marcus said "They, uh, they sending me out to a retirement facility near the coast. Looks like a nice enough place..."

His voice trailed off and Jake didn't know what to say. It clearly wasn't what Marcus wanted, but then again none of them were getting what they wanted. Still Jake would be in city or a town and Marcus would be in another facility, effectively. 

"Yeah" Marcus said "None of them young 'furs want an old fart like me, and to be frank, I don't want any of them either. I had a wife, a human wife, and I don't need another" He looked off into the corner of the room for a moment before letting out a sigh and continuing "what about you? Ready to tie the knot again?" 

"Not really, but I'll take a few steps in that direction if it gets me out of here" Jake said.

"How long you think it'll take before she lets you buy some gardening tools?" Marcus asked with a wry smile. Jake didn't appreciate the joke, but he still snorted to suppress a laugh. 

Some time after the ads came out his story had made the rounds in the gossip. Jake never told anyone about his past. It must have been a staff member, or maybe one of the guys with a wife on the outside had told them about it in a voice call. But he had dealt with that unwanted attention when it happened. Unlike Marcus, most of the prisoners had the good sense or tact to not bring it up. "I don't know about that" Jake said finally. 

Marcus gave a halfhearted apology. He waited for a minute before saying. "There's something I've been wanting to ask you. Didn't want to pry. But since you're going and I'm already gone I might not get anther chance" he said. 

"Yeah?" Jake asked, expecting some further questions about his ex wife. 

"Is there something going on with you and the warden?" he asked, though he spoke much quieter than he typically did so as not to get the attention of anyone at a nearby table. 

Jake leaned forward and at barely above a whisper he asked "Who told you anything about that?"

"No one" Marcus said with a frown and a shrug. "I just remembered you asking about her the first day you was here. Then I saw you going in and out of the administration building after dinner hours; my cells right at the end of the block remember? But I noticed you hadn't been up there in a while so I wasn't sure about any of it until you got release. Then uh, on your release video, she almost had something like an emotion when she said your name." 

Marcus folded his hands and said nothing else. Jake wasn't sure if he was mad or impressed. "Alright, yeah we had a thing for a while, but it's over now" Jake said.

"She not going to sponsor you?" Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, she's still in the system, I think. I guess I'll find out" Jake said. "It was a messed up situation. Eventually she cut it off and told me to forget about it. I don't know why she went for me in the first place."

"Shit, I never knew why my old lady liked me either" Marcus said with a laugh. "Forty five years together and I never once figured out why she put up with me. But she did until the day she passed. Once I had nothing else to loose I kept trying to get out of the country, wound up in here."  

Jake didn't say anything, this was the most Marcus had ever talked about his past. When it became obvious that he didn't want to say anymore Jake said "Well, I don't think this was anything that deep. I was just her type." 

Marcus nodded "That's something at least."

Jake leaned back "Hopper told me I should get plenty of sponsors so I'm trying to put everything about this place out of my mind right now." 

"Be careful, Jake. You only get to pick one. There's a lot of furs that have no clue about what it's like being with someone. A lot of them are too young or too foolish. Or they just want a man and any man will do" Marcus paused, "AND this is rehab; the fur you pick is gonna have more leverage on you than she would have on other guys. If you think some of them sponsors don't view that as a bonus you're fooling yourself." 

Jake wasn't going to go through the details of what he and Charlotte went through with Marcus. Besides it's not like Marcus knew what he was talking about, he hadn't been through sponsorship or even been with a fur for that matter. Marcus was just being cynical, like always, Jake thought.

Marcus shrugged "All I'm saying is it's not nothing if you think she actually gives a shit about you." 

Jake wouldn't agree or disagree, but he thanked Marcus for the advice all the same. He got the name of the retirement facility Marcus was going to. Jake promised to give him a visit if it was allowed and once Jake was able to make the trip. Marcus wished him luck in finding a sponsor. They left once the sign on the wall told them to clear out.  

For the first time in a while Jake had the recurring dream again that night. Charlotte was there this time as well. He quickly put it out of his mind when he woke up, he had long ago stopped writing the dreams down since they were all so similar. He hoped they stopped after release. 

==================================================
===== Part 26: Conversations =====================

A few days later Jake woke up to a flood of messages. The sponsors had come in. He didn't have much time to look them over before his breakfast shift. There were eleven profile photos of various furs and a blank one. Jake quickly skimmed past the names, the blank one was Charlotte's. As he worked the shift he thought about dropping the work detail. He didn't have much time between his gym session and lunch duty to look things over either.

He soon decided it was probably a good idea to focus his time on sponsors now rather than accumulating credits he wasn't going to spend. At the end of lunch shift Jake said his goodbyes to the guys. Once back in his cell he canceled his work detail on his itinerary before sitting down to take a look at the sponsors profiles and the short videos they posted. 

The first sponsor was a red squirrel 'fur. She lived in some enclave and was really insistent on having kids. Jake moved onto the next, a wolf 'fur of strange color patterns that insisted she could "tame" him. The next was an owl like avian that seemed more interesting in showing off her apartment than anything. Then a mixed fur that reminded him of a mink, and her sister, who insisted they shared everything. It went on like that, none were really that objectionable but it wasn't long before he was through all eleven.

Jake decided to get rid of the bottom of his list. The wolf, the owl, and five others he dismissed, though he left Charlotte's empty profile. Jake was somewhat surprised to see seven new profiles refresh almost immediately. He watched their videos and eliminated three more, with three new replacements filling in. Jake was getting curious about how many sponsors he had. Just as a test he dismissed his bottom six, and they were instantly replaced. 

He pulled out one of his journals to start keeping track. Soon he had turned down nearly thirty sponsors in total and his screen was still full. Jake stopped, finally feeling overwhelmed. Apparently the ads had worked. Well sort of, Marcus's warnings were now echoing in his head. Superficiality seemed to define most of the applicants. One of them had even gotten his name wrong in her video. 

Jake was also disturbed at the number of 'furs that needed to reference his ex wife or what he had done. He had instantly put those on the bottom of his list. Jake had come to accept that he might become well known for what he did and viewed it as a price to be payed, almost as a kind of penance. But to hear it referenced as a positive or attractive quality from some of the 'furs was unsettling to him.

Over dinner he tried to put on a more positive mindset. He decided he would request a video call with his top three, and continue getting rid of the ones that seemed to not be taking it seriously. He was still haunted by his thoughts about Charlotte. 

A lot of the furs he was dismissing seemed to echo Charlotte's behavior when they first met. Jake couldn't tell if that meant it was worth giving them more of a chance or if he was just trying to convince himself that Charlotte deserved another one too. He put in the request for video calls before going to bed, but otherwise tried to put it out of his mind. He would have plenty of time to work on it tomorrow with a fresh perspective. 

The requests for video calls with his sponsors were answered through the next day, only one of them was available to schedule for the afternoon. Jake decided to be a bit more cautious about dismissing sponsors. He realized this would be a lot easier if someone could just tell him the actual number of sponsors he had so he would know how good or bad to feel about dismissing so many. 

Jake messaged Dr. Hopper and asked her directly if she knew how many were waiting in his queue. He looked over the current roster and found two more sponsors he thought were worth requesting a video call with and did so. 

He didn't really want to talk about his problems with the guys on his meal rotation. Most prisoners weren't going through the release process so they wouldn't have anything to tell him anyways. The few that were going through release were likely not having the same experience as Jake. He felt like he would be rubbing it in if he complained about having too many sponsors. 

By the afternoon Dr. Hopper hadn't gotten back to him yet, which was strange. Jake had to set that aside as he waited for the video call with red squirrel 'fur. Jake didn't get a chance to speak for the first ten minutes of the call and the conversation went south from there. She was very insistent on what Jake would be doing and had few questions for what he would like to do. She also emphasized the security aspects of her home and seemed to imply that Jake would be kept under lock and key. In fact he started to wonder why she had requested to sponsor him at all.

Jake dismissed her request without guilt a few minutes after ending the call. It freed up a slot that was filled with another 'fur that seemed too enamored with the idea of Jake being a killer. He dismissed that one too. Jake didn't even look at the new profile and instead went up to the mink sisters and requested a video call. He had kept that profile more out of amusement, but at this point anyone that had been in a slot for more than a day deserved a phone call. 

He decided to read for the rest of the afternoon instead. It was hard to concentrate because he really felt like he was wasting time by doing so. So many guys he knew in the facility had gotten stressed out waiting for sponsors and making hard choices about whether or not they should gamble on whichever fur seemed to be showing interest in them. Now here Jake was, avoiding looking at any profiles at all because the whole process made him feel weird. 

At 1630 Jake got a request for a video call from Dr. Hopper. Another oddity, as she usually tried to schedule these things in advance. She greeted him quickly, before explaining about not getting back to him sooner. "To be honest, I didn't actually know how to find out how many sponsors were in your queue" Helen said "It's never come up before so I had to send a few emails to get to the right person and they just now got back to me." 

"Were they able to give you an answer?" Jake asked.

"Well, uh, it was about eighty or so when your sponsorship went live. But it's now over three hundred" she said calmly. Then she hesitantly added "And it's still going up. The watch list numbers turned out to be an underestimation."

"Did you say three hundred?" Jake asked astounded. 

"You were in a fairly popular ad campaign, Jake" Helen said. "You're the first among the guests in those ads to get release. I'll admit, even within rehab no one was expecting this level of response. It's unprecedented. Are you dealing with the requests well?"

Jake wavered on answering, before remembering that he was talking to his therapist. "There's a lot of talk about my wife and my past, which is uncomfortable. But I was dismissing those right away if I think they have the wrong impression. I got paranoid about dismissing so many..."

"That's reasonable" Hopper said "but it looks like you won't have that problem. Have you scheduled any video calls yet?" 

"Yeah, a few. I had one this afternoon that didn't go well" Jake said with a shrug "She wanted to keep me on a very short leash and didn't have a lot of respect for my questions." 

"Normally I would try to counsel you through some conversations" Hopper said. "But I think your position is unique enough to where you can be more dismissive of things like that. You're likely going to have the opposite problem of other guests. You're going to deal with many 'furs who are only interested in you as a fad or trophy. Weeding those out should be easy enough and hopefully the remainder will be sponsors you can develop a rapport with. You can always message me with questions."  

Jake thanked her and said he would message her later. He wanted to ask about Charlotte, but he hated the idea of keeping Hopper after hours because he knew she was nice enough to stay and talk. He immediately went back to the sponsors screen. He had five requests pending for voice calls. He resolved to work through the other six slots tonight until he had a voice call request for everyone. 

All those "short" introduction videos and profiles to read added up though. He found two more to request video calls with but had to quit watching videos long before lights out just because he wasn't used to staring at his terminal for so long. Two of the pending requests had scheduled something for tomorrow so he had that to look forward to.  

When he got up he now had three calls scheduled. A scaly in the morning, a mixed fur with very ornate antlers in the afternoon, and the minks after dinner. The scaly gave Jake some very bad vibes with her comments about his scars and her own fastidiously maintained claws. The girl with the antlers seemed terrified by the call itself but also desperately lonely, Jake gently suggested he wasn't the guy for her and to take a look at some of the younger rehabs. The minks were immature and treated the whole thing as a joke and he was pretty sure they were trying to live stream the video call as well.

Jake worked through the sponsors as well as he could. He also scheduled an extra gym session for himself in the evenings starting the next day. Work detail took up too much time, but he needed something to break the monotony of looking at a terminal all day. Mindless physical exertion fit the bill better than reading or listening to music. That's how Jake's week went, and the next. Calls at random hours of the day intermixed with filtering through endless profiles. 

Jake didn't get many calls scheduled on Friday or Saturday, but that was basically all he did Sunday. By the second Friday he had yet to find a sponsor worth a second video call. He started to get worried he had been too dismissive of some the calls he had made. But what frustrated him the most was that he only had two interests in his profile; working out and reading. He had listed a few of his favorite books in the profile too.

He could forgive a 'fur not caring about him working out. As that's kind of a shallow thing to ask about during a short call anyway. But no one had asked him what he read either, or generally tried to get an idea of his tastes or interests. Every conversation was different in the details but similar in character. The 'furs all viewed Jake merely as an addition to their own lives.

Jake also couldn't ignore Charlotte's profile. It had been sitting there, empty, in the top slot the whole time. His schedule for the afternoon was clear, no calls, nothing to do but go through more profiles. He switched out of the sponsor screen. Jake wrote a message to Charlotte and asked if she would be willing to meet that afternoon. 

He was surprised by an almost instant response. It wasn't a message, she had scheduled a short session before his dinner shift. Only enough time for a brief chat, which Jake was fine with. Time passed slowly as he thought about what to say, for some reason he hadn't actually expected the impulsive message to pay off. Soon enough he was headed up to the administration building.

Jake remembered to knock on the lobby door this time, he wasn't sure if four months was enough for a new secretary or not but he didn't want to take any chances with surprising another one. Shani's voice told him to come in and he did. She welcomed him with a bright smile "Hello Jake, it's been a while!"

"Yeah" Jake said "Are you doing well?"

"I'm fine. I heard you got your release, congratulations!" she said. 

"Yep, it's been an interesting week" he said with a lack of enthusiasm that was noticeable. 

"Ms. Priestly is free" Shani said. An awkward silence led her to say "If you want to go in, I mean. To the office..." 

Jake nodded politely and continued on. Charlotte was at her desk and Jake took a seat. "Hello" she said "How have you been?" The question was genuine, she had stopped "checking in" on Jake through the surveillance after their last meeting.

"Pretty good" Jake said. He wasn't sure if he should come right out and say what he was thinking or not.

He paused long enough for Charlotte to interject "I understand you're popular with the sponsors. I hope the indignity of the ads were worth it." 

"It's better than waiting for nothing.  I don't know about it being worth it" Jake said. 

Charlotte quickly said "I've been told the variety of sponsors has increased as a result of the ads. One of the admins told me 'The odds are good, but the goods are odd'." She smiled. 

Jake could tell she was nervous and failing at hiding it. He didn't think it was a good idea to beat around the bush any longer "Charlotte, I'll consider you for sponsorship if you can tell me the truth." 

"Jake I thought we were past this" Charlotte said looking away.

"We're not, and you know we're not because you haven't pulled out of the sponsor program. You're not a fool Charlotte" Jake said gently. "You had to know why I would want to see you now, with the release under way."

"I can pull out of the program if it makes it easier for you" she said dismissively.

"I don't want what's easy. I've seen the easy way out and it's dozens of desperate 'furs who couldn't care if I was me or anyone else. They don't give a shit about me. For some reason you did and I want to know why" Jake said. He was assertive in a way Charlotte hadn't heard before. 

"Jake you wouldn't like..." Charlotte began.

He interrupted "Don't tell me what I like or don't like, just tell me the truth." Jake sighed and leaned back. "You already signed off on my leaving here with someone else a while ago. If I leave here with someone else and the truth, what difference does it make to you now? Let me make the choice to deal with it or not."

Charlotte stared at him for a long time. She didn't know if she owed this to Jake. She felt certain he would leave with someone else and not look back either way. Still, she couldn't turn down the tiny sliver of hope he was now offering her. "I can't go over it today" Charlotte said looking at the time.

"That's fine" Jake said "But it has to be soon."

"I'll come in tomorrow" Charlotte said "I'll block off the afternoon."

"You can come in on a Saturday?" Jake asked "I mean, you would? For this?"

A smirk crossed her face "I can come in whenever I want Jake, I'm the warden" Her tone softened and she continued "But yes. I'll come in tomorrow and we'll talk then." 

Jake stood up. "Okay" was all he said before leaving. When he got back out of the administration building he looked around for Marcus's old cell on the floor above. The lights were out and it was vacant. He had been moved to the retirement facility two days ago.

==================================================
===== Part 27: Charlotte =========================

Jake was surprised at how well he had slept when he got up Saturday. He had one call scheduled before lunch, but other than that he ignored the sponsors for the day. The call was another surprisingly young 'fur who wanted to talk way to much about his past and didn't really seem to know what she signed up for as a sponsor. Jake was sadly used to these conversations by now and it had only been two weeks. 

The bad call and the prospect of talking to Charlotte for the afternoon had put him off his lunch. Jake found it darkly funny how often he had pressed Charlotte for information at the various stages of them knowing each other, and now that she was going to do it he was being apprehensive. He had to remind himself that he had made no promises to go with her. He would listen and make a decision, that was it. 

Jake found it weird walking through the admin building knowing it was empty. No one ever kept their office doors open so it looked the same, but it was unsettlingly quiet as he tread the well worn path to the warden's office. Charlotte had left both doors open and Jake shut them behind him out of habit. 

Charlotte was wearing a casual blouse and capris pants. It was the first time Jake had seen her dressed without her work attire. She stood in the room with the same authority she always carried, despite her stature. She gave him a slight smile as he entered. The summer sun was shinning down on the forest and the mountains in a beautiful display.

"Sit here" Charlotte said patting the back of her chair. She saw Jake's hesitation and added "I'm just going to talk Jake, but this might take a while." 

Jake walked around and took his seat. Charlotte walked over to the display case and opened it. She pulled out a framed photo. She looked at it for a moment before turning around and handing it to Jake. "I saw you looking in here a couple times, did this one ever catch your eye?" she asked.

It was the photo of the marine and the 'fur woman and child that Jake assumed was Charlotte and her mother. "It did" Jake said. "Your family?" he asked, handing it back to her. 

"Yes" she said. Charlotte delicately placed the photo back in the case. "Dad ordered mom after he got out of the service and a few years later they had me. Everything was great. I had a wonderful childhood with two loving parents." She leaned against the edge of the desk "The problem was me. Because I'm just like mom, exactly like her to be specific, and she was custom made to love only one man."

Her somber tone left Jake with a sinking feeling in his stomach. 

"So, when I got old enough" Charlotte said "and all the other girls started talking about boys. I started having the worst thoughts about this wonderful man who was my father. Horrible invasive thoughts that made me feel disgusted with myself." 

"I'll spare you the details but it was a rough few years and it only got worse as time went on. I felt broken and awful whenever I was home, nothing could fix it" Charlotte was on the verge of tears as she spoke "It hurt him too, we had such a great father-daughter relationship until then. He had no idea, like everyone else back then, that the 'features' he requested in mom would have this effect on me. Dad, of course, blamed himself and avoided me to make life easier."

Charlotte looked out the window. Jake felt it was to avoid looking at him. She went on "By the time I was fourteen the only option left was for me to leave. So they got me an apartment nearby and supported me, but that was the end of my childhood. For my own mental health I had to make a clean break. I could only e-mail Dad, because even video calls got harder and harder as I got older." 

Jake didn't want to interrupt, but he also felt like comforting her. He had to settle for doing nothing as Charlotte stood up and paced. "I learned a lot about mom then too. I wanted her to move in, just until I went to college. Dad would be nearby so I wasn't asking her to leave him or anything, and I knew he would be okay with it, for me."

"But she couldn't do anything more than short visits" Charlotte said with a sigh. "She had been in his presence since the moment she gained consciousness. I didn't realize until I moved out that they had never been away from each other for more than a workday. She was fine in their home which smelled like him, for longer periods of time. But a few hours of visiting me left her distressed."

Charlotte turned back to Jake "If I had an unhealthy obsession with dad, then mom was addicted to him. I saw it cause her pain to be away from him, that's how strong her bonding instinct was. So that was my life for all of high school. Emails from dad, occasional visits from mom, until she reached her limit. But I was basically figuring out how to live alone and reconciling myself to getting used to it."

"You weren't able to be with anyone else?" Jake asked, finally breaking his silence.

"I hoped that after those 'feelings' faded" Charlotte seemed to choke on the words as she said them "that I would 'reset' and find a guy I could be with. That was hopeful, naive, and ultimately, wrong. I had a very specific type and it never worked out."

"Charlotte" Jake said hesitantly "when I met you, were you a..." he paused suddenly feeling rude for even thinking the question.

"Virgin?" she completed his sentence with a small degree of levity. "No, in college I convinced myself that if I just committed to a guy it would click, eventually. I had a boyfriend for a while and we tried..." she sighed and looked at the floor. "But I didn't love him and it wasn't long before I knew I was never going to. It didn't seem fair, so I broke it off and told him to find someone who would." 

She looked at the floor "By the end of college I realized that kind of happiness wasn't in the cards for me. Over time I saw one or two guys that sparked an interest in me, but they were already taken and as the population boom set in I gave up on looking. I focused on my career instead." 

Charlotte shook her head "That was nearly fourteen years ago. The world has changed so much since then." She paused "I don't have to tell you that, you've certainly felt those changes more than I have." 

There was a long silence as she walked back to Jake's side of the desk and stood in front of the window. "Then you came along" she said quietly. "I saw your profile and I felt something again. It hurt because I hadn't felt it in so long. It hurt a lot actually, because this time it didn't come with the confusion and discomfort like it did with dad. Then I read your profile and it was like a punch in the gut." 

Charlotte continued looking out the window "No offense, but at the time, just reading what we had available on you it seemed like a cruel joke. A guy I finally felt something about and he had to have your history? You were inbound from the observation post and I had no idea what to do about it."  

She looked back to Jake "If I did nothing, no one would know, you'd be processed and sent to your room and we would never see each other. But as the hours went by, I couldn't get over it. What was I supposed to do just keep doing my job until... nothing? Forever? Was that my life?" 

"So I did something stupid and had you come up here" Charlotte sighed and rolled her eyes. "I wish I could tell you what I was thinking, but I don't know that I was thinking anymore. I was just desperate to see you and I didn't care what the result was." 

"I know I said I'm sorry for what I did already, but from the moment you walked in I already knew I wasn't in my right mind anymore" she said as she approached to stand in front of Jake. "If you did what I told you to do great, and if you killed me right here in this office I... I..." 

Jake reached for here hand and held it. Charlotte cried "I didn't care. At the time I wanted you, or I just wanted it to be over. I know that's selfish and cruel and...." 

She yanked her hand away to wipe away the tears. Jake stood up and embraced her. She shed her tears into his shirt and they stood together until she was done. Jake sat back down. "Do you want to sit with me?" he offered.

"Yeah" she said with a feeble tremor in her voice. She produced a small smile "I'd like that." 

There was no taking off of clothes and she joined him in the chair. She took a deep breath and said "As crazy as it was it worked. You did what I said and you didn't do anything to me either. So I said to myself I would just wait and see. I still thought rehab was going to drive you mad, or at least into retaliating in some way. But then Rebecca uncovered it so quickly and it all fell apart."

"After a few weeks I went back to normal. That wasn't easy either, I think I felt a little bit of what mom used to feel in those first few weeks. That painful absence. It looked like you were doing well, despite everything. I figured that was the end of it. My one foolish fling in rehab" Charlotte said. "Then you came back and wanted to talk and I didn't know what to think anymore. I had felt the pain of you being away too by now, so that tempered me a bit."  

Charlotte sighed "It wasn't fair to you either. The... I don't want to call it attraction. The obsession I have, is for someone who looks like you. It's not genuine, It's not about you as a person, right? I kept telling myself you would be better off trying to match with a sponsor other than me, maybe you would find a 'real' connection there." 

Charlotte adjusted her seat and continued "Then the ad thing came out of nowhere. I felt like I was being toyed with and I was so tired of it all I wanted to go back to feeling nothing. The highs and the lows were packaged together and it was too much. You know the rest." 

Jake sat for a while to absorb everything he had heard. Charlotte was content to sit in his lap without saying anything. Jake broke the silence "After all that you still want to be my sponsor?"

"Yes" Charlotte said "but it terrifies me." Jake put a hand on her shoulder rather than ask why. 

"I never told you how it ended with my parents" Charlotte said. Jake tensed up, he had assumed they were still around. "My dad died five years ago. He had a massive heart attack while mowing the lawn, he wasn't even sixty years old. He had always been fit, it was just one of those rare cases of bad luck and bad timing. Mom was making dinner and didn't notice until it was too late to get him medical attention."

Charlotte continued "I took time off of work immediately to help her. She was beyond devastated. She wouldn't move, she wouldn't eat. I had no idea what to do, because I was taking care of everything else with his funeral and was barely able to attend to her." Charlotte turned to face Jake, her eyes glassy. "She died in her sleep a few days later. We hadn't even buried dad yet. She just shut down without him around."

"How did you deal with all that?" Jake asked reflexively. He had heard of fur's like Charlotte's mother before but he had never met anyone who knew one. It only took a second or two before he realized that Charlotte herself was one of those 'furs as well.

"We had some family friends to help, but mostly I just kept going forward. I stood outside the viewing and buried them both without ever seeing them again. I couldn't look at dad for the same old reasons. But I was terrified of mom now too" Charlotte said as she curled up closer to Jake.

"I'm just like her Jake, and she loved someone so much that it killed her when he was gone. Everything I thought I wanted suddenly had this dark reflection hanging over it, that was the price for what they had. I've been on my own for a long time, so maybe I'll never have it as bad as mom did, but I don't know. I did feel a little bit of that fear when you weren't around and I just don't know" Charlotte said. She was speaking so quietly Jake was grateful no one else was in the building.

That's why she didn't care Jake thought to himself. When he arrived to the facility she looked at someone like him as a slow death or a quick death, no in between. He wasn't sure if that was the right way to look at it, but he understood now why she would see it that way. 

Charlotte wanted to keep talking. She didn't like lingering on that point. "I sold my dad's part of his business to his partners. I figured out what to do with their possessions and sold the house. Then I started looking for jobs in a completely different region. Cascades was being built and my career in rehab was doing well. So I applied for an admin job out here and was surprised when they offered me the position of warden."

"Charlotte, I know you're scared of me accepting the sponsorship, but..." Jake said, he paused since he wasn't sure what to say. He just knew that he wanted to reassure her in this moment and he didn't know how.

"There are no 'buts' Jake. I'm going to be scared the whole time. I don't know what it's going to be like if you are in my house." Charlotte got back up to face him. "You can't run away, not from me. I've seen how you look out there" she waved her hand at the view beyond the window. "I know you don't want to be surrounded by 'furs anymore or not living on your own terms."

She folded her arms "I know you're going to be looking for a way out, because that's all you've been doing since you got here. You just figured out the front door was the quickest path. But if you leave here with me, you can't leave me." There was so much sadness in that last sentence Jake had to look her in the eyes. It was Jake's turn to feel called out. What she said was true, and he had shared more of that goal with Charlotte than he had anyone else.

Charlotte again felt the need to fill the silence "Don't leave me alone if you do."

"What do you mean?" Jake asked. He was still taking in everything he had heard so far. 

"You've already done it once" Charlotte said, her tone taking a grim turn  "I don't want to wake up to you gone, I'd rather not wake up at all. I don't want to suffer like mom did."

"No!" Jake yelled, his voice carrying him to his feet. "Don't ever ask me to do that!" he said grabbing her by the shoulders.     

She had tears in her eyes again "That's my rule and I'm not budging on it. You don't get to leave me behind if you go with me." Jake stared at her in disbelief as to what she was asking of him. "Please, don't leave me" she said with her voice breaking. She folded her head into his chest and struggled to calm herself. Jake gently put his hand on the back of her neck.

"You can't ask me to do that to you Charlotte. I don't want to hurt you" Jake said, amazed at how much those words meant to him.  

She breathed in deeply and took a step back "I don't get out of this unhurt. But if you mean that, then you should leave and find another sponsor. That will hurt the least." She let out a heavy sigh "I gave you what you wanted. I told you the truth. Now you can make your choice." 

Jake leaned against the desk and considered Charlotte as she stood close to the window. A long time passed and he realized he wasn't going to have an answer any time soon. "I need to think about this, all of it. I can't tell you anything right now."

Charlotte nodded "Have an answer on Monday. I can't handle dragging this out anymore than we already have." 

"Okay" Jake said "You'll know before you leave on Monday. Thank you for telling me everything. I know it was hard." 

Charlotte stepped forward and hugged him. "If this is our last goodbye then I want to say I'm sorry again." 

"It's fine" Jake chuckled. "I mean it's not fine, to have done that. But, it's in the past now."

They embraced a little longer. Jake left with only a plain goodbye. Charlotte waited around for a few more minutes, but not for anything particular. She had never told anyone all of the things that she had told Jake. It left her in a strange mood; a mixture of a cathartic confession and the extreme vulnerability she felt throughout. She would spend another hour alone in the administration building, lost in thought, before leaving for home. 

==================================================
===== Part 28: Release ===========================

Jake spent the rest of the night contemplating what Charlotte had told him. Some of Hopper's warnings made more sense to him now. He browsed through the sponsors he had waiting. He had six calls scheduled for Sunday. He had been through so many in the last two weeks that just by looking at their profiles he started to guess at how each would go. Two of them were too young, three more only wanted him because of the ads, and he was pretty sure the one in the nice clothes was going to have a bunch of rules and no questions. 

Jake looked at the other six, all pending call requests. But it was more of the same. He had a feeling that whatever standards the rehab program used to weed out "bad candidates" also got rid of anyone interesting. Marcus might have been right too, in that most furs worth a damn just weren't looking at the release program at all. 

All the thoughts of partners and relationships had him going back to reading his journals. What he had written about Marilyn in their early days together contrasted so much with what he was going through now. It had been a whirlwind courtship. They were young, and most importantly, free back then. Sure, looking back there were dark hints here and there of what would come, but right now he wanted to recall those highs of falling in love. Jake wanted to be with Marilyn so badly back then. That's why he had put up with everything that came after.

Jake went to sleep thinking of how great the relationship with Marilyn started and how horribly it ended. Maybe, he hoped, the opposite would be true with Charlotte. He still had a day and a half to make up his mind and maybe tomorrows interviews would motivate him to stick with finding another sponsor.

After breakfast the morning video calls went quickly, and unfortunately exactly as Jake predicted. He came back to his room after lunch expecting to go through another six profiles, however a message from Dr. Hopper was waiting for him. She requested a video call as soon as he was available. Jake had never talked to her on a weekend before and he was pretty sure he knew what the call would be about. He messaged her back and she called him.

Helen was sitting in a comfortable looking living room at the start of the call. "Hello, Jake" she said "I was surprised to see that you had scheduled a meeting with Charlotte on Friday..."

"You watched everything I assume?" he said cutting her off.

"I did" Hopper said.

"Well I haven't made a decision yet" Jake said. 

Something in his voice made Helen uneasy, she had a feeling as to which way he was leaning. "Jake I don't intend to harass you about your choice, it's yours to make. I can see how you would be sympathetic to Charlotte's situation" Helen said with a heavy sigh. "I share that sympathy, without going into too much detail I'll say that her problems are very close to my own. She actually seems to have it much worse than I do going by what I've seen from your interactions and the aftermath."

"If you think I would run away..." Jake began, thinking he was getting to Dr. Hopper's point.

Helen interrupted "I don't think that. I'm sure that if you made a promise to stay with Charlotte, knowing what you know about her condition, you wouldn't abandon her" Helen paused, considering her words carefully. "But not being cruel to someone is very different from caring about them, you know that from your own experience. I'm afraid your commitment to an arrangement with Charlotte will only lead to trouble in the long term for both of you."

"Why?" Jake asked "I need more than just a feeling that it won't work out, because that's all I feel about all these interviews I've been doing." 

"Why did you think your relationship with Marilyn went so badly at the end?" Helen asked bluntly. 

"Because she couldn't help what she was, and I wasn't allowed to leave so she didn't have to restrain herself anymore" Jake said. "Charlotte has the opposite problem, she just needs me to be around. It's completely different."

"It's not that different" Hopper said. "You're there to feed an instinctual desire for both of them. When Marilyn had to choose between your well-being and her own compulsions, you know the result. Charlotte may not need you for anything as physically painful as Marilyn required, but you can't predict how her compulsions will change outside of the controlled environment of the facility."

"I know" Jake said. He paused and shrugged "There's no risk free solution though, every one of these sponsors is an unknown risk. At least I have an idea of what the risks are with Charlotte, and she does too."

Helen felt like her warnings were having the opposite effect on Jake she intended. "You have more sponsors to choose from than any release, I would suggest exhausting that resource before signing on with Charlotte at the very least. I know she gave you a time frame, but I think if you asked for more time and she was unwilling to grant you even that, then it might be an indication of what you are in for in living with her." 

"I think that would be rude, I wouldn't have contacted her if I wasn't already tired of the sponsors rehab is offering me" Jake said. "I've been through more than a hundred profiles and talked to dozens of them. What am I supposed to do go through another few hundred and then tell Charlotte 'I guess I'll settle for you?' when I don't find someone else? She's asking me to choose her, not exhaust my resources, and I can respect that." 

Jake looked at the floor "I want out of here so I can get on with my life and I don't think I'm going to find someone else who actually wants me and who I can trust." 

"Jake, are you okay with using Charlotte like that?" Helen asked, unable to think of a gentler way to phrase it.

"I don't think I'm using her by giving her what she wants. I wouldn't even have to think in these terms if I could walk out the front door on my own either. I'm not going to feel guilty about a choice I'm forced to make" Jake said defensively. 

Helen feared Jake had already made up his mind. "I'm sorry for that Jake. I wish you didn't have to make this choice either." 

Jake thanked Dr. Hopper for her advice before they ended the call. He told her that he would let her know on Monday what his decision was. He watched as many of the sponsor video's as he could stand that evening. He only half paid attention and did it more to pass the time than with any real hope he was going to find someone different from what he had already seen. 

Jake had another dream about the glass divided forest that night. He walked along the wall looking for another exit or way over and failed to find it as usual. He seemed to be expecting someone else to be in the forest as he walked, but in the dream he was confused as to who he was expecting. The dream faded without conclusion when Jake woke up before his alarm. He took a long shower and tried to weigh Dr. Hopper's advice fairly as he turned over yesterday's conversation in his head. 

One thing Dr. Hopper had never asked him, and it was something Charlotte had not asked him either, was if Jake actually liked Charlotte. Perhaps they both considered the question ridiculous given how Charlotte had behaved in those first few weeks. But now six months later, Jake had to admit there was a reason he had on two separate occasions re-initiated contact with her. There was something about her candor, even when bossing him around, that he appreciated. There were these moments of honesty that they had shared that kept his interest across these many months in rehab.

Jake went to breakfast and barely heard a word said to him as he thought about the commitment he was considering. It wasn't going to be a romance, and maybe he was too jaded to feel that way about anyone again. Maybe her needing him was enough to work through everything else. 

He sat in front of his terminal staring at the sponsor screen for a long time. Charlotte's blank profile still sat there in the top slot. He messaged Dr. Hopper and let her know that he had decided to accept Charlotte as his sponsor. Jake messaged Charlotte immediately after. 

Helen read the message from Jake with apprehension. She was saddened by his choice, but had been expecting it after the conversation from yesterday. She was going to have a session with another client soon, so she quickly scheduled an in person session for Jake in one of her free afternoon hours.

Charlotte was reading over some budgetary reports when she saw the message from Jake. She had hoped he would save his answer for the afternoon. No matter how he answered she didn't trust herself to not have an emotional response to it. She feared that finding out this early in the morning might derange the rest of the workday and she had a lot to do. She smiled at her own excuses, as if an emotional breakdown was acceptable so long as work got done first. 

Charlotte steeled herself and opened the message. Jake had merely written "I won't leave you. I promise." She set down her tablet and turned away from the desk to look out at the woods. She teared up and smiled but she controlled her response with a single deep breath. She turned back and thought of typing a message, but got chocked up as she tried to express her thoughts and feelings. Frustrated, she typed something simple and went back to reading reports before she allowed herself to be distracted further. 

Jake read Charlotte's message and chuckled to himself. "I'm glad. I hope you'll like living with me in my home. Talk to Hopper about finalizing the details." He found the instructions to talk to Hopper an amusing and oddly business-like way to talk about the arrangement they were agreeing to. Jake immediately felt better, he feared he would experience regret as soon as he sent the messages, but he found only relief instead. 

Jake dismissed the sponsor screen, hoping to never look at it again. He listened to music until lunch. He decided not to tell anyone that he had found a sponsor since that usually encouraged too many questions. A few hours later he was in Dr. Hopper's office. 

"There's not much for you to do from this point on" Helen said with a smile. "I usually just do one last in person session to say my own goodbyes." 

"I did want to thank you again, for everything" Jake said "I'll keep up the journal, and try not to bother you too much if I get stuck on something." 

"Call me whenever you need Jake" Helen said folding her hands on the desk. "I've decided to retire from rehab at the end of next month so I'll have plenty of free time."

Jake looked at her directly "That's too bad. Everyone in here says you're one of the good ones." 

Helen smiled "There are many talented therapists working in rehab I think they'll be fine without me."

"Any particular reason for leaving?" he asked. Jake had his own suspicions, based on her discomfort with what happened regarding the ads and Charlotte.

"Timing mostly. Many of my clients are near release and I feel I can safely hand them off to other therapists at this point in their rehab. If I started accepting new guests as clients I would be committing to working with many of them for years. So I would rather leave a little early than wait too long." 

Jake could hear a bitter sweet mood running through her explanation. He didn't think she actually wanted to leave, but from the tiredness in her voice he guessed the high workload of the facility was catching up to her years. 

Helen continued "I plan to stay busy, just not as busy as I am here. I'll do some volunteer work most likely." 

"Well I'll make sure to stay in touch then" Jake said.

Helen thanked him. She briefly went over the finalized paperwork for the release without mentioning Charlotte by name for any of it. Jake gave his digital signature a few times. He felt weird walking out the door, not knowing if or when he would see her again. 

There was something discomforting about therapy to Jake, despite all the value he had found in it. He had had so many important and deeply personal conversations with this woman and now the relationship was severed in such an official manner. He hoped they would stay in touch once he was out of the facility. He felt as if doing so would make those past conversations matter all the more.

==================================================
===== Part 29: Home ==============================

Jake would be released that Friday. He was given an exit physical with Dr. Upton. She didn't have much to say other than congratulations and to remind him to look into getting treatment for his scars. Jake was having trouble hiding his excitement at leaving the facility. He kept saying goodbye to his remaining friends every time he saw them, as if was expecting to randomly walk out the door at any moment. 

Charlotte had an uncomfortable conversation with Dr. Hopper. It was standard for the guests therapist to have a talk with the sponsor and inform them of issues the guest may have before signing the paperwork. Since Dr. Hopper regarded Charlotte as one of Jake's few issues there was not much discussed beyond the more practical details. Such as the fact that Jake had no clothes to change out of to leave the facility in. Or possessions of any kind for that matter, beyond his collection of journals. 

Charlotte bought some clothes and some slip on shoes for Jake, guessing at his size for each. They sat, neatly folded, at the corner of her desk on Friday. She was to meet Jake at exactly 1700 in the processing section of the administration building. She nervously gathered her things ahead of time and left her office. Shani, who had watched her normally stoic boss be easily distracted all week long, didn't take it personally that Charlotte forgot to say goodbye on her way out.

Jake was waiting for her in the processing room with his journals stacked on a bench. After changing out of them he handed his facility clothes back to a member of the staff. A final signature on a tablet from both of them was all they needed for Jake to finally be released. Charlotte led him out the front door.  

Jake stood still on the sidewalk. The concrete and asphalt parking lot was the closest thing to nature he had experienced in the last six months. A light breeze was blowing, carrying with it the sound of trees leaves rustling, birds in the distance, and the scent of pine on the air. The contrast to the hypoallergenic air conditioning of the facility was shocking. It was as if he had been wearing sunglasses for half a year and now they were suddenly yanked off, except amplified by the effect applying to all of his senses. 

"Are you alright, Jake?" Charlotte asked with concern. 

"Yes, I don't think I realized how much I missed being outdoors until right now."

Charlotte let him take as much time as he needed while she stood next to her car. She had to remind herself there was no rush, but her own excitement was mostly rooted in getting Jake home. She felt anxious out here in the open parking lot for some reason. With just a few minutes outside Jake was feeling refreshed. He suddenly had the confidence that everything was going to work out. He joined Charlotte at her car and they got in.

"Mind if I keep the window down?" Jake asked. He adjusted his seat and shifted in place. The shirt Charlotte had bought him was a little tight across the chest, but he was happy to be wearing anything other than the prison pajamas. 

"Sure, at least until we get to the highway" Charlotte said. Jake took in the sun and the wind as Charlotte drove them through woods. She was unable to believe that this was happening. It was so surreal to her that she couldn't help looking over to see if he was still there. Jake noticed.

"You think I'm going to hop out the window and run for the trees?" he asked in a jovial mood. 

"You looked like you were going to make a run for it when we walked out of Cascades" Charlotte said with a smile. 

"I considered it" Jake said as he put the window up. "I didn't think I would get very far." 

"Don't joke about that" Charlotte said. The car switched over to autopilot as they got to the highway. She turned to him so that he knew she meant it. 

Jake met her gaze and gave her a slight nod "Okay" was all he said to reassure her. He reclined in the seat and changed subjects "You never told me about where you live." He hoped it wasn't in one of the bigger cities, as he didn't imagine they had improved that much since he had been away.

"I told you about my condo..." Charlotte said.

"No, where is it? Seattle? Vancouver?" Jake asked, hoping it wasn't either.

"Oh" Charlotte said. "No, I'm in Granite Falls Enclave, it's closest to the facility from the highway. I'd hate myself if had to come all the way from one of the cities everyday." 

"I never made it to one of the enclaves" Jake said "We thought about moving to one. Well I did, to get away from the patrols. But I never really knew if they were all they were made out to be." 

"I think it was started as a pretty early one, but it was updated and expanded before Cascades was built. I live on the newer side. It's up against the mountains, away from the coast and highways. It's at the end of the rail line too so it's quiet. I think it attracts people looking for that sort of thing. There's not much of a night life, but plenty of parks and restaurants" Charlotte stopped speaking. She felt like she was rambling. "How are the clothes?" she asked. 

"They're fine" Jake said, though the shirt was making the discomfort in his back more noticeable. 

"I just picked up something for you to wear out of the facility. It's fine if you don't like them. We'll go shopping tomorrow and get you some clothes you can actually try on" Charlotte insisted. 

Jake felt uneasy about having things bought for him. It should have been obvious that Charlotte was going to need to do that, but he hadn't put any thought into the specifics of post release life. For years he had made whatever he needed to survive, now without a job he lacked the means to even put a shirt on his back.

Charlotte saw the concern on Jake's face "Don't worry about money or anything Jake. I've had a good career and nothing to spend it on. Plus there's the sponsor stipend for this sort of thing."

"A stipend?" Jake said in surprise. 

"Yeah, sponsors get a stipend for a few months for taking a released guest in" Charlotte said laying her ears back. She already knew how it would sound to Jake.

"But the sponsor gets the stipend, not the 'guest'" Jake said with disdain. 

Charlotte nodded. Jake laughed at the absurdity of it. Charlotte chuckled softly as well and said "I know it's messed up, but I'll transfer it over to you when we get you set up with a bank account." Jake realized there was a lot to do for him to come back to society. His days of carrying everything he needed on his back were getting more distant. Charlotte added "Don't worry we'll take it slow, I have a lot of PTO to use and I'm already taking next week off. I know it'll be another adjustment for you." 

"Thanks" Jake said. "Is there any point in me having a bank account? I thought I would be restricted to your place unless we're going somewhere together?" he asked, assuming things would be like back in the old days. Weirdly the biggest concern he had in the back of his head was that he was going to have to figure out a workout routine he could do in the condo. 

"No things are very different with the ID tracking. You're travel restricted to the enclave, but you can go anywhere within it. I'll have to request permission for us to go somewhere else if we need to."

"Really?" Jake responded, pleasantly surprised. 

"But I would like you to do something for me..." Charlotte said sheepishly. Jake looked at her and she finished her thought "I want you to be home when I get back from work." 

Charlotte felt ridiculous saying such a thing. Jake smiled "Sure, I can do that." He took her hand and held it softly. They didn't have much longer to drive before they approached the enclave. Charlotte took over steering and Jake took in the sights. Lots of pedestrians and cyclists, men and furs, were out and about during the summer evening. 

Jake instinctively started looking for landmarks. He smiled to himself, realizing that he had no need of his orienteering skills in the urban environment. He relaxed and simply took in the sights of the parks and buildings as Charlotte approached the entrance to the parking deck. The car parked itself and she took Jake up to the condo.

"Here it is" Charlotte said nervously as she opened the door. Jake walked in and looked around. It was very neat and organized, which he expected from Charlotte. But there was very little decoration or sentimental items. It looked bland and impersonal, in the way that a furnished apartment is before someone actually moves in. She did have a spectacular view, and a small balcony that opened up from the living room. 

Jake felt something bump into his leg and looked down to see the cat that Charlotte had mentioned. "Is this my new cellmate?" Jake asked.

Charlotte gave him a disapproving look and picked up the cat, who seemed extra large in her arms "No. This is Chesty. He's very friendly." 

"Chesty?" Jake asked as he reached to scratch the cats ears. 

Charlotte sighed "It's a Marine thing. Dad got him for mom and named him. He really bonded to mom so of course he likes me too. I didn't have the heart to give him away to someone else after she passed." 

"Oh" Jake said taken by surprise. When he found out Charlotte had a pet he remembered thinking it was out of character for her. 

"Here you take him and sit down" Charlotte said, breaking the odd silence. "I have a welcome gift for you in the other room." 

Jake sat down on the couch. Chesty seemed to be immediately at home lounging around on his lap. Charlotte was already walking back to the living room with a bag in hand. There was some packing paper sticking out of the top, but that was extent to which the gift was wrapped.

"Welcome... home" Charlotte said, though she felt deeply uncertain about calling her home Jake's as well. 

Jake gave her a smile and removed the paper from the bag. He pulled something rectangular and heavy out. Rotating it around revealed that it was a collection of hardbound books. Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises", "A Farewell to Arms", "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "The Old Man and the Sea", and a fifth book that was a collection of short stories. Jake was speechless. 

"I asked Hopper if there was anything you missed from before you ran away. I hope that's all right. I know they're probably nothing like the ones you got as a kid..." Charlotte spoke quickly as Jake stared at the books. 

Jake interrupted "This is amazing. It's perfect" he said setting them on the coffee table. Jake stood up and gave Charlotte a hug. "Thank you" he said and Charlotte wagged her tail. Chesty batted at the loose packing paper breaking the silence of their embrace. Charlotte stepped back "So what do you want for your first dinner out of rehab?"

"I could really go for a steak, but I don't think I'm dressed for a steakhouse."

"We'll fix that tomorrow" Charlotte said. She brought up her tablet, there were a variety of restaurants in the shopping center down below that had quick delivery to her condo. She found the nice steakhouse she occasionally ordered from and got them both something to eat. While they waited she showed him the rest of the condo. 

There wasn't much to show. She had a spacious master bath. Her bedroom, which was as empty as the rest of the condo, had a nice walk in closet partially filled with her work clothes and some casual attire. The second bedroom had nothing but a desk and chair. Charlotte was getting self conscious in showing the nearly empty room to Jake "I was going to build this out into a home office, but It was weird when I tried working from home. I just couldn't get used to being here by myself all day." 

"I could use the space for writing and reading if you don't mind" Jake said. He walked around the room and peaked into the open closet which contained only a litter box for Chesty. Half empty closets, half empty rooms, everything about the way Charlotte lived seemed half empty. What he had agreed to, the role she needed him to fill in her life, was now very real to Jake. 

They discussed getting some bookshelves and other things to fill out the room until the food arrived. Jake familiarized himself with the kitchen as they set places at her dining table. Charlotte opened a bottle of wine, though Jake abstained. He ate more enthusiastically than he intended. The food in the wild was better than the facility by far, but it had been many years since he had anything close to a seasoned and well prepared steak. He waited for Charlotte to finish and cleared their places. 

"Mind if I take a look off of your balcony?" Jake asked.

"Sure, but you don't have to keep asking me for permission to do things like that Jake. You live here now." 

"It's my first day" Jake said with a shrug. "I sort of got used to a screen on the wall telling where to go and when."

They stepped outside. The balcony was also empty. Jake thought to himself this spot deserved a chair or two. The rolling green hills turning to mountains with the sun setting behind the building was indeed as good a view as Charlotte had had in her office. Unlike the office there was no glass between him and nature here. The fresh air enhanced the experience all the more. 

Charlotte watched Jake enjoy himself leaning against the railing. She suddenly realized there was something else she could show Jake "I should take you to the roof." 

Jake turned around "What's on the roof?"

"Come on" Charlotte said, extending her hand to him "You'll like it."

They left the apartment and got in the elevator, a short ride up and the door opened to a green space. The elevator in the center was attached to a pair of bathrooms and a stairwell, but that was the only "building" in the small park like area. There was a stone path that wound out from the center and continued all the way around the perimeter of the building. 

"This is fantastic" Jake said to Charlotte. Gripping her hand he started walking on the path and looking around. Some small trees strategically blocked the view of the rest of the enclave. There were a few tables near the elevator and some benches scattered around. Just beyond the railing was a high thick glass wall. The wall appeared to be one continuous piece of glass, Jake knew there must have been some trick to the construction, but the absence of frames or supports made it look as though nothing other than the railing enclosed the area. 

"I come up here to walk around and clear my head sometimes" Charlotte said. "Some people in the building bring up their dogs and kids too. But there's a much bigger park nearby and I think that's more popular. There's usually a few people up here on the weekends." 

They were at the part of the path that went behind the trees, where it was easy to look over the rest of the enclave. The tallest buildings were only slightly taller than the building they were in and followed the southern curve of the valley. The building heights stepped down as they moved north, providing everyone with partial or unobstructed views. Many of the buildings had similar rooftop green spaces. 

"I think some people get put off by it being so high up" Charlotte said.

"They're idiots" Jake said, putting his arm over her shoulder. "This is absolutely amazing." Charlotte relaxed and leaned against him. They walked around for a few more laps before going back downstairs. Jake and Charlotte continued to talk until it got late. 

It became apparent to each of them how little they knew about each other when it came to mundane things. Jake found it hard to believe that Charlotte had no hobbies. "What you do in the evenings and on weekends then?" he asked. 

"I'll walk through the enclave or go to a shop I haven't been to in a while. There's a few TV shows I keep up on, mostly to chat about them at work" Charlotte said, sipping some more wine. 

"What sort of shops" Jake asked. He was curious considering that her near empty home betrayed no purchasing habits of any kind. 

"I like wine and cooking" Charlotte said holding up her glass. "There's a couple specialty shops I check in on when I'm running low or to see if they have anything interesting. And just everyday stuff, if I need food for Chesty I go out and get it. I could order online, but then I'm just sitting around the house for it to show up. I work late often and I'm usually preparing lunches for work or cooking dinner when I get home."

"I'm sure we'll be trying each others cooking over time" Jake said with a yawn. 

"Sleepy?" Charlotte asked with a smile. 

"Yeah a little. This has been the most stimulating day I've had..." Jake paused thinking back to the observation post and his rough transportation to the rehab facility. "That I've had in a while" he finished his thought to avoid lingering on those memories. 

"I don't know about sleep, but you could convince me to go to bed" Charlotte said with a sly look. 

Jake stood up and took her wine glass from her. After setting it down on the coffee table Jake picked her up. Charlotte laughed as Jake carried her to the bedroom. Their mutual undressing was interrupted by playful kisses and caressing. She invited him under the covers. Charlotte was finding it hard to control her emotions. Jake being here, in her bed finally, was more than she had dared to hope for. 

She stared into his eyes as Jake made love to her. Jake was surprised by his own enthusiasm. He wanted to think this could work, that he and Charlotte could have something. He wanted it to be more than the fresh air, good food, and finally walking out of the facility. As Charlotte brought herself up to kiss him he let all of those worries fade away and focused on her. 

After they had finished Charlotte laid in Jake's arms. She was purring again. Jake stroked the soft fur of her belly. Charlotte broke into a wide smile as she realized that there was no time limit. She wasn't going to have to get dressed and drive home, Jake wasn't going back to a cell and sleeping on a bunk. This night they would lie together until morning. "I love you" she said softly. 

The words caused Jake to pause. His concerns from earlier came back to him. He pulled her into a tight embrace and kissed the back of her neck. He knew that wasn't the answer she wanted but it was the most honest thing he could offer right now. Charlotte didn't mind, she had said the words for herself. 

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===== Part 30: Enclave ===========================

Charlotte woke up before Jake. She rolled over to press herself against him. Her tail wagged freely now that there was no danger of it waking him. She listened to his breath and took comfort in his warmth. It wasn't long before Jake was up as well. They took their time getting out of bed and showered. Charlotte made a small breakfast for the both of them; coffee, fresh fruit, half a bagel each with creme cheese and a fried egg on top.

Jake inquired about what she had planned for the day. Charlotte wanted to take him clothes shopping in the morning. Then in the afternoon they would get him a tablet or a phone. "Actually what do you want?" she asked sipping her coffee. 

"I would like to look around at a couple gyms" Jake said. 

"No" she said with a smile "do you prefer a phone or a tablet?"

"Ah, well I did finally get used to reading on a tablet in the facility" Jake said, putting his concerns aside for right now. He had forgotten how much of an issue this was for furs. With the variety of paws, fingers, and claws possessed by furs tablets had replaced both phones and keyboards as the favored digital devices for many of them. Charlotte seemed to use both cell phones and tablets but he guessed she would have difficulty with a keyboard. 

"We can get both" Charlotte said. "Keep the tablet around the house and take the cell with you when you go out."

"I can do fine with just the phone, you're already getting me a wardrobe today." Jake was still uneasy about being provided for. 

Charlotte rinsed the few dishes and pans soiled by breakfast. "Don't worry about getting too much. It's all one time expenses, It'll be fine. But I honestly don't know anything about the gyms in the enclave. I'm sure you'll find one much quicker when you get a device and can look them up." She came back to kiss Jake on the forehead before going back to her room to change out of her bathrobe. 

Jake had to remind himself to take it slow. Charlotte would have her own priorities and there was no use in rushing the adjustment for both them. Still, he was relieved that his request had not been ignored. Soon they were in the elevator towards the shopping district under the condos. 

They started off picking up some underwear and socks. Charlotte took some time picking out a variety of dress shocks. Jake wasn't sure what she had planned that would require him to dress up so often and said "You know I only ever bought plain black for socks if I needed to dress up." 

"Nonsense" Charlotte said "You'll need options to match whatever else we get you."

"Well I only used to dress up for weddings and funerals. Thankfully I didn't have to attend many of the latter."

"I would like to go out when we can. It would be nice if you dressed smart to match when we went somewhere deserving of it" Charlotte said as she held two different patterns of navy colored socks. She decided on the diamond pattern and set the other down. "Just once a week or if we have something nice to celebrate, what do you like to wear day to day?"

Jake shrugged, he didn't think Charlotte would like it if he said he got used to making his own clothes out of animal hides. "Blue jeans and button ups mostly. But I didn't wear more than sweatpants if I wasn't leaving the house" he said instead.

She walked over to him with a variety of socks and belts laid over her arm. "I can see why you preferred long sleeves" she said as she gently caressed the hem of his t-shirt sleeve. The edges of his scars were visible. The small scars on his forearms might be mistaken for someone who had gotten them working a trade, but the ones higher up on his arms were too many and too large to politely explain away. 

"I'm not bothered by those anymore" Jake said. He was pleased to find that he actually meant it too. The occasional ache in his back was still there, but otherwise he had gotten over the self consciousness he had about them. 

"It's okay, I understand" Charlotte said. She lifted the things in her hands "Well get these here, and I know a good place to get some casual stuff for you nearby. We might have to take a trip up to the condo to drop that off before getting more."

Charlotte paid with the swipe of her ID. Jake had not seen anything that looked like a cash register at any of the stores they walked by. It did seem that the ID was just as tied into everything out here as it had been in rehab. The casual use of them by everyone else normalized it some, but he was still getting used to it. 

In the casual wear shop Jake picked up some workout clothes, shoes, and the sort of things he preferred. He had been shocked to find that store only had a quarter of it dedicated for menswear. Fur's came in a large variety of shapes and sizes so it made some sense for there to be more female attire, but he had not expected the population of the enclave to be that tilted. 

They went up to the condo to drop everything off before finding an electronics store. He tried to stick to the cheaper models, but Charlotte was insistent on getting him the latest and greatest. Jake had stopped being shocked by the amount of money Charlotte was throwing at him. Strangely, Dr. Hopper's warnings came back to him about Charlotte's compulsions. Even though it was at her own insistence he began to feel more and more like he was using Charlotte. 

They made up for the skipped lunch by going to a grocery store. Jake enjoyed being able to buy all the things he had missed while out in the wild and in the enclave. Milk, shrimp, pastries, even a cereal from his childhood that he was surprised to find was still being made. It was too tempting to pluck them all from the shelves, having gone so long without any of them. 

Jake cooked that evening, but the creamy Italian style shrimp dish wasn't to Charlotte's liking. She insisted that it was good, but simply too rich for her tastes. Jake didn't feel insulted though, he liked that she could tell him she didn't like it. The honesty was worth more than the approval. 

Jake was surprised to find that Charlotte had more clothes shopping planned on Sunday. She wanted to buy him some nicer things to wear, something appropriate for a fancy restaurant. Charlotte had him try on pants first, then some vests and jackets. About a dozen items total which she assured him would give him plenty of options. "We could get these tailored" she said to herself more than Jake "We almost have to with your build." 

She talked with the clerk, a very well dressed looking cheetah fur. Jake was having flashbacks to his childhood when his mother bought him a suit for some family event, and he had to wait patiently while the adults discussed the purchase. 

"We do have tailoring services available. I can take measurements and we can get started right away" the clerk offered.

"How long would that take?" Charlotte asked "I want to have at least one outfit ready for tomorrow." 

"I can have one ready for pickup tomorrow afternoon, the rest would be done by Wednesday" she said after looking at her tablet. 

"Oh that's much quicker than I expected" Charlotte said pleased.

"Yes, it's all done by machine, very efficient" the clerk said confidently. "Mr. Priestly if you could follow me for your measurements."

Jake followed but felt he had to correct her "It's Hastings, and we're not married." There was a strange impulse to add "yet" to the end of that sentence which he resisted.

"I do apologize for assuming" the clerk said. 

They were standing in front of black veil that traced a half circle across the ceiling. "Please step in here and undress, you can hang your clothes on the rack. Stand in the center of the dais facing the mirror with your arms out. Tell me when you are ready and the cameras will take your measurements. When the red light turns green you're all done!" She was chipper but polite and gestured at each thing as she mentioned them in a well practiced manner. Jake nodded and followed her instructions. It only took a few seconds before he was clear. 

"Charlotte!" he called out. "Could you bring me my old clothes, since we're leaving these here?"

Charlotte returned in a few moments with the casual clothes that he had walked in with. Jake handed her the new ones in exchange. He put on his jeans and shoes. He pulled back the curtain and started putting on his button up shirt. 

"Jake!" Charlotte said unexpectedly. The clerk looked away quickly but she had clearly seen him as well. 

It took a moment for Jake to realize that flashing his bare chest was the source of the shock. "Sorry" he said, fumbling with the buttons and turning away. The clerk and Charlotte walked to the front of the store simultaneously. By the time Jake arrived it was clear that Charlotte was ready to leave. They quickly walked out. 

"Jake that was embarrassing" Charlotte whispered at him once the shop doors were closed.

"She works in a boutique, I'm sure shes seen people without shirts on" Jake said jokingly.

"That's not what I'm talking about..."

"I know what you're talking about" Jake said firmly. "I didn't think about it, I'm sorry." Jake had felt good not thinking about it until right now. 

Charlotte looked up at him and immediately felt bad. "No, I'm sorry. It's wrong for me to embarrassed about something that's happened to you." Jake was willing to drop the whole subject, but Charlotte continued. "Look at me Jake." He did so. "I'm sorry for reacting like that."

"It's all right. You're not used to it like I am" Jake said. He put a hand on her shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze. The rest of the day was a lazy Sunday around the house. Charlotte told him that they would be going into Seattle Monday. He had to visit his release liaison at the main office, but the evening would be theirs and she had made a reservation at a place she had long wanted to try. 

Monday morning was spent with a guided walk around the enclave, Charlotte pointed out many of her favorite restaurants along the way. Soon they had his freshly tailored clothes and were getting dressed for their trip into the city. The high speed rail provided a short but scenic approach to the city. 

Charlotte pulled Jake into an autopilot cab to get him to the government office that his liaison was at. Jake observed the city, which seemed far darker and sadder than the enclave he now called home. ID checkpoints were everywhere and lupine guards stood at the ready on the street. He knew those things were present at home, but they were better hidden. 

They were almost at the rehabilitation office when Jake saw her; the first human woman he had seen in years. It was an older lady dragging a hand cart full of meager groceries behind her as she marched down the sidewalk. Seattle, being a city from the old world, possessed more diversity in the female population. Jake wasn't sure if human women were even allowed to move into the enclaves. As he looked more attentively at the pedestrians he saw more and more women as they approached the city center. 

So many women had fled the country during the troubled times of the fur takeover, only to find that many of the countries they fled too were soon taken over by the same governments they ran from. Those that stuck around were either too old, too poor, or attached to families who could not flee. It wasn't much but the 'furs still respected traditional relationships between human men and women. 

Maybe it was the furs respect for mating and marriage in general, or perhaps they thought consigning the female of the species to a slow extinction was a step too far even for their regime. Regardless Jake's glimpse at the old world was unsettling and a small part of him was relieved to be off the street as they entered the building. 

They found the meager office of his liaison easily enough, for which they were both comically overdressed. Lauren Smith, a stout grey vixen similar in age to Dr. Hopper greeted them coldly. Jake and Charlotte took a seat at her desk. However after Lauren confirmed the identity of both of them, she sent Charlotte out of the office. Jake watched her leave and turned back to his liaison unsure of what was expected.

"I'll get right to it" Lauren began with her gravely voice "Do you feel threatened or that your life may be in danger by being the sponsee of Charlotte Priestly?" 

"What?" Jake said with a disbelieving laugh "Why would you think that?"

"I don't make assumptions Mr. Hastings, my job is due diligence. Just answer the questions honestly and we'll proceed from there. If you don't have any concerns this will be over quickly."  

Jake affirmed that he wasn't in fear for his life and the interrogation proceeded. Questions about food, sleeping accommodations, clothes, and all manner of ordinary things followed. Jake had no problem telling the truth, but the fact that these questions were being asked at all worried him. What was life like for other releases if this was due diligence? An uncaring bureaucrat reading from a standard form hardly seemed adequate.

It was over soon enough and she handed him her business card. Lauren made a point to tell him that in an emergency he should call 911 but that her personal contact information was on the card. She asked if Jake had any questions, but the whole meeting was so bizarre he couldn't think of any. She told him she would see him in a month for their next meeting and to contact her if anything came up before then. 

Charlotte suggested they walk to a few shops since the meeting had finished early and the dinner reservation wasn't until later. Jake asked her if she wanted to know what happened, but she said she was familiar with the process and didn't treat it as anything to be concerned about. Charlotte bought a bottle of wine at a shop that she claimed was hard to find. Jake had never given much consideration to Seattle in particular. He found it pleasant enough, but he likely would have enjoyed walking anywhere in the breezy summer afternoon they were enjoying. 

They made it to the restaurant slightly early and found their table was already free. Jake was not acquainted with the high dining experience they were about to enjoy. As the hors d'ourves made their way to the table he stopped caring about the food. In the low light he saw Charlotte with a genuine smile. Not the fleeting smiles she had shown him here and there as they talked in the facility or the moments of contentment he saw in the last few days. 

For the first time he saw that she was happy. Her eyes had always held such piercing intensity, and yet here they were so soft as she passionately explained each dish to Jake. He could hardly keep up with her and he didn't care, he was happy to be seeing her, the real Charlotte, for what felt like the first time. 

Jake was glad he didn't get to glance at the bill when it came. Everything about the dinner had been impressive, but also immersed in the obvious signs of luxury and extravagance that he found unnecessary. Even with Charlotte's instructions as to the unique nature of each dish they had experienced, he felt as though he was leaving hungry. Charlotte was more than satisfied. She had Jake put his arm over her shoulder as they walked through the city in the night. Eventually she waved down a cab and they made their way back to the rail station and on to the enclave. 

Charlotte was falling asleep walking by the time they got back to the condo. Jake told her to get ready for bed. He took charge of putting the wine in the modest rack next to the fridge, and feeding Chesty for the evening. He wanted to unwind by himself for a while but Charlotte was calling for him from the bedroom. This is the first week, he told himself. He would have plenty of alone time when she returned to work. Besides, he didn't trust himself to stay awake if he tried to read on the couch. 

With Charlotte having the week off they decided to take things slow. Jake spent Tuesday checking out a few gyms before signing up with one. It was almost on the other side of the enclave, but Jake thought a long walk before and after a workout would be of value. They each discovered how different their tastes were as they tried to cook for the other in turns. By Thursday they found agreement on pizza toppings, after having exhausted any ideas they had for dinner. On Friday Charlotte took Jake to another nice restaurant, this time within the enclave. 

They had another event filled weekend, by the end of which Jake was looking forward to see Charlotte go back to work. He didn't think that she was wearing on him, or even being too bossy, he figured that he had simply gotten used to being alone in rehab and the sudden difference was all that it took to make him uneasy. With a kiss she was out the door and Jake had the condo to himself. Charlotte had to leave very early for her commute so Jake took his time making breakfast in silence. 

Jake petted Chesty and sipped his coffee as he watched the sunrise. He spent a few hours reflecting on everything they had done in the past week. He had to admit the enclave wasn't that bad, in fact it was far better than what he expected to return to. But now without Charlotte around he found himself considering his own desires for the first time in a long time. Could he get a job? Should he just laze about and read books again? 

Frustrated, Jake decided to take advantage of his gym membership, he set out for a long walk and a workout. The enclave took on a different character when he was out alone. He noticed the small details, such as the variety of furs were that were walking around. He had heard that the west coast was particularly hit hard by the population explosion, so it made sense the enclaves out here would have a large number of them compared to the small town he and Marilyn had lived in. 

Judging by the glances he was receiving, the number of single furs in the city also seemed high. A young lizard girl who was tending a convenience store even cornered him to ask a bunch of questions when he went in to buy a bottle of water. Jake politely declined her advances. He quickly scanned his ID to pay for the water and left. 

Once in the gym he was able to focus on what mattered. Jake had picked a facility that seemed to be more heavy lifting focused, rather than some of the typical treadmill farms that were popular and plentiful. The slate grey walls and black rubber mats also offered a more masculine feel. He made his way to the locker room to drop off his bag. Like everything else in the enclave he had to use his ID on the locker. Jake had trouble not feeling suspicious at the convenience of it all. 

Picking up a towel he found a squat rack and started his warm up set. Even though the aesthetic of the place was decidedly masculine, it was still occupied by more furs than men. Many appeared to be couples, but from the mirrors Jake could tell that there were plenty of single furs chatting with each other. A few of them seemed to be chatting about him based on their furtive glances and gestures. A horse girl with a blonde coat, white hair and mane approach him with her friend, a draconic looking scaly.

"Hey, are you new?" the horse girl asked him warmly. 

"Uh, yeah, just recently moved to the enclave." 

"Are you single?" The dragon girl quickly asked.

"Aubry!" the horse girl said shocked "you can't just ask him that!" She turned to Jake and offered her hand to shake "I'm Rose by the way."

Jake introduced himself to both of them and quickly explained that he moved here with his girlfriend. Though it was odd for him to call Charlotte that, he felt that warranted less explanation than admitting to recently getting out of rehab. They both seemed to perk up at the word "girlfriend" though. Jake got the impression that wasn't enough to discourage either girl as they continued to ask him about how he was liking the enclave.

As they chatted Jake felt a presence to his side. Rose glanced over and said "Jake this is Tiffany" Jake turned slightly and almost jumped in surprise at the lupine standing behind him. But it wasn't a lupine, just a wolf girl nearly the size of one. She was a head taller than Jake and covered in black shaggy fur. Her massive paw reached out for a handshake. Jake hesitantly offered his hand and introduced himself. She was soft spoken, or maybe just nervous, but she stood by the side while the other girls continued to ask him questions. 

Jake was looking for an out of the conversation so he could get back to working out. Maybe the girls could sense that, because they quickly finished up and told him if he ever needed a spotter to just ask. Jake finished his workout, but not before getting approached by another pair of single 'furs who had just arrived. He hit the sauna, which was thankfully in the men's locker room and not unisex. He washed up and headed home. 

Jake stopped at an electronic store and bought some earbuds. He didn't even really want to listen to music while he worked out, but he figured just wearing them might cut down on unwanted conversations. As he left he noticed a jewelry store across the street and briefly wondered how mad Charlotte would be if he bought a wedding ring just to be left alone everywhere else. He stopped by the grocery store near the condo and picked up a few things before going up. 

Jake spent the afternoon making a plan of what to put in the spare bedroom. He would run it by Charlotte first but she had already told him he could pretty much do whatever he wanted with it. He texted Charlotte to ask her what time she expected to be home, she quickly gave him an answer. As the afternoon wore on he started cooking. He had a dinner in mind that he felt confident Charlotte would like and he expected it to be mostly done by the time she got back. She arrived a little before she said she would. Charlotte rushed to embrace Jake. 

"Hello" Jake said with a laugh "You've only been gone since this morning." 

"I know" she said pulling back "I just had some paranoid thoughts on the drive home from work."

"About me running off?" Jake asked, as he started to plate up dinner. 

Charlotte shook her head with her ears down "Yeah..." she sighed. She excused herself to change out of her work clothes and rejoined Jake for dinner. She chatted about work and Jake talked about his day out in the enclave, though he did skip over the interest he was provoking in other furs. They snuggled up on the couch after dinner and Charlotte made an attempt at introducing to the TV shows she liked. 

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===== Part 31: Honesty ===========================

The first month in the enclave passed by quicker than Jake thought it would. Granite Falls had a few cafes, bars, and bookstores that he grew to like. Though he did find the attention he attracted from the residents to be similar to his experience in the gym so he would often spend his spare hours on the roof green space. 

Things were going as well as he hoped with Charlotte. She would occasionally call him during lunch just to see what he was doing, but mostly he was left alone during the day. He appreciated that since she definitely expected him to be around when she was home. Going out to the gym by himself was about all he could manage on the weekends.

She didn't make explicit demands, but she would very subtly invite herself along if he had a longer errand to run, and ask him to come along if she felt like getting something for herself. Jake was fine with this, he had expected much worse based on how things had been when he initially ran away. There was some relief that they were growing more natural in talking to each other with all the time they were spending together.

The spare room was finally outfitted to his liking and he had started to journal again. He reached out to Dr. Hopper to check in with her but since she wasn't yet retired she had little more time than to politely respond to his email. Jake decided to wait another month before trying to contact her again. 

As much as he enjoyed a bit of alone time it wasn't normal for him to only ever talk to one person. Someone he trusted like Dr. Hopper could help have helped him out with that. Weirdly the thing Jake was struggling with the most was the attention he was getting from all the furs he met. He wasn't able to make friends despite the interest being shown in him. 

The furs seemed to have a supernatural sense for knowing that he wasn't married. Jake had tried to be friendly with the gym regulars after firmly asserting himself as being committed. They eventually became more casual and gave him his space. But when he had tried to meet a few for lunch, just as friends, they weren't interested. A relationship that they couldn't upgrade wasn't one they bothered with. 

He was now more concerned at how difficult it had been to find and meet any male friends. Most guys that were out in the city were almost always accompanied by their fur, be it girlfriend or wife. With some amusement he eventually realized that it had been far easier to socialize in prison. He had not expected isolation to be a bigger problem once free, but that was where he now found himself.

It was a Saturday and Jake was leaving the gym in a hurry. As he walked past some other gym members his bag brushed against someone else's and he heard an object fall down. He looked back and saw a small paperback book lying on the floor but it's owner didn't seem to have noticed and kept walking. Jake picked up the book and walked after her.

At first he thought the female figure with chestnut hair might be human. But many furs had human like hair and at the top of her yoga pants he spotted a short bristly tail. Upon closer inspection he also saw the small triangular ears poking out of her hair, which were covered with the customized kind of wireless earbuds that furs used. Jake tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention.

The girl turned around and revealed herself to be a chipmunk fur of some kind. She blinked at Jake and removed an earbud. Before she could say anything Jake asked her if she had dropped the book. "Yes, I guess I did" she said, taking it from him. She returned the book to her bag and said "Thank you..." 

"Take care" Jake interrupted quickly and left. He didn't want the simple act of kindness to start a conversation with a strange fur. He needed to be home soon. Charlotte wanted to take him somewhere special for dinner, but she had been coy about telling him where exactly. 

Once inside the condo he was greeted by Chesty bringing him a mouse toy. Jake had picked up a few cat toys at one point and the mouse was one that he had thrown to Chesty when he first got them. Since then the cat brought it to him whenever he got home and Jake would toss it somewhere in the living room for him to chase after it. It greatly annoyed Charlotte that Chesty did not seem to want to play fetch with her.

Jake asked where they were going before hopping in the shower. Charlotte had laid out some clothes for him, but it wasn't any of his dressier clothes so she must have had a more casual place in mind. "You'll see" she said happily "I think you'll like it." 

Soon he was ready and they were walking down the street. "So what are you writing about so much?" Charlotte asked.

Jake winced he didn't want to come out and say Marilyn. "I did a lot of writing in rehab. It helps organize my thoughts."

"If you don't want to tell me what it's about that's fine..."

"No" Jake said, he was defaulting to being guarded and trying to do that less often lately. "Well, in rehab, I mostly wrote about being out up north, but I had finished that after a few months."

"So what are you writing about now?"

"Mostly about my marriage" Jake said sullenly. 

"Oh" Charlotte said, genuinely surprised. She tried not to think too much about Jake's past, and he usually didn't volunteer such information. "Do you think it's relevant to... us?"

This already much harder than Jake wanted it to be. "It kind of has to be, right? It's a huge part of my life. Everything I've done as an adult is tied to it. Dr. Hopper encouraged me to explore it with more writing."

"Well you're not in rehab anymore, you don't have to do it if it's too painful" Charlotte offered.

"No, it's actually a lot like working out. Difficult in the moment, but the value of it grows over time" Jake said. "You have to realize it's like a starting point for me, sometimes I get distracted and write about someone I talked to around town that day or I try to remember something that happened to me as a kid. It's all over the place."

"I would like to read your writing sometime" Charlotte said, taking his hand in hers. "It doesn't have to be anything about Marilyn but it would be nice to take a look."

Jake nodded "I can show you the finished ones about my time up north."

Jake was starting to recognize the side of town she was taking him to. "Oh, I've been over this way a few times."

"Really?" Charlotte asked "What for?"

"Just exploring the city, but there's a place around here I've come for lunch a couple times. Biergarten. Good beer and good sandwiches too."

"Oh, you're kidding me!" Charlotte exclaimed.

"What? Is that where we're going?" Jake asked with a laugh.

"Yes" Charlotte said with the defeat in her voice carrying a hint of amusement. 

"Well at least you were right, I do like the place" Jake said putting his arm over her. Charlotte enjoyed the evening all the same, despite her surprise not being what she hoped it would be. Jake enjoyed a bit too much beer and was ready to go to sleep as soon as they walked back to the condo. 

Alcohol usually intensified his dreams and tonight was no different. The familiar forest landscape and the glass wall. He walked along it and pushed at random places looking for someway through even though the other side seemed no different than the one he was on. He was walking briskly along the wall when he thought he heard a voice. He turned and saw Charlotte in the distance. She was calling out to him.

"Jake!" he heard her say and then he was awake. Charlotte had been saying his name for real and her hand was on his shoulder. "Jake are you alright?"

"Yeah" he said sleepily "what's wrong?" 

"You we're flinching in your sleep and grunting."

"I was running, I guess" Jake said rolling onto his back.

"It wasn't just that; your back was so tense, it seemed like you were in pain." 

"It's nothing" Jake lied.

"It was enough to worry me" she said. Charlotte could tell he wasn't being truthful since he never out right lied to her like that. She was getting very acclimated to his manners and mood. As a fur that made her much more adept at understanding him even when he was trying to conceal what he meant. 

"Maybe the pretzels aren't agreeing with me is all."

"Lets talk about it in the morning" Charlotte said with concern. Jake agreed and rolled over to her. 

She did try to talk about it with him in the morning, but Jake was reticent to talk about his dreams. It felt like opening up the same box of worms as talking about Marilyn at this point. He insisted he had just had too much beer and Charlotte let him think she was satisfied with that. 

On Monday, once back at the facility, Charlotte looked up Jake's medical records. She saw the notes from Dr. Upton about the possible nerve damage from Jake's scaring and was immediately angry. She didn't care if it was pride or stubbornness she felt betrayed that Jake would hide something like this from her. So much so that she didn't even say hello when she got home and began questioning him. 

"Why didn't you tell me about the pain in your back?" she practically yelled.

"It's not that big of a deal... Wait, how did you find out about it?"

"I saw it first hand Saturday night. I've seen it before then too, just not that bad. I thought maybe you were sore from working out or something. I looked up your physicals from the facility and found that Rebecca had documented it months ago" Charlotte said in a flurry.

"You looked at my physical results?"

"Yes, Jake. Because you lied to me and then wouldn't talk about it afterwards." Charlotte folded her arms and laid her ears back. "We should have done something about them right away. There's no reason for you to have to deal with that."

Jake was still angry about her looking at his files, but he tried to address the point she was making right now. "It's not as bad as you are making it out to be and it's getting better. The sauna at the gym is helping a lot" he said. That was a partial truth in that sauna did seem to help temporarily with a bad flare up. Over the long term the general pain did seem to be getting worse.

"Jake, according to Upton's notes it can be gone in one, maybe two, treatments. You just have to go to the doctor and it's done. I'm sure she told you that." 

"Yeah" Jake said feeling a bit foolish. "I'm used to it by now, is all. It didn't seem like a high priority and I had a lot to figure out after getting released." 

"I want to schedule you an appointment as soon as possible."

"No, I'll do it" Jake said, cutting her off.

"Promise me you'll call a doctor about it this week" Charlotte insisted.

"I will" Jake said. He understood that it was coming from a good place, but the belligerence of the request was making him angry again. "I'm going to go for a walk on the roof."

"Let me get changed and I'll go with you."

"No" Jake said, calming himself before continuing. "Just let me be with my thoughts for a little while, okay?" 

Charlotte said nothing as he left. She wanted to go after him but knew it would only make him madder if Jake wanted to be alone. Jake did a few quick laps of the outside track, but it soon started raining soon and he went back. Charlotte had nervously paced the apartment until he returned.

Jake spoke first "It's a dumb thing to fight about, don't worry I'll find a doctor tomorrow."

Charlotte sighed "I already looked up a doctor before I left work, I'll send you the details if you want to call them yourself." 

Jake smiled, of course she had already looked into it. "Yeah, that's fine."

She had her arms crossed. Charlotte wasn't going to apologize for being concerned about him and Jake could feel the tension as time went by. Rain started to splatter against the window and Jake finally admitted what was wrong. "I'm not used to being taken care of. At all. The happiest I've been in my life was when I was barely surviving on my own. This" he said gesturing to the apartment "it's too much and every time you do another thing for me I feel worse. Then I feel like shit because I shouldn't feel worse for kindness."

"Is it because of Marilyn?" Charlotte asked bluntly.

"Yeah, partially, and I'm still working through that" Jake said.

"But, Jake" Charlotte began hesitantly "You were never on your own, you had friends that helped you up north. Is it really so hard to accept help from me?"

"I feels different and that's all I can really say. I don't know myself why it does." Jake couldn't come out and say that she wasn't a friend and that he didn't have any. He still didn't know what he and Charlotte were and that didn't help the feelings of isolation either.

Charlotte walked up to Jake. She leaned into him and he let her into an embrace. He stroked the back of her neck and she relaxed a little. "It really worried me when I saw you in pain last night, Jake."

"It wasn't that bad" he insisted. 

"I know, but you can't help how you feel and I can't either" she said, scared to finally acknowledge the emotional changes she had been going through. She worried about Jake so much while at work now. "I love you" she said. 

"I love you too" Jake said. He didn't mean to say it, but he felt like he need to reassure her. 

"Don't do that" Charlotte said. She pulled away and looked him in the eyes. "I can tell when you don't mean it. Don't do it just to make me feel better because it doesn't." 

"Okay" Jake said. He made the appointment the next morning after Charlotte left for work. 

==================================================
===== Part 32: Gratitude =========================

Jake had a consultation with the nerve specialist later that week. It was somewhat comforting in that the doctor turned out to be a human man. He didn't ask too many uncomfortable questions about the origin of the scars and went right into explaining the process. He set Jake up with an appointment to get an advanced MRI that day. With the internal scaring imaged the doctor would be able to identify the likely sources of pain and administer the stem cell therapy next week. 

Jake couldn't help but feel embarrassed through the whole process. It was simple, straight forward, and something he shouldn't have feared at all. Little things like this reminded him that no matter how much pizza and beer he had that he still wasn't at home in a city. He went to the gym after getting his scans done.

He greeted a few of the regulars as he made his way back to the locker room. He almost bumped into the chipmunk girl he met last week on her way out from the woman's locker. She quickly popped off her earbud and said "Hey book guy!" 

Jake gave her a nod and stopped "Yeah sorry I didn't introduce myself, I was in a rush." 

"No problem, I'm Valerie Flores" she said shaking his hand.

"Jake Hastings"

She squinted her eyes "Do I know you from somewhere?"

It was always possible someone might recognize him from the ads. It didn't happen often with his longer hair but he did occasionally get asked about it. "No, I've only been in the enclave for a little over a month. I don't think we've met." 

She gave him a look like she wasn't sure he was telling the truth, but she said goodbye and they each went their separate way.

Jake and Charlotte had another minor argument over the weekend. She wanted to come with him for his treatment and take the day off. Jake repeated what the doctor told him, he wouldn't get anymore than a local anesthetic for the needles. It wouldn't be any worse than giving blood. She eventually relented and on the day of the appointment Jake went alone.

Charlotte made sure to call him as soon as it was done. He told her what she already knew since they had been over it so many times; that he would be sore for a day or two and not to expect results for a couple weeks. If he had any resurgence of pain, he should note the locations and the doctor could do a second session. The doctor was confident it was going to be one and done since his scaring was relatively shallow.

Even with the phone call, Charlotte was stressed out for the rest of the day. She found herself being very curt with Shani over minor issues regarding some reports. She left work a few minutes early without a word to anyone else. Jake was out on the balcony when she got home and she rushed to join him. She forced her way into his lap and cuddled up like she used to when they were alone together in her office. She apologized for being so pushy about everything. 

"It's getting worse isn't it?" Jake asked. Charlotte didn't answer. As her workweek progressed she would grow more anxious by the day. By Friday she was so relieved to find him home, it was almost as though she was expecting him to have disappeared. It seemed to be getting more pronounced with each passing week. They had talked about it briefly over dinner once or twice. She assured him it was just the usual stress of the job combined with the new living situation. But he didn't believe her.

"I knew about the treatment and that's all I could think about all day. It drove me nuts" she said.

"Well it's over now" Jake said. "Do you think it would be easier in the future, if something like this comes up again, I just keep it to myself and don't worry you with it?" 

"Maybe" Charlotte said with a sad laugh "but you didn't even know this time. If I have to tell you about the next thing I'll worry then too." 

They stayed out on the balcony for a bit more before going in for dinner. Later Jake gave her his journal about his trip up north. Charlotte thumbed through it quickly and thanked him. "I know you like to be on your own during the day, but if I'm having an issue is it all right if I give you a call?"

"Sure" Jake said "if that helps."

The next morning Charlotte apologized to Shani. "I was nervous about Jake, but that was no excuse to take things out on you. I'm sorry for being so curt yesterday."

"It's okay, ma'am" Shani said "I understand."

"No it's not okay" Charlotte insisted. "I don't want to overshare about my personal life, but it's been a difficult adjustment for me to balance work with having someone else around." 

Shani did not believe Charlotte had many friends. So she didn't find it odd that she was getting more than a simple apology. Her boss was struggling to reach out to someone else, and it was now obvious that her assistant was probably the closest thing to a friend she had. "Ma'am I can tell when you're having a rough day. I promise I don't take it personally" was all she could offer.

"You shouldn't have to take any of it. It's my problem" Charlotte said. There was an awkward silence before they broke away to get back to work. When she had a spare moment she would flip through Jake's journal though she never stopped to actually read it. A sentence or a paragraph would catch her eye but that was all. Charlotte had to admit to herself she was utterly uninterested in Jake's time in the wild, even though she made an effort to read it after lunch. 

Jake returned to his routine and considered trying to reach out to Dr. Hopper again. According to her last email she wouldn't have left the facility yet and he really didn't want to pester her going into her retirement. He considered trying to talk to his rehab liaison, but she had displayed so little interest in their monthly meeting he didn't know if he would get anything of value from it. 

Jake was waiting for afternoon rainstorm to clear before leaving the gym. He was looking at his phone when Valerie got his attention, he hadn't talked to her since their introduction. 

"I found out where I recognized you from" she said with a smirk.

"Yeah?" Jake asked fearing the worst. 

"You're the guy from that 'Bad Boyfriend' meme!"

"What?" Jake asked in total confusion.

"Yeah this is you right?" she said holding up her phone. It was one of the photos from the ad with a caption "The crazy chick in your singles group says she has a new boyfriend. The boyfriend:" and then Jake underneath. Valerie scrolled through and there were dozens of variations. 

"I had no idea about this" Jake said looking away from the phone.

The chipmunks ears perked up "Really? What's it even from?"

"It was from some ads done for the rehab program."

"Oh" she said scrunching her nose. "That's kind of messed up." Jake didn't say anything. Valerie became apologetic "I'm not saying its messed up that you took the job. Just ads for that sort of thing are weird." 

"What job?"

"Well just because you modeled for the ads that doesn't mean you have anything to do with the rehab program. I didn't mean it like that."

Jake scratched his neck guiltily "Well, I'm not a model. I was in the rehab program and they put me in the ads as part of an early release deal." 

"Well I take it back, that's messed up that they would make you do that" she said closing her phone. 

Jake expected her to ask more about rehab or at least go the typical fur route of asking if he was single or not. Instead she said her goodbyes and waved at him as she left for the locker room. It had stopped raining and Jake made his way home. 

Jake's recent problems with Charlotte had him rereading the stuff he had written about Marilyn frequently. He found it difficult to draw parallels and had started to think it was foolish to look to his past for answers about the future. Marilyn and Charlotte were so different, and it was clear to him that Charlotte was the more fragile of the two. Dr. Hoppers warning that he could be the one taking advantage of her continued to nag at him. 

When Charlotte returned home Jake made sure to greet her. "How was your day?" he asked embracing her into a hug.

"Better now" she said with a contented sigh. "I'm not complaining, but what's gotten in to you?"

"I've been thinking about stuff and realized that I am grateful for all you've done to bring me into your life. I know I seem distant, but I'm still figuring things out."

Charlotte listened and they moved to the couch to continue. 

"I always worried what my place in the world was going to be when I came back to it" Jake said.

"You don't mind being here?" Charlotte asked.

"No, but I'm still uncertain about a lot of things. I have to be grateful for what I do have, and recognize that my situation could be a lot worse." 

"I know what you mean to say" Charlotte began hesitantly "but it doesn't make me feel good when you talk about us as just your lifeline from something worse."

Jake frowned "No I didn't mean it like that, I'm sorry. I should have just said 'thank you, for all you've done' and left it at that." 

Charlotte turned and gave him a peck on the cheek "I appreciate the fumbling attempt at honesty."

Jake smiled. Charlotte reached into her bag and pulled out the old journal. "I finished it today at lunch."

"What did you think?"

"I think you're a better writer than a talker" she said dryly. "That's quite the life you guys led out there. I couldn't do it."

"There's a little too much dessert animal in your blood" Jake said as he rubbed her oversized ears "You would have a very hard first winter." 

Charlotte giggled and relaxed at the massage "It's not just that. I'm too comfortable. Roughing it like that just wouldn't be a life worth living. No restaurants to order from when you're lazy, no central air for when it's too hot or too cold..."

"No wine" Jake volunteered.

"YES!" Charlotte said enthusiastically. "Civilization began with alcohol and I won't go without either." 

Jake laughed and they talked about food now that subject had turned to restaurants and drinks. They settled in and ordered out for the night. 

==================================================
===== Part 33: Friends ===========================

Dr. Hopper had finally retired. With some regret she had signed over the last of her patients to other therapists working at Cascades Rehab and though she felt confident they were all in good hands she was overcome with a melancholy mood her first week home. Rehab had been her primary focus since the passing of her husband and this new phase of life was bringing with it an amount of worry greater than the exhaustion of her old workload.

So it was no surprise that she found herself looking through the contacts of her recently released patients within her first week home. She hoped that those who she had promised to stay in touch with could bridge the gap of being a full time rehab therapist and figuring out what to do with herself in retirement. 

Jake Hastings was at the top of the list. He was her only client who had been granted early release and she still had serious misgivings about the conditions under which he left rehab and how the system had used him in general. She was a bit surprised when he responded, almost immediately, to her email with a phone call. They each settled in with their tablets to talk.

"How is retirement treating you?" Jake asked.

"I'm staying busy" Dr. Hopper said hesitantly. "How have you adjusted to life in the enclave?"

Jake went on about how he did like the amenities, but went into detail on his struggles to find companionship in the city. "I didn't expect to be more isolated out here than I was in rehab, is all" he said, with some self consciousness at talking at length for so long. 

"Well, Jake from what you described it doesn't sound like you are making much of an attempt to socialize" Dr. Hopper said. "Going to the gym daily and then retreating into an apartment to read and write isn't enough." 

"For years the only socialization I had was with Marilyn's friends. Then it was me and the guys up north. Both situations were so vastly different from where I am right now I don't know what to do. My best friend is Charlotte's cat."

"What about Charlotte?" Hopper asked, noting that was the first mention of her in the conversation.

"We spend a lot of time together, but she's very antisocial. So I can't even borrow her friends" Jake said with a laugh. 

"What I meant was that you don't seem to view your time with Charlotte as being social" Dr. Hopper said. "To be blunt, it doesn't sound like you view her as a friend either."

"We don't have very much in common. I knew what this was going into it. She's happy to have me around, and I'm grateful for having the relative freedom that I do. I mean, compared to how things were with Marilyn this is domestic bliss. Could it be better? Sure, but I'm not going to be a choosy beggar with the options I was given."

Dr. Hopper was silent for a moment. Jake felt compelled to add something "I just think this could be a lot better if I didn't have to rely on Charlotte for everything."

"You enjoyed your work detail in rehab" Dr. Hopper reminded him. "Have you considered getting a job, something to give you a sense of fulfillment and a degree of socialization?"

"It crosses my mind and I think I'm afraid of figuring out how badly I don't fit in this world" Jake said candidly. "What does my resume look like? The kind of jobs that took ex-cons all seem to be gone, I don't know where I would go without completely retraining into something high skill."

"It doesn't have to be important work to be fulfilling. Even service industry jobs would give you a break from your monotony and an opportunity to socialize."

"Yeah but the problem there is the scheduling" Jake said. "I could work a bar, but that wouldn't have me home when Charlotte is and that's very important to her. Honoring that request is the least I can do, given everything shes done for me."

"I think you should give it a shot Jake. I'm sure you'll find something that can meet your scheduling needs and gives you what you need outside of that." 

Jake nodded, Dr. Hopper was always good at pointing out his excuse making. 

"How have things been with Charlotte?" Dr. Hopper asked.

"Better than I expected in some ways" Jake said. "I think the adjustment on her part is more difficult. She gets anxious about me not being around and a little overprotective." Jake retold the story of the argument they had surrounding his scars and subsequent treatment. 

"Yes that sounds fairly typical of a fur in the throes of bonding with someone" Dr. Hopper said with a sigh. "If her problems become worse I can recommend someone in Granite Falls for her to talk to. Sometimes anti-anxiety medication is warranted if it gets worse for her." 

Jake couldn't even contemplate broaching the subject of Charlotte going to a doctor over her feelings. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that. Jake made an effort to ask about Dr. Hopper and move the conversation away from himself. This was supposed to be a friendly call and not another therapy session after all. They soon ended the call with both feeling better for having talked to each other. 

Jake felt confident from the friendly conversation and broached the idea of getting a job with Charlotte later that night after dinner. "I would try to get a schedule that lets me be home in the evening, of course. But now that I'm settled in I think I'm getting a little stir crazy."

Charlotte grabbed his hand "I won't tell you not to. But it's going to be hard to find one."

Jake looked at her. Charlotte sighed "To be blunt, with your record you are likely going to get a lot of polite declines. It's illegal to discriminate against rehabs, but you're not a fool, you know that any manager can come up with a dozen reasons why you're a 'bad fit' or whatever euphemism they feel like using."

"There has to be something" Jake said "Hell, someone has to still pick up the garbage."

Charlotte stood up from the couch. "Come here" she said walking Jake over to the window. It was night out. "It's late enough to where you might see one... Oh, there one is." She pointed to some creature on the outside of the glass. 

It was about the size of Jake's fist, it looked almost like a small hermit crab, but it was clinging to the glass tightly and moving at a slow pace across the surface. "What the hell is that?" Jake asked.

"Scrubbers" Charlotte said casually. "Some genetic mix of a crabs, geckos, and who knows what else. There's a nest of them every few floors. They secrete a soap like mucus and have these little bristly arms, apparently the mucus has some compound in it that can even repair minor nicks and scrapes in glass. They get fed some disposable cheap pellets and at night their 'nesting instinct' takes over and they come out to clean the windows."

Charlotte turned back to Jake, who was closely inspecting the tiny creatures progress over the glass. "They replaced window cleaners a few years ago. So yeah, you're right, we still need the garbage taken out, and sidewalks cleaned, and everything else. But we've been designing creatures to do all of those jobs for years. There's scarcely any labor left to do." 

Jake looked away and faced her. "So it's all customer facing jobs or some kind of specialization?"

"Yes" Charlotte said "and they're very competitive. So I won't tell you not to look for a job. Just don't get discouraged if you can't find what you are looking for."

Jake started looking for jobs that week, he decided to skip going online at first and just look around the enclave. Almost no one had job postings and when Jake struck up a conversation with a manager at a few places he found that many places he wouldn't have even glanced at actually had a very competitive interview process for if a position opened. Of course everyone applied online, which was another for issue with Jake having to detail his past. His only real hope of getting a job was to get an inside line with someone doing the hiring, which made the whole socializing thing a circular problem. 

A week of looking for jobs had left him more depressed than he would have thought. It was somewhat infuriating in that he didn't even care about the pay and started to feel guilty that if he did get a job he would be taking one away from somebody that actually needed it too. He resigned himself to looking for socialization elsewhere. Maybe book clubs were still a thing he thought bitterly as he left the gym.

Jake passed by Valerie on the street. She was going to the gym as he was leaving. They said hello to each other and kept walking. Jake stopped, he had avoided friendships with furs largely because they avoided him once they found out he was taken. Maybe it was time for him to be more aggressive in just meeting people in general. 

Jake turned around and caught up to Valerie at the gym entrance. "Hey, would you like to get lunch sometime?" he said to her.

==================================================
Characters =======================================

Jake Hastings, Runaway.
Human Male. Age 33
 
Dr. Rebecca Upton, Rehabilitation Doctor.
Raccoon 'fur. Age 34
 
Dr. Helen Hopper, Resident Therapist at Cascades Rehabilitation.
Wallaby 'fur. Age 41 (effective age late 50's)
 
Charlotte Priestly, Warden of Cascades Rehabilitation.
Mixed 'fur of Fennec Fox, Civet, Ferret, et al. Age 32
 
Diana, Secretary at Cascades Rehabilitation
Calico 'fur.
 
Marcus, Guest of Cascades Rehabilitation Facility.
Human Male.
 
Tyler, Guest of Cascades Rehabilitation Facility.
Human Male.
 
Hiroaki, Guest of Cascades Rehabilitation Facility.
Human Male.
 
Tony, Guest of Cascades Rehabilitation Facility.
Human Male.
 
Shani, Secretary at Cascades Rehabilitation
Golden monkey 'fur.
 
Dr. Lisa Harris, Chief Consultant on the Rehabilitation Therapy Program
Grey wolf 'fur.
 
Sandra Lind, Administration Director for Rehabilitation
Coral Snake scaly.
 
Maria Milano, Facilities Director for Rehabilitation
Vixen 'fur.
 
Kathleen Daugherty, Therapy Director for Rehabilitation
Mixed 'fur of different predatory cats.
 
Anne Wester, Head of Public Relations for Rehabilitation
Mixed 'fur of equine and deer features.
 
Chesty Purrer
Domestic Longhair Cat, Male. Age 11.

Lauren Smith, Rehabilitation Liaison.
Vixen fur 44 years old (effectively late 50's)

Aubry, Rose, & Tiffany, gymrats (not actual rats)
Horse, Scaly, and Wolf respectively.

Valarie Flores.
Chipmunk 'fur.