He woke to the bell as he always did. He was stiff as he climbed out of his cot and went to kneel obediently on the mat for inspection, body straight, eyes lowered, hands clasped behind his back.

He tried to ignore the stiffness, to forget how sore he was this morning. Preceptor Benz had had him beaten yesterday for an infraction. He wasn't sure what he'd done exactly, he knew better now than to ask. He'd already learned the very painful lesson that asking questions of your keepers was seen as arguing and punished severely. When his beating yesterday had been administered to her satisfaction and Preceptor Benz had left, the guard hadn't released him from the restraints right away, he'd used him instead, ridden him hard. It happened sometimes, was permitted on the understanding he wasn't damaged, he was Academy property after all.

The door to his cell was unlocked and opened but he didn't look up. Two sets of footsteps, the heavy boots of the guard and the softly-stepping white shoes of the nurse. He could recognise most of the staff he had contact with by their walk, he knew the guard was Baldwin and the nurse the little red head he had never seen smile. He waited for instruction as the guard circled him slowly, knowing what was coming next but careful not to anticipate and move too soon.

"Hands on the floor, horse."

He went onto all fours, tried not to tense up as the nurse moved behind him. He felt her swab a patch of his ass where he was already black and blue before administering his morning shot. The needle didn't bother him too much, but the drug was more painful than usual going in, enough to make his eyes water. He'd hurt worse, so much worse, but there were days when he couldn't help wanting it all to stop. Then he remembered that trying to make the pain stop, for once and for all, was the reason he'd ended up here in the first place, and there were worse places. He remembered them too. He bit down on his bottom lip not wanting to make a noise, grateful neither of them could see his face.

The nurse left once she'd finished.

"Back onto your knees and stand up," Baldwin instructed. "Let's get you showered, fed and ready. Three of the preceptors have already requested you for demonstrations, looks like you've got a busy day ahead, huh, horse?" he grinned.



He dried himself quickly and efficiently after his third shower of the day. A guard usually took him to shower after each session he took part in, gave him fresh scrubs afterwards, if clothing was required. He'd been naked for the last one, aching legs spread wide in stirrups while a class of younger trainees had taken it in turns to locate his prostate under the glacial guidance of Preceptor Joan Allen. He was grateful when it was over. They'd used plenty of lube on him, but he was already swollen and sore from the night before so it had hurt like hell anyway.

He was always grateful for the showers, even if he never truly felt clean. He would have liked a shave today but he remembered he had another day to go. They didn't permit horses to shave every day, didn't remove any of their body hair the way they did with the trainees. They didn't actually permit him to shave himself at all, the guards did it for him, occasionally a nurse. He wasn't allowed cutlery either, a plastic spoon was the closest he got and they still watched him like hawks.

"You daydreaming, horse?"

He dropped his eyes, turned to face the guard, grateful it was Affleck rather than Baldwin or, even worse; Holloway. Affleck was always patient with him. "No, sir," he said quietly.

"Finish getting dry. Preceptor Benz has requested you next and I'm thinking you don't want to piss her off again."

"No, sir," he repeated.

He hurried to do as he'd been told, presenting himself for inspection once he was finished.

"You're fine." Affleck handed him a set of pale blue scrubs. "Put these on, quick now. Lesson starts in five minutes."

He was half hard almost all the time, painfully hard for the rest. Must be something in the drugs they gave him; the daily shot or the pills. They required him to be highly responsive, and he supposed he was. He sat in the chair in front of the class, trying to catch his breath after the blow job he'd just had. It was his first dry ejaculation of the day, he couldn't always come in the conventional sense, and it had been hard and painful. He didn't like too many of those. He was grateful for the break while the class critiqued the technique of the student who'd given it. She was a pretty thing, fourteen or so, long dark hair, big brown eyes. She'd soon be snapped up by a master or mistress. Most of this class would be in Escrow sooner rather than later. There were always visitors coming in now to view them.

There were two women today, He'd noticed as they stood at the back of the room watching. They were accompanied by Mr Fox, the administrator. One of them, the older of the two, was looking at him. He dropped his eyes quickly, not wanting to get in trouble again. These must be important women, rich, if they had Mr Fox with them.



Matthew Fox's voice, as he droned on and on about slave quality and training standards at the Roche Academy, was boring Cate to distraction. She tuned him out, smile on automatic, and let Reese deal with him. Reese was the one here to buy after all. Cate was simply along for moral support.

It had been eighteen months since Reese lost her body slave, Joshua, to leukaemia. The two of them had been a devoted couple, as much in love as any two young people could be. Sadly, today's society didn't see them as equals, refused to accept or understand the love of a slave and master in anything other than the broadest of terms. Polite society dictated that she move on, take another slave, didn't recognize that she was in mourning for a lost love. The Witherspoon family, old money like her own, were equally uncompromising.

Cate studied the training room, found that she was watching the lesson that was taking place with fascination and a growing sense of horror that she hoped to heaven wasn't reflected in her jaw aching smile.

Her eyes were drawn to the man sat in the chair on the raised dais. Hard not to look at someone wearing nothing more than a blue top receiving a skilled and enthusiastic blow-job. She'd assumed, at first, that he must be an employee of the Roche Academy, he was so much older than the trainee body slaves, mid thirties at a guess, but looking at him now, as he fought to recover himself while the class discussed the merits of the blow job, she realised she was wrong.

He hadn't made any kind of move to cover himself afterwards and she could see what looked like bruises on his thighs, distinct, dark marks that had to be bruising, around his wrists and ankles, and his body language... She didn't need her psychology degree to see how submissive the man was. Not simply submissive, he was cowed, afraid.

She suddenly realised what she was seeing. She'd heard stories of course, but...

She turned to Matthew Fox, cutting in on whatever he was saying to Reese. "You have a..." She paused at the word, almost unable to bring herself to say it. "A horse, is that the term you use?"

Fox gave her that infuriatingly smooth smile of his. "We have two, Lady Blanchett. A male and a female. The female was disfigured in the car crash that killed her master, it left her unsaleable. The male here is a recaptured runaway who attempted to damage himself after he was returned to his master.

"A horse?" Reese shook her head, confusion written all over her pretty face. "I don't know that I'm familiar with that term."

"All horses are former body slaves, now used solely for training purposes," Fox explained."We use the term horse because it's necessary for them to be broken-in to this kind of service. We use slaves who have no value, other than perhaps in teaching hospitals or in one of our Roche laboratories. So although it's a somewhat brutal process, we feel we're giving them a slightly better quality of life than they would have had as a test subject. And of course their training as a body slave isn't wasted."

Reese's attention was now focused on the man, her eyes wide. "I-I never heard of such a thing. He seems very... cooperative."

"He does, doesn't he," there was no lack of pride in Fox's voice. "Despite being punished for both of his transgressions he was still quite spirited when we acquired him. We decided to experiment with a more prolonged and rigorous period of conditioning than we'd used on a subject before. We're very happy with the results."

"He's drugged, isn't he?" Cate asked.

"Very observant, Lady Blanchett. Yes he is. Roche have developed a cocktail of drugs that ensure he's cooperative but don't prevent him from being responsive. They also enhance his stamina and of course his necessary physical functions. We're continually experimenting to refine the cocktail and the dosage, with a view to doing trials to see if we can, eventually, market the treatment. We're working to ease the strain the current drug regime, coupled with our conditioning techniques, puts on the heart, so we can extend the working life of the horse."

"I'd like to meet him," Cate said quietly, her eyes drawn back to the man in the chair.

Fox's smile flickered a little. "I beg your pardon, Lady Blanchett."

"I would like to meet your horse, Mr Fox." She looked him in the eye. "Is there a problem with that?"

"No, of course not." The broad smile was back in force. "If you'd like to follow me."

As they moved forward from the back of the classroom, catching the eye of the female instructor, the lesson was halted. The entire class, including the horse, moved gracefully to their knees.

They moved to the dais where the instructor was waiting, her painted smile as practised as Fox's.

"Lady Witherspoon, Lady Blanchett, may I present our senior instructor, Preceptor Benz."

"Welcome to the Roche Academy ladies." She was a pretty, petite blonde, not the sort of woman you'd expect to be giving lessons in blow-jobs to pre-teens. "How may we be of help to you this afternoon?"

"The ladies are here to hopefully select a new body slave for Lady Witherspoon," Fox explained."Lady Blanchett has expressed an interest in our horse."

"The horse?" The woman couldn't hide her surprise.

"What's his name?" Reese asked her. "It doesn't seem right referring to him as horse all the time."

"Horses aren't allowed the luxury of a name, Lady Witherspoon," the woman answered. "Part of their conditioning is the loss of their identity. They are here only to obey and to serve." She turned cornflower blue eyes on Cate. "May I inquire what your interest is Lady Blanchett?"

"Curiosity more than anything else." Was that really true, she wondered. "Although I'd heard that horses were in use I've never come across one before. As a psychologist I admit to being fascinated."

"Not everyone is altogether comfortable with their use," Preceptor Benz admitted. "We've been experimenting with their use here at the Roche Academy for some time now and consider them an invaluable training aid. We're hoping to extend their use to all our US Academy's. We already have new subjects completing their conditioning phase."

The woman's enthusiasm made Cate's skin crawl. "May I?" She asked, wanting a better look at the kneeling man.

"Of course, Lady Blanchett, go ahead," Fox told her.

"Would you like him to stand?" the woman asked.

Cate nodded. "Yes, I would."

"On your feet, horse." The preceptor's voice lost its girlish tones when she snapped out the order.

He moved as gracefully as any body servant she'd ever seen, flowing smoothly and quickly into a standing position, head bowed, arms by his sides. He was taller than Cate had first realised. She placed her hand beneath his chin, gently encouraging him to raise his head. He didn't resist in the slightest but she could feel him tremble beneath her touch before she moved her hand away. She was surprised to see he had a fairly heavy stubble of beard. His face was strong, handsome, but that made sense if he'd been a body slave before, they were chosen for their looks after all.

He kept his eyes lowered but they looked quite beautiful beneath his thick, curling lashes. He was broad across the chest, surprisingly strong looking. She presumed they insisted on some kind of exercise regime to keep him fit. Ridiculous when, up this close, she could see just how bad the bruising she had noticed from the back of the room truly was. Harsh lines, from either a whip or a cane of some kind, curled around to the front of his bare legs. It was recent bruising, just turning from red to purple. There were others; finger print bruises on his neck and throat beneath the pale blue of the scrub top he was wearing, some purple, some already yellowing. The man had to be in pain.

She couldn't help but notice something else too; despite what the girl had just done to him he was already well on his way to being erect once more.

"I see you've noticed his state of arousal." The woman, Preceptor Benz, gave her a knowing smile. "His refractory time is quite remarkable."

Fox nodded. "We've been using the horse to test a combination of Sildenafil and a new drug Roche is developing to combat male infertility. The results have been very encouraging, as you can see. His conditioning helps, of course. We plan to trial the drug combination on other test subjects. If trials are successful then it's something we're considering for future use in body servants."

"I can't say I like that idea," Reese admitted. "A good body servant is more than a mere sex slave. They need skills, an education..."

"Of course they do Lady Witherspoon. I'm not denying that for an instant, but surely the perfect body servant needs to be able to please his or her master whenever they're required. It's not just about a pretty face..."

Cate turned to look at the - so called horse again, as Reece continued to argue politely with Matthew Fox. He was clearly aware that he was the topic of conversation. She could see that it made him uncomfortable, she doubted that this kind of debate and attention ever boded particularly well for him. She couldn't imagine being forced to live out your life like this. She wondered how aware he was, whether he was too drugged to fully understand what was happening to him or if he understood all too well.

As if he sensed her scrutiny, he raised his head a little. His feverishly bright eyes slowly lifting and meeting hers. In that moment that their eyes met she saw the awareness she had wondered about, saw the pain and the fear reflected there, and she knew she had to do something, had to help this man somehow.

"He really is quite beautiful," Cate admitted, honestly. She was sure she was probably making the biggest mistake of her life but she had to do something. The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, before she could over-think this whole thing and change her mind. "How much will you take for him?"

"Take for him, Lady Blanchett?" Fox shook his head. She wasn't sure if she'd surprised him or if he simply wasn't certain of what she'd said. "I don't..."

"He was trained as a body slave, was he not?" She asked the man.

"Yes," Fox nodded. "But..."

She met his eyes, hiding her uncertainty behind a haughty smile. "I'd like to buy him."

The instructor began to shake her head. "He's not for sale, my Lady, he..."

"With all due respect," Fox cut in. "I'd ask you to look at your motives, Lady Blanchett. Perhaps take some time to think this..."

"Is he for sale?" Cate asked him.

"He's a horse," Preceptor Benz snapped at her, the woman clearly had a temper. "He's totally unsuitable..."

Cate ignored her, let her eyes ask the question of Matthew Fox instead. "Well?"

"The Roche Academy prides itself on fulfilling the wishes of its clients," he told her. "If you wish to purchase him then we're happy to sell him."

"Sell him!" The Benz woman was furious.

"I repeat, Lady Blanchett," Fox aimed a withering glare at the instructor. "We have no objection to this slaves purchase. Perhaps we should continue this somewhere a little more private," he suggested, smoothly.

Cate nodded. "I think that would be more appropriate."

Fox smiled. "Lady Witherspoon, would you allow me to furnish you with another escort whilst Lady Blanchett and I have our chat?"

"Yes, of course, that would be fine." She smiled back at him.

"Reese," Cate suddenly felt incredibly guilty. She'd come here to help her friend "I'm so sorry! We came here for you, and I..."

Reese shook her head, taking Cate's hand in hers and squeezing gently. "You have no need to apologise, Cate. I assure you. This is a purchase I wholeheartedly approve of. Go and deal with the business side. I'll finish my tour and meet you later."

"Thank you," Cate smiled.

Fox signalled to a blue uniformed man standing discreetly in the corner of the room.

"With your permission, Lady Blanchett, I'll have Affleck here take him out of the room, see that he's showered and shaved, ready for your inspection."



He went with Affleck when the guard took his arm. His head was spinning trying to take in the conversation, understand what was happening and he stumbled a little as they left the room.

"Easy now," Affleck told him, his grip firm but not painful. "It's gonna be okay."

"Yes, sir." It came automatically to his lips that answer. He knew he had to believe that, not question what the guard said, but he had questions milling around in his head so many of them that it felt like it was going to explode.

"We're going to the shower room so you can get cleaned up, you'll feel better for a shower. Then I'm gonna shave you. I know you like to lose that stubble before it gets to itching."

"But it..." He shook his head. It wasn't his day to be shaved, too early, too early.

"Ssh," Affleck warned him. "You need to quiet down now, okay?" The last he knew was an order.

He nodded, remembered his place. "Yes, sir."

The familiar regime of the shower did help. He focused on cleaning himself exactly the way he'd been taught, not too fast not too slow, but thoroughly so that he'd pass even a full inspection. Affleck didn't do one of those very often, just gave him what the man called a once-over before handing him a clean towel.

Affleck took his time shaving him. He calmed his breathing as he always did, focused on the noise of the blade as it took his bristles, the not unpleasant feel of it against his skin and the fresh, outdoor smell of the shaving gel they used.

The first time he'd had this done, at least the first time he could remember, he'd been so nervous and twitchy that the guard had cut him some half dozen times. He'd been beaten afterwards, punished for damaging himself. The next time he was shaved he'd pissed himself instead, splashing the guard who'd shaved him. For days afterwards he'd been forced to kneel in inspection position, while one of the guards, usually Holloway, pissed on him.

He barely moved a muscle now while they were shaving him and he was always grateful for that clean, smooth feeling afterwards.

"There we go," Affleck cleaned off the last of the gel from his face. "You're done. Not a bad job either, if I do say so myself."

"Casey?"

He turned his head in the chair, opened his eyes to see one of the nurses, Nurse Acker, in the curtained doorway.

"Hey, Amy." Affleck smiled. They liked each other, even he knew that.

"Mr Fox sent me. You're to bring him up to the office once he's clean. I've got his medications here and some clothes for once the client's done with her inspection. They're kinda basic, but he needs something more than scrubs. I'll walk up with you when you're ready."

"We're just about done here, I think." Affleck tapped him on his shoulder, encouraged him to his feet. "Say, Amy, you uh... You finish early tonight?"

"Four thirty on Wednesdays."

He didn't know it was Wednesday, hadn't thought about what day of the week it might be in... He couldn't remember how long.

"I was wondering cuz there's this Christmas Movie Marathon on at the Cineplex. I was thinking of going, wondered if you might... Maybe you'd like to-uh, come with me?"

The nurse was just about bouncing, face flushed with colour.

"I-I love Christmas movies!"

"They're showing a half dozen or so, but we don't have to stay for all of them, not if we don't want to, or we could... We could decide right? That's if you want to..."

"I'd like to go." She told him, nodding enthusiastically.

Affleck grinned. "I'll meet you out front at the end of your shift, it doesn't start while six so maybe we could get a bite first?"

"I'd like that. We better go if he's ready; it won't do to keep Mr Fox waiting."

"He's as ready as he's gonna be." Affleck took his arm in that familiar grip. "Come on then, let's take you up to the office, let the Lady get a proper look at you."



Matthew Fox's office at the Roche Academy was both stylish and comfortable. Hardly surprising really, Roche had extended its interest in slaves from simply scientific use in their laboratories, to include the training of body-slaves a little over two years ago and she knew they'd invested heavily.

"I have to ask you again Lady Blanchett," Fox said as he handed her a cup of chamomile tea before settling opposite her with his own coffee. "Have you looked carefully at your motives in wanting to buy the slave?"

She took a sip of her tea before answering. "You think this is a knee-jerk reaction?"

"I don't know Lady Blanchett. Only you can answer that."

Cate knew it was exactly that. Her feelings of pity for the man, her revulsion at his plight, in her opinion more than justified her getting him out of this place, and if taking him as her body slave was the only way to do that then so be it. It disturbed her more that, despite the concern she felt for him, despite seeing him in such a vulnerable condition, still some part of her found him attractive.

Disturbed her, but not enough to give her second thoughts.

"Perhaps it is," she smiled. "But he is undeniably beautiful."

As she expected, that brought the smile back to Matthew Fox's face. "As you say, Lady Blanchett."

"So, can we get down to business?"

"Of course. When we first acquired him his name was Brian Austin Green," Fox told her, putting down his coffee and getting to his feet. He crossed the room to a bank of white filing cabinets, going to a draw and pulling out a file before moving back to his desk. "His provenance is a matter of public record of course. As a body-slave he's only had the one owner. He was purchased at age twelve by Lord Malkovich. He served the man faithfully for years with no problems that we're aware of. Then, three years ago he suddenly ran away from his Lordship's estate in Boston Massachusetts. He was recovered, of course, and punished. Twelve months later, after what Lord Malkovich described as a particularly difficult and defiant period of behaviour, Brian was found by Lady Nicoletta, having slit both his wrists."

What could have been bad enough to have driven the man to try and kill himself? How serious had his attempt been? Cate schooled her expression as best she could before replying. "That's when you acquired him here at Roche?"

He nodded. "He was sold as a test subject to our neuro-sciences department at a time when we were actively looking for suitable candidates to use for training purposes. A body-slave of his age and standard was exactly what we were looking for. As I said earlier, his conditioning was extremely intense and we reinforce that conditioning with a daily drug regime."

"Does that regime need to continue?"

Fox frowned. "We've been looking at using similar treatments in the training of our body-slaves, to that end Brian has been our guinea-pig whilst he's been with us. The drugs that enhance his sexual performance can be stopped almost immediately, though they will take some time to work their way out of his system. He needs to be gradually weaned off those that affect his behaviour, and that should be done under strict medical supervision, though as a psychologist you probably know far more about that than I do. I'm afraid we can't guarantee what effect that will have on his state of mind. And of course his treatments may have had a detrimental effect on his long term physical health. We will need to ask that you accept, in writing, that this limits our liability."

She nodded. "Of course."

"We can of course offer you the services of our medical team to supervise his drug withdrawal, in fact if you wish we can do that for you, prior to your taking possession of Brian, in our hospital wing. It's a very pleasant environment, Lady Blanchett, and of course he will be treated as your body-slave and not as a horse."

She took another sip of her tea before putting the cup and saucer down. "I'm not sure that difference would be particularly easy for Brian to understand or appreciate."

Fox flashed his smile. "Fair comment. We will of course disclose full details of Brian's treatment and supply you with all his current medications."

"Thank you."

"Now to the matter of price, obviously the sale can be settled here and now rather than in Escrow. Even so, as a horse Brian is of some value to Roche and I can't simply..."

Cate smiled. "Perhaps we can simplify this if you pass me your little book. I'll write down the sum I have in mind and we can go from there." It would have been even easier just to say how much she was willing to pay but this was the way it was done. Polite society never openly discussed a slave's price, numbers were written down, passed backwards and forwards. The whole thing struck her as ridiculous, but if she had to continue this charade...

Fox passed her the little metal cased note pad and matching pen. Cate wrote her price in it and passed it back.

Watching Fox's eyes widen was worth every outrageous penny.

"Is that satisfactory Mr Fox?"

He coughed. "It... Yes, Lady Blanchett. Let me pass that to my secretary and she can have the contract ready for you to sign, once you've inspected Brian of course."

Cate gave him a smile. "Excellent," she told him, picking up her tea once more.



He had never been in this part of the building before, hadn't known until now that it even existed. It was different to the training rooms, to any of the rooms he could remember being in. They'd come up in a carpeted lift, walked down a long hallway of dark, tinted glass and wooden panels, there was art work on the walls and there were people. Lots of people were here, working; office staff, secretaries... They barely spared him more than a passing glance but he was suddenly uncomfortably aware of his nakedness, of every mark on his flesh. He wanted to cover himself, didn't want these people to see him like this, know what he was.

"You're nothing they haven't seen before," Affleck's voice was low and steady. "Just relax. Almost there."

He wanted to ask where, to understand why, but they'd reached the door at the end of the hallway and Nurse Acker knocked before the three of them went inside. There was a woman sitting behind a desk, but he barely glanced at her. His attention was riveted on the window that took up the whole length of the wall. He could see out, see that they were a couple of floors up. There were other buildings catching the sunlight, not too bright, not really, but it made him squint anyway.

It had been such a long time since he'd seen the outside world. He wasn't sure how long, it was one of many things he couldn't remember.

He wanted to go closer, to look out. He turned to Affleck. "I..." He started to point. "Can I..?"

Affleck pulled his arm down. "Quiet the fuck down," he whispered. "You don't want to get in trouble here."

He didn't want to get in trouble, Affleck was right. He didn't want any sort of punishment and he guessed that if he messed up here, whatever they would do to him would be bad.

The woman behind the desk stood up, the movement startling him a little. "He's expecting you," she told them. "Follow me."

She led them through a set of double doors into another office, larger and brighter with windows on two sides. There was lush cream carpet, so incredibly soft beneath his bare feet that his toes were just sinking into it. Mr Fox sat behind a large desk and the taller woman was there from the training room. He kept his eyes away from the windows this time, kept them fixed on the floor. Affleck released his hold on his arm, stepping away from him.

"Look up at me." He did as he was told. Mr Fox got up from behind his desk and come to stand in front of it. "I want you to listen very carefully to what I have to say, do you understand?"

He nodded. "Yes, sir."

"This is Lady Blanchett, you saw her in the training room. Subject to her inspection of you being satisfactory, Lady Blanchett has bought your contract and will be your new Mistress. Do you understand that?"

He risked a quick sideways glance at the woman sat in the chair before snapping his eyes back to Mr Fox. "I... Yes, sir."

The woman, Lady Blanchett stood smoothly, coming to stand in front of him. He dropped his eyes to the floor once more. He couldn't help wondering why she had bought him, what she planned to do with him.

"Brian?" Her voice was very soft as she said that name. He knew it, recognised it, he just hadn't heard it in a very long time. He frowned, a horse didn't have a name, wasn't allowed one. That name though, he was sure it used to be his.

"This will be easier once his medication is reduced," Mr Fox told her.

She didn't answer him, just stepped a little closer, her hand coming up to touch his arm. "Brian, it's alright. Can you look at me, please?"

He looked up slowly and met pale, slanting, blue, grey eyes that softened the moment they smiled at him.

"That's good, very good," she told him, that hand rubbing soothing circles on his arm. She had shiny, straw coloured hair that looked full of heavy, thick curls, pinned up at the back. She smelled good too, smelled the way he remembered flowers smelling after the rain. "You've nothing to be afraid of," she told him. Her voice was soft and low with an accent he didn't recognise. "Nothing at all. I'm not going to hurt you."

Her other hand took his wrist, lifted his arm. Her sudden gasp surprised him until he realised she had noticed his scars.

"He did himself a great deal of damage, both arms I'm afraid." Mr Fox spoke up again. "The scarring is pretty bad but I'm sure a good plastic surgeon would be able to help,"

She took his other arm, looked at that one too. He felt suddenly ashamed, dropped his eyes, and started to pull away from her grasp, without thinking, only stopping himself at the last minute.

"Brian?" She must have felt him trying to pull away but there was no anger in her tone.

He swallowed, meeting her eyes nervously this time.

"It's okay." He was surprised to see her soft smile and the film of moisture in her eyes that hadn't been there before. "I want to take a little look at your back now. I'm not going to hurt you, remember?"

"Yes, Lady Bl..." he stumbled on her name, surprised when her smile broadened.

"Blanchett," she told him.

"Lady Blanchett," he repeated.

She moved behind him slowly, her hand touching his arm once more and rubbing it gently.

"When were you beaten?" She asked him.

"Last night." Maybe she wouldn't be interested in becoming his mistress now, knowing he'd been in trouble. People didn't like slaves that were trouble, he remembered that. He wasn't sure why she would want to become his mistress anyway. Wasn't sure what that would mean for him.

"I did explain that his treatment could be quite brutal." Fox told her.

"So this was a punishment of some kind?" Her question was for Mr Fox and not for him.

"Presumably, I'd have to check of course..."

"Brian, were you punished?"

He nodded. "Yes, Lady Blanchett." He remembered the name this time.

"What did you do?" she asked him.

He frowned. "I-I'm not sure. Something... I made Preceptor Benz angry," he struggled to remember why she'd been so furious with him.

"It's fine if you can't remember, don't worry, Brian." She'd come around to face him again, her smile back as he met the pale blue of her eyes. She turned to Mr Fox. "Are there some clothes Brian can put on while I sign the contract?"

"You're happy for the sale to go ahead?"

She rubbed Brian's arm again, not looking at Fox this time when she answered. "Yes I am."

"I brought up some clothes," Nurse Acker spoke up. "Just sweatpants and a sweat shirt I'm afraid, some slippers from the hospital wing. We don't have clothing suitable for..."

"They'll be fine." Lady Blanchett cut her off.



"Could I have a moment or two alone with Brian?" Cate asked Matthew Fox once he'd handed her back her bank card.

"Yes of course, Lady Blanchett. I'll get your receipt and have Brian's provenance and personal papers put together for you." He got to his feet nodding to the dark haired security guard, the nurse having left them after handing over a disturbingly large, zippered bag full of medication. "We'll be right outside when you need us," he told her.

Fox left, the security guard with him, and she turned her attention to Brian. He had finished dressing and had stood near the window, looking out. She wondered how often he got to go outside. As the others left the room his attention left the view, flicking first toward her and then down at the floor, his uncertainty more than evident in his body language. The minute she moved to him he began to go to his knees.

"No, Brian." She reached out, gesturing for him to stop, which he did at once, his gaze riveted on the floor. She came closer, resuming her gentle rubbing of his, now sweatshirt covered, arm from before and hoping he found it comforting. "I don't want you to kneel. I want you to come over here and sit down for a moment, please?"

She led him to the chair she'd been sat in earlier, guiding him to sit down. Once he did she crouched down in front of him.

He risked a glance at her, spreading his legs a little, his hand moving slowly to hitch up his sweatshirt, rest on the waistband of his pants. He was sporting an impressive erection, had been since he'd first come into the room. "Sh-should I..?"

"No." She took his hand in one of hers, moving it away and pulling his sweatshirt back down with the other. She kept her hold on his hand. "Brian, I need to know if you understand what's happening to you. Can you tell me what you think is happening?"

She didn't think he was going to say anything at first but then he cleared his throat slightly, his eyes coming up to meet hers with that tentative, nervous look she'd seen from him before. "I-I'm not sure," he admitted.

"I've bought your contract from Roche, you're going to be leaving here with me."

His eyes dropped for a moment before coming up to meet hers again and she felt his hand twitch beneath hers.

"You can ask me any questions you want to," she told him.

There were fewer hesitances this time. "Where will you be taking me?"

"To my home..."

"Not a lab?"

"No," she reassured him. "Nothing like that. I've bought you as my body slave." She squeezed his hand. "I know you've done that before and..."

He began to shake his head. "I-I don't remember." He dropped his eyes, still shaking his head. "Don't remember."

"It's alright." She stroked a hand up over his hair, hoping to calm his obvious agitation a little. "I won't hurt you, Brian. There's nothing to worry about." Easy enough for her to say, she knew.



Cate had made the journey to the Academy in one of the Witherspoon family limousines. Reese was waiting for her in the car, not having bought a slave of her own. Cate left the Roche building with Brian, the guard from earlier accompanying them. Brian had stopped in his tracks as they left the building, breathing in deeply and looking around.

The guard was about to take his arm but Cate stopped him. "It's okay, let him take his time. I presume he doesn't get out all that often."

"As far as I know he hasn't been out at all, ma'am," the man told her quietly.

"What?" She couldn't hide her shock.

"Rules, ma'am. They don't treat a horse much different than they treat a slave lab rat."

"No, I don't suppose they do." A part of her wanted to just let Brian stand there, enjoy the fresh air and the sunshine that had been denied him, but another part wanted to get him far away from Roche as quickly as possible. She reached out to him, her smile in place, touching his shoulder gently to coax him into moving.

He started moving again right away.

"I know you inspected him, ma'am, but..." The guard hesitated, looking at her uncertainly for a moment before continuing. "Last night, after he was punished by the preceptor, one of the guards used him. It's allowed, a perk of the job for some I guess. From what I hear the guard who took him mighta been kinda rough. It's kinda frowned upon, but pretty much ignored so long as there's no permanent damage. Today hasn't been easy for him either, he's got to be real sore, ma'am."

"You didn't let anyone else know about this?" It came out sharply.

"No." The man let out a sigh. "Look ma'am, I... This is my job, I might not be happy with some of the things that happen here but... I need this job, can't afford to lose it, get myself in debt. It's not that much of a step down from where I am to where he is but it's one I don't plan on taking, so I don't rock the boat, don't speak out when maybe I should." He shook his head.

She understood. She was wealthy, from a good family, but that didn't mean she was safe from the threat of slavery. She might not feel it as acutely as the guard but it was still the stuff of more than a few nightmares.

"I understand."

They walked on in silence to the waiting limousine. Cate had been so sure of herself, so certain of what she was doing, rescuing Brian from this place. She knew it was the right thing to do, nothing could convince her otherwise, but the implications of what she'd taken on were only just beginning to hit home. The prospects were nothing if not intimidating.



Brian remembered being in a limousine before. It hadn't been modern like this one, it had been of an older design. Walnut interior and coffee coloured leather seats. He remembered that he'd had to kneel back then, so he did that now, knelt and waited, afraid because he remembered being afraid from before. Always afraid. He kept his head down, not acknowledging the limousines other passenger, a woman.

Lady Blanchett climbed in after him, encouraged him off his knees to sit in a seat near the window. He did as she said, looking out as the large car slowly pulled away from the curb, taking him from the one place he had any real memory of. He hadn't like it there but there had been rules and he'd understood them. Now all that was gone and he was in a world he didn't understand, that he was struggling to cope with.

Lady Blanchett seemed nice but... She owned him, he was her body slave. That scared him and he didn't know why, didn't want to remember why.

The scenery passed by the window and he watched it intently, the sunshine and shadows, so much green everywhere he looked. Lady Blanchett ignored him, speaking to the other woman for a while before taking out a cell phone from her bag.

"Dr Craig, please. It's Lady Blanchett."

He felt her eyes on him but kept his own gaze riveted on the ever changing view.

"Hello, Daniel, it's Cate."

She had a pretty laugh. "I'm fine, what about you?"

"I thought you were seeing someone." She laughed again. "You're hopeless, really, there's no hope for you."

Her voice took on a serious tone. "Actually no, not a social call, though I owe you one. Would you have time to make a house-call today?" There was a pause before she answered. "Not over the phone, no." Another pause. "It depends on the traffic, but I should be home in a couple of hours." He heard her laugh again. "That would be perfect. You could stay for dinner, I could heat up something. Or we could have take-out, yes. Yes," he could hear the smile in her voice. "I'll see you then."

She finished her call, chatted with the other woman in the car, Reese. After awhile he stopped listening. As they passed through the busy city streets he saw the shops, brightly lit for Christmas. He saw the movie theatre, the Cineplex with its Christmas Movie Marathon. Affleck would be there later, with Nurse Acker. He touched his fingers against the cool window as if he could touch where they were going to be. He'd probably never seen them again, maybe that wasn't important but they'd been part of his small, familiar world and now that was gone. He was alone and everything was new and uncertain.

He wasn't a horse any more, he was Brian. He didn't want to remember being Brian, the few things he could remember... He rubbed hard at his arms, willed those memories away.

He risked a glance at Lady Blanchett and found she was looking at him. The concern on her face changed into a soft smile.

He liked her smile.

"Everything is going to be fine, Brian, don't worry."

She sounded so sincere he could almost believe her.

~Fin~