"Hello?" the patient whispered back. "Hello? Uh, hi, can you hear me? Who is this?" she continued, before the voice could answer the first question.Th... voice paused a beat before responding. "Who's this? Look, you called me, sister. So you first: who's this?"The patient paused. "Well, this is... ," she paused again. "Well, it's me. From before. I'm ... I'm in a room." Oh, 'from before, '" replied the voice flatly. "But no name. So you're in--" A room," confirmed the patient. "I'm ... in this. I apologised for having takenso long and we walked out to his car. The combination of a little toomuch good wine, the cool night air, and my skyscraper heels, caused me tostumble a little as we crossed the car park. Instantly Alec took hold ofmy arm to steady me. "Are you alright?" he asked solicitously. "I'mfine," I replied, but he kept hold of my arm until I was safely seated inthe passenger seat of his car. We didn't talk much on the drive back tothe City Centre; a comfortable silence seemed. " Juliette said. "That you had a questfor me."The man came closer. Uncomfortably close now."You could say that, Juliette." And he grabbed the back of her head andkissed her.In reality, Julian closed his eyes. This was... so fucking weird. Whatthe hell was going on. He could almost feel... almost...Juliette pulled away. She looked askance at the man."What are you doing?" she said."Taking you on your quest. That's what you're here for, right?" he saidlaughing."What do you mean?" You know. .. so ... after they propagated you ... you started calling them Mom and Dad." I did," Jo said, "because once I was reborn, they were my mom and dad. My very blood was a product of theirs, my very existence as a cognate was because of them." And ... and..." Meghan swallowed, clearly uncomfortable with the discussion. "And once you became cognate and they became your ... your parents, you ... stopped having sex with them?"Jo nodded. "Yes," she said. "It is a necessary part of the evolution and.