A/N: Last chapter in this arc! And posted early again, because or crazy danes. Don't ask.

The Good Boy

The Swiss Miss: Chapter 4

I was in a good mood walking to the reception but that disappeared when I saw who Slade was talking to. Yes, you've guessed it. The Swiss Bitch. She was dressed differently than last night but I guess it was no surprise. It was more surprising that she had gone back to work after their little 'date' thing, but then again, some people are workaholics or maybe this place was on her way home and she had left something behind… no matter.

"Thank you for last night," she just told Slade, eyelashes fluttering.

"Thank you," the man answered in that low purr-like voice which seemed to make women's knees weak. "It was nice to see you again."

"I hope you will stick around for a while," she smiled and then looked at her watch and almost jumped a little. "I have to go," she took a deep sip of her coffee and stalked away on her high heels, walking like a new born giraffe in my opinion. Something occurred to me but the thought flew away again when Slade turned his attention to better things (me) and started talking.

"Missed me, apprentice?"

"Yes, immensely. Having a horny, skirt chasing senior citizen around is the best," I snorted.

"I've been offered good money to leave you here as a test subject, just thought I'd let you know," the man replied dryly.

"Yeah, right," I snorted, though not feeling as confident as I pretended.

"Apparently they found some interesting things… and it's a lot of money... and they have some very nice drugs here, you'd probably be very happy most of the time."

"I missed you terribly."

"Thought so."

"Cried myself to sleep," I added, just in case.

"Of course."

"And had loads of wet dreams about you, actually soaked the sheets, and-"

"Yes, yes, that's enough," the man chuckled. "Let's go hear if they have anything to say, shall we?"

"After breakfast? I'm starving."

"Fine. Can't have you die. Although they would pay good money for your cadaver as well, I think."

Yup. He loves me.

Slade had apparently already eaten, but I filled my plate from the buffet and dug in.

"So, what were you two love birds up to last night?" I asked between bites.

"Dinner and talking," Slade shrugged to my delight.

"What, she didn't even give you a blow job?" I blinked.

"Well, I'm sure she would have, but you said you wouldn't touch it again if I let her, so…" the man smirked.

"Aw! You're so sweet! But really, what happened?"

"She got a call, her father apparently had a fall and she was needed at the hospital. He was fine, though."

"Um… okay… is the hospital far from here?"

"Quite, why?"

"Because she was here last night." I told him what time I had seen her and saw him frown.

"Hm…"

"So she lied to get out of the date… you must be shitty company," I smirked.

"Apparently," the man muttered, but I could see that he wasn't even entertaining that as a possibility. I wonder what it feels like to have that kind of confidence.

"Slade… there's something weird going on."

"I know you don't like her, but-" the man started but I interrupted him.

"It's not that! It's… I don't know. Gut feeling, remember?"

Slade just gave me a look like he thought I was being childish. "Let's just go see what Professor Gerber has to say, shall we?" he said dismissingly.

"Fine," I sighed, thinking I'd just keep an eye out.

We had to wait a while in front of the professor's office before he was ready to see us. I just sighed and settled down with yet another magazine while Slade remained standing. After a bit I looked up at him.

"It kills you to just wait, doesn't it?" I grinned. He smirked back.

"It's that obvious?"

"Kinda."

The man sat down. "Down time is good. You should always use it to recuperate, analyze the situation and plan ahead… but I admit I'm getting somewhat tired of it."

"You need more patience then," I chuckled, blatantly calling the kettle black.

I got another look and a snort from the man and then he picked up a magazine of his own.

We didn't have to wait that long though, and soon I was squirming nervously in one of the soft visitor's chairs in the man's office. He was peering at me over the top of his glasses from the other side of the desk. He had a rather thick pile of papers in his hands and it had just hit me that the results might be serious, something I didn't want to hear. I glanced over at Slade, who was sitting next to me, but the man was too focused on the professor to notice my plea for emotional support.

"Sooo…Robin," the man began, shuffling his papers. "The results so far are quite intriguing. Let me begin by letting you know that we so far haven't found anything that is immediately hazardous to your health."

"Immediately?" Slade and I asked as one.

"It is hard to predict the results of long term exposure to anything, much less something like this, which is unique and completely new. We want to be cautious."

"Okay, so… how is the stuff I got injected with working?" I asked.

"Splendidly." The man gave me a small smile, enjoying what he obviously thought was a joke. "The effects seem to have settled, like you already suspected. It's possible it will go down, but on a cellular level it seems stable. Only, however, because of the nano-probes already in your system. It seems they have fused together to form a complicated alliance. We have tried removing the probes from samples of your blood and the results aren't pretty."

"Schmidt said he thought the probes had some healing qualities…" I started. "…so, are they keeping me alive, then?"

"Yes."

"Well…" I said and turned to the mercenary. "Thanks for being an overly controlling bastard, then."

"You're welcome," he smirked smugly.

I suddenly had a troubling thought. "But… they are technology, won't they eventually stop working?" I kept looking at Slade who, I felt, should know.

"They are engineered to repair themselves," the man told me, "and even build copies of themselves."

"And now," the professor added," they are almost organic. You don't have to fear a malfunction."

"Well, do they still work as intended?" I asked. "I'd love to know if the big guy here can shock me or if that will kill me."

"That's partly what we still have to discover," the balding man said and glanced into his papers. He looked serious and a little bit hesitant. I didn't like that look. "We have been unable to test it as we didn't have the control technology but even if you would provide the controller, Mr. Wilson, we can't test that on a molecular level. It needs to be a direct test."

"No." I shook my head, expecting my partner's full support. "What if everything goes to hell?"

"Why would it be worth the risk?" Slade instead asked the professor.

"Your transmitter is unique, yes, but can you be sure it truly is or will stay that way? Someone might, even by accident, duplicate the frequency. Coincidence is a bigger killer than you might think."

"I know all about that, trust me," the man muttered, and his tone of voice was ominous.

I started to stand up. "I'm done being a lab rat. So this new thing doesn't seem to be killing me? Fine, that's all I need to know. Slade, we're leaving."

The man's hand shot out, locking around my wrist as efficiently as steel cuffs.

"Slade?" I half asked, half pleaded. My pulse was pounding in my ears, adrenaline rushing, my body ready to flee- and Slade was stopping me.

"I'm sorry, Robin. We need to do this." I saw him hand something over to the professor; the controller.

"No!" I lashed out, something the man hadn't quite expected, and I was able to break free. I had had enough, and it was my body, my decision. I threw myself out the door and sprinted, full speed, down the corridor.

"Stop him!" It was the professor's voice, and a moment later there was an alarm. Not too loud, like a fire alarm, but I knew it meant people would be alert. The first one who stepped into my way didn't even slow me down. Then, suddenly, the bitch stood there, with her stupid coffee cup, feet as far apart as the short skirt allowed, and holding her hands out like she thought she had a chance. I wanted to slam into her so badly, but at the last moment I slid between her legs instead.

"Please wear underwear!" I shouted to her over my shoulder, leering at her angry blushing face. My grin slipped as I saw Slade right behind her, though, looking furious.

Shit. I quickened my pace even more, but then I hit the reception. And the welcome committee.

There were at least ten guards, blocking all passageways, and I was staring down the nozzles of an equal amount of guns. I slid to a halt so quickly that I almost ended up on the floor.

"I'll take it from here." Slade didn't sound out of breath but his tone was clipped. Yup, he was pissed. I think I would have preferred the guns, actually. "Robin. Come here."

"No!" I spun towards him, backing away not caring that I was closing in on the guards. One of them barked a warning and despite Slade's assurance they hadn't lowered their weapons. This was a medical research facility and laboratory, after all, with a shady underbelly… who wasn't to say that I wasn't carrying a new strain of plague? If they had orders not to let a runaway out, I wouldn't get out. But I didn't want to go back either. "It's enough, Slade! Enough experiments! We got what we came for!"

"We'll be in the lab. It will only be for a few seconds. You will be safe." He was using his 'I'm being patient' voice. It didn't fool me.

"You don't know that! Even the professor was worried!"

"It's too much of a safety risk to leave this undiscovered." Slade seemed to have realized that he advancing meant me backing away towards the guards so he had stopped.

"It's a risk I'm willing to take," I snapped back.

"Come. Here. Now."

It was the staring contest of the ages, but for a guy with just one eye he was damn good at it. I knew I had no way out, I knew that. I was only making things worse for myself, the sensible side of me informed me haughtily. The other side was dead set on boundaries, though. Borders not to be crossed. Still, his voice, and only his voice, had made me take half a step in his direction. When I discovered that I froze and if looks could kill Slade's powers wouldn't stand a chance.

"Fine. Suit yourself." Slade raised his hand, holding-

"No!"

"Then come."

I stared at the controller. He must have taken it back from the professor before following me. That might be the reason that he hadn't caught me sooner.

"Only… only if you destroy it. Afterwards." Bargaining in this position should have been useless.

Slade nodded curtly, however. "Fine. It might not even work anymore." The man turned around and walked off, expecting me to follow and, reluctantly, I did. In the hallway the Swiss Bitch met us, smirking at me like she was celebrating some kind of victory over me. I, very accidentally of course, knocked the mug out of her hands while I passed her. Unfortunately it was empty, but she still called out loudly as it dropped and landed on the floor with a clatter.

"You better do something about him!" she almost shrieked at Slade.

"Oh, don't worry, I will," Slade answered darkly without even turning around. I glanced back towards the reception. How much could a few bullets hurt, really? If they hit well, I mean?

I hated following him but I still did. We entered a laboratory and I stood there, sullenly and quietly, while two men hooked me up to electrodes again, which would hopefully warn if anything went wrong.

"We will record the reactions and analyze them," I was told. "We also need a small blood sample afterwards to see if there has been any change."

"Of course, drain me already," I muttered.

The professor ignored me. "Are we ready to start? Revival team ready? Good. Mr. Wilson, if you prefer that anyone else sends the signal then-"

"He'll do it," I snapped. "If this kills me I want him to know it was his fault."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Slade told me and raised the controller.

"We wouldn't recommend using the pain-function or knocking him out," the professor quickly interjected. "That way we won't know if it's malfunctioning or not."

"Don't worry, I know exactly what to do," the man stated and suddenly my legs buckled. I fell down on my knees and glared angrily up at the mercenary, who smirked back down at me.

"Perfect," he said.

I was already in trouble so I would have cursed him to hell and back, but I had only had time to draw in the breath to do it before the professor stepped in.

"That's enough, thank you."

Getting on my feet was a priority and then I was quickly led to a chair that I was to sit down on while they drew some blood. There was a hustle and bustle around us for about ten minutes and then results were presented to the professor who looked through them.

"Everything seems in order," he nodded. "If you want to we can do some more extensive research-"

"No," Slade surprisingly answered. "It's enough to know that it won't hurt him."

"What you have developed, Mr. Wilson is very interesting. I personally would like to research-"

"No. It's far too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands," the man said. "Especially in combination with the healing agent."

"I see your point. It's still disappointing, however," the man sighed. "If you ever change your mind… you would be able to retire quite nicely on what I am willing to offer you."

"Oh, you would have to offer twice that," Slade chuckled. "Now. Are we done?"

"Yes, I assume so."

"And all your research regarding Robin will be destroyed? All samples, all results?"

"That is our common procedure in these cases, yes."

"Good. Because if I hear even a whisper about this in the future, I will know where to come and who to hold responsible."

I could see the professor swallowing. "Yes, of course. Not to worry," he said.

"Good. Robin, come."

It was my turn to swallow. "Sure you don't need one more sample?" I asked the professor.

"Now!" Slade snapped and I stopped dawdling.

As we walked I kept mulling things over. Something, some realization, was dancing around in the back of my head and I just couldn't quite catch it. Something obvious.

"Sonja," Slade's voice was slightly raised but not quite calling out.

"Ah, Mr. Wilson." The Swiss bitch's voice was that high pitch of someone making themselves sound childish. It almost had a lisp. Apparently men should be attracted to babies. Disguising. I didn't say anything, though, I wasn't quite that dumb. "How about dinner again tonight? At my place?"

She had been on her way to the bin, it seemed, with yet another coffee cup –or the same one I knocked out of her hand most likely- in her hand. I spotted a maintenance man close by, seemingly not doing much. Was he just waiting for her to- Oh, fuck I was an idiot.

I quickly took a few steps forwards and snatched the mug out of her hands.

"Robin!" Slade barked as the Swiss bitch gasped and made a grab for the seemingly empty mug.

"Sorry, I just don't think you want to have dinner with a spy," I told Slade, still keeping out of her way, while feeling the bottom of the cup and opening it up. Out into my hand fell a small USB memory stick and a memory card from a camera or something similar. "Bingo!" I grinned, while noticing the number on the memory stick. "I'm not sure, but I think this is my case number. I've seen it on all the test results," I added. "I-" Something cold touched the back of my head. I had kept away from Slade and the woman but walked right back into the janitor, and though I knew that he was involved I had counted on him skulking away when things were going south for their little operation. Apparently not.

"Give me the stuff and no one dies," I heard him say in broken English.

"Well, I can't promise that," I answered, a bit stiffly.

"What?" he sounded confused.

"That no one will die. It doesn't look good for you."

"So how are you going to deal with him?" Slade asked.

"I was actually hoping for some assistance," I confessed.

"I don't know," my partner drawled. "The way you have been behaving I'm tempted to just let him shoot."

"Oh nice. Lovely. Don't be a sour puss because you have been making doe eyes at a woman about to sell our secrets to the highest bidder. But hey, you probably told her all she wanted to know over dinner anyway, didn't you? While staring at her boobs."

The woman in question was trying to back away but she didn't make it out of Slade's reach and the next second he had her gasping for breath.

"Lower your gun or I'll snap her neck," he told the guy behind me.

"I don't really care about her, actually," we were told rather smugly.

"Oooo… aaaawkwaaard," I said.

"Shut up and give me the files! I'm counting to three!"

"Wh-" I started.

"One."

"Fine!" I was pretty sure he was holding his gun with his right hand so I transferred the items to my own right hand and held it out to the side, ready to let them drop. "Is on the floor alright?" I asked innocently.

"No, stop, wait, I-" I felt the gun move away as the man tried to shift it to his other hand. I swung around, hoping he had as little control as it sounded, and, knocking his armed hand out of the way punched him hard in his nose. It hurts like hell, a punch like that, and your eyes tear up so you can't see shit. I soon had control of the gun, taking the clip out of it to be sure, and then the place was storming with guards.

"Better late than never, huh, guys?" I snorted as they had the cursing and crying man down on the floor in no time. I turned to Slade who was still holding the woman, looking indecisive.

"Let the guards have her, Slade. Snapping her neck won't give anyone any answers," I told him.

The woman looked furious and terrified all at once, not an attractive expression I have to say. Slade looked like he was about to say "but I wannaaaa!". In the end he pushed her roughly into the arms of the guards, though.

"So, how did you know?" Slade asked a little later as we were back at the apartment after leaving our statements. I never saw any actual cops showing up and wondered if the lab had their own way of dealing with unwanted people.

"She was too damn attached to her coffee mugs… or mug. They all looked the same and she almost lost it when the cleaning crew threw one away." I had flung myself down on the sofa while Slade was still standing.

"So they weren't just picking it up?"

"No, not them, only the guy with the gun. She threw a cup into his cart the first time I saw her and was about to do so again when we interrupted."

"Security is tough, but garbage probably doesn't get checked," Slade nodded as he connected the dots as well. "Easy enough to mark a trash bag, put a transmitter in it and someone can pick it up on the outside."

"Yup… and then there's the thing where she used her boobs to get some extra information from gullible customers," I smirked.

"Careful."

"Are you denying it? Her getting information from you?"

The man grunted and looked away, making my grin wider. "Oh, Slade. Such a newbie. What to do with you?"

"Don't think I've forgotten about your punishment," the man growled.

"Hey, firstly; you messed up. Kinda bad too. And secondly you need to start to fucking respect my wishes! We're partners!"

"You agreed I was still in charge. You disobeyed and you behaved badly."

"I agreed to you being my teacher, there's a difference!" I barked, standing up.

"Maybe I should take you back to the U.S and end this little experiment," the man growled.

"Oh, yeah, that's just perfect! Your way or the highway, right? And you wonder why you fuck up relationships!" I snorted. "I'm not your dog! I'm not here to obey every little whim of yours or to be ignored if it suits you! If you can't get over that then I agree! We should break this off!" I stormed towards the door and threw it open, startling the men outside. The armed men.

"Oh for fucks sake," I groaned. "Please tell me you're just an aggressive branch of Swiss Jehovah Witnesses?" I grunted as I grabbed the first man's gun, pulling him off balance. There were three of them and number two's head exploded a moment later.

"Great idea, Slade! You're cleaning that up!" I yelled at the man who had found a gun somewhere. This whole place was probably stacked with them; it was a bolt hole after all. I had taken my man down and the third man also sported an extra cavity by now, in his chest. He had just time to raise his gun, however, and the bullet slammed into my upper right arm, rendering it useless.

"You ok?" Slade asked as he saw me curl in on myself.

The pain was hot and intense so no. I wasn't ok. "Bleeding," I managed to grunt out.

"They followed us here. Might be more on the way," the man told me while disappearing into the bathroom. He returned with blood stoppers and gauze. "The bullet went straight through at least," he told me as he quickly dressed my wound. "We need to go."

Slade grabbed a few things and a small bag and we were out the door. The man who was shot in the head had fallen outside in the hallway. Slade surprisingly took the time to shove the others outside the door and lock it.

"If we're very, very lucky they think it all happened in the hallway and won't investigate the apartment," he explained, although he sounded like he didn't quite believe we'd be that lucky himself. I headed for the stairs when my healthy arm was caught.

"Not down. Up."

"But, why-" I objected.

"Up!" the man repeated and set off, dragging me along. Somewhere in the far distance I heard sirens and the doors slammed open downstairs.

"The police are on their way," I whispered as we climbed upwards on soft feet.

"Don't sound so damn relieved, they are not our friends," the man snorted at me.

I felt a bit stupid and ducked my head, keeping quiet.

When we reached the top floor it turned out that the building's attic ran the whole length of the house, going on for quite a bit. Slade led me through it, down all the way to the basement and then out a back door and into a small garage. There was a motorcycle there. Slade handed me a helmet.

"Do you think you can hold on?"

"Yeah, it's just throbbing now," I answered and swung my leg over the bike, settling in behind him. I still favored my left arm, though, holding on mainly with that.

Slade drove out, but he didn't rev the bike, taking off like a maniac, no, it was quiet and slow, less suspicious. I still felt a tingle between my shoulder blades until we were well away from the area.

I thought Slade would take us out of the city but instead he, taking small streets, making sure we weren't followed, drove us to another apartment.

"Well, I was more impressed with your other place," I said, looking around. It was a very rundown one room apartment in a building that looked ready to be torn down. The smell out in the hallway wasn't pleasant either. In here it was clean enough, though, but there were still very suspicious stains here and there. The only piece of furniture was a bed and a rickety table with two camping chairs. Lovely.

"Get that nose out of the air and check your wound," Slade huffed at me as he did a quick perimeter check.

"I-! Fine!" I snapped back and gingerly undid the bandage. I hissed as it had stuck to the bloody wound and I had to pull it free. "Not bleeding anymore. Much," I amended as the pull had opened up some of it again, but only a few drops seeped out. I tried moving my hand and fingers. The wound was mostly flesh but had at least grazed the bone. It didn't feel broken, though, at least not anymore. "It will be alright in a few hours or so," I said.

"I'd say a day or two, but at least it's healing," Slade told me after having a look himself.

"So… the Jehovah witnesses, who were they?" I asked, suddenly feeling tired.

"Idiots."

"Specify."

"Dead idiots?" the man smirked.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "You said they followed us, so you think they are the Swiss Bitch's friends?"

"That's your name for her? But yes. Well. Part of the organization, anyway. Possibly her employers. And they could only have been there so quickly if they had followed us, we haven't been home for more than a few minutes. Enough for them to figure out which apartment the lights were on in and then, probably, listening at the door."

"They heard us arguing? That's embarrassing."

"Well, only your guy will talk. See how it's better to kill them?" the man asked, looking like he thought he was being reasonable.

"Yeah, yeah…" I muttered. "So, it was a revenge thing then?"

"I believe so, yes. And since they were idiots it wasn't planned out, probably just an automatic reaction… they looked young, geared out cheaply… I' wager that they were the grunts of the operation hoping not to get punished if they took us out. And thinking that three against two made a difference."

"So what do we do now? Leave?"

"I don't like to run," Slade muttered.

"No, I know, but are you even interested in taking these people down?"

"They might have some information about you already."

"Possibly, but then it would have spread far and wide by now. We can't stop it. If you want to take them down, then let's do that, but I think it's actually a waste of time. And that's me, a hero, saying not to go after the baddies."

The man just grunted. The sound meant that he knew that I was right but he didn't like it. "I'm going to call the professor, let them know what happened," he said. "They should know that it's not over and be prepared if the police comes investigating for some reason."

"Can I have a shower?" I asked. I was bone tired by now and just wanted it all to be over.

Slade had already dialed and just nodded and pointed at the bathroom door. I found a cupboard with clean towels, there was soap and shampoo in the bathroom already, and then I set of to both clean up, as I had bled and sweated quite a bit, as well as try to relax. The water temperature was treacherous, however, shifting from ice cold to scolding hot for no good reason, so in the end I just focused on the cleaning up part.

When I got out Slade was still on the phone, with someone else this time as he was speaking French. He was giving instructions about the first apartment and mentioned quite a tidy sum the man or woman on the other line would get if they went by the place in a few weeks and made sure it was tidy and secure once more. The person was also supposed to send the things we left at the place to a post box in New York.

As Slade talked I went to find sheets, put them on the bed, plopped down and laid back with just a towel around my hips. I was going to close my eyes for just a moment before I had to get op and dry off properly. That was the plan, anyway.

I woke up quite a while later. My towel was gone and I was tied to the bed. For a short moment I tensed, not sure if this was Slade's doing or not, but then I saw the smug bastard grinning down at me. He was naked.

"What's this?" I asked, trying to sound causal.

"Punishment time." He leered.

I swallowed hard, but couldn't help the tingle of excitement.

"Um…nak-naked punishment?" I asked.

"Very much so… let's see how long you can go without begging, shall we?"

Almost two hours later and I had already been begging for forever. Slade was inside me, trusting slowly, leisurely. The man had come… how many times? I looked down on my stomach and chest. Four times. I smacked my lips. No. Five. At least. I, on the other hand, hadn't come even once. Every time I was starting to peek he stopped. Whether he used his mouth, his hands or his cock, he knew exactly where my limits were. Every. Fucking. Time. I tried desperately to thrust myself harder against him, but he had me securely held down.

"Please!" I begged again. My shower had been completely pointless, and not just because I was covered in semen but sweat was pouring off me as well. I was so high strung right then, so tense, my every nerve ending raw and firing like crazy without release. This was worse than our previous little game, worse by a million miles. "Slade! For fuck's sake! Please fuck me! Please let me come!" I begged again. Tears were falling down my cheeks now after gathering for a long while. "Please… please… I… I'm sorry. I'm sorry!"

"That's better…" he purred and sped up just a smidge. Then came the dreaded follow up question: "And what are you sorry for?"

"Everything!" I keened. "Fucking ever seeing you for one!"

"Tsk-tsk-tsk not what I wanted to hear," he let me know and slowed down again, almost to a full stop.

"No! Sorry! Sorry! For… for being disrespectful!" I said. Yes, it hurt to say this and I knew Slade knew I only did it to get off, but I didn't have a choice. After two hours of this, I just didn't have a choice. I wouldn't survive three hours. "For… for… acting out… acting childish… for… for embarrassing you in public!" For every apology he sped up and now I was riding that wave again. I begged to whatever divine forces that might be out there to not let him stop this time. "I… yes… yes… please! So… so sorry!"

"I forgive you," he told me, chuckling deeply, and I was finally allowed to come. One might have thought that after edging so long it would be fantastic, but instead it almost hurt, and felt too… short, too unsatisfying. Luckily Slade still had another one in him and after a little bit of resting he gave me a, in my eyes, much deserved reward fuck.

He even joined me in the shower afterwards and kissed me. I have no idea why, maybe he was in a cuddly mood. It felt nice, though, so I wasn't complaining! We got under the covers still naked and a bit damp from the shower. I shivered and moved closer to him, looking for warmth and found it.

"Don't let this become a habit," he chuckled as his arms closed around me, probably only half kidding.

"Nah, I know you're usually a lousy fuck," I mumbled, a grin on my lips.

"And that's how long it took that lesson to be forgotten," the man sighed. "What am I going to do with a student like you?"

"I don't know, I said and yawned, burrowing even closer against his chest. "I've heard repetition is good though…"

The End of The Swiss Miss

A/N: ideas for setups for future adventures are very welcome. Just PM me or leave them in a review!