Life Goes On Part 21
"A special assignment?" Liz gasped. The light in her green eyes sparked as she all but bounced on her feet, "What is it?"
Howard chuckled deeply, "Something that I trust only you to solve with me as I am teaching the others when they start coming in. You're about to have a lesson in some very complicated DNA theories and equations that I've lived by throughout my career."
Leaning in over the table, he told her quietly lest the walls hear, "And like what we discussed about that mystery floor, this needs to stay just between us. All right?"
The young woman nodded and smiled, "Of course." Buttoning up her white lab coat, she inquired, "So, what do you have that I can help with?"
Inwardly smirking to himself, the old man removed a folded paper from his pocket and opened it. Pointing to the DNA structure that was displayed, he explained, "This here is just a scenario that I have come up with. This structure, as you can see, is falling apart."
As she examined the image closer, Liz frowned, "Oh, I see. Some of the 'ladder rungs' are missing along with the molecules that line the sides."
"Very good," Howard grinned with a finger waving in the air. "It takes a keen eye to pick that up." As his pupil gushed at that, he opened a second paper- with the perfect image of a DNA strand from Duo when he was a kitten.
Pointing to the image, he continued, "Now, this is the original structure of that same strand before it had been manipulated and damaged. I need to come up with a way that the unglued DNA strand could safely digress back to the original without having the whole thing come undone."
Carefully looking over the two images, Liz hummed to herself in thought and bit her lip. "That's going to be quite the challenge," she commented. Straightening, she grinned widely, "But I always did like a challenge.
Howard winked, "That's why I chose you for this hypothetical. Every one of you here will be given different scenarios and I am assigning you with the most difficult one. I have no doubt that, with a little coaching from me, you'll be able to come up with the solution." 'And save me a great deal of time in the process while I play teacher to the rest of the staff here,' he thought to himself.
Clearly excited to solve her puzzle, Liz beamed, "I'll get started on it right now." Taking her seat a top her stool, she removed a pen from her white coat pocket and began to jot down some notes for herself.
From the back of the room, some of the other young staff entered to start their work week. With a pleasant grin, Howard called to them, "Come on in, everyone. As I am sure that Doctor J has informed you, I will be assisting all of you in your work of stem cell and DNA research. I have several hypothetical problems that I would like to assign in knowing where you are at in your development for what is in store for you."
Much like Liz, her co-workers only looked thrilled to have such an influential man in their field teaching them. Quickly getting to their stations, they were handed their projects and eagerly went right to work.
* * * * * *
With Monday came the first round of final exams. Both Heero and Duo had spent the whole of their Sunday afternoon and evening studying and preparing. Much to the neko's concern, Solo decided to work on getting himself ready on his own.
As they stepped into the classroom where their first exam was to be held, Solo grinned to his braided friend, "I think that I'm ready for this one. Thanks to your notes and what we went over, I was actually able to make sense of this class."
"That's great," Duo replied happily. "Glad to know that I was able to be of some help." They parted when taking their seats and the tests were handed out as the students all fell silent with their pencils in hand.
Over an hour later, a handful of students walked to the front of the class with their finished papers. Duo was the second to complete his exam and felt pretty confident that he would score well, having only a couple questions that he had to stop to think over.
Patiently, the cat-eater boy waited out in the hall for Solo. When the blonde teenager emerged as one of the last to wrap up, he was pleased to see that he was smiling at least. "Still feel pretty good about that one?" Duo asked quietly as they walked down the hall together.
"Actually, Misses Thompson wanted to start grading me right away to see if it was even worth her time," Solo chuckled deeply. "I only got three answers wrong."
Gasping sharply, Duo froze with wide eyes. "Then that means..."
The other boy finished with a smirk, "I got an A minus. Enough to pass the class with a decent grade." He laughed, "You should have seen Misses Thompson's face! I thought she was going to fall out of her chair when she was finished grading me!"
Duo shook his head and laughed, "I'll bet! Wish I could have stuck around longer to see that." His smile warming, he patted his friend's shoulder and said sincerely, "I'm really proud of you, man. You worked really hard to pass that Psychology class and it paid off. Think you're up for our Basic Law exam later this afternoon? We have a few hours between now and then to get a little more studying in."
"Sure," Solo nodded. "Every little bit helps." Looking to his watch, he suggested, "But maybe we should get some lunch first."
At the mention of food, the braided neko's stomach growled deeply. Blushing a bit, Duo chuckled, "I think my stomach would have to agree with you. I was too busy getting ready for this last exam to really have a decent breakfast."
Easily moving through the busy halls to head to the cafeteria, the blonde teenager asked, "So what does Heero's schedule look like for today with his finals?"
Just the mention of his lover's name brought a wide smile to Duo's face. His tail swayed to-and-fro as he replied, "He has two tests today, just like us. The first is a written exam for his Art History I course and for the second he has an hour to sketch with charcoal while incorporating all of the techniques that he learned from that class."
Solo's eyes widened a bit and commented, "Sounds interesting. I never did get to see any of his artwork before."
His violet eyes widening, Duo gasped, "That's right! He has the artworks that he's worked on this semester in the spare room." Another wide smile tugged his lips as he said, "I'll have to show them to you when we get back to the apartment."
'Good," Solo thought to himself. 'Once we have some time alone, I'll finally be able to tell him everything.' His cat ears and tail were already itching to be freed from their confinement. For the whole of the day before, he'd been debating over how and when would be the most appropriate time to handle his confession. His nerves were making his stomach turn at the thought of how Duo might react to realizing that he was no longer the only neko-along with the fact that he'd been lied to.
From when he came to know of the braided cat-eared boy, however, Solo couldn't help but be hopeful that he would eventually come to understand and forgive him. Maybe even help him and his family in breaking free from Doctor J.
Stepping into the cafeteria, Duo was about to reach for one of the trays at the front station when his extended arm began to shake. "Oh no," he whispered desperately. "Not now." No sooner had he said the words than an intense pain shot up his arm from his fingertips.
With a sharp cry of pain, he fell to his knees, gripping the throbbing arm with his good one. In seconds, however, Duo's entire body felt as though it was on fire and he curled into a ball on the floor.
There was another voice that was screaming and it took a moment to realize that it was his own. Through the haze of the pain he was enduring, he could vaguely hear some of the other students crying his name and others shrieking for someone to call for help.
As sweat tolled down his face, Duo managed to slowly half open his eyes and looked up. Solo was already at his side, frantically trying to get him to respond to his voice that was hardly audible. Too weak and in too much pain to answer, the smaller neko's eyes drifted closed as the darkness took its claim on him once more.
* * * * * *
Heero ran up to the front reception desk of the emergency room. Panting, he met the wide-eyed gaze of the young woman in blue scrubs there. "I'm here to see Duo Maxwell," was all that he could manage.
The girl gave him an understanding nod and escorted him down the hall. "He just came to a few minutes ago," she said, looking back over her shoulder to the worried young man. She smiled, "Doctor Treize said that I should expect a very anxious visitor with your description and to just bring you right in."
Considering the fact that Treize was willing to make such light-hearted comments over the situation did put Heero at ease. Still, he wouldn't be happy until he actually got to see his lover... got to see for himself that he was all right. Finally, his escort gestured to the room just at their right and quietly walked off.
When Heero stepped into the room, he found Treize sitting beside Duo's bed as he spoke to him quietly. The two looked up and instantly, the violet-eyes that met his gaze welled up with tears as he whimpered, "He-meow." With a sharp gasp, he reached up and slapped a hand over his mouth.
His own cobalt eyes widening at the cat sound, Heero felt his knees going weak. Already up and at the Japanese teenager's side, Treize lent a hand under a trembling arm and assisted him in sitting at the side of the bed. Crying sharply, Duo flung himself forward and clung onto his partner. A deep frown settled on the doctor's face before he stepped back to give his friends some time alone.
Once he was in the hallway, Treize looked up at the sound of footsteps running up to him. Stopping just short of him, Sally gasped for air as she cried, "Danielle and Trent are outside fending off the reporters outside. How bad is it?"
"Bad," the tall man answered. "His vocabulary is being affected now. And on the blood tests that I had run, there are some noticeable issues arising that before I was not able to find through a single screening." Running a hand through his hair, Treize sighed deeply, "His time is almost up."
Small tears filled the braided woman's eyes as she shook her head, "God, Howard is so close. He said it'll only take a matter of days for him to have the serum ready."
Biting his lip, Treize hesitated before commenting, "I'm honestly not sure if Duo even has that long. All that we can do is wait and hope. We're already doing everything that we possibly can for him."
A small whimper escaped Sally's throat as she nodded, "I know. I was just so hoping that it wouldn't get this bad so fast."
In the room, Heero finally loosened his hold on his love and pulled back to lightly raise his braided head. When their wet gazes met, he forced his reassuring smile and told him brokenly, "It's not over yet, Duo. Howard is close to having this handled so it'll be all right."
His heart breaking at how determined his partner was to console him, Duo couldn't dare trust his voice as he continued to cry silently. Willing away his own fears, the Japanese teenager just wrapped his arms back around Duo's shaking body and rocked him back and forth.
As much as he wanted to believe his own words, Heero was not foolish enough to ignore how grave the situation had become. The odds against them were steeping, but he still refused to believe that they couldn't be overcome... somehow.
"I love you," Heero managed to whisper as his arms tightened around the smaller boy.
Duo sniffled against his shoulder and replied just as softly, "Love you, too." He whimpered again in a sound that was more of a pained mew. Biting his lip at the sound, Heero's eyes filled with fresh tears as he kissed the top of the neko's braided head.
* * * * * *
His hands shaking, Solo wrung his white tail nervously as he sat before the vidhpone in his dorm room. On the screen, Doctor J took a deep breath before saying, "And so now you've seen first hand what is in store for you and the others when your own structure begins to fall apart. You have almost a year before it starts, but he only has a matter of days now based on what you've just explained to me. When he dies, so does any chance for a cure."
The old man paused and raised a white eyebrow, smirking, "Unless you are willing to try your luck, or anyone in your family's luck for that matter, in being my lab rats for a remedy."
"N-no, sir," Solo shook his head, fighting the tears. All that he could think of was Duo writhing on the floor, screaming himself hoarse in agony.
The thought of Cassie, Danny, or any of the others having to suffer that way shook him to the core. But, that was what would become of them if he didn't act and soon. It was already killing him to think of how he was going to have to betray his new friend, but he had to for the others if they were going to survive.
Doctor J smiled that way that made the hairs on Solo's skin stand on end. "Very good, my boy,' he nodded firmly. "We no longer have until the end of the week to wait, as I originally though we did. You must strike now."
His plan already in mind, the blonde neko stated softly, "Just have one of your men ready and waiting behind the Smith Apartments just off campus. I'll make sure that Duo's there, but I need to know that we can get away quickly."
"Excellent, Solo," the old scientist grinned. "I knew that you had this in you. I'm certainly glad that I was right in choosing you for the job." Leaning back in his leather seat, he chuckled deeply, "Sleep well tonight. You'll be back home before you know it."
As the screen went black, Solo whimpered and the tears that he'd been successful in fighting quickly filled his brown eyes. Hugging his legs tightly to his chest, he buried his face in his knees and sobbed in dread over what he had to do.
Slowly closing his own vidphone, Doctor J chuckled deeply and rose from his seat. Walking to the window of his office building, he watched as the sun began to set under the horizon of the city as he smirked darkly, "Bad news from God, Duo."
TBC...
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