As Ash wandered the campus, they didn’t acknowledge the students who talked and laughed with their friends. They didn’t stop to admire the beautiful fountain that ran down the sidewalk. They didn’t even look up at the library, towering thirty stories into the air. Instead, they made their way around the campus border, known as the brain. Ash didn’t think the oval campus with a road coming out of it looked like a brain, though if you really squinted from an aerial view, it sort of looked like a brain and a brain stem.
As they approached the halfway mark of the campus, Ash finally observed their surroundings. A lot had changed since they started undergrad. There were originally only four science buildings. Thegym had been renovated, not that Ash ever went inside save for the one required physical education class they were forced to take. The Hinman dorms were finally getting their much-needed upgrade, which included overhead lighting and air conditioning. Even the dining hall was renovated; although, they removed the Starbucks, which Ash swore would be their villain origin story. Theylivedin that Starbucks with the comfy chairs and bright lighting during grad school.
By the time Ash made it back to the science buildings, they were feeling less frustrated with their failed work. When they re-entered the lab, Luke looked up at them; Ash nodded their head slightly, and Luke returned the gesture in silent understanding. Ash sat back down behind the computer, saved the results as model one, and got back to designing.
Several hours and a Red Bull later, Ash was exhausted, and by the look of it, Luke was too. He stood from his seat behind the lab bench, linked his hands behind his back, and stretched. With his height, Ash wondered why they hadn’t set up a better bench for Luke. Luke was at least six-foot-two, and the bench barely reached his hips. He was nearly bent over if he had to take a closer look at something. The bench would have been perfect for Ash at their height of five-foot-five, but there was something almost comical about how small it was compared to Luke.
“I could sleep for a week,” Ash said, standing from behind their computer. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Good night, Ash,” Luke said.
“Don’t stay too late.” Ash slung their backpack over their right shoulder and left the lab, not taking a second look at Luke.
They could do this. They could work with Luke and shove their feelings down. It was all in the name of science. Which was, after all, why Ash was there in the first place.
Chapter six
It was a new day. After Ash’s failures yesterday, they went home, had a long, long shower, and fell asleep early. They woke up this morning feeling refreshed and ready to go. Ash opened the door to the lab and realized they arrived before Luke by the way the lights were still off. Normally, Luke was first to the lab, but he had been kind enough to give Ash a key in case they wanted to go in when he wasn’t around. Ash turned on the lights, pulled out their computer, and got to work. They would have taken Luke’s reagents out, but Ash didn’t know how long they could sit at room temperature. Ash saved the results from the second modeling run yesterday as “Model 2”. Unfortunately, model 2 had still not worked out. But this time, instead of getting frustrated, they moved on. That was the thing about molecular modeling—if Ash didn’t know exactly what they were doing, there were a lot of ways they could make a mistake. Ash hadn’t done this in a long time.
But the fact they were able to at least build a molecule they wanted to use was a step in the right direction. Ash took a look at their model of Gal-3 and compared it to Gal-3 in mice and realized they had made a vital mistake. They had exchanged several nitrogens for oxygens inthe structure, which threw off the whole molecule. Ash replaced the model in their software and re-ran the simulation. When the results popped out, Ash finally got some data that was worth investigating further. Ash breathed a sigh of relief as they saved the interaction as ‘good model 3’—they had finally found a nearly correct molecule.
By the time they were finished building the fourth iteration of their molecules, Luke walked into the room, finished his last sip of coffee, and threw the cup in the trash. His faded blue t-shirt was a nice change from the flannels he had been wearing. It hugged his muscular arms and torso and fell just past the belt loops of his faded black jeans. He wore his classic cowboy boots. The sexy cowboy thing worked for Luke. Ash had never found cowboys particularly attractive, but there was something about Luke that Ash found irresistible. Ash let their gaze linger on Luke for just a fraction longer than was probablyappropriate before returning to their work.
“You’re here early,” Luke said, walking past Ash towards the lab bench.
“I was excited to start working today,” Ash replied, still not looking up to meet Luke’s gaze.
“Any success?”
“Actually, yes.” Ash relayed the good news about model three to Luke.
Luke smiled at the news. “I hope I get some good results today. I prepared new reagents last night after you left. I hope they make a difference in my run. I noticed my QCs drifting.”
When the data for model four came back no better than that of model three, Ash decided it was time to read a couple of papers. They pulled up Google Scholar, typed in “gal-3 and thyroglobulin,” and got reading. There were a handful of papers that discussed these two molecules, but very few talked about their interactions. One paper by Okda et al. researched Gal-3 and thyroglobulin as tumor markers in the prognosis of different stages of thyroid cancer. It was fairly similar to the research Luke and Ash were doing with one key difference: Okda’s research didn’t look at the binding interactions between the two molecules. Ash saved the paper to a bookmark called “references” and kept searching.
Just as Ash was opening their fourth paper, Luke’s voice pulled them from the search.
“No. No, no, no. Fuck!” Luke said, his voice rising. “Fuck me.”
Ash shot straight up in their seat. “What’s wrong?”
“Fuck! I think I prepped my reagents wrong.” Luke put his pipette down and picked up the beaker of clear liquid.
“What do you mean? You have specified calculations for all your reagents.”
Luke pulled out a blue notebook and thumbed through it to an entry. Luke’s finger scanned the page as he read and then he threw the notebook across the lab, yelling another “fuck”. Ash waited in silence for Luke to explain what happened.
“I was off by a hundredth place. I did bad math. I must have… I don’t know what happened.” Luke sat down slowly on a lab stool and pulled off his gloves before running a hand through his thick curls.
“Can you just dilute it?” Ash asked. They weren’t sure what went into Luke’s reagents.
Luke shook his head. “No, I was off by a hundredth in the diluent. I’m going to have to remake these; they need to sit in the fridge overnight. I can’t do anything today other than remake these fucking reagents.”
“What can I do to help?” Ash asked, standing.
“I don’t think you can do anything.”
Ash moved to Luke’s side and thumbed through the notebook to find Luke’s reagent prep instructions. Ash found Luke had three reagents to prepare. “Do you need to prep all three? Let me do one.”
