Chapter Ten
Spencer
“Don’t overtax yourself, okay, Dearest?” Grace gave me a kiss as we went up the elevator at Compass BioTek.
“I’ll take it easy, my good doctor.” I squeezed her. Today I came into work with her and Wes.
It was Monday. Time to return to business as usual.
“Maybe your boss will let you leave early,” Wes teased.
The doors opened on Grace’s floor, and she glanced at me. “Join us for lunch?”
“I’d love that.” I gave her another kiss, and she got off, the doors closing behind her as the elevator continued going up.
Usually, she and Wes ate lunch together, often with their work friends. I only joined them occasionally.
“Seriously, if you need to leave early, let me know,” Wes told me.
“I’ll be okay, thank you,” I replied as he got off on his floor. Well, hopefully. I was feeling better, stronger. If I needed to, I could always shut my door, pretend I had a meeting, and take a nap on the couch in my office.
I really needed to talk to Mrs. K about so many things. I’d cracked the code on the documents I’d found in Dr. K’s research, and while they were fascinating, and Grace loved reading them, they hadn’t helped me with what I wanted to know.
Mrs. Katsopolis wasn’t at her desk, so I made myself a cup of coffee on the fancy machine we had in the executive area and got my day started. While I had several meetings, there should be nothing too strenuous today.
“Spencer, really? Shouldn’t you take another week off? You hadabdominal surgery.” Mrs. K came in, frowning.
“I’m fine. I’ll leave early if I need to. Perhaps I’ll work from home tomorrow morning before coming in for my afternoon meetings,” I responded.
“That sounds like a good plan. Are you sure that you don’t want me to cancel the symposium?”
“No. Wes and I are excited about it.” An email popped up with the subjectI love you.I clicked on it, and Grace had sent me animated hearts.
“Okay. Are you bringing Grace?”
I shook my head as I emailed Grace back. “She wants to stay here.”
Grace was also anxious that her co-workers would think that she wasn’t doing her job. They wouldn’t think that, but there was no need for her to come with us if she didn’t want to.
“Also, can you try to get me on something at the Bay Area Genetics Symposium, the one that’s usually in the fall?” I asked her.
“Of course.” She made a note of it.
It would be an excellent place to look for people for some of the secret projects I had in mind. Ones that hopefully would eventually finish what Elaris had started.
No family should have to go through what Grace’s biological mother did. It turned out that while most of the family were sigmas, none of them knew. Thora’s father thought he was just an alpha that never fully awakened and never bothered going to the doctors about it because he didn’t like doctors and was generally healthy.
Something that was pretty common.
“Spencer, what are you up to?” Mrs. K frowned at me.
“Close the door?” I said softly. I got the bug scanner out of my bag and waved it around. Nothing. Though the entire building was checked regularly.
She shut the door and sat down, concern in her beta scent.
“After our misadventures with the Office of Designation Management, I would like to resurrect Elaris’ research. Though I understand the need for the utmost discretion." I laid out my ideas and cursory plans.
There were two parts to Elaris’ idea. One was a pharmaceutical that would suppress ‘dangerous’ genetics to allow those with illegal genetics to function in society. The concept was not unlike alpha blockers. The other was to actually change the genetics of those who were illegal, making them alphas, like the pharmaceutical which pushed betas over to omega designations.
