They sit together on a bench, hunched over, heads bowed, defeated and helpless.
After some time, I manage to convince all three of them to use a small family room and lie down on the recliners,because I’m probably the only one still thinking clearly enough to remember that my parents are elderly and Blue is pregnant.
Half lying beside Blue, I drift in and out of uneasy sleep, waking up from restless nightmares.
At dawn, I hear one of the doctors approach us.
I open my eyes and immediately see the change on his face. He almost looks like he’s smiling.
"Mr. Lowen," he clears his throat.
Blue opens his eyes instantly, fully alert. My parents sit up right away.
"We have good news. The nanobots repaired the damage and restored proper oxygenation. The patient regained consciousness just a few minutes ago. As far as we can tell, there is no evidence of brain injury."
I jump up immediately, and Blue gets up too, still a little out of it, so I wrap an arm around him because I can tell that short nap didn’t really do much for him.
We follow the doctor together through bright white hallways, straight to a large private room where Marlow is lying.
"Maybe let the patient’s parents go in first," the doctor says. "So we don’t overwhelm him. He’s stable, but this will be for the best."
We wait in the hallway for almost fifteen minutes before my parents come out. They don’t look overjoyed, but there’s clear relief in their faces. My dad pulls me into a tight hug, then gives Blue a respectful nod.
"Thank you, truly, for the help you gave us. Without you, we would’ve lost our son. The doctor explained that without the nanobots, Marlow wouldn’t have survived… or at least not without serious brain damage."
"I’m glad I could help," Blue says simply.
A moment later, the two of us step into Marlow’s room.
My brother is lying there surrounded by the kind of medical equipment I’ve never seen before, and somewhere deep down I feel that same sense of relief as my parents do, aware that it’s only thanks to Blue that my brother even has another chance at life now.
We walk up to the bed, and to my surprise Marlow is no longer intubated, even though there are still IV lines in both his forearms. Unfortunately, the first thing that comes out of my mouth when I see his eyes open and fixed on us is, "What the hell were you thinking, Marlow? You almost gave us a fucking heart attack!"
"Gabriel," Blue says, tightening his grip on my hand, "cut him some slack," he murmurs.
"No, I’m not cutting him any slack. You’re twenty-three, you’ll be twenty-four in a few months. Your whole life is ahead of you. Things can still change…"
"You don’t understand," Marlow whispers. "I don’t want to live like this anymore. I can’t take it. No one understands, not even our parents. I feel like some kind of foreign parasite in this body, and it’s not who I really am!"
Blue steps forward and moves closer to him, and to my surprise he reaches out and gently places his hand on Marlow’s forearm.
"There’s something I didn’t tell you, because I have serious reservations about the whole situation."
There’s a brief silence, and I’ll admit I have no idea what he’s talking about, I just stare at him. Marlow lifts his brows slightly, just as confused.
"About a year ago, something very controversial happened at one of the Beta Activation facilities. A man working there illegally was given a role that can really only be described as… exploitation."
Blue hesitates, like even putting this into words isn’t easy, then continues.
"The supervisor of this facility hired him for a particular reason. He noticed Drax was a purple alpha and… a mutant, with very unusual traits and extremely strong pheromones. By having sex with betas, over time and with repeated contact, the alpha was able to trigger heat in them."
Marlow just stares at him. And I stare, unsure why Blue is telling him this.
Blue closes his eyes for a second, then goes on.
"The whole situation caused serious reputational damage to the BA program, and Drax was treated unfairly. He later came back intending to take revenge, he failed, and ended up in prison. Then… I made him a controversial offer, which he accepted. For a year, he would serve as a test subject. My scientists studied his glands, his pheromones, his genome, everything, trying to understand the mechanism behind what he could do and reproduce it in an ethical way."
I keep staring. Where is Blue heading with this? A chilling suspicion begins to creep in.
