“Frank!” Ellen, face red peered at him. “Go away. Just go away. I can’t believe you.” She held Dr. Gafsky’s arm and started to walk. Scoffing at Frank and Dean, and swearing under her breath, Ellen helped Dr. Gafsky to the other room for ice.
Frank raised his hands and dropped them with a slap. “Dean, was I wrong?”
“Not in the least, Frank. And you know me, I’m not a violent man.”
“Thank you. And what’s wrong with my wife?”
“The same thing that’s wrong with every other woman in the community. They’re being targeted. They can’t get information out of use, so they butter up the women to get it.”
“Sweet talk them. Make them feel special. Get them to spill their guts?” Frank questioned.
“Exactly.” Dean nodded.
“Will they?” Frank started to walk down the hall with Dean.
“Spill their guts? Oh. Absolutely. But the question should be, can they spill anything valuable.” Closed mouth and assuredly, Dean shook his head.
“They can’t?”
“No way.” Dean said. “The women in this community really aren’t told anything valuable.”
“That’s awfully smart of us.”
“No.” Dean paused in his waling to motion his head in a point to where Ellen took the newcomer. “It was awfully foreseeing of us.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
July 18
To everyone else in Beginnings they were a small number. Eleven men and one woman. But to Dean, the group was large. It a was large sense of burden lifted from his shoulders. They were in Colorado, they had arrived there. And the two Beginnings’ men who had taken them just arrived back safe. The safety of those two men was the number one concern on everyone’s mind. But they brought with them the bus like Joe had requested, to take the rest of the newcomers when their time came. And their time could not come too soon for Dean. Though they had only been roaming around the community for a short time, their presence was known at each and every corner one turned. They spent a magnitude of time in the cryo lab going over their data. Data that Dean had copied before handing it to them. He did this as his own safeguard, just in case.
And with a small group gone, Dean felt confident he could complete his newest project and have it ready to present to Joe. But the radio call from the nursery interrupted that. Dean hoped only briefly.
He didn’t have to ask what child at the nursery was sick. He knew. It was Jenny’s baby. It would be the third trip in one week to the nursery for the Matoose child. Stomach ailments. Breathing problems. And the present Jenny compliant--fever. The trips to the nursery weren’t including all the times Andrea had to check the infant out. Jenny was being overboard and Dean was starting to get annoyed over it. Dean was beginning to feel like Ellen, mind-bitching about Jenny all the way to the nursery.
“Hi Raz.” Dean waved to the older gentleman. “How’s the Matoose baby?”
Raz placed down the book he read. “Fine as usual. It’s the mother that needs examined. Coming in here and checking on us eight times a day. Anyway, the visitors checked her out, said she was fine.”
Dean stopped mid stride. “The visitors? You let them with the babies?”
“Well . . Uh, yeah. Was I wrong?” He stood up. “They’re doctors.”
“Shit.” Dean flew into the next room, the first vision he saw was six of them gathered around one cradle. He could hear them murmur, but couldn’t make out the words through the baby’s cries. “Excuse me.” Dean marched right up to them moving them one at a time. “Away from . . .” He saw which baby they were touching and observing. “Brian.” Dean barreled his way through and scooped up the crying baby, outrage filled his eyes and he held Brian close to his chest. “I want you people out of the nursery. And away from this baby. Now.”
One of the doctors snubbed that suggestion. “We have a right to examine that . . .”
“The hell you do!” Dean shouted, his hand holding the little head. Comforting him. “Leave now or I’ll call security.”
They showed no fear of security being called, but in order to avoid confrontation, they backed up and left.
“It’s all right Brian. Shh.” Dean placed his lips to the now infant. “It’s all right. Why do these scientist want to . . .” Then it hit him why. “Oh God Ellen, what did you do?” Dean knew what had to be done, he had to find Frank. Frank was the one who could ensure this child’s safety. After checking Brian thoroughly to make sure they did nothing to him, Dean raced immediately--baby in his arms--to find Frank.
^^^^
“And finally . . .” Frank held Ellen’s hands as he walked backwards leading her into their new bedroom in their new home. “Our room. What do you think?”
“I hate it. It’s too small.”
“It is not, this bedroom is the same size as our other one, the uh, the bed’s just bigger.”
“No it’s not Frank.” Ellen pulled her hands from his and stood center of her bedroom. “I hate this house. I hate this room. I don’t want to live here.”
“El, all our stuff is here. We have three bedrooms now.” Frank kissed her quickly. “You have to get used to it.”
“I know.” Ellen’s shoulders slumped.
“You know what El?” Frank took her hands again and led her. “It’s a new bed.” He motioned his head to behind him. “We have to break it in. What do you say?” He winked.
“No, Frank. I have that meeting with Joe.”
“Come on El. It’s the marriage law.” He lifted her up and nearly tossed her on the hard bed. Ellen bounced upon her landing. “No kids, a new house, we have to christen it.” Frank slowly climbed on the bed and crept to her.
Dean heard their voices coming from upstairs when he walked into the house, and he followed them. “Frank.” He called out as he stepped in.
Frank stopped in his move toward Ellen. “Am I hearing Dean?”
“Frank.” Dean called out again. “I need to speak to you.”
“He’s in here?” Frank turned his head slowly to see Dean standing in the doorway holding Brian. Frank panicked. “Dean, what’s wrong with my son?” He jumped from the bed and rushed over.
“Nothing, I need to talk to you.” Dean leaned closer and whispered. “Alone.”
Frank took the baby from Dean’s arms, then walked Brian to Ellen. “Hold him El, I’ll be right back.”
Ellen was shocked as the baby was just dropped in her arms, more so the way Frank escorted Dean calmly from the bedroom, with little irritation over Dean walking in.
Frank pulled the bedroom door shut. “What’s going on? Why did you bring Brian here?”
“I went to the nursery to check on the Matoose baby. When I walked in there were a bunch of them huddled around Brian, touching him, looking at him.”
“They what!”
Dean lowered his hands as if to tell Frank to lower his voice. “I don’t think they want to harm him. I just think they want to examine him, check him out. You can thank your wife on that one Frank. You see, I think that little fib Ellen told is snowballing. She told them--joking around--she was carrying one of their embryos.”
“We’ll just tell them she was lying about it. I’ll tell them.” Frank shook his head.
“Won’t work. They are so obsessed with these embryos, they aren’t gonna believe us. They’ll only think we’re lying to keep them from the baby.”
“What is so special about these embryos that they have to poke around my kid?”
“I don’t know. They are genetically enhanced. But I’ll tell you, I’m close finding out for myself. But we have to be even more on our toes. That’s why I came to you. Can you put a guard on the nursery?”
“Consider it done.” Frank shook his head at the thought of what happened. “In fact, consider it done now.” He opened up the bedroom door. “El, I have to go back to work.” He walked over to the bed, kissed Ellen and grabbed the baby.
“Where are you going with Brian?” She sat on the edge of th
e bed watching him leave.
“I’m uh . . . taking him to the nursery. Dean came to get you for that meeting and brought him by for us to see him. Thanks, Dean.” Frank walked to the doorway.
“No problem.” Dean held up his hand. “Sorry I interrupted your moving.” He looked at Ellen on the bed. “Need me to finish up for you Frank?”
“Sure if you want.” Frank stopped as his foot stepped for the first step, and he realized what Dean meant. “NO!” He left certain that was all that needed to be said.
Snickering Dean walked into the bedroom and extended his hand to Ellen. “Meeting?”
Ellen grabbed it and levered herself up. “Meeting.”
^^^^
Joe listened to Dean and Ellen ramble on and on about their idea. An idea even too weird for Joe. And though the thought of it made him squirm, he sat there in the lab, at their request. “Dean, what is it you want from me?”
“Permission, as the leader to do this.” Dean leaned forward. “It’s for the sake of science. Ellen and I have given this great thought.”
“You want my permission to do something that you could do, without my knowledge?” Joe’s hands rested on the counter as his fingers tapped about. “What will be so special about this kid?”
“He or she will be genetically enhanced.” Dean answered. “These embryos are so important to them, I am curious to see what the child is like. We have a volunteer, no one will get hurt. No one except us three and the volunteer has to know it’s nothing more than a routine pregnancy.”
Joe immediately looked to Ellen. “You aren’t doing this Ellen. You just had Brian.”
“Not me. Melissa. She overheard Dean and I talking and she volunteered. Melissa can’t have children on her own. She told only us that. So what do you say, Joe?”
Joe looked upon both of them. “If Dean feels it’s safe, we really should find out. How will you determine which one gets implanted.”
That was the one thing Dean didn’t have a scientific based answer for. “Since we don’t know which embryos are which. We sort of told Melissa to chose a number. Like an embryo lottery. We are ready to do this in a couple hours. Do we have your go ahead?”
Joe nodded apprehensively. “I guess.”
Excited, Dean grasped hold of Ellen’s hand, squeezing it with enthusiasm. “Ready, El?”
Ellen didn’t even answer, she jumped up at the same time as Dean and raced from the lab with him.
Alone, Joe stood up with a clap of his hands on the counter. “Christ.” He shook his head as he started to leave. “Beginnings’ own, Frankenstein and Igor.”
^^^^
Ellen slipped into the examining room next to the one they had just done the implantation in. Dean waited in there for her to situate Melissa. “Mother is . . .” Ellen slowed when she saw Dean. He lay back on the table, his legs hanging off the end, his arms dangling to the side while his eyes were tightly closed. “Wake up.” She grabbed his knees and banged them together.
“I am up.” He held out his hand for her to help pull him. “I was just resting that’s all.”
“I just want to let you know, the mother or mother-not, is resting. We can clock it for an hour, then I’m going home.”
“How is she doing, you know, about this?”
“Better than you or I. She definitely isn’t as nervous as us. She’s actually excited. Her and Mark wanted to have a child and now they are. Of course, it may not end up being a baby at all.” She joked, and saw Dean’s expression. “Just kidding. But she’s very excited.”
“Rightfully so.” Dean stared down at his legs which swung back and forth. He lifted his eyes. “Ellen shut the door please.”
“Why?” Ellen reached over and pushed it shut. “Are you gonna take advantage of me?”
“Not unless you want me too.”
“You’ll have to make it worth my guilt.”
“Guilt?” Dean had to laugh. “I don’t think guilt is a feeling you come equipped with.”
“Oh that’s not very nice. But . . .” She shrugged. “You’re probably right. So, if you don’t want to have sex with me, why did I shut the door?”
With a smile, Dean finally lifted his head all the way. “You and I are lucky. We work really well together. This afternoon was proof. With our history, we could have ended up with some really bad blood between us. We went past that. We’re better friends for that.”
“That we are. But sometimes, I feel there’s still some things unresolved.”
“Yeah.” Dean spoke whispering as his smile softened. “There are . . . but that’s not why I asked you to close the door. I want to ask you . . .” Dean scratched the nervous itch on the side of his nose. “Do you remember a conversation you and I had on Christmas Eve?”
“Ah.” Ellen nodded her head with closed eyes and mouth. “I do.”
“O.K.” Dean took a breath. “Taking a big chance at total humiliation. And chancing bad timing, I have to know. Ever since Brian was born, I’ve been bad. I want that El, I really do. So, maybe not right now, but in the near future, can I have that? Will you help me.? Are you still willing to have my baby for me?”
“I can’t believe you just asked me that.”
“I knew it.” Dean slid off of the table. “Forget I asked. Please.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.” Ellen reached forward grabbing his arm and pulling him back. “I just never thought you would really ask me. I thought the part of you that hated me would stop . . .”
“Hate you?” Dean’s voice dropped. “You think a part of me . . .” He chuckled in disbelief covering his eyes. “Yeah, El, I hate you.” Sliding his hand from his eyes, he seriously looked at her. “I don’t hate you. Far from it.” He cleared his throat. “So. What do you . . .”
Ellen’s hand quickly covered his mouth. “You don’t even have to ask.” she removed it. “Yes. Without a doubt.”
Arms instinctively going out to Ellen, Dean embraced her and kissed her on the cheek. “Thank you.” He pulled back. “However, you’re gonna have to talk to Frank about this. We can’t do it if we don’t clear it with him first. Maybe if I go with you to talk, he’ll see how important this is.”
“No that’s all right.” Ellen stepped back and flung her hand. “I’ll handle Frank. It’s not like we’re getting together. It’s clinical. I think once he sees that. He’ll be O.K. with it.”
“You think.”
“Oh, sure.” Ellen spoke and looked as if she had so much certainty. And with good reason, she knew Frank better than anyone. And there wasn’t an ounce of doubt in her mind --Frank would be fine with it.
^^^^
“I can’t believe you’re laughing at me.” Ellen handed Frank the settings for the dinner table.
“Because El. It’s, it’s such a ridiculous notion that it’s funny.” Frank placed the stack on the table.
“Frank, I am very serious about helping Dean out.”
“I know you are.” Frank kissed her on the cheek. “But over my dead body will my wife walk around pregnant with another man’s child. Let alone Dean’s. No.”
“Frank, he wants another baby.”
“Tough El. Tough. You aren’t doing it.”
“Can we discuss this rationally?”
“All right.” Frank drew up a semi-serious face. “Discuss rationally.”
“We owe him.”
“I don’t owe Dean anything, and neither do you.”
“Bullshit. I lived with him for almost five years. Think about what I did to him. What we did to him. I really feel I need to do this for Dean.” Ellen reached and grabbed Frank’s hands. “For him and for me.”
“See . . .” Frank moved his hands and began to wave them about. “This is what I don’t get. This sense of obligation you have to the guy. You’re my wife El, why do I feel a part of you still belongs to him. He’s the father of your twins. End of the line.”
“Oh you are so melodramatic. Every part of me belongs to you Frank. I just want to l
end Dean my uterus for nine months.”
With laughter Frank walked in the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. “I can’t agree to this. And don’t go doing it behind my back either. I’ll get really pissed off.”
“I won’t do it behind your back.” Ellen leaned in the kitchen doorway. “Dean wouldn’t.”
“Then that’s one thing in his favor. Of course he did ask my wife to get pregnant.”
“It wasn’t Dean’s idea. It’s was mine.”
The refrigerator door slammed. “Why is my wife offering her body . . . never mind. It’s because it’s Dean right? Let me tell you Ellen, I’ll never give my permission for it. So you’ll never have his child. End of discussion. Don’t bring this up to me again.” He stormed past her.
“You’re angry. I thought we were discussing this rationally.” She watched him walk to the living room toward the steps.
“That’s before I realized how much I share my wife with another man.”
“You don’t share me Frank.” Ellen followed him. “We’re friends.”
“Then quit pushing the boundaries of friendship Ellen!” Frank blasted as he started taking the steps. “Before you cross so far you can’t take it back.”
^^^^
Finally, it was lights out. Dean was glad to be going home. It had been a long day, but a good one. Time would tell with Melissa, but Dean’s instincts screamed success at him. Picking up the red pen from his lab counter, Dean slashed out the day on the calendar. And just to make him feel good after all the double up work he did in the wake of the nosey newcomers Dean lifted the calendar to the next month. He gloated for a moment at the smiling face that marked the day the rest would leave then he dropped the pen, took off his coat then grabbed the notes of Melissa’s implantation. His eyes were tired and burning and he rubbed them as he walked out. But as if that momentary eye closing stint was a nap, Dean slipped into a nightmare. Joanna was standing at the door.
The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Page 104