happiest_in_shadows“ Just two weeks ago I was only benching 180 and to be honest I was pretty happy with that. This week I am benching 210 Jack I shouldn’t be able to bench press 30 pounds more in just two weeks especially since this seems slightly easier then when I was just benching 180.” Jack just looked at Kate for a second as he considered what she said and then considered himself. Kate had already been fairly fit before they started working out together while he on the other hand had just been starting. It only seemed to make since that with Kate’s greater amount of development it would take her longer to improve then him and yet he couldn’t lift nearly 30 pounds more then what he could two weeks ago.
“ I guess we need to take a look at this don’t we?” Kate nodded as Jack stood up and proceed to head into his room Kate following him just a second later. Setting down at his desk Jack proceeded to dig around for a few moments before pulling out a case. Taking out a sterile pin as well as a glass slide he laid the slide on the table.
“ Alright come on over Kate I am going to get a sample of your blood.” As Kate set down Jack couldn’t help but think he should have done this earlier. He had just wanted to think everything was going to turn out alright and Kate’s dna had only been altered along the predicted guide lines now he wasn’t so sure it was the case. Pricking Kate proved to be a bit tougher then he had prepared for as her skin put up more resistance but the needle did get through and a few drops of Kate’s blood feel onto the slide. Jack grinned as he put a bandage on Kate’s finger and gave it a slight kiss. This got a grin from Kate who just watched as Jack slip the slide into a microscope.
Instead of looking into the lense Jack proceeded over to his computer and brought up a program. Curiously Kate looked on until a image of what must be her cells appeared on the screen as Jack pushed a few keys the microscope made a few noises as the tiny motors in it were adjusted. At first Jack felt Kate’s cells looked completely normal until the image began to focus and he could make out the predicted alterations. These were the alterations that he had seen in test batches so he didn’t think much of them. As he looked on though things began to change as the computer provided more information Jack found himself focusing more and more on the image.
“ So can you tell what is wrong?” Kate was by now leaning over Jack’s shoulder her eyes focused on the screen. As she did this Kate could tell something was different about her cells and the models she had seen in college and high school that said she couldn’t tell what changes had been planned and what was now causing her strength to increase more quickly then normal. Jack didn’t respond right away as he took note of Kate’s cells in particularly a few adaptations began to get his attention such as the fact Kate’s cells seemed to be sporting a unusually high amount of mitochondria and the general structure of the cell had been slightly altered.
At last he took in a deep breath and spoke. “ Your cells seem to have a few more mitochondria then normal I assume that is helping with the increased stamina but it isn’t only that your cells configuration seems a little odd. This might be so that they can make use of the greater amount of energy. Have you weighed yourself recently?”
“ No not yet should I?” Jack nodded and gave Kate’s hand a slight pat. Shaking her head Kate proceeded out of the room and into the rest room were she climbed onto a scale. Looking down at it the electronic scale read 180.2lbs nodding her head Kate returned to Jack’s room a second later.
“ Not a pound more then I did two weeks ago.” Jack nodded his head as it didn’t take him long to develop a theory about what was going on. Kate’s cells had slightly altered themselves in order to yield greater strength without having to increase in actual muscle mass. The exact reason why they were doing this escaped him at the time as he wasn’t sure of just how they functioned. The reason could very well have been so not to hinder her agility but he still couldn’t be sure of that without further testing.
“ Well I would normally want to do some tissue testing but it is pretty obvious that something is going on here. Your cells have only altered a little bit so far but to be honest they shouldn’t have even changed that much.” As Kate listened she didn’t feel worried as at least Jack wasn’t saying her cells were degenerating all of a sudden though now she had to worry about that happening. Jack for his part was plenty worried as his demeanor changed and he went from room mate and friend with hopes of forming a deeper relation ship to scientist. At the moment the changes that Kate’s cells had went through were relatively minor the problem was they shouldn’t of happened at all and he had no way of knowing just how far they would go.
“ So do you think we need to take a little vacation and see how far this is going to go.” Jack looked up at Kate who was once again leaning over him.
“ Err well it might be safer that way so we could get a idea of just what changes were going to happen but I am not sure if I have the money for…” Kate’s hand smacked Jack upside the head playfully as she pointed towards herself.
“ Like I would let you pay for my vacation you silly. My parents have a place up in Appalachia that we could go to and hide out to see if I am going to turn green or anything.” Jack grinned forgetting who he was talking to still it surprised him how relaxed Kate was.
“ That would work out well but hey I thought you said your parents weren’t rich.”
Jack received another playful smack from Kate. “ They aren’t just financially well off besides it isn’t like they had it built for the sole reason of vacations. It use to belong to my grandma and grand father. When they passed away my parents thought of selling it but considering the raise in land value they figured it would be a wise investment to simply hold onto the old place. How long of a vacation do you think we need to take?”
“ Well I would like to say until your strength quits increasing but we don’t know how long that will last hopefully before we started needing money. Also I am kind of worried how your parents will react I don’t exactly want to tell them what happened just yet.” Kate rolled her eyes as Jack still didn’t seem to understand the situation. A moment later she put her hand to her head as if she was talking on the phone.
“ Hello Mom and Dad this is your little girl I was calling to ask you a favor. You know how I work at police work and how you just hate it well it is finally getting a little to dangerous for me and I would like to quit but I don’t know what I want to do. Would it be alright if I made use of my grand parents house and took some time to think it over?……. Oh take as much time as I like and Daddy says he will take care of the necessities…..Thanks Mommy see you on the holidays.” Kate then proceeded to act as if she was hanging up turning her attention to Jack. “ That is roughly how the phone call will go my parents really don’t like that I became a police officer after college and even told me to take a year off to think about it.”
Even though Jack was trying to remain scientific at this time he couldn’t help himself. “ Lucky rich girl I wish my parents could have given me that many options.” Kate didn’t bother smacking Jack this time as she had to admit it was a pretty nice luxury she was given.
“ Well my dad will pay for the utilities and even send some money for groceries and maybe a few amusing things just so long as I don’t start asking for cars… well more then one or two.” Jack blinked as he was now quite sure that Kate’s version of financially well off was his version of rich.
“ Just what do your parents do anyway?” Kate grinned as she leaned in closer to Jack and acted like she was going to whisper it to him.
“ It is a secret.” Jack gave Kate a odd look as she took the time to tease him even during these times at least the alterations didn’t seem to be effecting her way of thinking. She was still every bit the tease that her remembered her as.
“ Alright but I think we need to start getting ready I imagine you will want to give the force a weeks notice before you take off. “ Kate nodded her head as she sighed regretting that she was taking off so soon just after getting back and all Howard had done for her sticking her on the receptionist desk and all. Kate gagged a bit at the thought and grinned perhaps when she came back she would be able to get to working the streets again. Flexing her arm she didn’t really think she would end up super human or anything but she imagined what it would be like to be able to pick a full-grown male up with just one hand.
“ Well then I guess there is no reason putting it off.” Kate proceeded to take a closer look at the screen once again nodding her head at the site. “ I guess this isn’t one of the things you just ignore and hope it goes away.” Jack nodded in the affirmative watching Kate leave the room he leaned in closer to the computer screen and continued to watch the cellular activity. Biting his lip he couldn’t help but wonder how all of this had happened the drug hadn’t been meant to make that many alterations. Looking out the door a thought hit him a moment later the drug had been adapted by him a bit more before he gave it to Kate but he doubted that it was the drug alone that was causing this.
The drug hadn’t been made to make the exact alterations Kate’s were currently showing but rather it may not be the drug that caused the alterations. Instead he began to wonder if the drug had simply allowed the cells to make the alterations to themselves. It was a some what trouble some yet exciting thought at all at the same time as he considered what it could mean. If the drug had made the alterations then it may very well quit soon and Kate wouldn’t go much further however if the cells were the ones that were now making the alterations by a form of adaptation then this could go on for much longer perhaps even indefinitely. Looking around for a moment Jack soon found his old notes and took a moment to organize them before flipping them over on their backs and numbering them.
Kate could hear Jack’s pin scratching in the paper as he began to take random notes and points of interest. Realizing that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to pull him away from what he was currently doing she made her way back into the gym and once again took her position under the barbell. “ 210 pounds.” She grinned a bit it was odd but she really wasn’t scared of course that was partly because she didn’t see a reason to be scared. Panicking right now wouldn’t help anything after all and besides working out helped her to relax. With that Kate began her exercise routine leaving Jack to his business deciding to have faith in his scientific ability.
The irony of the thought didn’t escape her as she realized it was that faith that had caused the mutation in the first place. Of course it was also that faith that had saved her life thus she felt no ill will towards him. As she lifted the weight though she actually found herself hoping that Jack wasn’t actually trying to stop her body from strengthening as in all truth she liked the idea of her body increasing in strength so quickly. She simply didn’t want to turn into some abomination with green or blue skin is all. As Jack took notes he heard Kate exercising and smiled at least she wasn’t letting it get her stressed out.
Jack actually finding himself regretting that he couldn’t join Kate in today’s exercise routine but at the moment he felt he had something more important to take care of. Making sure the changes weren’t endangering Kate in anyway. Halting for a moment he looked to the notes before writing down 180, 190 and 210 recalling what Kate had went up to the previous week. As he noticed a trend in her strength increases from the past two weeks at first he wanted to assume that her strength would continue to follow the trend before he pushed it out of his mind. He would need to keep track of Kate’s strength increases for several weeks before he could make any such assumption.
Kate looked at the phone having finished her work out a short while ago she wished she had been as relaxed about calling her parents as she had pretended to be. It was the truth that her Mother and Father had attempted to prevent her from becoming a police officer and even offered a year off but Kate had refused it. She had did what she wanted to do despite her parents thinking it was too dangerous for their little girl. Of course they had still been proud of her they just didn’t like the idea of their daughter getting shot at.
The reason Kate hesitated is she didn’t want to ask her parents for more then they had already given her. In truth she had come to feel that she was taking advantage of her parents despite their willingness to give her what she wanted. It was the way her father tended to make up for his inability to be with her keeping a business alive when you had so many giants to compete with took up a lot of his time. Kate knew this and tried to console him but he still insisted on giving her things in order to make up for not being there. It had hurt her a little while growing up but when she had needed him he had been there he just wasn’t hardly any other time and she had gotten use to it. After all it was more then what some kids had while growing up so Kate held a great deal of respect for her parents.
This was a important matter though so at last she dialed the number. A few rings later and a voice came on the other line. “ Yes Hello I would like to speak to Mr. Stonecutter tell him that it is his little girl.” A moment of silence and she heard the phone being picked up. “ Hi dad I was calling because I need to ask a favor…well it is going to be a little costly…..Okay well I have decided to quit the police force…Well you don’t have to sound so happy about it… Yeah I know you can’t help it… the reason I am quitting… Well it just seems to be getting a bit dangerous for me and to be honest I think I haven’t fully recovered from my little bout with death…. don’t worry dad you don’t need to apologize you visited me as often as you could….anyway I was wondering if I could use grandma and grandpas old home for a while wile I think about what I want to do….really thanks daddy is it alright if I have a friend along?…..oh he is a rather nice fellow you will have to meet him some time…of course not daddy… we will probably head out there in a week… okay daddy love ya bye and I will call more often.”
Kate hung up the phone musing over how easy that was grinning Kate flexed her muscles for a moment. Her father never really seemed to worry about the men she hanged out with confident that his little girl could bust their heads open if they tried anything. Heading into her room Kate finally wrote up her weeks notice planning to hand it into the chief in the morning she knew it was rushing things but she did need to get away soon. Finally climbing into bed it took a while for Kate to nod off her body having already adapted to having someone to cuddle on these days she could still hear Jack clicking away in his room so she doubted he would be up for anything tonight.
The scent of coffee and biscuits hit Kate’s nose the next morning waking her from her sleep early. Setting up in bed her hair a mess Kate glanced around the room and wondered just what was going on until she noticed the clicking of a keyboard and then rapid scratching on some paper. Jack having spent the entire night observing the sample of blood from Kate had taken the time to go ahead and prepare Kate some breakfast as well as some for himself. This actually surprised Kate as she wondered into the kitchen to see a plate laid out for her with three boiled eggs, some toast, biscuits and a good deal of oatmeal. Walking over to it Kate grinned realizing Jack and probably chosen boiled eggs so that he wouldn’t have to watch them she picked up one of the eggs and bit into it before locating the coffee.
Pouring herself a cup she was surprised how thick Jack had made it when she realized that he had probably been up the entire night. After adding a good deal of milk and sugar to her coffee Kate poked her head in on Jack who had his dirty plate setting besides him on the table as well as a rather large cup of coffee. “ I didn’t think you liked your coffee this thick.”
“ I don’t but I needed caffeine to keep me awake and you don’t have any soda.” Kate grinned and walked over to Jack giving him a kiss on the cheek before looking at his eyes.
“ You were up all night trying to find out if I am going to be okay weren’t you.” Jack nodded lightly before getting another peck on the cheek. Walking back into the kitchen Kate proceeded to eat her breakfast figuring that she would drag Jack away from his computer screen after she got home from work even if he didn’t like it. She didn’t want him spending all his time with that machine after all. Grabbing another one of the eggs Kate downed it before heading back into her room and beginning her mourning exercise routine having forgotten to do them before eating. “ Hey Jack don’t bother cooking lunch today I am going to stop by a restaurant on my way back from work.” Jack hmed his okay never once looking away from the screen except for a few moments to take down a few more notes once in a while.
Howard was surprised as he looked at the paper Kate had just given him finally he pulled a drawer from his desk pulled open a file and slept the paper into it. “ So do you have desk work that much?”
“ Oh no it isn’t that it is just that time I spent in the hospital so close to death seems to have effected me in ways that I didn’t predict.” Howard gave a understanding nod as he figured it was because she had come so close to death people at times felt such emotions when they got hit with a bullet and even though Kate’s near death experience wasn’t work related he imagined she was feeling similarly.
“ Well then give us a week to find someone to replace you and then you are free to go.” Kate nodded and left the room as she walked to the front desk and took her seat she grinned a bit as she wondered just how long it will take to find someone to set at the desk and handle people that come in.
The noise of the door opening got Jack’s attention as he listened the foots steps came closer to his room until Kate peeked her head around the corner seeing him still at the computer. Her hands holding to bags with the take out she had bought them. “ Hey there time to get away from that computer.”
“ Could you give me a while longer Kate I really need to get this down if I am going to help you.” A moment later Jack was surprised to see Kate enter the room and even more surprised when her hands took hold of his.
“ Nope it can’t wait you are going to join me for dinner and take a rest from this. After all you have been watching that screen for a few hours now so I doubt anything new is going to change.” Jack went to argue but as Kate pulled on his hands he realized it wasn’t really a request she was giving him. “ And Jack from now on don’t set up all night like that it isn’t good for you I am glad you want to take such good care of me but I am not going to have you make yourself sick for my sake.”
Jack tried to resist but he found he didn’t have the strength neither physically or mentally to resist Kate. As he was drug into the dining room he picked up one of the bags Kate had been carrying while she got the other. The two of them setting down for dinner Jack was glad to see that Kate had went with the same chicken dinner she had seen him bring to her room. He didn’t much like the idea of her going with something that he might not like. “ So what have you found out since yesterday?”
“ Nothing really I was just taking notes and getting general data I will analyze it later and see if I can come up with any theories. Really though if your cells would stay the way they are now you would be fine the big thing is finding out just how they are going to change and maybe how to stop it.” A hush feel over the room as Kate leaned forward a bit getting a better look at Jack.
“ So long as the changes don’t alter my appearance to much if at all and I remain healthy would be really need to stop it.” Jack looked up at Kate for a moment considering what she just said he shook his head.
“ No not really if you want to just let it go still we need to make sure it isn’t going to do anything strange to you.”
“ Fair enough but I am wondering if you didn’t expect to really find anything why did you set up all last night.”
“ Well I was detailing as much about your blood cells as I could so that I could tell just how much they had changed from time to time. I figure that we can get a blood sample from you ever so often and see which way the changes are going. Perhaps I can find a pattern that way we will know if you are going to grow a tail or the such.” Kate giggled at Jack’s statement considering what she would look like with a tail.
“ Well I think you got enough data so how about we just enjoy our dinner.” Jack nodded and the two simply began to enjoy their meal. As they ate Jack noted for the first time that Kate’s eating habits were actually a bit different then he had expected mostly since she ate more then he had expected her to. Considering her exercise habits though he really didn’t have to guess why she didn’t ever seem to put on any weight unless it happened to be muscle.
Jack sighed as he walked behind Kate heading towards her vehicle a few things of luggage under his arms while Kate carried the bulk of what they were going to be taking. Checking over her shoulder at Jack she smiled. “ Don’t worry Jack so what if we are getting away a week late it isn’t like you don’t have all the data you would have even if we had left on time.” Jack after all the only reason they were leaving was incase the alterations to Kate’s body began to become overly apparent. Over the last two weeks Jack had watched as Kate’s strength had steadily increased three weeks ago Kate being able to bench 210lbs the week after that she was benching 240lbs and now she had recently hit 260lbs.
Jack found it some what amusing but despite himself he only found himself getting more attractive to Kate as her power increased. As for Kate she was getting closer to Jack living with him proving to be a rather enjoyable experience. Also he was getting more physically attractive as well as his body was responding to the exercise routine fairly well he no longer was as drained after a decent work out, his waste line was going down and his body was showing some general tone. Loading the last of the things into the vehicle Kate climbed into the drivers seat while Jack took the passengers.
“ Well say bye to the old place Jack we are heading out.” Jack only grinned as he buckled up now without Kate even having to give him a second glance. As the two drove off Jack couldn’t help but wonder just how long this was going to take and just how far Kate was going to go by the time it was over.
End Chapter: 1