The ABO Serum

His Alpha's Gift

"You don't want to stay with me," Lex confirmed, though it was a miserable thing to admit.

"I'm...even if I were okay with the sex aspect, I'm not ready to get pregnant. She said 100%. Are you so sure of this relationship that you're ready to have a child with me?" Steve could see the disappointment on Lex's face, and it got to him more than he wanted to admit, but 100% pregnant! There was no way they were ready for that.

Lex walked out and Steve thought he was angry. He gathered his bag and briefcase up to take to his car, but before he reached the front door, Lex came back out of his room carrying his pillow, blanket, and a few other things. "Our research is showing that the right alpha's scent can make an omega's heat easier. I'm your alpha so take these." He held out the pile of bedding and Steve also noticed the t-shirt and pajama pants he'd worn to sleep in the last two nights. He recognized it from their breakfasts together. It probably smelled ripe. But ripe was the point.

"Thank you," he said.

"Go ahead and take that out. I'll bag these up and bring them to the car for you. Are you sure I can't drive you over?" Lex asked.

"Nah, I want to be able to leave as soon as possible and I don't want to have to disturb you at work to do it."

"It won't disturb me. Hey, would you be mad if I slept in your bed while you're gone? I don't want to lose the progress I've made getting back to normal," Lex asked.

It wasn't fair that Lex got to stay free while Steve had to quarantine, but it would be petty and malicious to deny the alpha this relief just because the omegas suffered worse. Steve shook his head, "Go ahead. You've worked hard on your physical therapy and regained most of your weight. I don't want you to backtrack either."

"Thank you," Lex said. By this point he had the bedding bagged and they walked out to the car together. Lex hovered near the driver's side door, holding it open after Steve took his seat, reluctant to let his omega go. "May I kiss you goodbye?" He finally asked.

Steve pulled the door closed but rolled down his window and presented his cheek. Lex smiled and kissed it. Progress. This was definitely progress. He stepped back from the kiss and tapped the roof of the car twice. "See you soon," he reminded himself as well as his omega. This was a brief parting in the grand scheme of things. 100% pregnant. Wow.

He understood his omega's reluctance. He wasn't ready either, and it wouldn't be his body carrying the baby. He wondered if any existing birth control worked on omegas, or if this was another opportunity for GenLife to do something useful and profitable in the wake of losing control of their primary asset. They'd all be out of work, and other labs would have to start from nothing in alpha/omega research if they couldn't produce a marketable product after the decade plus of R&D money invested in them.

Tomorrow was Saturday so he didn't have to go to work, but with his omega in quarantine, and a fresh idea percolating, he might as well. The lab was running seven days a week to provide daily check-ins for all affected individuals, and follow up treatments for all newly exposed individuals, and there was still a steady trickle of the newly exposed coming in. Plus, experiments underway that couldn't take weekends off. GenLife transferred in more staff from another lab and hired more support from the town. Plus, they had CDC and National Guard support.

The lab was so busy you couldn't tell it was the weekend. Lex stopped by Ryan's shop to get a coffee, though the manger was off, and headed upstairs to consult with Dr. Blitzer and start researching birth control.

Dr. Blitzer was enthusiastic about Lex pursuing the birth control angle, but he suggested Drs. Martin and Placer would be better places to start. Dr. Placer kept detailed records of the omega cycles and had practical experience with them that could help him interpret the data, and Dr. Martin kept the record of all biological data collected on all subjects from the beginning. Including key hormone levels taken from daily blood draws.

With the matchmaking experiment mostly complete, Dr. Placer was ready to boost a new project to help the omegas. She was surprised at first that Lex was the one to bring this proposal, but when she thought about the panic in his omega's eyes when she told him he would get pregnant without a plan, she understood it. It was the next logical need. She put Lex on the right path with his research and began pulling in resources to support him.

The result was, by the time Steve got out of quarantine, Lex had a small, wrapped package waiting for him on the kitchen table that contained a specially formulated birth control pill, prescribed by Dr. Rodgers, filled by the one of the formulaic pharmacists on the treatment team, which was entirely experimental in a male omega, but based on existing research modified to meet his personal hormone cycle.

"It might not work," Lex told him. "But it shouldn't hurt you, and Dr. Martin will add a fertility test to your daily blood sample to see how it does. They're FDA approved drugs for birth control, just modified dosage based on your historic hormone levels since transitioning. It's not the end of our research. And we'll have to do larger experiments before making recommendations for mass application. But I figured the slightly higher risk of being a guinea pig is probably worth it for you right now."

After enduring his heat alone with only the scent of his alpha and his hand to relieve himself, Steve shook off the pain and limped home, weak and hungry and tired. He passed by the gift, made himself a bowl of cereal, ate and went to bed. It was later that evening when Lex came home with take-out and called him to the kitchen that he found the energy to open the small gift and listen to this speech.

Steve was a small man, but strong. He never cried openly through all the crap he'd endured, but this...this gift at the end of his heat, at his lowest weakest moment, brought him to tears. Lex rushed to his side and he let his alpha hold him. He drank in the soothing pheromones and let his heart rest. He'd been afraid at first that the small box held a ring, or similar nonsense. He should have known better. Lex wasn't just an alpha, he was Steve's alpha, and he cared about his mate and tried to understand him.

"Hush, don't cry," Lex whispered.

His omega seemed to quiet, but then punched him in the gut and reminded him, "don't tell me what to do."

"Oof, okay! I forgot! Please, cry all you need. I'll be here for you."