Ryan runs a comb through his auburn hair and diligently sets it down on the counter next to the bathroom sink. He carefully runs his hands over his neat hair, a ghost of a smirk playing on his lips as he does so. I love it when you style your hair like that, a woman smiled at him through the mirror, where she sat on their bed in the next room. His smile drops at the arrival of an old memory. He clicks his tongue on the roof of his mouth and turns around to face the closed door of the bathroom, setting his hand on the doorknob, hesitating for a split second.
But then, like waking up from a haze, he rolls his eyes and his smirk appears back in full fashion on his lips and he pushes open the door with a new brash sense of confidence.
"Let's get this bread. How's everyone going today?" Now gone from his home, far away from the bathroom where his past lingers, Ryan struts into the large laboratory with a bright smile spread across his mouth. He beams of fake happiness that gives him an air of satire. Whether he is genuinely in a good mood or not, no one has ever been able to figure out in the many mornings he and the doctors and scientists have spent together. About a dozen of said doctors and scientists, dressed scrubs and white coats, give him a polite wave and a curt hello.
One of the doctors, a bald man in his late forties, jumps up from his seat at a desk, clipboard in hand and walks towards the young man who has finally appeared. "Mr. West, are you ready?" His tone is firm and to-the-point.
Ryan nods, "Yes. I'm following you, Dr. Henry." But he does not follow the older man. Instead, the auburn-haired gentleman steps to the side and begins to walk away, in the direction of wherever he is meant to be.
Dr. Henry looks toward the ground, a passive emotion flittering across his soft green eyes, hardening his gaze for a moment. He sighs and turns, heading for a hallway that the other man is now headed down. His pace quickens as he catches up to him, now at his side.
They only walk for about a minute before Dr. Henry stops and opens a door, allowing Ryan to step into a space that resembles a normal examination room found in a doctor's office. He jumps onto the chair in the chair in the middle of the white-tiled room while the doctor pulls up a stool adjacent to him, flipping to the next page on the clipboard. He scribbles something on the sheet and looks back up. The auburn-haired man now watches him patiently with his own green eyes that are much darker than the doctor's.
The doctor glances away quickly, only able to look so long at the cold and empty gaze held by his patient. "Alright, let's get started. So, the wolf properties, any change?" He asks, his voice giving no indication that he is made uncomfortable by the question receiver's presence.
The young man in the reclined chair leans back and stares at one of the tiles above him. "Nope, doc. When are we gonna get a new formula? This should have been the easiest to secure. Two out of five senses isn't a great ratio. Plus, the strength and speed stuff needs to kick in soon or else it will be...." He pauses. "All for not?" He flourishes his wrists and makes gestures with his hands as he speaks casually.
Dr. Henry nods and writes on his paper, filling out empty spaces between rows and lines of black ink. "We're working on that. It should be done by the end of tomorrow. It's just binding right now."
Ryan grunts in response but doesn't say anything more.
"Lynx?" The doctor asks next.
"Ugh, it's fantastic but still the side effects are getting worse each day." Ryan sighs and closes his eyes for a second before looking back over at the doctor who waits patiently for him to continue. "Being able to manipulate that kid has been extremely helpful, but really, I need you to fix the other things have come along." He still avoids giving the doctor a straight answer.
Dr. Henry's peppered-grey and brown eyebrows raise, wrinkling his forehead. "The memories you mean?"
Ryan doesn't answer but turns his gaze back to a ceiling tile across the room.
"Hm," the doctor begins, "Have they been getting more frequent?"
"Yes."
Dr. Henry nods, "Okay. I'll see what I can do to get a solution to that by the end of the week."
"Good." I don't want to keep seeing her when I know she'll never come back, Ryan thinks to himself.
"How is the new serum coming along? What abilities have you obtained from the Phoenix?"
Ryan smirks. "Oh, excellent. Instead of being able to tell what other's emotions are, I can give them new ones." He sighs in faux-amazement or real amazement, the way he does it makes his intentions unclear. "Oh," he laughs. "I'm so glad the bitch is gone. I still can't believe she tried to convince me that I could harness anything from oh-so-special-majestic-bird-kid." He laughs again.
"Oh, you mean Dr. Talbot?" Dr. Henry recalls the nice woman with blonde haired that joined their team about a week ago.
"Nope." Ryan says. "Estelle," he grins. "I will take everything from him, Patrick." He looks over at the doctor, all amusement gone from his face. Rage consuming his cold eyes. "Everything."
Dr. Henry's eyes widen at the mention of his first name. It's was probably the first time that Ryan had ever addressed him that way. "Oh..." he says, trailing off. "Well, best save that for another time. Right now, let's continue." He evades the strange turn that their conversation had gone in, with a quickness.
Ryan rolls his eyes and slumps back in his chair. "No fun," he mumbles.
"And the Hell-Hound abilities are still dormant, correct?" The doctor continues to scribble on his notepad.
"Yep," the auburn-haired man sighs.
"Will we continue to process variants of the other species or are you satisfied with your current results?" The doctor pauses only to glance up at Ryan briefly, who still stares blankly at the ceiling. "However, I do advise that you don't overdo it since with the Hell-Hound genes being benign, we have no idea what adding other species on top of that will do."
Ryan contemplates the doctor's words silently, not wavering as he does so. His body remains still on the chair, a tingling sensation now pricking at his spine. Oh God please no, he thinks—but his thoughts do nothing for him, and he is immediately plunged into another hallucination.
A woman squeals at the surprise of the cool temperature of the gel that a nurse had just smeared over her belly.
The nurse laughs at her reaction and rubs her glove-covered hand over the woman's decently sized bump, a contrast to her tall, thin figure. "Ok, now I'm just going to place this here, and..." The nurse holds an object up to the woman's belly and the machine next to her displays a new image instead of just a black screen. "There they are."
A soft heartbeat fills the silent room.
"That's amazing," Ryan whispers, his dark green eyes staring down at his wife's stomach, astonishment in his warm gaze, and an immense amount of love in his heart.
"Mr. West?" Dr. Henry asks the man, knowing from the clouded irises that he's out of it, but still tries to pull him back to reality. "Mr. West?" He tries again.
Ryan finally moves his gaze to the doctor, the cloudiness leaving his forest green eyes. "The Caladrius genomes. Are they working for her?" He asks with a forcefulness behind his words.
The doctor pauses and stares at his clipboard, his body gone still.
"Dr. Henry—."
"It's complicated, Mr. West." He looks up, his soft green eyes showing pity for the man with a stone front but hides a broken soul. "Her body is doing great, it's just the brain that we have yet to get a response from. I'm afraid if we don't see any progression, we will have to declare her brain dead."
Ryan clicks his tongue and narrows his eyes on the older man who sits across from him. "Then I suggest you figure out something quick." He sighs and runs his tongue over his lips. "If she doesn't wake up, then you will all join her. Except, you'll wish you were brain dead."
An involuntary shiver embraces the doctor and his clipboard slips from his fingers, landing in his lap, and his pen clattering on the ground next to him.
Ryan ends the brief visit by hopping up from the table and leaving. He doesn't even bother to close the door behind him. His body is stiff as her walks through the wide, white hallways. Useless doctor, he thinks. I'll find a way, even if I have to do this all myself. He finally reaches a set of doubles doors at the end of a hallway he had just entered. With an aggressive shove the doors fling open, hitting the walls with a loud smash. The sound of glass exploding echoes through the large warehouse.
The few scientists and doctors that lingered about the room came rushing over to see what is happening.
"Mr. West!" One woman exclaims. "Is everything alright?" She asks cautiously, keeping her distance from him.
In his chest, Ryan can feel his heartbeat rising to an irregular pace and his breathe, instead of becoming heavy, is shallow.
"Mr. West?" A different man asks.
But the gentleman with the grant and slightly terrifying entrance pays them zero attention. He heads straight for the center of the warehouse, pushing through the lab-coats as he goes. Tall, cinderblock pillars that making a wide oval in the center of the wide area, encapsule a glass containment. This opaque barrier houses a large workstation that is used by the scientists as well as the doctors that work there. And, behind that workstation, is a glass basin, made of the same glass.
Ryan swiftly enters the containment and heads straight for the small basin. When he reaches it, his eyes take in every inch of the infant that lays on a soft bed, an abundance of wires and the sort attached to them.
The first sight of true emotion in the auburn-haired man is seen by the other workers who watch carefully, from a distance, the scene unfolding before them. A single tear rolls down his fair skin.
Then suddenly he spins on his heels and stares at his audience, intensity shining through the film of water that has misted his eyes. "Do something." He says calmly, his face still as stone.
The lab-coats are frozen, no one knowing how to react.
"Do something!" Ryan screams at them, his cool persona shattering like the glass laying on the floor where the doors once were.