Chapter 6

A couple of hours later, the dining room has been turned into a make-shift lab. The dining room because Reana can't stand the thought of those things in her kitchen. The specimens have been transferred to an old aquarium from the basement. Jeff is in charge of this end of things completely. He's the chemist slash scientist. At the college, he's the head chemistry professor. He teaches the advanced course for serious chemistry students. Between himself, Brian, Steve and Yvette, he has himself a complete team with Brian being pre-med, Steve majoring in biology and Yvette with her serious entomology hobby. Reana is left to do the one of the things she does best, crunch numbers for them. She doesn't care for dissecting and stuff like that. She can do it. She earned an A in Bio 101. As if she would ever allow herself to earn anything less. Reana simply prefers not to dissect if she doesn't have to.

"Jeff," Reana tired of going over tests results and crunching numbers, "Jeff, it's late. We've been at it for hours. Every one's sleepy. If we don't get rest, we'll make mistakes. No one can think clearly when they're overtired."

Jeff sits up away from the microscope. He pinches the bridge of his nose, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "I know," he tells Reana. He looks around. They are all tired and it shows on the faces of the young adults.

"Okay, people," Jeff standing, "Let's call it a night."

"Thank you," Steve runs his fingers back through his raven hair.

"Alright," says Reana authoritatively, "Yvette, you get the spare bedroom upstairs. Guys, you can either share Jeff's old room or each take a click-clack in the living room. Everyone knows where towels, wash clothes, etc. are at. If you need something ask now. Don't come knocking on our door in the middle of the night unless there's an emergency."

This is the first night Reana and Jeff will spend together in the master bedroom of their home. Reana watches Jeff pace back and forth in his boxers as she brushes her teeth at what is now her side of the double vanity. He's still pacing when Reana slips into bed.

"Jeff," Reana calls softly, "come to bed. You're wearing a groove in that beautiful old hard wood floor."

Jeff nods that he heard her, goes to the bathroom and after washing his hands, climbs into bed with Reana. Jeff sits there frozen for a moment, "Feels a little weird knowing this was Libby and Larry's room."

Reana nods her understanding, "And it's been mine the past few years. And before it was theirs, it was Uncle Q's. And Uncle Q shared this room with Uncle Carl. It must have been difficult for Uncle Q the first week or so without Uncle Carl. It took me about a month to get used to it."

"Still feels weird right now," states Jeff.

"The point is, things change. And all that matters, are the present occupants of this room," Reana tells Jeff.

"Where did all that wisdom come from," ask Jeff.

"Hereditary gift from Uncle Q," answers Reana with a warm smile.

"Well, I'm certainly glad that's the only thing you inherited from Uncle Q," comments Jeff as he curls around Reana. Both are too tired to do anything but fall straight to sleep.

Reana is the first to wake. She eases out from under Jeff's arm without waking him. She brushes her teeth and hops in the shower. Jeff senses the absence of Reana's body. He's never before felt so keenly the absence of a woman's body from beside his. Previously, he was always glad and relieved the female was gone and no longer demanding to be cuddled or rattling off inane female chatter at him. But as Jeff feels for Reana, and his brain acknowledges the sound of the shower in conjunction with her absence, sleep is finished for Jeff. Not as much washing gets done in the shower as Reana expected.

Breakfast is on the kitchen table getting cold by the time the rest of the sleepyheads in the house wander into the kitchen. Jeff and Reana are sitting at the table with their hair still damp, sipping cocoa and going over the previous day's lab results.

Yvette grabs a plate and a coffee mug as she ask, "You two ate already?"

"Yep," Jeff answers lifting his cup of cocoa to his lips.

Yvette doesn't miss that both Reana and Jeff each have a hickey on their necks that wasn't there the previous day. But Yvette thinks it would be rude to say anything.

But Brian has no sense of rudeness or being polite, "Good Lord, did you two try to hoover each other to death or what?"

Yvette glares at Brian across the table and utters one word, "Ass."

"What," ask Brian mystified.

"Dude," says Steve smiling and shaking his head, "How can someone so smart be so dense?"

Brian shrugs and shovels a fork full of scrambled eggs into his mouth. Reana and Jeff have been so engrossed in their review of the tests results and notes that neither has truly registered what Brian said.

Then as if an actual light bulb goes off inside her head, Reana jerks erect from the papers on the table in front of her, "I'll be right back."

Steve gets a strange look on his face as he watches Reana walk around the table, "Reana, you're limping."

"No, I'm not," but to Reana's dismay, she knows they can all watch her walk to the bottom of the staircase from the kitchen. So, her attempt to straighten and walk straight causes her to walk freakishly stiff.

But someone has finally said something that penetrates Jeff's brain, "Reana's limping?"

Steve and Yvette both nod at Jeff. Their faces show concern for Reana's wellbeing as they hear her footfalls on the stairs.

"You're the man," Brian tells Jeff with a huge grin, "You got her walking funny."

Yvette and Steve both stare at Brian in shock mixed with outrage.

"Brian," Jeff getting up from the table, "Yvette is absolutely correct. You're an ass. So, I'm giving you a piece of advice you'll probably never put to use. You should only speak when spoken to... Now, here's something I know you'll understand and appreciate. If you make another off color remark about Reana in my presence, I'll pound you into the ground head first." Then Jeff walks away.

Reana finds what she's looking for in the attic. She actually appreciates her own pack-rat habits. When she appears at the top of the stairs, Jeff doesn't notice what she's carrying. Jeff does notice the slight limp and her smile. She stops on the bottom step which nearly makes her eye level with Jeff.

"You're limping," Jeff states.

Reana blushes slightly, "I pulled a muscle in the shower this morning."

Jeff is a bit angry with himself, "Why didn't you say something? If I do anything that makes you uncomfortable, that you don't like, you don't want to do... if I'm hurting you, tell me. I don't want to hurt you."

Reana sets her object down on a step behind her. Then she puts her arms around him, her hands feeling as she draws a leg up around him and whispers in his ear, "At that particular moment, I wasn't experiencing any pain, only exquisite pleasure. Now it's your job to make me feel like that again, again and again. I also learned this morning that you held back with me those first two nights. That's not allowed anymore. You must always give your whole self to me. Understand?"

Jeff answers Reana with a long deep kiss.

"Jiminy Crickets," Yvette throwing her hands over her eyes, "I'm so sorry. I was just trying to get away from tweedle dumb and tweedle dumbest." It wasn't the kiss that embarrassed Yvette. It was the wandering hands that embarrassed her.

Reana reclaims her object from the step, "You can uncover your eyes, Yvette. Brian picking on you again?"

"Yes," Yvette clearly angry, "and Steve doesn't help because he keeps laughing and Brian just feeds off that."

"Well, it's just his way of dealing with the situation," says Reana.

"What have you got there, honey," ask Jeff.

Reana smiles, "A radio chromatograph. I thought it might be useful."

Jeff takes the radio chromatograph from Reana, "This could prove very useful."

Hours later they're discussing their findings. These roaches are inhabited by a nearly translucent parasite. The larger the roach, the larger the parasite seems to be. The parasite emits an extremely low level of radiation, but it would take years of study to discover what effect the parasite is having on the roaches. One possible side effect was the increased size of the roaches. But these roaches have also been exposes to and ingested toxic chemicals, which also could have contributed to the increased size of the roaches. There were too many variables and no way for them to test them properly. No control group of regular cockroaches versus roaches just with parasites, just exposed to radiation, just exposed to the toxic chemicals, two out of the three etc. The only thing for certain was the density of the exoskeleton wasn't increasing with the size of the roach. Hence the bigger the roach, the more fragile it was.