BEGINNING 2
Adam flopped into a chair, exhausted after the baffling day he'd had. He had been working at Genomex for six years, having been picked up by them as soon as he had finished his degree and started his PhD, and the pace they were working him at was wearing him down. For the first few years he'd been travelling around the country, talking to prospective parents and patients and revelling in the freedom and resources that he was being offered by Genomex. After he had offered some advice on the case of a young boy who's genetic code had curiously mutated after treatment, he had been brought right into the thick of the action in the company and risen fast through the ranks, his natural skill out weighing his relative lack of experience. He had just been treating that same boy again when some man - it seemed, though he had little grasp of exactly what had been going on in the baffling chain of events - had tried to kill him and he had been rescued by a group of individuals who had seemed to jump out of nowhere and disappear back into nowhere. A knock on the door disturbed his reverie and he contemplated not answering it, pretending he wasn't in. The knocking intensified and he stood up, sighing. He caught his breath as he answered the door and saw who was standing there.
"Rachel, Amy!" He exclaimed. "How are you?"
"Hey Adam." They hadn't changed at all in the three years it had been since he had seen them last, on Rachel's twenty-fifth. He'd seemed a little out of place at that party, the youngest there at only twenty-two having done his degree earlier than most. Looking between them he regretted not keeping better touch. They shared a glance and he wondered why they had come here today, they obviously had something on their minds.
"So, Adam!" Amy began with her usual enthusiasm. "How ya been? Up to anything interesting recently?" Adam laughed.
"Well, I'm still working where I was last time I saw you, but I'm getting into some of the more exciting things."
"Details?" She bounced. Rachel put one hand on her shoulder and she stilled.
"Adam. We came to see you because Amy and I want to have a baby." Rachel explained awkwardly in her quiet way. A hundred thoughts filled Adam's mind. Why would they come to him? What could he do to help them have a child unless he paled but they wouldn't ask him to do that, would they? They couldn't ask him to
"It's not what you're thinking." Amy interrupted. "We need your brains, not your brawn?" She lifted an eyebrow and cracked up. Adam didn't know whether to be relieved or insulted.
"We want to try and create a child from both of our genes, so that it's part of both of us." Rachel explained as Amy struggled to catch her breath again. "We thought you'd be the best person to come to."
"It's not as simple as it sounds." Adam frowned, already listing the problems in his mind. "It would take a lot of work" He was lost for a moment in the trail of thought. "And it would be risky. Whichever one of you chose to go through with it, you'd be a test subject, anything could happen."
"How long would it take you?"