YES! yes, I realize you are mad at me.... I've been lazy and slacking. I just couldn't get myself pumped for this chapter, even though I've been looking forward to writing it since I came up with the heat idea! Don't ask me, I don't know... Anyway, I apologize, don't assassinate me just yet.
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Chapter 15
Eve's POV
"It's Eve..." Uncle Zack said in a quiet voice. All I could really do at the moment was stand there in the middle of the living room, confused beyond confusion. What did he mean, it's me? Pheromones... Where have I heard that before? I can't remember, I think in my zoology class last year.
"What?" My dad says in a weak voice. There's so much fear in his eyes it scares me. Zack shakes his head violently, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. What the hell is going on?
"Nothing, never mind Logan. Don't worry about it, really." He says it quickly and panicky, pushing and urging my dad back into the kitchen, and making sure he stays there. I'd laugh if I weren't so frightened. I notice suddenly that Max is looking at me very oddly, almost... sadly. My bewilderment and fear rise inside me and I'm an inch away from physical violence. I want, I need answers now.
I open my mouth to demand explanation, but Zack spins sharply and approaches me, Max also coming nearer. I can feel my eyes widen, and my mouth form a small O. I wait for a moment, the silence in the room suddenly seeming very stifling. I watch as Zack slowly turns his head to Max, exchanging a neutral look with her, then slowly turn his head back to me.
"Damn it!" Zack says angrily, clutching his face in what appears to be frustration. I hear Max let out a deep sigh beside me.
"Ok, what the fu..." I huff, not feeling the need to curse at the moment. I let myself take a few lung-fulls of air before trying again. "What is going on that I don't know about, yet seems to be directly connected to me?"
"Eve..." Max says in an odd voice. "Do... Do you know what pheromones are?" I shake my head, trying to anticipate what's next.
"I remember the word from zoology class, but I can't rem..." I stop dead in my sentence. Oh. My. Holy. Christ. Pheromones. It comes back full force, hitting my square in the chest. A hormone, giving off a particular scent from females, to attract males. Mostly when the female is fertile, or in heat. Shit. I'm in... No way, this can't be.
I look up at Max hopelessly. She side glances at Zack, the two communicating wordlessly. I don't even try to decipher it. I think my patience just tripled, along with exhaustion. Zack nods shortly, and walks into the kitchen leaving me standing in the dark living room with my long lost mother, in heat.
"Am I in..." I realize all of a sudden I have no idea how to word it. "What I think I'm in?" She wraps a comforting arm around me, pushing me slightly towards the door.
"Come on, let's go see Original Cindy."
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Zack's POV
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. No way this is happening. Why did she have to do it right now? It can't get any worse, I just know it can't. First off, we have Max back, which in itself is good, but makes this much more hectic than it should be. Then there is that pesky X8 kid, Leo, whatever, who decided to drop in. Then a seizure to get things stirred up, and the final stir, the Leo kid wiggles out of his ties. Why is this all happening at once? There must be someone out to make our lives as difficult as they see fit. Oh yeah, Mighty Manny, Manticore the god.
While blurring through my own thoughts I walk into the kitchen and see Logan sitting at the counter slumped over. Actually, I see him via night vision, since for some weird reason, he decided to turn the lights off. But I just ignore him, opening the fridge and reaching in to grab a milk carton and shutting the door quietly. He still doesn't respond, so I decide the best thing is to make him freaking wake up already. God, this man is so damn sensitive. So, what else is there to do but shock him out of his daydream by raising the cardboard container to my mouth and take a drink...
"Don't even think about it." He states firmly. I smile into the darkness, mainly just because he can't see it, and get a glass from the dishwasher. "Zack." I look up as he says my name, obediently waiting for him to continue. I really have way too much tolerance for this guy. "When you said... Did you mean..." He stumbles a bit, looking up at me, a little lost boy expression on his face. "Is she?"
I sigh. Even though he has a right to know, more than a right to know, I just don't need him freaking out on me at the moment about his 'little girl'. "Nah, don't worry about it. I think it was coming off Leo, it was a very faint scent, the kid may have been at home base more recently than we expected. I've been getting whiffs of the stuff ever since he got here. Probably one of his sisters was in a heavy heat just as he left Manticore." I'm lying through my teeth, but it's not like it bothers me. I've lied my way through most my life, so what's a few more sentences to Logan? It's barely a logical explanation, but with Logan in his state of near shock, he'd believe that Lydecker was a drag queen if he wanted to believe it. I wish I hadn't been programmed with such a graphic mind for thinking up war tactics and combat moves. Bad pictures.
I'm letting myself get off task. I need to plan, to be in control. As I start sorting through my thoughts and training, I dimly realize that I've started pacing. That, and Logan is watching me like a freaking hawk. I don't look at him, just keep my eyes staring at empty space, straight ahead.
"Logan." I say, more to get his attention than start a sentence. He jerks out of his thoughts and focuses tiredly on me. "I'm going to have to investigate this." He cocks his head slightly, confused. "I need to figure out exactly how long ago Leo was at Manticore, since I can still smell the..." I explain.
So I'm lying, who cares? It's all to save Logan some stress, so the ends justify the means. What I really need to figure out why Eve had that damn seizure, and how the heat ties into this shit. But I can't have Logan doing the research, so how the hell can I get him to go away?
"You need sleep, just give me the number to that Sebastian guy we talk to about Eve about sometimes, and you take a nap. I can tell you are tired, you look like crap." There, I mentally applaud myself. It sounds like I'm doing him a nice thing, and I get to do some solo research with wheelchair boy number two.
"Gee, thanks Zack." He scrubs his face with his hands to wake himself up a bit more I suppose, and closes his eyes a moment. I wait impatiently for his decision, preparing the next few lines of my little white lie in case he objects. Logan sighs heavily, then opens his eyes again to stare at an apple on the counter. "Fine, I'll get Sebastian on the line and fill him in on the past events, and then you'll take over." I nod silently, taking a few gulps of the milk I had nearly forgotten pouring myself.
He wheels out and I hear him typing quickly on his computers, then a minute later the familiar mechanic voice of wheelchair boy number two comes on. I don't bother tuning in on Logan's version of what went down with Max, Eve, and Leo, but I notice he doesn't mention the seizures. But he does brief Sebastian on my fake theory on the pheromones.
"Zack." He calls, and I walk into the room, setting down my milk nearby. "All set. Where are the girls?" He asks, looking around to emphasize his point.
"They went to go visit Cindy. They will probably be gone a while, she'll be happy to see them." I note the small smile on his lips at Cindy's name, letting myself recall the strong, black, streetwise female. She was superior and confident, but her style would give Manticore a heart attack. I quickly hide the smile that was dangerously close to revealing itself on my face, and wait for Logan to leave the room.
Soon as I hear the bedroom door close, I pull on the headset phone, turning to face the monitor displaying the handicap genius on the other end of the line. "Ok, here's the thing. The whole thing about Leo having stale pheromones on him was a lie, just an excuse to get him to relax. What I really need is your help on some new developments with Eve."
"Is she okay?" The broken words piece together. I nod, then remember that I could see him, but he couldn't see me.
"Yes. As of now. What Logan failed to mention is that earlier tonight she collapsed into a fit of tremors, similar to the standard X5 seizure. Yet she has never displayed any symptoms of this problem before. Her brain secretes tryptophan normally."
He pauses for a moment, then begins pulling up files on another monitor close by his left side. "Well, as you know, most seizures occur when there is an imbalance in the brain. Yours is chemical and genetic. So I have to guess Eve's is too, because I suppose you would have mentioned if she had bumped her head severely recently. Eve's genes have always been fragile, regardless of how strong she appears on the outside. My only theory as of now is that she had a major chemical switch in her body, causing a severe imbalance that resulted in the tremors you saw. How long did the seizure last? What medicine stopped it?"
I sit dumbfounded for a moment. For some reason, my brain isn't working as quickly as usual, but I know that something in what he just said clicked in my thoughts. What it was, I don't know. "She... The seizure lasted about two or three minutes, I suppose. We were sort of distracted at the time." I wonder if that sounded more bitter than I intended.
"Well, what about medication? What finally ended the episode?"
"Nothing. That's what gets me. We tried tryptophan at first, but it didn't work, and then she just stopped shaking, stood up, and was fine. She wasn't tired or anything." I watch as Sebastian sits still for a moment, obviously thinking it through. All I can do is anxiously await his wisdom.
"That's odd. All I can assume is that there was a severe switch in hormones or chemicals of some sort inside her that was settled immediately. Much like a stick shift switching gears. Yet I can't think of any new hormones of any sort that would cause such a violent reaction. My first impulse is to say estrogen, but that would have happened at the beginning of puberty, and Eve is well through those changes."
"Oh my God." I can literally feel the light bulb click on in my brain tissue.
"What?"
"Could it be the onset of heat? Could those chemicals and hormones be a large enough switch to cause a seizure?" I ask slowly and quietly, near fearing the response.
"Well, yes. Do you think Eve went into heat?" I know that if his voice simulator allowed it, he would have sounded incredibly surprised.
"I know she did. She is most certainly in heat." I rub my brow in frustration, knowing Sebastian was patiently awaiting my explanation. "After the seizures, she walked out of the kitchen to find that Leo kid out of his restraints, just standing there. Not trying to escape, just standing there staring at her. He looked so..." I shake my head lightly, not feeling a need to continue. "Well, after Max and I tied him back up with no resistance, which was odd, I could smell the pheromones on her when I was near her."
"Well, at least you guys knew it might happen. It wasn't a total surprise."
"Yeah, but did she have to do it now? I wish she could have waited awhile." I see a small smile form on his lips. Yeah, I guess the idea of her doing it on purpose is a little stupid.
"And the boy's reaction is totally explained then." I raise my head a bit, confused by his statement. I think he senses it because he continues with that same smile. "The whole purpose of heat is to draw males to females for reproduction." I wince automatically. I feel like Logan. I really should be handling this better, without the worthless emotions. "His drawing to Eve must have been enough to keep him from leaving the apartment."
"Yes, but I never had that strong of a reaction to heat that I couldn't complete a mission of some sort. And his mission was especially urgent."
"True, but I recall Logan telling me that they promoted individuality among the X8s at Manticore with a surplus of feline DNA. His reaction will be stronger than yours. And what you must also watch out for, is Eve's reaction."
I gulped. I did not want to think about Eve acting like that. I have seen the things it gets my sisters to do. Oh Christ.
"Since, of course she holds some cat genes, she will be... aggressive, but especially to the X8. Cats are naturally drawn to their own kind, and the supreme mate. I'm guessing Leo is the most physically fit male around there right now." I sigh. Logan is going to eventually find out. But hopefully Max and Cindy can hold her off until the worst of it is over. Too bad Eve can take down a professional linebacker with her thumb and index finger.
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Oh boy, so, you all know how much I LOVE reviews, and even if you think me unworthy due to the fact this is a really late post. But PLEASE please tell me your opinion. I will love you for it. And the season premiere is this Friday, so I want to start getting this story farther along before any BIG revelations come along in the episodes that will ruin the way my story is going. But anyway thanx for reading, and I love you all very much. REVIEW!