The unsurprising revelation that Alex Industries provided the drugs that Durham Industries used on their employees came to light, every worker and even their boss unknowingly had the drugs slipped to them by unknown people from Alex Industries.
It shocked John and Mary, understandably, and through talking with them, they didn't notice anyone that shouldn't been in the complex, even if there's four thousand employees, they're good at knowing which one's which.
"How are they sneaking in the drugs?" Lila wondered as she looked through the boxes of the drugs. Unmarked, no label, looked like a plain box people buy from box stores to use for shipping, nothing about it would've given a hint of something wrong, unless someone went through it when they shouldn't.
Seeing how the complex's huge with only one entrance and exit, nobody's sneaking in the pallets of boxes without someone raising questions.
Though, with the hidden hallways, they'd probably have their own hidden entrance and exit that nobody knows about that they're able to keep from the employees.
Good questions, no answers.
Theodore's checking through the logs of every employee that worked in Durham Industries, seeing the logged side effects they experienced since they've started unknowingly taking the drugs delivered from Alex Industries.
Seeing the varied side effects and the notations from people who were in charge of writing the logs, made him sick, and in disgust, he shut the log in his hands, before tossing it on the pile.
John's looking through the pile for his and Mary's logs, wanting to know what was written about them, and seeing his friends among the logs, made his stomach queasy, and his dark green eyes watery at the sight of seeing how Sykes lost his appetite from the drugs.
He stopped eating.
Nobody helped him.
Whoever's responsible for drugging him didn't do anything to help him when he stopped eating.
They let him starve.
A boorish man, but he was still one of the nicest people John's known in the complex, once he got to know people, and they killed him.
Wrote it off as a mistake in dosage, nothing more.
Seeing his starved body resting on his bed, that look in his face, it's disheartening, but John hoped he died without feeling every bit of his body shutting down.
Going through the logs, John's hands slowly ramped up as they sorted the logs, seeing familiar names on them.
He continued until he spotted his name, reaching for the log, he immediately opened it. He saw the dosage they gave him and the effects he suffered from the drugs.
"…He's been talking to people who weren't there, doesn't seem aware of people's absence, repeats the same dialogue every day," John read the log on himself, seeing how someone noted the actions he took, talking to people who weren't there anymore, without realizing, and repeating the same tasks every day.
Reading the log, John's blood boiled, and he dropped his log on the ground in a huff, rubbing his throbbing forehead.
The log laying at his feet, John lowered his hand from his face, he felt Mary's soft hand on his shoulder, as she stood next to him.
"They won't get away with it, John," Theodore promises him.
Softly snorting, John looked over at the pile of logs left in a corner thoughtlessly, for all he knew, there's people in those logs he didn't even know because under his drug induced state, he didn't recognize them. He could've been talking to them like they're people he knew, he wouldn't know.
Snapping up the dropped log, Lila went through it, and noticed that it's incomplete.
She brought this up, saying that he should've been under the effects, still, but he wasn't, and looking at the dates, Lila sees his last dosage was over four weeks ago.
He hadn't been given a dose since then, else it would've been written down.
If it'd taken that long for it getting out of his system, then that's the point where there were people in the complex.
Four weeks later, no one except him and Mary.
"Good thinking, Lee," Theodore complimented her as he looked over the log with Lila beside him.
Why John no longer received the drug, there's theories, maybe something happened that resulted in the failure of the latest dosage.
He got his answer when Mary found her log, and went through it.
Her sandy eyes glided over the words, she shared similar reactions with John, but like him, her dosage stopped four weeks, ago.
There's a page missing from her log, there's remnants of a missing paper stuck to the staples in the log, right after the experienced side effects page.
"Um, Theodore, a word, please?" Lila reached out to him while he's still in her head, telepathically.
Theodore asked her what she wanted and she pointed out that she found an empty container for birth control in the medicine cabinet.
Both her and John came out of their drug daze after four weeks, which during this time, they're repeating the same day.
Well, with the knowledge John talked to people who weren't there anymore, maybe Mary thought she was taking her birth control, and failed to realize there weren't any in the container.
Four weeks while the drug worked its way out of their system without them realizing, well, you know the rest.
"But, wouldn't it have affected it, anyway?" Theodore brought up a point that it didn't make sense of them using the drug on Mary if they knew she'd been taking birth control pills. Any number of things affected birth control and taking certain medication risks the effectiveness of the birth control.
"Not unless it's because of the birth control," Lila suggested that the birth control caused issues with the drug and they had to stop giving it to Mary, but also John.
Wouldn't make sense if one half of the pair stopped receiving the drug, the people behind this would've known the consequences by doing it.
Without concrete evidence, it's conjecture, and the courts won't accept it.
Thinking it over, Theodore frowned, and he decided to broach the topic with Mary. Not something he'd ask, but he had no choice, they don't have a fleshed-out timeline of when the people behind this stopped giving the couple the drug and when Mary ran out of pills for her birth control.
"I'm prefacing it as need-to-know, Mary, when did you start taking birth control?" Theodore asks her, confusion on her face, she watched him and Lila stare at each other without seemingly moving their mouths.
She's caught off-guard, but Theodore stated he needed to know, because there's a good chance, they stopped giving her the drug for a reason.
Sheepishly, Mary admitted that she had an implant before switching to the pills, about a year ago, but she started having a bad reaction to it, she needed it removed, and she went on the pill afterwards.
"What sort of reaction?" Theodore inquired more about this incident as he had Lila look over Mary's log, trying to sort out the timeline for them to understand the circumstances leading up to the couple taken off the drug.
Uncomfortable, Mary crossed her arms, as she responded that the doctors told her she experienced an allergic reaction to the implant. If she hadn't gone to the office and had it removed when she did, she might've risked clots or worse.
"Ouch. Did you ever have an allergic reaction before then?" Lila looked up briefly as Mary recalled the period, she had problems with her IUD.
Shaking her head, Mary tells her that she discussed everything with her doctor beforehand, they decided on the IUD as it was considered a better choice after running tests, ensuring that Mary wouldn't have problems.
She shouldn't have any side effects with it, because of the tests, but within a span of weeks after the implantation, she developed the cramps and felt her blood pressure deflate like a beach ball before springing back.
The moment she had a reprieve from the blood pressure fluctuating, she had John rush her back to the office, had them take out her IUD, kept her in the hospital for a spell, then when her bloodwork cleared, she switched to the pills.
"But I never had any problems before," Mary asserts that she didn't experience issues like it before, her and her doctor went through her family history just to be sure that it wouldn't happen.
Looking at each other, Theodore and Lila shared looks, where they deduced that the drug gave her a nasty side effect of affecting her IUD, and likely because of it, they changed her dosage and the formula.
If she been taking her birth control pills on top of the drug that slipped to her unknowingly, it would've caused more problems, but from talking with her, it'd seem she wasn't experiencing issues this time around.
"Something in the IUD disagreed with the drug, or vice versa, and they altered the formula that it wouldn't affect her again when she switched to the pills," Lila noted that it's a tossup that the schemers did something to correct the mistakes that occurred.
Again, conjecture.
Mixing drugs, especially with birth control pills, often leads to either eighteen-year problems or worse.
Somehow, Alex Industries created a drug that worked with the birth control pills and kept it's effectiveness… well… a miracle, but honestly, Lila can't think of how they managed.
Guess they had plenty of money left over from their government contracts to splurge on developments into doing it, which is impressive, but still.
"If she hadn't taken pills in four weeks and it's out of her system by now… and assuming John keeps a box of the usuals in his nightstand…um, I think we know one answer to a question," Lila summed.
Most medications take time going through the motions after taking them, sometimes hours, days, or weeks, and assuming they were going to make sure she remained constantly on her pills, then Mary had no more of the drug in her body by the time she and John gotten out of their haze.
Theodore and Lila turned towards John and Mary as they're anxiously going around the room, trying to find more clues, and Lila told Theodore to say it.
He's aghast at the thought, but Lila reminded him that he's the Doctor, and they'll listen to him.
Oh yes, someone who isn't a licensed medical doctor telling a woman that she's possibly pregnant because the scheming Alex Industries hadn't refilled her prescription, wonderful!
"And if we're wrong?" Theodore inquired what then and Lila responded that it'll be an awkward conversation to be sure, but it'd be one less thing worrying about, assuming it's true that Mary isn't pregnant.
Still, they don't know what the drug is and what it's made of, so they're still stuck on that one.
"Well, unless you have a hidden pregnancy test, I don't think we have much of a choice, Theo," Lila tells him.
Gritting his teeth, Theodore turned his weary head towards the couple and called to them.
They stopped and gone over to him and he uncomfortably asks Mary if she felt anything different since regaining lucidity.
Scratching the side of her head, Mary tells him that she doesn't feel any different, and Theodore inquires in the best to his advantage if she noticed anything amiss.
"Amiss?" Mary looked at him confusingly as Theodore bit his inner lip, not wanting to ask this, but he had to be sure.
Hating himself more, Theodore bluntly tells her, "We think they fobbed your birth control. You stopped taking them when you ran out, but under the effects of the drug, you thought you were still taking them."
It's as blunt as Hammond, but it's the only way for him getting the point across, there's no way for them to be sure, but there's a good chance that Mary's unknowingly pregnant.
Shocked, Mary shared a look with John as they're internally discussing what Theodore said, and as they're internally discussing, there's a look on their faces.
Anyone with two brain cells would've known exactly the look, the shock overtook them instantly.
"But, we would've…" John's shocked at the thought, but as Theodore and Lila said, he and Mary been drugged, they didn't register anything wrong.
As his dark green eyes glisten, a thought hit his mind, and there's a look in his eyes of realization of what else might've happened without them knowing.
Her hand on her stomach, Mary looked down, still in shock, as she glanced up to John, sharing a look with him.