So it should be obvious that Heather's had a kind of...school girl crush on Herbert despite thirteen years ago. You know how young girls are. ;) Plus, Dan and Francesca celebrate their anniversary in here. And is Herbert really right about Laura's motives? Read and find out!

Chapter Four

Guilty Pleasures

Heather was keeping him updated at her workplace, and it was as he feared: she was working with none other than Herbert West to do what he'd hoped the madman who had once been his roommate in college and partner-in-crime would forget about: obsession with curing death. Only I know better, he thought with a shake of the head as he brought the car carrying him and Francesca in to their favorite restaurant for their ninth anniversary. He won't stop obsessing by a long shot. God help Heather.

Francesca noticed how "distracted" he was. "Danny, please." She sighed. "Let's just stop obsessing over Heather and West for tonight and have this be about us, huh?" He looked at her hand that touched his still clenched on the steering wheel, the one showing the unique golden duo on her finger he gave her all those years ago.

He looked up and smiled at her then. "Okay, yeah. Just tonight." He leaned in and kissed her then, feeling her smile against his mouth and the vibrations sent through the sensitive parts of his lips as she laughed.

After that was when he stepped out of the car and walked around to get her out of there. Her dress was short and sexy black lace, baring her arms and plunging low; she took his breath away, and it made him all the more eager to give her the present he'd saved all this time for her. And he couldn't wait until after dinner; he popped the top of the waiting bottle off after the waiter took their orders. This was when Dan reached into his jacket pocket to pull out the square box and held it before her widened eyes.

"Oh, my God, Dan, is it –?" Her brown orbs sparkled brighter when he opened it to show something that blended royalty and affection, something that was carried on forever. The diamonds were square halos ending with a great pear-shaped drop. "Oh, it's beautiful."

"Happy anniversary, baby," he said with a grin, handing it to her and getting a broader one back. And hopefully, many more to come. It had been a long, hard road for them both since the beginning, but thankfully they lasted so far. His desire for happiness had almost been deprived from him, and he'd paid the price for aiding a crime against nature...although with the still-ongoing deaths of patients at the hospital, even now he still wondered if he did the right thing in putting West away.

~o~

Turning on the cut-style lamp of her apartment, Heather came home exhausted to her bones to a place of mild exotic tones and comfortable surroundings: brown suede lounge chair and sofa with tables of wrought iron and marble, corner composite TV stand, soft cream curtains draping the windows, soft taupe carpeting, a tall scrolled drawer console, and a stoned fireplace which added rustic charm. The soft trickle of water from the broken pottery inspired table fountain in the corner soothed her nerves if not all the way.

She walked into her small kitchen, bare feet padding the floor for a bottle of beer and popped the top, taking a swig of the hard-flavored but smooth beverage; she groaned loudly at the calming of her tense muscles and nerves. Dan had taken Francesca out for their anniversary dinner, so Heather was disappointed that she couldn't be there to help them celebrate because it was so late, but that wasn't the only thing that got to her. A certain doctoral inmate at the prison ignited the fire in her blood whenever she remembered him using her sister against her to keep her from backing out.

Okay, she would admit it, he was right that Emily wouldn't want her to step out. This might be the only chance she would have at an opportunity like this. But still, that negative feeling wouldn't leave her be.

Thinking of Herbert and his handsome face in her mind, not even much close to aged despite the fact he was, coupled with the effects of the alcohol she finished down, Heather felt a gathering of moisture between her legs and revved the engine down there, making her toss the empty bottle into the trash can and stalk back out into the living room and through the doorway where her bedroom was. The shoji lamps came on, the serene glow of light creating a natural calm to the room but not to the molten fire down below her body. Heather crossed to the Far-East-inspired folding screen where she changed and stripped down so she was in just her light blue blouse and thin white bikini underwear. Afterwards, she hurried over to her bed and flopped on top of the red-and-gray, cherry blossom embroidered comforter and reached over to the top drawer of her nightstand, pulling out the folder-booklet of newspaper clippings and photographs of Dr. Herbert West – a much younger but still sullen-looking Dr. Herbert West – and everything on him she'd collected since she was barely a teenager. Detailing the "life-like body parts" and walking dead.

When you're a teenager, you go through the "awakening", and that included something more mature than you were allowed to take a look at under the supervision of parents or legal guardians. This was one of them. It was hard to describe other than hormonal changes and testosterone levels that you don't control on your own. Early on, just shortly before she turned twelve – the same time period Emily died and Dr. West apprehended – Heather collected these clippings out of sheer interest to keep her sister's memory alive and later on her steadily growing "obsession".

But that wasn't the half of it.

Heather placed the pictures in front of her and laid down on her stomach, her hand under her side and slipping beneath the thin fabric of her underwear, first meeting the mild obstacle that was her lower nest until she found the sensitive nub beneath, moaning and leaning forward at the exquisite sensations mostly from looking down at the younger face of the man whose assistance she requested...all being a shell for the Warden, so underneath it was he who was in charge. But how would he be as a lover?

She leaned forward more to stifle her moans into the covers to the side of the collection labeled MISKATONIC MASSACRE showing his face, with the sterner, older version currently on her mind as she tried to answer that question with each pump of her clit between her middle and third fingers. He doesn't seem like the type; he doesn't even seem interested in me. Why would he when his work is all he's cared about?

Thinking that, she jerked her attention to the wall space beside the changing screen where the wall sign read "Life is too short: live, laugh and love to the fullest". It had been in her family for generations, and as ridiculous as it sounded, life was so short, indeed. People dying everyday without living life to the fullest. Emily had wanted to get married to Rich and have a family, be a journalist, before it was all taken from her. Heather and her parents never saw Rich again after that. Love faded in their house after her demise, and regret had lived in Heather for it all.

You heard Herbert today. Her body is too rotten to be brought back, and you heard him say that she wouldn't have wanted you to give up. Keep going; this is all you have left.

She shoved the thoughts back to her head and returned to Herbert, thinking of his face and his body structure, his voice, everything which had fixated her in his every saunter and steps, his mannerisms which labeled him smarter than any of her patients in there. All of it was so wrong but so good at the same time; Heather admitted to a slight form of a crush, but it couldn't go as far as to actually having a relationship. She was the prison doctor, and he a former doctor at the same medical school she'd gone to serving a life sentence; crossing the barrier would lead to regret later on. Besides, she didn't believe in premarital sexual activity.

But that didn't stop her from picturing his face and trying to imagine how his body looked without any clothes on; the image of a man nearly two decades her senior in that state brought a heavy blush to her cheeks, but the heat below was hotter than the rest of her body as she worked herself to the end. There's something about him I don't think I can resist...oh, here it comes...

Her release was a powerful climax, the pleasure amazing but brief and leaving her feel empty so suddenly. This was all so silly because she had sexual fantasies about a man who was a villain in the eyes of the rest of the world, but they probably misunderstood. She let out a heavy breath and lay on her side, her hand moist with her own fluids, just laying there and staring at young Dr. West's face in the decade-old newspaper while listening to her own heartbeat pounding louder than thunder.

And then the phone rang, making her scream and jump out of her skin. She fell off the bed, landing on her clumsy ass for a moment before getting up and sitting on the left side of the bed facing her home phone and picking it up, answering upon recognizing the number. "Hi, Dan, how did the dinner date go?"

"It was great, but I wish you were there. We've made it so far I hope we last longer," he answered with a laugh. "What about you? Did I interrupt something?"

Heather blushed hotly, looking behind her at the pictures and articles still out as well as feeling the remaining throb of her orgasm. "Nope, not really. Just got home a little bit ago."

She could just hear the smirk. "Something I should know?"

Her heart skipped a beat. "Depends on what that is."

"Come on, Heather, admit you're seeing someone outside work now."

"Oh, my God, seeing someone so soon? Daniel, what makes you think I would so soon, or am even the least bit interested?"

"Because your voice sounds like you just had a heavy first time and you enjoyed it." She just about fell backwards, squealing with laughter but feeling embarrassed that a man of all people – one of her only friends left – was calling a one-night stand that didn't even exist. "I know this all from experience, Heather."

What can I tell him? He'll find out eventually, so might as well tell him half now and half later. "Okay, there is someone, but he's not even here."

He burst into a guffaw of laughter. "I knew it!" was all she heard him say before his wife's soft Italian accent was heard.

"Daniel, leave her alone!" Francesca was in mock-rage before turning to joking. "Sorry, Heather. But tell us about him." She sounded like a giddy schoolgirl hungry for details of the first time.

"There isn't much just yet; we just met. I have to admit he's so hard to read, but he's very smart and all. Except I'm not sure if he'd be interested in me, much less engage in small talk. And we've known each other for a little while before my first day on the job."

Francesca giggled hysterically. "Oooh, then be the one to make the first move. It's one of the best ways to get him to snap and turn the tables on you."

The suggestion shocked her. "Fran, you know I can't give my body so soon!"

"No, I'm not saying tha – Dan, stop, I'm on the phone!" Her husband's deep chuckles were heard; he was probably trying to nibble her neck and get her to stop talking so he could get her into bed for their anniversary. "Heather, remember what I taught you about where a man likes to be touched?"

She was tempted to hang up right now; she was too deep in post-self-pleasure state and embarrassed to deal with this anymore. "Yeah, of course I do."

"Use those wiles on him, but make sure you two don't go too far, unless you both know for sure you're ready. Man and woman relate to life together, but it isn't to be taken lightly either."

~o~

Things were looking up so far over the last three days. Heather was in charge on the outside of their secret laboratory; in the lab itself, it was Herbert who was in charge. He smiled to himself when he thought of the dominance roles switched around. Oh, yes, very pleasant indeed. Imagine that I am the leading male in the show.

He had decided that he rather enjoyed her company indefinitely, and she his, sort of. She didn't pester him about anything to be precise, except there was one time she tried asking him about his past to which he scoffed and walked away from it. His youth was of little concern to anyone; what happened in the past stayed in the past. He barely remembered much of anything besides being orphaned before he was old enough to walk and talk; the only figure he knew was Dr. Gruber who took him in Switzerland, the only place he knew and grew up before the old man died. What would Heather Phillips know and understand since she lost a sister and was estranged from her parents, not compared to him?

He was writing down the latest improvement of the development of the formula – due to limited time here, they had to take small but quick steps each day until the recreation of the re-agent was complete – when he felt her presence behind him and her shadow partially looming over him to see what he was writing. Herbert would normally brush someone off because it made him annoyed that they were snooping, but she didn't last long and moved away; however, he still sensed her behind him, and felt her hands on his shoulders. He stiffened and clenched his pencil when her fingers began to massage his firm shoulders, trying his hardest to keep a sound from escaping, but the moan forced its way out of his mouth at the sensational jolts through his nerves when she struck certain key points in his muscles.

"H-Heather, please," he tried to say. "Just...stop."

"You don't like this?" she queried innocently.

"T-that's beside the point." He hated how he was stuttering in his normally perfect speech. But it felt so good, something he hadn't felt in a long time...

Herbert stood abruptly, letting his pencil drop onto the opened notebook, turned around and faced Heather, looking her down. His body was changing, and he didn't like it one bit, not at the present when there was so much work to be done. He didn't have the time to have this woman distract him from the important job ahead. Her eyes were glassy and dark, making his mouth water – he shook his head and leaned down to roughly kiss her, no tongue involved even though she did try to force her own into his, but he closed his tight enough to prevent that from slipping any further in, and drew his head back before taking her by both the wrists and whirling them both around so he had her back against a wall, glowering deeply into her eyes. She glared back, her soft pink lower lip curling into a snarl he found amusing. This game of the battle of the genders was too much for him.

"We have...work to do." His voice sounded breathless to his own ears, and she said nothing, just continued to glare at him. He knew what she'd been trying to do, and it wouldn't work. Not now. "There is plenty of time for lewd pleasure."

She huffed and struggled against him. "All work and no play, huh, Dr. West?"

"Don't tease me, Dr. Phillips," he growled. "Just what exactly do you know about these things?"

"I'm a virgin," she answered coolly and casually; of course, he expected that and knew she had to be. They were on that same page. "But that didn't stop me from researching."

His boiling point subsided, and Herbert smirked at her. "So did I." He let himself slip back into himself and let her go. "Now let's get back to work, Doctor." She was rubbing her wrists and glaring at him the whole time she went back to work to mix a batch in one of the beakers, her back facing him the whole time. Herbert tried to busy himself searching for the nearest capsule for the next subject, and even though he made it look like to her for the rest of the time that he wasn't noticing her when he actually was, but how much longer could they both keep this up?

The penitentiary alarm rang nearly the end of the day, signaling all prisoners return to their cells. Along the way, Herbert passed Heather out the front door of the infirmary. "Check on Moses for me, will you?" He already knew the answer that the old cannibal was worse than ever, not that he cared, but he was the chance to prove his theory that the Nano-Plasmic Energy was the same in both species. Until then, it was a theory, and like any other theory, it meant nothing until proven.

~o~

She hadn't seen Laura much outside work the last three days, so today she decided to stop by and visit her friend, bringing by a movie and making some popcorn, as well as deciding to stay over for the night, but the whole time the two women enjoyed Night of the Living Dead – something she grew up being scared of as a child until she was a preteen – she couldn't stop thinking about a number of things, and Laura didn't help much either.

"I thought you weren't coming by," she said as she stuffed a small handful of popcorn in her mouth.

"I was working late," Heather answered distractedly. "Clinic stuff, you know?" When Laura didn't answer her, she turned her head to the side to see the other pair of blue eyes on her, studying her in a way she knew better. She threw her head back. "Oh, come on, what are you doing? Investigating me?" What if Herbert was right, too, and I should have listened? Investigating me, asking me so many questions...but she's the first real girl friend I've had since Bianca left.

Laura shrugged, undaunted. "I was just wondering how the old man was doing."

"He's fine." But her nod was too brusque; no, it was a lie. Moses was worse than ever, bleeding more and more, constantly howling in pain, his pulse erratic from the Warden allowing her to check him once in a while. She could even feel the bastard's eyes on her all the time, like he knew she was trouble, and it made her skin crawl. If he found out about what she and Herbert were up to in the infirmary basement...oh, boy, who knew what he would do. And there was also Herbert. She silently cursed herself. How could she have been so stupid to do what she did? She didn't know what she did anymore half the time, but why did she have to act out and touch him that way? He was stone-cold and emotionless as it was...but maybe not on the inside, her other self tried to tempt her, before Laura brought her back to reality. He's just hiding it.

"Really?"

"He is, but he just...doesn't seem human anymore. Shouldn't have..." Shouldn't have given him the injection on the first day, so soon...shouldn't have let my feelings get the better of me...and so many other things I shouldn't have.

Laura was leaning in closer enough for her face to be inches away, almost like she was trying to kiss her to get information. "Shouldn't have what?" she pressed.

Now Heather felt like she was really cracking under pressure. "Oh, nothing." She moved back into the couch further away, ignoring the screams on the TV screen and instead focusing on her inquisitive friend. "So, what are we talking about besides this?" she asked with a smile. "Did you take my advice?"

"It's the story I'm working on; I've figured out some stuff, but it's really just speculation."

"You need hard facts."

"Yeah, but to get them, I'm gonna have to take some risks." Laura leaned in with a devious smirk on her face. "So what do I do: play it safe...or go for it?"

"No question," Heather answered cockily. "You gotta go for it. You gotta take some chances."

Laura did lean in and kiss her, but a brief peck on the nose only to make Heather giggle, and then returned to the movie then. "That's what you do, don't you?"

"I sure do," Heather answered as she took a sip of Coke. "So tell me what your new story is."

She received a snort of a giggle. "Can't tell you just yet."

"Oh, secrets now?" Heather smiled.

"Every girl has a few secrets, after all."

Little did she know was that her so-called friend had pictures and old newspaper clippings in the other room which was her work room, with titles ranging from: VIOLENT BEHAVIOR IN WEST'S PATIENTS...STOLEN BODY PARTS WITH LIFE-LIKE ANIMATION...ARREST OF DOCTOR HERBERT WEST...

But most importantly this one, which she had in her own room: MISKATONIC MASSACRE. And a picture of the man himself, glaring at the camera taking his mugshot for public humiliation.

So yeah, Herbert WAS right. And poor Heather, her friendship used by the other girl who is trying to build her story up. But on the spicier side: I think Herbert really wants Heather that way but won't act on it so soon. :) It's also a personal belief of mine about sex, that it is between two people who actually care about each other, and save yourself for marriage as the best way. They're really that special.