I know I said Monday, but it's ready now. It's unbeta'd again, but the next chapter is going to SunflowerFran, who is back from her European adventure, today.
Chapter 15
Bella
A couple of days after our dinner with Esme and Carlisle, The Fox and I made our way to our new labs. They would be our second home, officially from the beginning of September, but in reality, from today. I loved the place. The labs were far bigger than Oxford's and much newer. I had never made any comparisons when I was happy at Oxford, but when the situation there became untenable and our move to Harvard was confirmed, I was ecstatic. I particularly couldn't wait to see Edward's face when he saw the amazing facilities.
"This is where we'll be working?" he exclaimed as we pulled up on our bikes. "It's huge!"
"Wait until you see inside!"
We walked in, gave our names to the lobby receptionist and she issued us with temporary passes to go up to the labs. Edward's eyes were on stalks.
"I don't think I've ever seen so many windows," he commented just before we headed into the lift. "Are the labs as spacious?"
"Why don't you see for yourself?"
A moment later we walked out of the lift. The floor receptionist issued us with lab coats and directed us to where Carlisle was working. Edward walked slowly, peering through the glass doors into the state-of-the-art laboratories.
"Oh holy fuck. Bella, this is where you did your internship?"
"Yep."
"Why did you come back to Oxford? It's fucking ... I'm speechless."
"Because I had a Fox to capture," I whispered in his ear. He smiled broadly and rubbed my back.
"Bella?" I turned round to see a familiar face. "Oh my God!"
"Riley!" We ran up to each other and hugged, him lifting me off the ground. My friend looked exactly the same as I remembered. Same floppy, sandy hair, same perfect smile, same twinkly baby-blues. The only difference was his clothing; he was wearing a lab coat over his much-more-Riley hot pink Bermudas and black tank-top,
"I cannot believe that you're back! And looking so uber-fierce!"
"Thanks! What are you doing here? Why aren't you on summer 'vay-cay?' I thought you were going on a Florida road trip?"
"My funds were withdrawn thanks to a little incident in Cancun on spring break. The only reason I'm parking my ass here all summer is to show Daddy-O that I can be responsible if I want to." He dropped his voice to a whisper-yell. "I just don't want to."
"What happened in Cancun?"
"Oh, no, honey. I can't share those deets here! It's cool though. I'm following in your footsteps and doing the lab-dork thing. Keeping myself out of trouble too."
"Well, every little helps, although I'm sure you could get yourself in trouble in a paper bag!"
Behind us, Edward cleared his throat, most unsubtly. I followed his gaze to Riley's hand which was still resting in the small of my back.
"Oh, Hi-Hi, who's this, Bella?" he began, looking Edward up and down and licking his lips. "Your sugar daddy? Scha-weet!" Riley said it jokingly- he had absolutely zero tact or filter- but Edward froze and his neck went red. I flitted to my husband's side.
"Actually, Riles, this is ...
As Edward reached for my hand, the door behind us opened.
"Riley, I could hear your squawking all the way over the other side of the lab!" exclaimed Carlisle, pulling off a pair of gloves. "If you don't get your butt back in here and process those samples, there will be hell to pay!"
Riley rolled his eyes skyward.
"Well sorr-ee, Bossman! I got five minutes left on the clock. Those babies are fine!" exclaimed Riley, ignoring Carlisle's frown. "Look, Bella's here! Isn't it the best surprise?"
"I can see that. She and Edward are here because I asked them to come."
"Edward?"
Carlisle ushered us into the lab. Once again, Edward's eyes widened at the space and equipment.
"Riley, this is my husband, Edward. Edward, this is Riley ..."
"Shut up! He's not your husband! Tell me you didn't actually get hitched?"
"Yeah, we did, two weeks ago ..."
"Bitch! How come you didn't invite me?" He pouted and put his hands on his hips.
"We didn't invite anybody, you big drama queen! It was just the two of us by a lake in Italy."
Riley was jumping up and down, squealing so loud I thought the glass would shatter.
"OMG how totally romantic!" He turned to Carlisle. "You knew Bella got married?"
"Yes, we found out at dinner a couple of nights ago."
"I thought you went for dinner with the new Professor ... whatshisname ... Masen?"
"That would be me," said Edward, still quite stiff. "Professor Edward Masen."
"Shut the fuck up!" Riley squealed. "You're the new Prof? Bella, you married PILF-y here?"
"Yes, she did," confirmed my Fox, clearly getting exasperated with Riley's boundless enthusiasm. "Sorry, you are ...?"
"Edward, this is my son, Riley. I guess an introduction got lost among all his noisemaking!"
"Uh, yeah ..." Edward looked over Riley hesitantly, and his grip on my waist tightened. Surely he wasn't jealous of Riley, who was clearly gayer than Liberace? "So, Riley, are you a student at Harvard?"
"Pssh, no way! With Daddy here the boss? I just did my freshman year at NYU."
"It was his third freshman year," murmured Carlisle with disdain. "He hasn't got a clue what he wants to do with his life. He didn't like Yale, said it was too stuffy. He decided to try U-Dub in my hometown of Seattle, and spent all his time drinking coffee and smoking imported European cigarettes. Now he's not sure about NYU."
"I love the Big Apple, Daddy-O! I'm just not sure I'm an academic," Riley exclaimed. "Carlisle here worries about my lack of direction. I don't know why. My dorky sister Katie's so going to follow in his footsteps so he'll have one kid dissecting brains for life. Me, I quite like the idea of doing something creative. Maybe I could be a writer ..."
"As long as you commit to something, Riley,anything, I'll be happy."
"Riley," I mentioned, "what about your samples?"
"Oh shit!" He started jogging to the other end of the lab. "Back in a minute!"
"Thank God those samples aren't actually part of my trials," Carlisle whispered when Riley was out of earshot. "I gave him his own mini project with C. Elegans worms to keep him occupied. If he can handle that, I'll let him handle some actual brain tissue."
"What happened in Cancun?"
"Tequila, nude dancing, rude gestures with a phallic toy, and a Mexican jail."
"Wow."
"Anyway, welcome to Harvard Neurosciences. I really am delighted to have you on board, Edward. Why don't I show you around? Bella, did you want to stay back and chat with Riley, or are you coming too?"
I looked over at Edward; although he wouldn't have minded me staying behind, I could tell that he would prefer me nearby.
"I'll come too."
-cc-
Edward
My ears were still ringing a little from my first meeting with Carlisle's son Riley. Bella had mentioned him in passing a few times but never went into any details. I definitely would have remembered if she had said that Riley Cullen was a super-camp, neon-pink shorts-wearing, screaming banshee with the energy of a kangaroo on nose-candy. He was bursting with youth, and instantly made me feel my age. Forty-one.
Forty-fucking one.
I was instantly, irrationally envious of him, and the fact that Bella seemed to adore him made it even worse. I was just thankful that he was gay, otherwise I might have flown into a jealous rage at the easy way he placed his hands all over my wife.
While Riley tended to his project, Carlisle showed us out of his lab and back to the main lobby.
"We were just in my second lab, and this," he pointed to another glass door, "is my first. This is where you will be working, Bella."
We followed him inside. It was magnificent. There was every kind of equipment possible, and all of it looked new.
"I'll be working in the big lab?" Apparently there was some kudos attached to being in the larger room. "Alongside Sam and the post-docs?"
"Yep. This project is huge, Bella. The potential for finding a way to halt the damage caused by meningitis or encephalitis ..."
"Wow. We could save lives, and save quality of life," she replied, in awe.
"Exactly," agreed Carlisle. "Will you be registering in your maiden or your married name, just out of interest?"
"I'd like my PhD to say 'Isabella Masen' but it will raise too many questions if I start the course in my married name. And I don't want it to seem like I got in because I'm married to the Deputy Head of the department ..."
It was something we had talked about at length. Bella was torn. One the one hand, she loved being identified as Mrs Masen, but she was also adamant that she wanted to be recognised for her academic achievements without allegations of favouritism or nepotism.
"Bella, all Harvard's documentation clearly states my reasons for offering you the PhD, and none of them have anything to do with Edward. I would never have offered it to you if the Faculty Board here hadn't approved me to do so in the first place. In that respect, you don't have to worry."
"But ..." Bella looked over at me. "Slimy ..." she whispered.
Bella's other concern was our former colleagues, especially Aro Volturi, finding out that we were married already. She didn't want any of them to know that we had been in a relationship before we left Oxford. She hated the idea of being the source of gossip and speculation when she had worked so hard to maintain her academic position.
"Bella," I held her hand and entwined our fingers. "I promised you, didn't I, baby, that I would never let him get to you."
"'Slimy?'" enquired Carlisle. "What's going on?"
"Bella's referring to Aro Volturi. He was taking it upon himself to cherry-pick his doctoral students, regardless of their originally stated preferences, even before he had officially started at Oxford. Bella was supposed to be starting in Jasper Hale's lab in September, but Aro decided he wanted her for himself."
"You should read the emails he's sent me, Carlisle, and the card he wrote to Edward ..." Bella shuddered, and I drew her closer.
"If I'm being honest, it was Aro's interest in Bella and his interference in her choice of research programme, as well as his actual appointment, which prompted us to quit."
"Well, I'm extremely glad you did. Not that Bella would ever succumb to his advances the way others have," replied Carlisle.
"You're thinking of Bree Tanner," I stated.
"I am," he agreed.
We took a seat around one of the lab benches.
"Who's Bree Tanner and did he do to her?"
"She was an undergrad at a Scottish university and won the Junior Wellcome Trust Award around ten years ago. She had come from very humble beginnings and worked her socks off to get the accolade," I explained. "She was very impressive, having put forward an extremely pioneering project. Carlisle and I were both on the panel that year. She won, by a country mile."
"She was also very pretty. Dark hair and eyes, like you," added Carlisle. "Aro was at the awards ceremony."
"Apparently he pursued her relentlessly. He sent her flowers, cards, gifts and invitations to international conferences, but she resisted his advances and demands that she applied to Cambridge. Instead she applied to Oxford, where John Gerandy was particularly keen for her to join his lab. It seemed like everything was all set."
"What did Aro do?"
"Bree's PhD at Oxford was to be part-funded by the Wellcome Trust and part-funded by a pharmaceutical company. He somehow managed to persuade them to withdraw their funding for her project at Oxford, and then offered her a place in Cambridge instead. In order to continue at Oxford she would have had to wait another year to secure another sponsor, so she decided to withdraw and go to Cambridge, where her PhD was completely funded by the pharmaceutical company."
"Aro continued his pursuit, and eventually she succumbed."
"She fell quite hard for him, not realising that he was married ..."
"He's married?" Bella exclaimed. "Double Slimy!"
"He's disgusting," I agreed. "You can probably guess the rest."
"He dumped her?"
"Yep, but not before knocking her up."
"The pharmaceutical company wouldn't hold her grant money and she didn't know anybody in Cambridge, so she had nobody to help her with the baby."
"What happened to her?"
"She went back to Scotland and had the child, but with no money and an infant to look after, she couldn't return to doing a PhD," explained Carlisle.
"Instead, she became a biology teacher. She got married to a colleague and is happy enough teaching, but mourns the loss of her research career deeply."
"How did you find out what happened to her?"
"Carlisle and I were having a conversation on Skype one day a couple of years ago, and she came up in conversation. We knew she'd left Cambridge but nothing else. I decided to look her up. I eventually tracked her down after an internet search, and when I was in Scotland staying at the cabin, met up with her for a coffee. She ended up telling me everything. I think she needed to spill out her frustrations and regrets to someone detached from her life."
"Didn't she challenge him for child support or something? Report him?"
"Bree didn't want anything to do with Aro again, and especially didn't want her son to ever meet him. Believe me, I tried to persuade her."
"And she was adamant?"
"One hundred percent, Baby. She said that she would love to see him get his just desserts but not at the expense of her child's welfare."
"What does she tell people?"
"If anyone pushed her about her son's parentage, she said that she had a one night stand with an Italian Erasmus student who was long gone, and that as far as she was concerned, his father was her husband."
"I can understand her reasoning." Bella took a deep breath and squeezed my hand. "Why didn't you tell me about her before?"
"Because you already have such a visceral loathing for him, Baby. Every time we start talking about him you practically shake with revulsion, so I never got as far as giving you actual examples."
Bella nodded and wrapped herself around me to reassure me that she understood. I kissed the top of her head, not missing Carlisle's knowing smile at our show of affection. He was equally demonstrative with Esme, and it felt wonderful to be able to be free to express my love.
"You're right, Carlisle. I would never succumb. As you now know, I detested him on first sight."
"I'm glad," he replied. "Returning to our original discussion, you have until enrolment to decide what you want to call yourself, Bella. But I would advise that regardless of which name you choose, you let the admissions office know you're married to Edward. That way, the university will take it into account when organising seminars and examinations, so you aren't ever supervised by him."
"I'll do that." She swallowed hard and stood up straight. I recognised the movement. My Bella had made a decision.
"Bella, what have you decided, Baby?"
"I'm going to start as Isabella Swan, and when the time is right, I'll switch my name over to Masen. All my official documents and transcripts still say 'Swan' and my parents don't even know that I'm married yet, so it makes sense to hold fire on my name change for a while, until I get a new passport and a driving licence."
"Your parents don't know?"
"I haven't seen them since last Easter," she shrugged. "They're busy in the Middle East. I will tell them eventually, but not right now."
I kissed her on the temple. She never liked to admit how much pain she felt at her parents' emotional neglect.
"Shall we move on to your labs, Edward?" suggested Carlisle tactfully.
"Sounds good."
He led us out of his lab and up a floor, to another set of labs. I was expecting them to be a small set, similar to his second lab, but when we walked in I was surprised to see that the lab space was identical in size to his main lab. There was less equipment, but he'd already told me that I had ordering privileges.
"This is for me?"
"Yes, for you, your research team and your doctoral students. I understand one is joining you from Oxford?"
"That's right. Randall Smith. He's only a year in, and his funding was switched over quite easily. He'll be here at the end of August. The other two are at the end of their programme. They're going to do post-doctoral research in Jasper and Emmett's lab in London while writing up their theses."
"So you'd be happy to take on another two?"
"Yes, provided I don't have too many teaching commitments."
"Eight lectures per semester for a mixed class of senior undergraduates, medical students and doctoral students, and a special interest seminar group for medical students in the spring."
At Oxford, I had two seminar groups and two lectures a week.
"Excellent. Easy to manage."
"Brilliant."
By the time Carlisle had shown us the locker rooms, seminar rooms, coffee rooms and my new office, which was huge, compared to my cubby hole at Oxford, Riley had found us again. He had ditched his lab coat and was sporting very big sunglasses.
"Oh good, you're done! Time for lunch!"
"Riley, it's barely noon," admonished Carlisle. "You've only done one trial."
"Suck it up, Daddy-O. Mom's meeting us in ten."
Carlisle sighed. Bella giggled. I didn't know how to react.
"Lunch, Edward? Bella?"
"Sure," Bella replied.
I tried not to get annoyed when Riley looped his arm through Bella's and tugged her away from my side. I had a feeling that it would not be the last time he would divert her attention.
-cc-
* : Caenorhabditis elegans are a type of roundworm, only 1 millimetre in size, and are used extensively in neuroscience research and teaching because they are one of the simplest organisms to possess a nervous system. They are also easy to grow and will survive being frozen.
*Erasmus: This is a European student exchange programme, where students from almost any European university can spend up to a year of their degree at a university in a different European country.
Thank you all so much for the lovely comments about the story. There seems to be universal agreement that James and Victoria are creepy! I'm now very interested to hear what you think about Riley!
All being well, the next chapter will be up in a week.