Chemical Reactions

Part 7

THIS PART IS DIALOGUE HEAVY AND PART EIGHT WILL BE SIMILAR, BOTH PARTS ARE NECESSARY THOUGH TO EXPAND THE STORY.

With a squeak and a bang, you suddenly heard the door to your room opening and, naturally, you startled and sat up on your bed now that you had been woken up from your slumber.

Robert, on the other hand, took a little longer to wake up and stretched beneath the large doona until, suddenly, his eyes opened wide when he heard another voice.

"Shit" he then cursed while looking at his friend. His cheeks were blushing and he certainly felt embarrassed by the situation. It was written all over his face.

"Robert" Haakon chuckled in response. "That I did not expect" he then said somewhat surprised before looking at you with concern.

"It is not what it looks like" Robert attempted to say just as you asked Haakon whether he did not know how to knock.

"Why did you barge in here like this?" you then asked, seeing that, clearly, something must have happened. Haakon and his wife usually respected your privacy but, today, they did not.

"Your father was arrested last night" he then told you while Robert reached for his briefs which still laid scattered on the floor, right next to your panties.

"So what?" you asked, seeing that this was not the first time it happened.

"I need to go" Robert said with concern, but it was not your father he was concerned about. It was his security clearance.

"You should take the backdoor. People are watching our house and I am aware that you cannot associate yourself with us communists anymore" Haakon told Robert and, whilst Haakon did not know what Robert was working on, he knew that it was something for the government. It was something that could end the war and it was most certainly something that had to remain a secret.

"I will. Thank you" Robert said as he finally managed to put on his briefs beneath the confides of your doona before crawling out of bed and collecting the rest of his clothes. "I trust that this will stay between us?" Robert then asked his friend, to which Haakon nodded, causing you to sigh and ponder whether this was, indeed, a good idea.

"Goodbye Robert" you said with a smile nonetheless, which is when Robert told you that he would call you when he was back in San Francisco.

"Uh huh" you said, feeling somewhat deflated even though you had a lengthy discussion last night about what this may or may not become. You did not expect him to call and you knew that Robert was not going to leave his wife which meant that you were no more than his secret lover now.

Whether he truly wanted you to join him on the project was also something you were unsure about now. Did he just say it, in the heat of the moment, or did he mean it? You were not entirely certain but, before Robert left Haakon's house, you told him that your answer was "yes" which, ultimately, was the last spoken word between you and Robert for the next couple of weeks.

***

"You are making a mistake" Haakon then said with some concern after Robert had left through the backdoor of his house, knowing that the FBI was watching the front entrance to his residence.

"Perhaps I am, but there is something very intriguing about J Robert Oppenheimer" you told your father's friend who asked you to sit down with him.

He wanted to talk about it as, evidently, he cared for you. Haakon had always been like an uncle for you and his sense of protectiveness showed a lot this morning after he caught you and his friend in bed together.

"Robert isn't the right man for you Y/N" he said with concern and you could not help but sigh. You already knew that he was not but you wanted to be with him nonetheless. It was like an addiction you could not shake.

"Of course he is not. He is married" you thus pointed out, but this was not what Haakon was concerned about.

"He is a complicated man and, believe it or not, I have a vague idea of what his work entails these days. If you join him on this journey, you will likely be subjected to investigations and dealings that you do not want to be subjected to" your father's friend told you which, of course, you already knew about.

"Geez Haakon, and I thought you would approve of this if it was for the cause" you thus chuckled, seeing that, surely, by this point, he would have wanted to get some intel on the government operations from Robert as well.

"But you are not a spy and you are most certainly not a communist" Haakon acknowledged, knowing that you would never jeopardise your career for communism.

"Which is why I will be just fine" you thus told him, but Haakon did not think that it was going to be that easy for you.

"No, you won't be Y/N! But it is your choice nonetheless. I just think that you fell in love with the wrong man" Haakon told you again with a little more concern than before.

"I am not in love" you ought to clarify.

"I am not going to comment on that" Haakon told you. "What I can tell you however is that, if Kitty finds out about your affair with Robert, she will not take kindly to it" he then cautioned you and you wondered whether she knew about Jean Tatlock and Ruth Tolman at all.

"Does she know about the other women?" you thus asked, seeing that Haakon was rather talkative that morning.

"She knows about Jean Tatlock, but she does not know about Ruth Tolman, both of whom are history now" Haakon said, wanting you to know and be able to make an informed decision about your future with J Robert Oppenheimer, whether it be on a romantic or strictly professional level.

"Why?" you asked, knowing that Robert had ended both affairs, but you did not know what gave rise to his decision and wondered whether Haakon was privy to this information.

"I don't know but I feel as though it had something to do with you" Haakon told you, which was no more than an assumption.

"Oh god Haakon, you knew already, didn't you?" you asked with surprise.

"Yes. I knew. Robert and I talk and he spoke about another woman a little while ago. He referred to you as a rather intelligent woman whom he met at university without giving away your identity. I since have seen the looks you exchanged with each other on two occasions, so it was obvious to me that the woman he spoke about was you. But, on a personal level, I am not your problem Y/N" Haakon then informed you, telling you that your secret would be safe with him.

"What do you mean?" you wondered nonetheless, wanting to know what and who to watch out for.

"Kitty probably already knows about you to some extent" he warned you, causing you to sigh.

"I honestly do not understand why Robert chose to marry her" you then said somewhat inadvertently.

"Honestly, none of us know. But I suppose he did the honourable thing. They too had an affair while Kitty was still married to someone else. She then fell pregnant unexpectedly, Kitty and her husband divorced, and Robert married her" Haakon informed you before cautioning you again.

"What I need you to be careful of is her manipulative nature. If she finds out about you sleeping with her husband, she will make your life rather difficult. She is very controlling and she most certainly is not right for Robert, but neither are you" Haakon told you before telling you to go and pack your bags as, according to him, you had to move out immediately.

"Why?" you asked, wondering why you had to leave the Chevalier residence all so urgently now.

"Because you cannot associate yourself with us any longer if you want to get onto whatever project it is that Robert is leading" Haakon informed you and, of course, this made sense to you. You had to cut your communist ties.

"He is leading the project?" you asked nonetheless. "He didn't say" you then pointed out.

"He occasionally tries to be humble. Now go and pack" Haakon chuckled before gathering some bags for you.

To be continued...