An Intangible Pattern - Fate Bound.

No rhyme or reason

Noah looked at the gas chromatography results and sighed. Nothing. No common factors, no clues, no hope.
From the beginning this experiment was doomed to fail. Of the thousands of study participants they had in their database there were only 16 matched pairs. Of those only 9 pairs could be reached by the contact details they had registered and even then, only 4 had not already paired with someone else. Not exactly a strong statistical base to draw conclusions from.
Still, despite the limited sample size they persevered with the t-shirt test and sure enough, the suppressant failed in each case.
But why?
It worked the way it was supposed to when the alphas were tested with other omegas, it only failed when they were subjected to their matched pair. So they could not be reacting to omega sex hormones. It had to be something else, but it also had to be related to smell. However, there was no rhyme or reason in the chemical profiles of each of the omegas scents. He could not boil the problem down to any one thing, it was all too complicated. He had to conclude that they must be responding to the particular combination of chemicals emitted by the individuals and this somehow triggered the rut response independent of the omega pheromone. The whole thing was a dead end - his previous strategy wasn't going to work. He had to warn Arthur that they would need to put a disclaimer on their drug to prevent them being sued.
In the meantime he was no closer to a solution to his own personal problem.
He thought about the frightened look on Alexandra's face as she backed away from him. He couldn't just drop in on Arthur like that again, not if there was a strong possibility of running into her, but he wished he could just talk to her, to get her to agree to send another sample so he could work out exactly what he was responding to around her, maybe then he could fix it! Maybe then she wouldn't look at him with fear. Maybe, the next time Mrs Navita tried to trap him in a room with her daughter, he could at least trust himself not to pounce on her like an animal.
He had not felt this defeated for a long time.
Thinking of Mrs Navita he cringed: if she only knew what he had done. The thought brought another mother to mind.
He remembered when he had won his first prize for characterizing the omega pheromone receptors at age fourteen. He had no need of the money, but Ben had never left his mind so he decided he would give the money to him. He knew boarding at a sanitorium was expensive and Ben's mother already struggled financially, it felt like the least he could do, considering it was his fault he had to go away.
He remembered walking up to Ben's home in an apartment complex. The hall was dingy and he could hear shouting from one of the other flats. He knocked on the door and a tall dark haired boy opened it. At first he looked surprised, then his face darkened. The resemblance to Ben was obvious and Noah correctly guessed this was his older brother.
"What do you want?" He snapped.
"Um I was wondering if I could speak to Ben, or your mother, if possible."
A look of anger flashed across the young man's face and he looked as though he was ready to fight, when Ben's mother appeared in the hall behind him.
"Who is it, Aaron?" She asked, joining him at the door. She stopped speechless when she saw Noah standing there.
"I'm sorry to trouble you," said Noah hurriedly. "I wanted you to have this, it's for Ben." He handed her the folded cheque for $50000 dollars. She stared at it blankly for a moment then, to his shock, she began to tear it up. He had no time to ask her why, before her hand sprang out like a viper and struck him across the cheek.
He raised a hand to his stinging face, staring at her open-mouthed.
She was shaking and tears were forming in her eyes.
"Get out." She whispered.
"I just want to help.."
"Get out!" She screamed. She turned away, sobbing as she ran down the hall. Aaron stood there looking at him with disgust.
"I don't understand," muttered Noah.
"No, you wouldn't, would you. You act like you care about Ben, but if you really did, you would know he's missing."
"What?"
"You heard, now please just leave us alone. You've done enough damage." The door slammed in his face and he stood there for a moment in stunned silence.
The same feelings of self loathing Noah had experienced back then ate away at him now; but he did not give up, and he wouldn't now either. Back then, he resolved that he would do everything in his power to find Ben and make everything right. He hired a private investigator, but nothing turned up and it was purely by chance that Arthur stumbled across him months later, in a street near the red light district. By this time, it was too late, Ben had suffered too deeply and there was nothing Noah could do to change what had happened to him. It was the same for Alexandra, even if he did find a solution to his attraction to her, he couldn't take back what he had done.
He laughed self-mockingly.
Ok, if I am only a danger to her, and I'm the only one, then the solution is to remove myself from the equation. What if I were to leave and work in another office. I could continue my work overseas?
It wasn't a satisfactory solution, it meant that research into matched pairs and drug resistance would be more complicated and he would need to set up a new lab and source a new pool of research participants. There was also the possibility he could meet another person with complementary genetics and the whole process would begin again.
But at least she would be safe and they could both begin to put it all behind them.