An Intangible Pattern - Fate Bound.

Formula 52

“So this one is taken daily during estrous. When are you due?” 

Ben looked up from the little strip of pills in Noah's hand, into his face. They sat at a small dining table in Ben's kitchen. Sunlight bounced around the room from the window, where freshly fallen snow could be seen blanketing the garden. Saoirse waited patiently at Ben's feet, barely disguising her anticipation of leftover sandwiches.

“In about a week? Same drill?”

“Same drill. I'm going to stay away during this experiment, but if you need anything while you're isolating, Arthur will bring it round. If it doesn't work, just stop and go back on your usual meds.”

“I'm sure I'll be fine, but if someone could take Saoirse out for a walk that would be great.”

Noah frowned apprehensively.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Ben knew what he was worried about. It had been years since he had endured his estrous without the aid of suppressants, they both knew if the new drug failed it could trigger flashbacks. However, after years of work, he felt like he could get through it without relapsing. He took the strip from Noah and pocketed it.

“Yes, I'm doing a lot better now. I want to do something to help others, especially kids. I think I'm in a good place to try again.”

The frown did not leave Noah's face. 

“Just don't push yourself, and call me if you need to. Your health is more important.”

Ben couldn't help but smile, Noah had never outgrown overprotectiveness. 

“I promise, if it's too much I'll stop.”

Noah sighed, slumped back against his chair and rubbed his eyes. Ben scanned his companion, taking in the dark circles and the three day stubble on his chin. He even looked as though he'd lost weight.

“Speaking of pushing it, perhaps you should follow your own advice?” he said, tossing a piece of chicken from his sandwich to Saoirse. 

Noah laughed, “I must look awful. You have to be the sixth person to tell me to slow down this week.”

“Don't you think you ought to take the hint?”

“I can't. Honestly, there is just too much to do and on top of that, there's this ridiculous matchmaking service to set up.”

“Yeah… how's that going?”

“Nightmarish. Gillian wants a dedicated lab set up yesterday, so we're in the process of converting the old hospital. Then we need to hire staff.”

“You still don't like it do you?”

“Not really. I think it might go down as one of our more unethical decisions. It just stinks of eugenics or something similar.”

Ben furrowed his brow, “Is it still eugenics if you breed in diversity as opposed to breeding it out?”

“Technically yes. We're not playing Hitler, but it's uncomfortably close. Do you know what it makes me think of? The breeding programs they use in zoos.”

Ben snorted, “You're right.”

“Yeah, but try explaining that to Betas. I don't know… They just seem to think you meet your fated pair and poof, everything is magically alright. They don't realize that even we can only get by on physical attraction for so long before cracks start appearing.”

“What do you make of the woman who's handling the website side of things?”

“Jess? She's smart, ambitious, persuasive, but I think she's internalized the more romantic notions of alpha/omega pairings. Her brother is an omega but he's been sheltered in a sanitorium since he was fifteen. I don't think she’s really seen the ugly side of all of this yet; or maybe it's the opposite, maybe she wants him to be paired off and under an alpha’s protection before he can get into trouble.”