Chapter 11

“All I’m saying,” maintained Olivia, stubbornly, shifting her weight over to her left hip, “Is that either Lucas or Rick duped that poor girl into whatever it is they’re doing to her.”

“It was probably both of them, to be honest,” said Steve, eying Olivia’s healthy cleavage (which had become a habit, at this point) before flitting his glance over to Ryan.

“Yeah,” Ryan agreed, sipping his coffee as they all stood together in a little circle around Trent’s office, “Although I gotta admit, I’m not complaining, haha!” 

“You think I am!?” returned Steve, laughing. “Hey, I’m all for it, ok? More power to her! And, well..haha, you know…more for us!”

“Wow, what a predictable response from you two,” said Olivia dryly, shaking her head. “Really makes me feel great to be a woman around here.”

“Well come on Olivia,” said Ryan, slouching his shoulders slightly in a “complaining” motion, “What’d you expect? You work with a bunch of engineer nerds who’ve had trouble with women since middle school.”

“Speak for yourself,” chuckled Trent, standing up tall as he brought his coffee mug to his lips. Ryan and Steve turned to look at their taller, more dashing co-worker, and they both shrugged in assent. There was no doubt that Trent definitely didn’t fit the stereotypical “computer geek” mold. He had an impeccable sense of fashion; he always wore the best-pressed suits to work, and his cologne was tasteful and expensive. And unlike both Ryan and Steve (and James too…but as usual, James was in his office, working rather than socializing), Trent worked out regularly, which was readily apparent from the impressive muscles which were noticeable beneath his stylish clothes. 

“Yeah, come on you two,” laughed Olivia, a bit nastily, “Just because you guys are insecure little creeps doesn’t mean that you have to be to work at Braden…if you’re a man, that is.” 

At the word “man,” Olivia had looked up into Trent’s face, lowered her voice suggestively, and given him a token wink. Steve and Ryan looked on, jealous as usual. They were just as aware as anyone how out-of-reach Olivia was for them (not the least because she was engaged to someone like Chase, who everyone at the office knew from holidays parties), and it didn’t help that Olivia never seemed to pass up an opportunity to nail this point home by flirting with Trent. For her part, Olivia was just enjoying herself. She knew that she was safe enough, and attractive enough, to flirt with anyone she wanted to. She enjoyed the power trip of seeing someone as hunky and good-looking as Trent squirm in his pants. 

“Ok…ohhhh-kay Olivia,” said Trent, standing up straight and shaking his head down at her. She may have been 6 feet tall in her heels, but at 6’2, Trent was taller still, and an inch taller than Lucas. “You can just stop all that nonsense right now. I’m not going to end up on the wrong side of a fight with Chase…which, you know…is any side other than Chase’s.”

“Aw whassa matter, Trent?” teased Olivia, gently swiveling her curvy body from side to side, her red dress straining as her D-cup breasts bounced enticingly (as usual, her locket had already tumbled into the deep, black crevice of her cleavage). “Don’t you think I’m hotttt?”

“I, uh…I mean, uh, look, I’m not arguing that you’re not hot,” laughed Trent, tripping over himself for a moment before regaining his confidence and composure. He had been working on the same floor as Olivia for over a year, and he still hadn’t quite gotten used to seeing her slender, yet toned body flaunted in this freewheeling kind of way. “But I know what you’re doing, Olivia. And it’s not gonna work on me.” 

Olivia pouted playfully and retreated. This was a familiar game that she and Trent played — both of them found the other undeniably attractive, but both of them also knew that nothing would ever happen between the two of them. Besides, Olivia knew that she was just flexing her power, which was fairly easy to do around here, anyway, what with an intelligent, experienced woman like Sofia occupying a position over her, and with a prude like Lucas in charge. 

“H-how…how is Chase doing these days, anyway?” asked Steve, not quite reading the situation right, and wanting to diffuse the sexual tension between Trent and Olivia. 

“Oh Chase?” said Olivia lightly, turning to look slightly down at Steve. In her heels, Olivia was a couple inches taller than both Steve and Ryan; and while Ryan was a bit pudgy and overweight, Olivia was confident that she had Steve by a solid ten or fifteen pounds. 

“He was exhaaaaausted this morning,” sighed Olivia dreamily, looking up at the ceiling as she twirled her hair slightly. 

“That Crossfit competition really did him in, huh?” remarked Trent. 

“What?” said Olivia, not on board. “Huh? I…oh…OH, I see what you’re saying. Uh, no…that’s not why he was tired this morning.”

“Well then, why was — ohhh I see what you mean,” said Ryan, not able to hide his lascivious interest. 

“Yeah…” intoned Olivia, smiling to herself. 

The elevator door opened, and Sofia came out, looking a bit more frazzled than usual. It was more common to be at the office before anyone else, but this morning was different. She looked up at the gathered group by Trent’s office. 

“Boy, you all look hard at work,” she quipped. “By all means, continue your meeting — don’t let ME get in the way.” 

“Hey Sophia, we were just…haha, yeah, just catching up a little, is all,” chuckled Trent. But Sophia’s presence had already broken the group up — Steve and Ryan had automatically turned their feet toward their respective offices, and Olivia was just about to do the same. Sophia seemed to be in one of her no-nonsense moods, and no one wanted to start their Tuesday by pissing her off. 

But then, one of the other elevator doors dinged again, and the whole group froze in place, turning around to look. They were far too interested in getting a good look at whoever was going to come through the door — it was either going to be Lucas or Brooke, and no one even bothered to hide their sense of anticipation. Everyone knew that Lucas had basically asked Brooke out on a date the previous day…how had it gone? And perhaps more than anything else, everyone was anxious to see what Brooke looked like, now that the nanobots had been in her system for a whole other night. 

It was Lucas who walked through the double opening doors, and Trent, Ryan, and Steve all felt a small sense of disappointment. Olivia was pleased, because now she wouldn’t have to deal with the annoyance of seeing her poor junior colleague preyed upon by the helpless, shameless males…but she had to admit, there was a small part of her that had noticed that it was just past 8 o’clock, which meant that Brooke was late…again. Olivia didn’t feel jealous or vindictive towards Brooke in any way — what did she have to be jealous of, after all? But, especially after Brooke’s growth and beautification the previous day, Olivia had been feeling a sense of strange anxiety, and even foreboding, around the idea that she could be replaced as the office’s “hot one.” It was a role she enjoyed, despite its obvious annoyances. 

“Well, right on time,” said Sophia dryly, leaning back a little against the door frame of her office. “Had a bit of a late night last night?”

Lucas had his head down and attempted to shuffle past Sophia without answering. But she didn’t let him, and put an arm out to arrest his progress. Something was off…way off. Lucas was always impeccably dressed, but today was unquestionably different. His pants and shirt had obviously been pressed, his hair was slicked back with an odd kind of musky-smelling gel, and he wore a gold watch on his wrist that none of his co-workers had seen before. 

“Whoa, hold up there,” said Sophia, creasing her eyebrows together as she studied him, the rest of the group looking on. “What’s going on, Lucas?”

“What? Nothing. What’s up? What’s wrong?” he asked, his eyes darting around nervously, going first to the closed door of his office, then around to everyone else, and then finally slightly down to Sophia. She looked at him closely. 

‘Jesus, he’s totally lost it,’ she thought. ‘Something happened.’

“Nothings wrong,” said Sophia carefully, her eyes not leaving his. “I just asked you a simple question, is all. How’d it go…with Brooke last night?” 

Sophia had been disgusted by Lucas’s behavior the previous day, and had not planned to allow his relationship with Brooke to get very far. Lucas was already insufferable and prone to lapses of control, but to date a young, innocent girl who he had dosed with beautifying nanobots that HE controlled!? It was a new low, even for Lucas. But now, as she stared into his eyes, Sophia could feel her empathy washing away her anger. Something was definitely up.

“Did it go badly?” asked Sophia bluntly, feeling the beginnings of relief. “Did you fire her?”

“I…wh-what?” asked Lucas, his rapid eyes finding Sophia’s again and squinting, like he was trying extra hard to translate what she was saying. “N-no…no! Fire her!? No.”

“Uhh, oh-kay,” said Sophia, sticking her chin out a little as she eyed him expectantly. “So…what, then?”

“Huh? I don’t…I don’t know,” Lucas finished cryptically, straining his head to look through the rectangular window next to his office door. He suddenly snapped his eyes back down to Sophia, leaned in closer, and whispered: “Is she here?”

“Who? Brooke?” Sophia had nothing to go on here — Lucas was acting so bizarre that she didn’t even have the rational and emotional capital to spend on lecturing him about ethical power dynamics in an office environment. 

“Y-yeah!” said Lucas, still in a whisper. “She’s…she’s here, right?”

“Uh, no…I just got here myself, but I don’t see her,” answered Sophia, “And your office looks dark, soooo…yeah.”

Lucas abruptly broke away from her and strode down the hall towards his office. Sophia could tell that he was trying, somewhere in his brain, to look confident and normal, but his mind was so obviously somewhere else, somewhere in which he was most certainly NOT in control, that the overall effect was of someone who looked like they were on the verge of a breakdown. Exchanging a worried glance with Trent and the rest of the group, Sophia followed him. She wasn’t sure if they had heard what Lucas had whispered to her, but it didn’t matter. She was going to get to the bottom of this, one way or the other.

Lucas had reached his office door and was peering carefully through the dark window, through cupped hands on the glass. Sophia came up behind him, her slightly disheveled dirty blond ponytail bouncing insistently behind her. The sound of her black heels clacking on the floor should have alerted Lucas to the fact that she was following him, but when he turned around to look at her, Sophia felt like he was literally looking through her. She had never seen him behave like this before, even when they had been in their ill-fated relationship. 

“Lucas!” she exclaimed, a little louder, narrowing her light blue eyes slightly up into his face. “What’s going on? Why are you acting like this?” 

“Nothing,” murmured Lucas, taking out his keys and turning the lock of the door. Sophia noticed that his hands were shaking slightly. “I’m…it’s nothing.”

As soon as the door was unlocked, Lucas eagerly pushed through, like he was in a hurry to discover something. He turned on the light and glanced around anxiously, from right to left. There was nobody there. Lucas just stood there like a pillar of salt for a few moments, taking in the fact that his office was deserted. Sophia took another step towards him from behind, looking increasingly concerned. 

‘It has to be about something with the nanobots,’ she thought to herself. ‘Something went terribly wrong.’ She could feel herself beginning to get angry again. 

“Well!” exhaled Lucas in a very different voice, clapping his hands together once and rubbing them together. “Well, well — ok…oh-kay! Well then…alright!” 

He seemed immensely cheered by something, and he picked up his briefcase, walked over to his desk, and sat down, waking up his computer like he always did. Once he was situated, he looked up at Sophia, who had not budged from her position. 

“Uhh, what’s up?” he asked, apparently back to his normal self. “You got something to say, Sophia?” 

“You…what was all that, just then?” she asked, turning her head slightly. 

“What was all what?” he asked innocently, opening his email. “Come on Sophia, don’t beat around the bush — I’ve got a busy day ahead of me, and I’m sure you do too. Can’t really afford to waste time playing guessing games.” 

“Ok,” said Sophia in a total deadpan voice, striding over to Lucas’s desk and placing both fists emphatically down as she leaned in, “I’m not playing games either. What the fuck happened with Brooke last night, and why were you acting so…fucking weird just a second ago. ‘Is she here?’ And all that business, like you were afraid of her. What, did you go too far? Huh? Did you make the bots do too much too quickly?”

Lucas’s face spasmed for a moment; he hadn’t even realized that Sophia knew about the remote, but then again, why wouldn’t she? She had probably gone and talked to Rick about it…which reminded him — Rick! He needed to talk to Rick…as soon as possible…his mind was a whirl…he had no idea what expression he was making right now…he looked up into Sophia’s piercing eyes, now hardened in…anger? He couldn’t tell. But he couldn’t give away what had happened…he couldn’t…he couldn’t…

“Look, Sophia?” he said in what was intended to be a patronizing voice, as he slowly blinked up at her. “What happens between me and…and Brooke isn’t really your business, now, is it?” He suddenly got the idea that maybe lighthearted humor would get him out of all this, and he adopted a sly grin. “What, you jealous? You wanna start things up again, you and me?” 

Sophia blinked down once, unsmiling, and Lucas felt his insides drop a little. That wasn’t going to work on her. He decided to adopt the professional, rational approach, and he leaned back in his chair, putting his fingers together.

“Ok, ok, bad joke…but in any case, I think you’ve…misread the situation, Sophia. It’s fine! Everything’s fine.” He suddenly got a great idea, and glanced at the clock on his computer: 8:04. 

“Well, almost fine,” he added, warming inside himself. “Brooke’s already 4 minutes late and counting so…yeah, that’s not ideal. But hopefully she’ll learn.”

Sophia looked at him suspiciously for several more long moments, and Lucas looked right back, a slight smile on his face, as he blinked innocently. He knew that she only had a few seconds for her silent power-play stares like this, and he was confident that he would be up to the task of resisting them. Brooke was late, which Lucas knew meant only one of two possibilities: either she was gone forever, or…

He opened his messages, taking vigorous delight in Sophia’s exasperated huff as she turned and abruptly left his office. As soon as she was gone, he called Rick.

“So?” came Rick’s eager voice, immediately picking up. 

“She’s not here yet,” breathed Lucas, wiping his brow . “They must have died off inside her. How long did you estimate?”

“Three/four days,” said Rick’s. “But I wasn’t sure, you know?”



“Y-yeah!” exclaimed Lucas, slightly loosening his necktie to let out a furnace of nervous heat. “I…was afraid she’d be…you know…”

“Waiting for you there, yeah,” said Rick. Clearly, they had already been talking much earlier that morning. “But she’s not even there? You’re sure?”

“Trust me Rick,” said Lucas, looking around the office at everyone, who had all gone back to work, “If she was here…everyone would know. That kind of…you…you can’t hide that kind of…she wouldn’t be able to hide.”

“Yeah, it sounds like it,” chuckled Rick. “Well damn, partner, this is just going better than expected — the bots dying off is a good sign. It means that she’ll be ready for the second-generation doses right around this afternoon, as long…as long as…well, shit! Speak of the devil! 

“What?!” asked Lucas, suddenly alarmed at his colleague’s last words. “Wh-what…what are you talking about, Rick!?”

“And how are you this morning, young lady?” came Rick’s voice through the other end of the phone. Lucas’s blood froze in his veins; muffled in the background came a quiet female voice, answering indistinctly. 

“Is that…who are you talking to, Rick!?” demanded Lucas in a furious whisper. 

“Well you’re looking good, I can tell you that!” laughed Rick, clearly enjoying himself. “Uh-huh! Well, isn’t that something? You got HOW big?”

“Rick! RICK!!!” screamed Lucas in a desperate whisper, into his phone. “Stop talking to her!! Tell her…TELL HER…to come to ME…RIGHT NOW!” 

“Aha, well, that’s quite something, isn’t it?” laughed Rick. “Uhh, well listen, Brooke, I’m actually on the phone with Lucas right now…yes…and we’re talking about that very subject. Yes! Yes, exactly! When will they be ready? Well, it’s like I was just telling your boss here, I was thinking that the next batch would be ready by this aftern—”

But Rick’s voice abruptly trailed away as Lucas launched himself up from his desk and sprinted out of his office, toward Rick’s office in the laboratory. He didn’t care that his colleagues might see him like this. He had to get to them…get to them before Brooke started spilling the beans about what had happened the previous night. 

In about twenty seconds, he reached Rick’s office, but right before he got there, his heart had nearly seized in his chest. The last time he had seen Brooke, she had been…a literal goddess, graced with unearthly beauty that far surpassed what Lucas had believed possible. But Rick’s tone on the phone just now…there was no way that Brooke still looked like that. But there was a certain lightness in his colleague’s voice that made him think that even though the nanobots had died in her system, she hadn’t lost all her attributes. As Lucas entered the lab, and rounded the corner of Rick’s office, his heart was as tight as a drum. 

Then he saw them — Rick was standing there, hunched forward in his white lab coat, his smiling face eagerly peering at Brooke…Brooke…yes, it was her…it was her standing there. Lucas felt a whole range of strange and conflicting emotions, and for a moment, he almost teared up, though he had no idea why. She was still relatively tall…taller than she had been before, but now a…well, a manageable height, at least as far as Lucas was concerned. The top of her head was essentially even with Lucas’s eyes — a quick glance down at her feet showed that she wasn’t wearing any heels. And yes…YES! She was…largely back to normal! Lucas closed his eyes deeply and breathed the first truly real sigh of relief that morning. She was dressed almost as frumpily as she had been before (a rumpled dress that was a bit too big, with loose-ish white stockings), although Lucas had to admit that her brunette hair looked sleeker and better than it had before. Her breasts looked pleasantly plump and heavy, an obvious twin bulge on her chest, though nothing like what she had been the night before; Lucas couldn’t help but linger on them for a moment, since they looked like large, healthy C-cups. And then…oh yes, her ass was definitely bigger than it had been, and the curve and sway of her hips was actually noticeable now. She had most certainly changed for the better, but Lucas was delighted to see that the awkward way she was standing, combined with the clashing look of her polyester white briefcase, indicated that Brooke had indeed regressed…back to something he could control. 

“Ah! Lucas!” came Rick’s pleasant greeting as he looked up from talking to Brooke. “Perfect timing!”

As Rick spoke, Brooke turned slowly around, and Lucas felt himself screech to a halt. Those eyes…her eyes…they were still green. They definitely weren’t the dazzling oceans of molten emerald they had been before…(‘of course they’re not!’ said Lucas to himself, slightly annoyed), but they were…strikingly different from what they had been before. There was no way around it: Brooke had pretty eyes. But her face had largely reverted to its previous and unspectacular contours. She definitely wasn’t bad-looking, or plain, as she had been before, but…well, Lucas definitely didn’t find himself lacking confidence around her, that was for sure. But those eyes, though…they threw him off a little…and reminded him of… 

“Brooke here was just asking about the nanobots!” said Rick cheerily, putting his hand on Brooke’s shoulder, who smiled a little awkwardly. It suddenly occurred to Lucas that Rick would actually consider “this” Brooke to be pretty hot. 

‘But that’s Rick for you,’ thought Lucas to himself, shaking his head internally as he smiled. But he quickly realized that he was smiling directly at Brooke, who was returning his expression with an eager grin of her own. She even blinked her eyes several times, slowly, deliberately, in his direction. 

‘Oh no,’ Lucas thought, ‘She thinks…haha, oh wow. She’s gonna try and flirt with me now!?’

“Oh was she, now?” asked Lucas, putting his hands on his hips as he inhaled and drew himself up to his full height. “Well, that’s all well and good, Brooke, but did you think to check what time it was?”

“It’s…uhh…no I didn’t check,” she said nervously, though still with that same little smile on her face. 

“Well, how about you tell me what time it is now?” asked Lucas, plowing on ahead as he warmed to the occasion. 

“It’s…it’s wait, lemme check,” said Brooke awkwardly, setting down her briefcase and starting to fumble through it. “I know I put my phone somewhere in here, I swear.”

“It’s 8:07, Brooke,” said Lucas, making sure to infuse his voice with enough benevolence to soften his words. “And what time are you supposed to be in my office?”

“8 o’clock sharp,” Brooke answered, her cheeks reddening with embarrassment, despite the silly grin still plastered on her face. 

“8 o’clock sharp,” repeated Lucas, nodding his head slowly up and down. “And we’re gonna try and do a little better with that, now, aren’t we?”

“Yes, Mr. Mineur,” said Brooke quickly. “I was just…just you know, asking Rick about…about the — ”

“I heard! Over the phone!” said Lucas, maintaining his sunny disposition, despite the fact that he could feel himself cracking a little inside. How much had she told Rick about the previous night? 

“And I hope you know, Brooke,” continued Lucas, “That any particulars of our nanobot experim — our nanobot program…are to be shared with both Rick AND me…at the same time. We don’t want to be having to deal with any miscommunications, now, do we?”

“No sir!” answered Brooke, shaking her head. Lucas could feel himself getting annoyed at her — he wished she would wipe that dumb smile off her face. It wasn’t like she looked like anything particularly special anymore. 

‘And besides,’ he reminded himself, ‘What she looked like before…that was all me, anyway! I did that to HER!’ 

“Eh, well, anyway,” cut in Rick, not quite understanding, and clearly wanting to get back to the particulars of the nanobots, “I was just telling Brooke that we’ll have the second-generation of the bots ready for injection this afternoon.”

“Injection?” asked Lucas, not able to prevent betraying that he was not as intimately involved with the project’s technical particulars as he had initially let on. He wondered if Brooke was smart enough to notice that kind of thing…

“Oh yeah!” said Rick, rubbing his hands together excitedly. “You’ll love it, Lucas — my team and I have been hard at work, and this new generation of bots work differently, and are injected straight into the bloodstream. They’re a lot more autonomous, which means you won’t have a…”

And here, Rick covertly mimed pressing a remote. Lucas nodded silently, again wondering how much Brooke knew…how much she remembered. 

“And anyway, we can get into all of the particulars right now if you want!” exclaimed Rick. 

“Actually, could you give us twenty minutes?” asked Lucas, suddenly seizing on this opportunity to reassert his authority. “I’m excited to hear all the details, Rick, but first I need to have a quick little chat with Brooke in my office.”