2. Chapter Two Jade
Chapter Two: Jade
I was on the edge of a breakthrough. I knew it.
I just had to keep working…for a little longer.
The hum of the lab equipment was a steady backdrop as I leaned in, adjusting the focus on the microscope. Ellie was right there with me, peering over my shoulder, her breath warm against my cheek. The slide beneath the lens was our world, tiny and teeming with potential.
“Come on,” I muttered under my breath, willing the shapes to make sense, to align with the hypothesis that had kept us chained to this lab for what felt like an eternity.
There it was. A pattern emerged, distinct and undeniable. My heart kicked up a notch, thumping loud in the silence of the lab. “Ellie, look!” My finger jabbed toward the eyepiece, but she was already locked in, her gaze narrowing with concentration.
“Wait...is that—?” Her voice trailed off, anticipation hanging between us.
I couldn’t contain the grin that stretched across my face. “It is.” I straightened, my spine popping from hours hunched over. “Ellie, I think we’ve done it! This could change everything!”
“Well, if it is replicable,” she said softly. “The unique cell signaling pathway might not be reproducible…”
“Yes, thank you Dr. Spoilsport, I know how science works,” I said.
Ellie chuckled, her hazel eyes twinkling with amusement. “I know you do, Jade.” Her hand came to rest on my shoulder, a comforting pressure. “I’m just making sure we don’t lose ourselves in the excitement. We celebrate the milestone achieved, but remember we have plenty of work ahead.”
She was right, of course. My grin eased into a thoughtful smile. The discovery was monumental, but Ellie’s words grounded me in reality. There was still much more to do. “Well, I was happy.”
She gave me a teasing smile, her brown eyes glinting under the harsh lab lights. “I know. Someone has to keep you grounded, Jade,” she replied, her voice filled with camaraderie and just a touch of pride.
Our laughter filled the lab, a welcome interruption to the monotonous drone of the machines. It was these moments – shared success and shared jokes – that made the grueling process not just bearable but meaningful.
We reveled in the breakthrough for a moment, the weight of the discovery momentarily lifting from our shoulders. But the celebratory mood was short-lived. Ellie glanced at her watch, a flicker of frustration crossing her features.
We returned our gazes onto the slide, my heart still pounding with a primal kind of excitement, a mix of fear and anticipation at what this discovery could entail. The world beyond our microscope seemed suddenly insignificant, like the universe had folded in on itself until it was just us and our groundbreaking research in this compact slice of existence.
“We should test it over a larger sample,” Ellie said after a while, her tone serious once again as she switched from friend to scientist. She handed me another batch of slides we had prepared earlier. “And then we should go out and celebrate.”
I took the slides from her, relishing the sense of purpose they held within their thin glass layers. “Agreed,” I replied, the joy of discovery still simmering beneath my practiced professionalism. “Then we take the world by storm.”
Hours dissolved into more hours, as we tested slide after slide, our eyes glued to the microscope and hands moving with a practiced ease. The bubbling excitement had settled into a concentrated focus, suspended somewhere between hopeful anticipation and calculated reality.
“Actually, we can’t take the world by storm today,” Ellie said softly. “The gala.”
“Fuck, yes, the gala,” I muttered under my breath. “Why do we need to do that again?”
“Because we want to keep our jobs,” she replied simply.
I sighed, the frustration apparent in the huff of air that escaped my lips. The thought of suits and gowns and a room full of people who cared more about the bottom line than the scientific breakthrough seemed so distant from our world beneath the microscope. “Right,” I muttered, staring at the slide before me, “We need to keep our jobs.”
I could imagine Ellie’s soft smile behind me, an understanding nod at our shared distaste for the politics of it all. I felt her presence shift as she walked away from the microscope, her steps echoing lightly against the sterile lab floor. “Well, at least we can make it bearable,” she called over her shoulder. “Might even be fun if you decide to pull one of your infamous pranks.”
“You think I should prank a suit?” I asked.
“I think if you tried, no one would blame you,” she said.
I laughed, glancing over my shoulder to toss her a playful smirk. That was Ellie for you - always encouraging me in my mischief, even while keeping me grounded. Her comment sparked an idea in my mind, gears turning with the prospect of bringing some fun into the all-too-serious gala.
“Prank a suit, huh?” I mused aloud, my eyes wandering back to the slide beneath the microscope. “Now that’s a thought.”
Ellie chuckled from her perch by the lab counter, already organizing our findings into presentable reports. “Don’t get too carried away,” she cautioned, though there was a twinkle in her eye as she added, “Or at least make sure I’ve got a good view.”
“Didn’t you just say we needed to keep our jobs?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I meant something harmless. Untraceable.”
I snorted, the sound echoing around the otherwise silent lab. “Untraceable, you say? Now where’s the fun in that?”
Ellie simply shook her head, an indulgent smile playing on her lips. She flicked through our compiled research, her brow furrowing as she scanned it for errors. “I suppose I have only myself to blame for encouraging you.”
“Suppose so,” I agreed, turning my attention back to the microscope. The familiar shapes of cells swam into view, their structure almost comforting in its complexity. Yet beneath that conventional facade laid the potential for a revolution, a new world order within the medical field. Our discovery.
The enormity of it suddenly hit me, a wave of realization so profound it took my breath away. We were on the brink of something monumental and nobody knew it yet. Well, almost nobody.
“Do you think he’ll be there?” she said wistfully as I busied myself with the upcoming slides. I paused, immediately knowing exactly who she was referring to.
“Our mysterious benefactor?” I asked, keeping my tone as casual as possible. We seldom discussed our elusive funder, the shadowy figurehead of the companies that kept our work afloat. The mere mention of him brought an unwanted chill into our warm lab. “Well, if he is, there’s no way for us to know, right?”
“Right. Maybe don’t do anything then,” she said. “And let’s not mention any breakthroughs tonight. I think it might be best if we…I don’t know, keep it on the downlow for now.”
“I’m not going to talk about unverified research to a man in a suit with a degree in finance,” I replied. “What do you think I am?”
“A reckless genius?” Ellie ventured, her voice half-teasing, half-serious. The corners of her lips tugged upward into a gentle smile, the amusement in her eyes softening the sternness of her words.
I laughed at that, shaking my head in mock disapproval. “Reckless? Maybe. But genius? Always.” I turned to face her fully, my attention momentarily drawn away from the microscope. “And don’t worry about tonight. I may be playful, but I know when to be serious.”
“Okay, so don’t talk about unverified research with a suit, don’t sleep with a suit—“
”—and definitely don’t prank a suit,“ I finished for her, my eyebrows raised in feigned innocence. She let out a laugh that rang through the sterile lab, her amusement evident in the way her eyes crinkled at the corners.
“Right,” she retorted sarcastically, her smile still playing across her lips as she shook her head. “I feel like I should add ‘don’t get arrested’ to the list, but I have a feeling that won’t deter you either.”
“Oh, you know me too well,” I said, grinning at the playful accusation. Our banter was familiar, almost comforting amidst the daunting reality of our discovery and its implications.
We then returned to our individual tasks; Ellie meticulously compiling and examining our research data, while I continued analyzing slides under the microscope.
As the hours passed and the room darkened with the setting sun, our conversations began to dwindle, replaced by the hum of high-tech equipment and the scratch of pen against paper as we dedicated ourselves to our respective tasks. It felt like we were in our own little world, lost amongst cells and notes and a future teetering on the brink of our discovery.
Eventually, Ellie broke the silence. “I think we’ve done enough for today,” she said softly, her voice a pleasant interruption to the monotony of my observations. I glanced up from the microscope, blinking away my intense focus.
“Already?” I murmured, looking over at her. Ellie was standing by our cluttered workbench, her hand still resting on a stack of completed reports.
“We need to get ready,” she said. “We both need to go home and, you know, wash the science off of us.”
“Right, the glamourous world of red wine and black ties awaits,” I said with a sigh, tearing myself away from the microscope. I wasn’t particularly thrilled about the event, but it was a part of our jobs, one that couldn’t be ignored.
Ellie chuckled, her gaze softening as she watched me stand from my seat. “You know,” she began in a thoughtful tone, “I always find it amusing when you rumble about these events.”
“You do?” I asked.
Ellie nodded, her hands already busy tidying up some of the scattered papers on our shared desk. Her efficiency was a stark contrast to my own haphazard work habits. I watched her for a moment, appreciating her quiet dedication to our cause. “I mean, you look stunning, and you seem to enjoy yourself,” she said. “If one of those men wasn’t our mysterious benefactor, I would tell you to take one home tonight. After the last few weeks, you deserve to get laid.”
I burst out laughing, the sudden sound echoing throughout the lab. It was typical Ellie; under her professional demeanor and composed exterior, she had a knack for throwing curveballs that threw me off guard.
“Really, El?” I choked out between laughs, my eyes watering at her unexpected advice. “You’re now my wingwoman?”
“I mean,” she said. “You’re not doing it for yourself. And what’s the harm in a little one-night-stand? You don’t call him back, nothing happens. It’s just a little fun. You need a fuckbuddy.”
“Do you have any suggestions?” I asked.
“What about Dante Moretti? I saw how you were looking at him at that conference,” she said.
I shook my head. “The hobbyist? You think he dabbles in scientists too?”
“Hey, you never know until you try,” Ellie replied.
I shook my head. “Babe, I don’t think I stand a chance with a man that good-looking,” I said. “He’s probably already sleeping with some sort of model or something.”
“Oh my God. Just try it. What’s the worst that could happen?” she asked, laughing.
“What if he’s the benefactor?”
“That guy? That guy is only a benefactor to his own bank account,” she said. “I think that one’s a safe bet.”
“Right,” I said. “You’re right.”
Maybe she was right. But at that moment, I couldn’t have known that Dante Moretti would turn out to be far more than I had ever bargained for.