For Honor or Glory

Brotherly Reminder

Chapter 21 

It was Tuesday of the following week before Alex finally made any headway in the imaging lab. Not that it made her life any easier. If anything, she now had to make up the time she lost trying to figure things out. She had a feeling that the professor wasn't going to be willing to accept excuses if she didn't at least have some progress to show by the end of the following week.

That meant that not only was she trying to race the clock to figure out how to unlock what information she could about the DNA involved in the Jenova Project, but she would also have to try and produce some information to further her thesis. The prospect made her want to pull her hair out. Unfortunately, she could only do one thing at a time, and the first thing she needed was a little breathing room, so her thesis was the number one priority until she had something to update the file with.

At least Genesis was gone for a mission, so she wouldn't have to worry about him bothering her about working late. That was still a sore subject between them, even if he had toned it down to reminders that he wished she would take better care of herself. She could appreciate that he had at least switched his focus to her welfare instead of only caring that he didn't get to see her as often.

She had already had many samples from cadavers suspected of having genetic disorders on hand in her small freezer, so she was currently taking extracts from each of them and running them through the spectral analyzer. She would worry about a visual after she verified what the protein layouts looked like on paper.

She was able to process them through in large groups, and the fifth set had just finished printing. She stood to stretch with a wide yawn before she went to grab the sheets across the room. She saw her brother standing in the doorway, watching her, and gave him an absent wave as she grabbed the papers. "Hey Geal, how was your mission?"

There was no answer, and she had already made it to the second sheet before her head jerked up, and she stared at him with wide eyes. "What are you doing here!?"

Instead of waiting for an answer, she threw her papers down on the nearest flat surface, raced to grab him by the arm, and poked her head out to make sure no one was around before she slammed the door and leaned against it with her hand over her heart as she looked at her brother.

The look he gave her was somewhere between worried and consternated. "What was that about? I came to check on you since you never came to dinner, and I had been told you haven't been getting back until late each night. I thought we agreed not to kill ourselves?"

Alex took a deep breath to calm her nerves and completely ignored his question. "Did anyone see you come in here?"

Angeal rolled his eyes at his sister's antics. "You really are serious about doing this on your own, huh?"

He chuckled at the look she gave him but held out the item in his hands as a peace offering. "I promise, no one saw me except Professor Rayleigh. She's the one who told me where to find you. But I did want to bring you this. Don't worry, I'm not here to try and convince you to come back, but I do want you to eat more than vending machine food."

Alex stared at the rice and thick stew in the bowl and was practically drooling when she looked back up with a grin. "Thanks, Geal. I needed this."

He laughed at her expression again before he patted her arm. "I figured as much. The food in the fridge has hardly been touched since I left. Have you eaten at all?"

Alex had already started scarfing down the stew, even though it was still a little too warm, so she had to swallow before she could respond, "Of course. But most of it has been from the cafeteria, unfortunately. I've got so much to do and not nearly enough time. At least not if I want to get done before I start full-time."