Scientific Fantasies (Wattys2015)

Chapter Thirty

All was quiet in the labs. Sam and Aiden had gone out for the weekly restock of food, and Linda had decided to go visit her own family, leaving Natalia to her own devices in her lab. She wasn't doing very much. Neither was Talon. True to form, he was roaming the lab, poking about, but there was a limpness to his wings, an air of sadness about hi.

It had taken him a couple more days to decide to talk to her, but even after that he'd been quiet, and she knew that he missed Bella more than he would ever allow himself to say. It was hard for him to be quieter than before, but it had somehow happened, and she didn't know whether it was because of what Ingvar had done to him, or because Bella was no longer around to keep him company. Sometimes, Natalia thought it would be a mix of both, but she wasn't going to ask him.

She turned back to her papers, not even trying to concentrate on them. There were a couple of bread rolls on a plate next to her, and she was absently nibbling on them while she read, mostly to keep Sam happy than because she was hungry.  The papers that she was reading over weren't making her happy, and she finally put them down, closing her eyes. When she opened ht em again, she caught him taking one of her bread rolls, and her gaze fell on the scars on his wrist and arm.

"I'll destroy him," she heard herself whisper, but he shook his head.

"How do you destroy a monster without becoming one?" he countered without looking at her. He moved away, eating the roll slowly, and stopped in front of the enclosure door, staring at it.

She didn't know what to say to that, and silence fell through the lab once again, to be soon interrupted by a knock on the door. Frowning, because she wasn't expecting anyone, Natalia rose to open the door, keeping herself between it and the rest of the lab. Linda wasn't due to be back for a couple of days yet.

It was one of their secretaries, and Natalia turned her frown onto them. "What is it? I'm busy."

The young woman, only a year older than Natalia, straightened her spine. "There's a visitor to see you, Dr O'Rourke," she said briskly. "He said that he was expected. He's from the military."

Natalia closed her eyes in despair. Why she had to be the only one around when the military came again, she had no idea, and didn't know what to say. "Name," she demanded, trying to buy herself time.

"Silverman," was the prompt reply. "Ben Silverman." 

"Are you sure he wants to see me?"

"Yes, Dr. He asked for you by name."

Something went down Natalia's spine. "I need to secure the specimen before he can come down here. Give me ten minutes, and then bring him down."

She closed the door with a huge sigh, hoping that she was right. Turning to Talon, she picked up a chain, and a shiver went through him at the sound.

"I'm sure you heard," she said quietly. "Please."

He looked over his shoulder at her, and said nothing in protest as she looped the chain around his wrists, not as tight as she usually did it. If he really tried, it wouldn't take much to slip out. Without another word, she took him into Linda's small room, with its separate door to the main hallways. Natalia often went through this room to Ingvar's lab instead of going the long way through the hallways off her lab.

"Just... behave. Please?"

He nodded silently, watching her as she hurried back into her lab. True to form, almost exactly ten minutes after she'd shut the door, there was another knock at it, and she opened it again, a beaming smile growing across her face.

"Dad!"

She threw her arms around him, making him laugh as the door closed behind him. "It's good to see you again, sweetheart." He hugged her as fiercely as she was hugging him, tears coming to both of them. "How have you been?"