Binary Love (18+)

Chasing Sky

Nova had crammed so many samples into her toolbox, that she had felt like a drug runner when they made the journey back to the space station. The whole time she watched others anxiously waiting for them to question what she was carrying. It had taken Itsuki to calmly explain to her that she was with two senior members of security. No one would give her a second glance, and even if they did, they would just say that they were returning from an investigation. 

Once she had got back to the lab, she had carefully locked away the Blue, leaving Harou to explain to Rosa what they had found in the tunnels. She did not want to be around that conversation; it's not every day that you have to persuade your wife to hide the biggest drug bust this side of IA space. Nova hoped that they would resolve it quickly; they had agreed that Mark could be woken up today, and that the both of them would be there to help.

She had been eager to get back, not just because of what she had been carrying, but because she wanted to check on Mark. 

Over the last few days, he had continued to make suspiciously good progress. His body had completely filled out, and he had finally grown soft, black fur that signalled the end of the bio chamber's use. 

He was tantalisingly close to waking up.

Nova was practically vibrating with excitement, so much so that she would find herself triple checking that everything was in place. Together, they had moved one of the ward beds to the back lab, setting up various monitoring and emergency equipment ready for his first day out of the bio chamber. 

Rosalind had explained to her that he likely would be overwhelmed with his new senses, and that it would be a good idea to dull as many as possible, enabling him to slowly get used to them one at time. His sense of smell, Harou had explained, would be particularly difficult for him; being in a ward with chemicals, and smelling another Alpha nearby, might be too much when feeling so weak. 

Nova was also unsure how long it would take Mark to realise what had happened to him. The last time he had been conscious, he had been shutting down on her workshop floor, and likely would take some time to get used to the idea of his new body.

She also wasn't sure how he would react to her. 

Nova fidgeted with the hem of her clothes at the thought. It had been something she had avoided thinking about until this moment; just because he had shown interest in her before, it didn't mean that he would now. Mark would need to have opportunities to experience who he was, to help him explore his identity and become who he needed to be. Just because she had feelings for him, didn't meant that she would necessarily be a part of his new life. 

Disgruntled with that realisation, Nova decided to retrieve Rosalind and Harou. Whatever Mark's decision was, she refused to become some pining fool. 

Arriving in the ward, Nova was surprised to see that her two friends were not arguing about stashing a bunch of drugs in the back lab, but were in fact talking with Lucy. It seemed that they were closely looking at a datapad, scrolling through information, then heatedly talking about it. Walking up to them, Nova was able to listen to the tail end of their conversation.

"-complete recovery if this continues." Lucy's smokey voice held a edge of surprise, as if she was reluctant to believe the results in front of her.

"He was at death's door merely two days ago, not responding to any of our treatments, and now he's suddenly perfectly fine?" Rosalind took the datapad from Lucy's hands, flicking through with sharp jabs before deep furrows creased her forehead. Harou seemed equally intrigued, looming over his wife's shoulder to read whatever he could get a glance at.

"What's up?" Tilting her head to one side, Nova scanned the three of them with keen interest.

"Ah, Ms. Williams," Lucy stood up straighter, a smile dancing over her face briefly when she realised Nova had come over. "We were looking at Amaruq's test results. It seems he is suddenly making a recovery, but we are unsure how that it the case as he was recently very unwell."