Page 48 of The Alpha Experiment
“We isolated an RNA-splicing co-factor that didn’t appear in Newton’s baseline cell sample, but did in the latest one he collected,” Meredith answered enthusiastically, seemingly oblivious to his weird mood. “It’s great! Newton thinks it might induce the expression of human introns that appear as exons in were—”
“Awesome,” Colin cut in—even more flatly. “Glad to hear it. You guys done for now?”
I glanced nervously between the two of them. Meredith had a wicked temper, and if she blew up on Colin…frankly, I was going to side with her. What the hell was his problem? The experiment had worked! It had freaking worked, and Colin looked about ten seconds from popping his fangs and snarling! Not even a word of congratulations, or anything? Hurt lanced through my buoyant good mood, popping it like a bubble.
And Meredith—well, so far, she was standing there with her mouth open in shock.
But that wouldn’t last for long.
“We’re done for now,” I said, before she could recover enough to slap him down for being such an asshole. Or before I could. “But there’s more for later. I’ll need to run more tests. Meredith, thank you so much for staying and helping.”Please, please let her focus on my effusive apologies and let it go…“I couldn’t have done it without you. You’re a goddess, and I owe you double coffee for life. Twice a day. Forever.”
Her grin returned, wide enough to dimple both of her cheeks, and she turned her attention to me like Colin didn’t even exist. Maybe she was too tired to get up in arms. Or maybe she was ignoring him pointedly, which was a lot more her style. “You’ll be able to afford it with that Nobel Prize money, Newton. I’m so proud of you. You’d better mention me in your speech, or I’ll hunt you down.”
Impulsively, I lunged forward and pulled her into a hug, a big squeeze that lifted her up on her toes. “Don’t jinx it, there’s so much more work to do, but I’ll invite you to Sweden if it comes to that. First class.”
She squeezed me back hard before I let her go, and it felt incredible. She’d been my office mate for a long time, but I hadn’t realized until very, very recently that she’d become…a friend. Someone I trusted and depended on.
Until recently, I hadn’t usually needed anyone I could trust and depend on, keeping myself as independent as a member of a nosy werewolf pack could.
But I’d developed a new appreciation for friends who came through in a pinch.
Meredith stepped back and fished around in her bag for her keys. “I’m out of here, but Newton, call me later, and hopefully I’ll have some news for you. Let me know what your next step is going to be. I’m on board, as long as I have the time between that pancreatitis study and my classes.”
“You sure you’re good to drive?”
She nodded and started off down the hall. “You know I’m a night-owl anyway. Good night! Or good morning! And congrats!” She waved over her shoulder, and her voice faded away as she rounded the corner of the hallway toward the elevator.
Silence reigned. I turned away from where I’d watched her go and found Colin standing with his hands in his pockets, his whole body radiating tension.
Silently.
“You can’t even say ‘Good job, Newt, you did it’?” I demanded. “Pretend to be enthusiastic for like, ten seconds? I know you sat in this hallway all night, and it was uncomfortable and boring, but you could’ve gone home! I wouldn’t have minded, and I could’ve hitched a ride home with Meredith. I’m grateful you wanted to keep an eye out for me, but—”
“So Stockholm’s in Sweden?”
I rocked back on my heels, too tired to deal with that much conversational whiplash. “What?”
“Stockholm. Where you said we’d go, if you won a Nobel someday.”
It took me a minute to figure out what the hell he was on about. “Yeah, of course Stockholm’s in Sweden. And yeah, of course we’d go…what—Col, what’s gotten into you? You don’t get like this when you’re tired. You get all goofy.”
His jaw tightened even more, enough that he’d need a dentist if he kept it up. “You could’ve told me you had a thing for your lab partner. Before we—I mean, I didn’t want you to spend the whole night here by yourself. But you weren’t. By yourself.” He shrugged, the gesture indicating anything but ease and nonchalance. “She’s pretty. Your type, right? You like super-smart redheads, yeah?”
“Who doesn’t like super-smart redheads? But I don’t ‘have a thing’ for Meredith! We share an office. She’s my friend. She took over my 102 exam last week, remember?”
“So she has a thing for you, too,” he snarled at me, going from blank to furious so quickly it made me jump. His eyes flashed gold for a second. “Newt, you should’ve fucking told me!” He pulled his hands out of his pockets and ran them through his hair, something he’d obviously done more than once during the night by the way it was already defying gravity in all directions. “I’m going to the car while you—do whatever you do to shut down your fucking lab.”
And he spun and loped down the hallway, a lot faster than a human could’ve and a lot faster than he needed to—too quickly for me to get it together and tell him I’d already done that. I heard the stairwell door slam a second after he vanished around the corner.
I stared after him, my eye twitching.
Okay. Colin had officially lost his goddamn mind.
It’d been hours since I had any coffee, and I’d managed maybe four hours of sleep out of the last twenty-four. I’d used up every last brain cell I had working through the co-factor analysis, and then some. I’d been so ready to be Newt for the rest of the day, not Dr. McEwen.
But I forced myself to push away the disbelief and hurt and total confusion and try,tryat least, to take an objective view of this.
A scientific view.
