Chapter 2

Becky was collapsed on the sofa when her son Faber walked into the living room. He was such a big man; she was always proud to see him. Nearly 7 feet tall, broad-shouldered, he was even stronger than he looked. And best of all, he was kind, in every fiber of his being. Katy was a perfect counterpoint to him. Pale and willowy where he was dark and muscled. She wasn't a short woman, but her head barely came up to his chest. He was a generous soul and he attracted others to him whowere equally generous in spirit.

Faber was already looking concerned as he walked into the room, and Katy let go of Faber and came to Becky as soon as she saw Becky's appearance. She sat down on the couch on Becky's left and hugged her. Faber sat on his mother's right and held them both.

"Becky, you look terrible, what's wrong?" Katy squeezed Becky's arm. Becky was still wearing her white lab coat. One sensible-but-professional black pump was on her right foot. Its mate was across the room by the front door.

"Oh, you two sillies." Becky smiled at them. "Nothing's wrong. I just had a long night. Very promising advances in our work. I'll just catch a bit of rest and head back to the lab."

Katy shook off the worry that had come up the moment she saw Becky. She drew back a little bit, relieved. It must be have been something significant to keep her up the entire night. "It must be exciting to a scientist. What have you discovered?"

Becky paused a moment and turned away slightly. "Well, we transposed some genomes and found a transvectored matrix." She was almost mumbling. "I can describe it to you in detail if I can find some graph paper and a scientific calculator. Although maybe I'd be better off with some warm milk and a bit of rest first the description of our work is really quite involved."

"Let me make you some warm milk," Katy said with genuine kindness and not a little relief at the prospect of missing the mini-seminar that seemed to be looming.

Faber normally would have smiled at his mother's tactic. She had taught him many ways of evading questions, ending conversations, and making people go away. The multi-syllabic words, the request for a calculator and the promise of a detailed scientific explanation was overkill. Generally just one of those techniques could politely send anyone running. He'd never seen Katy use those techniques on Katy before, and never in such a sledge-hammer-like way. Clearly, there was nothing to smile about today.

Faber hugged his mother against his shoulder and rested his head on the top of hers. He waited until they could hear Katy's soft movements in the kitchen, the clinking of cups, the milk being poured into a saucepan.

"What's the matter, Mom? You seem afraid."

"Seem?" That was one of their code words. Unconciously, Becky looked down at her clothes and drew her collar against her neck, but there was not hiding it. Faber knew she was afraid.

He held her right hand in his two large hands. "Was someone hurt at work?"

Becky shook her head.

He lifted her hand to his face, almost as if to press it against his cheek in tenderness. He glanced around; no one was near. He could still hear Katy in the kitchen. They were unobserved.

He ran his tongue over the back of her hand.

Becky didn't even try to pull her hand away. She just looked down and started crying.

He whispered, very low, so Katy would not hear. "If no one was hurt, why do I taste blood on your hand?"