QT:UK - Chapter 7

Ok, so I wanted this one to be done like a week ago for you all but the word count ended up ballooning about 50% longer than I originally expected. This is still pending the usual continuity pass from Corrupting Power before it gets submitted to the public sites, but there's no reason why you all can't get the 'alpha' version since I'm not expecting any tweaks.

I've got a bit of time free now so the plan is to get stuck right into this month's Picture Perfect and get the 2nd half of the NYC chapter finished off for you, followed possibly by another short for QT.

Enjoy!

******

24th October 2020

Nia’s Mercedes EV clawed through the miles along the M1 motorway, travelling south towards Nottingham, and their latest recruits. The road felt practically abandoned, a long, unused slash of tarmac across the grey British autumn with only the occasional HGV bothering to offer them company, drivers sealed up within their cabs. Somewhere, several minutes behind, Rhys and Nell were following them, but other than that there certainly weren’t any other cars left to care about how many miles above the limit Nia was driving down the inside lane. Or traffic police left to stop her. Just Ethan, pressed back into the passenger seat next to her.

It had been months since Ethan had seen anything but the confines of Taymont Hall, and he was acutely aware of how the country he was stepping back out into was a very different place to the one he had previously known. Diminished, scarred and scared. He reasoned that he should, by rights, have been apprehensive but was surprised to find he wasn’t, his mind more preoccupied with thoughts of others than with any concerns about his own safety in the abandoned stillness of DuoHalo England.

There was a slight but definite tension from Nia as she drove the eerily quiet journey, her unease at being away from Evie for even the planned couple of days being obvious. The first two members of Team Knight were already intensely close, and Ethan could tell that leaving the hurting Asian woman behind was even harder for Nia than it was for him. Evie had rebuffed attempts to be convinced to come with them, insisting she would be ok, and Ethan knew that with time she would be. He just wished he could help her get there faster.

The preview footage they had received had done a lot to focus minds on Project Upstart, offering them a real sense of tangible stakes, but the footage had also proved more challenging for some than others in the two days that had followed. Evie in particular had slipped into quiet determination, all furrowed brows and extended work hours, using professionalism to build up a wall to just how much the video had shaken her. And it was Nia that she’d confessed to, however, that it had spilled open half-raw wounds about the loss of her girlfriend and left her projecting the face of the woman she’d cared about onto the suffering they had been shown. Evie might have gotten over Sara’s death, but the harsh discovery of what she might have gone through was a new cut that was going to take time to heal.

“It’s 11am and I’m Ruby Foster with the NEBC headlines. Theresa May has suggested lockdowns could be here to stay until Christmas in an update this morning as –”

Ethan reached over and flicked off the news bulletin that stirred on the radio in place of the classical music Nia had been listening to. The familiar voice of their anchor Ruby, due to be added to Team Kaminski later that week, felt even more like platitudes than normal and he knew neither of them wanted to hear them.

“You know she’s made of strong stuff and has Farah there to look out for her,” Ethan settled on instead, opting for an attempt at soothing Nia’s disquiet rather than allow the journey to continue with silence.

“And you know that’s not the point,” Nia offered evenly in return.

Ethan did. He had an almost visceral need to not just know that Evie was ok, but also that he was the one there to help her, and it had taken a huge amount to pull himself away. Nia didn’t want it to be Farah there looking out for the youngest member of the Team, she wanted it to be herself.

He reached over, briefly slipping his hand over hers, causing her body language to soften.

“No-one ever promised love would be easy,” he said, gently,  and watched as a handful of emotions played across Nia’s face before settling on a wistful smile.

“No…I suppose they didn’t.”

If she wasn’t driving he’d have kissed her.

Nia had been a flurry of activity for the last few days. She was a born leader, driven and brilliant, and was pulling Project Upstart forward with a clarity of vision Ethan struggled to imagine someone else bringing. She was determined to make their own broadcast human and relatable, and had been pushing hard to try and get as many interviews and accounts from recipients of the vaccine as possible, leaving Ethan doing his best trying to coordinate footage both domestically and from abroad. It felt impossible not to be swept up by her calm intensity more often than not. And he loved her for it.

And yet it was the side of Nia he was getting to see now, in the car, that he loved more. He was touched at how readily she was willing to set aside the mask for him and show her human side. Nia cared as intensely as she did everything else, but that meant she was willing to fight hard enough that others might miss it.

Which meant that he was reluctant to risk spoiling things and discuss the topic he promised himself he would bring up when he got in the car. But Nia and Evie weren’t the only people on his mind.

“Actually, there’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about for a few days but never felt like we had the time.”

The consideration with which he picked his words pricked at Nia’s ears, and her reply was open yet cautious. “Well, I am a captive audience until we meet the McNamara sisters.”

“Aoife Ryan.”

“The engineer? What about her?”

Aoife had finally replied to his messages, but her replies felt strained, the easy comfort of simply interacting with her suddenly not so easy. Ethan knew that was more his fault than hers. What had already been an awkward ask to keep things from her before suddenly felt impossible following the preview footage from Scotland, and every word he shared with her without opening up felt like a larger lie than the last.

“We’re…” he started, then paused immediately, realising he didn’t really know how to describe what his relationship with Aoife was, and aware at how delicate this had the potential to be.  “She’s my best friend. And she’s honestly the only thing at Taymont that’s kept me sane the last few months. I know how important keeping things quiet is but lying to her by omission like this is killing me.”

“Ethan…” Nia’s reply wasn’t an admonishment, answering with strained sympathy instead. Even so he pushed on, attempting to answer the reasonableness of her objections before she could raise them.

“I know…I know. We don’t have a choice. But what if I don’t want to just accept that. You’re the one who’s told me that you shouldn’t be afraid to push back if something feels wrong.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to use that one against me quite so quickly.” Nia gave the slightest of sighs, her smile wan and Ethan detected the hint of bemused humour from her that he was using her own philosophy against her. She had styled herself as the titular Upstart, unwilling to play by rules she disagreed with, but wasn’t quite as used to others using the same logic against her. Some might have felt her to be unreasonable, but Ethan knew she was anything but. She spoke quietly, the care in her voice obvious as she appreciated the sincerity with which she spoke.

It was plain that she disliked how much this had clearly been hurting him, but even so it pushed hard against her better judgement.

“This isn’t just a case of doing what we want Ethan,” Nia continued. “There are consequences to everything we chose to do now that are very real.”

“It’s not just about me being selfish about what I want. It’s…” Ethan had considered over and over how to make his case and took a moment to try and find the words he knew he wanted. “You say you want us to do this right. That we have a duty to make sure what Project Upstart delivers is better than what it would be if someone else was standing where we are. If I’m not bringing the best of myself, my values, what I think is right, to what we’re doing, then why am I even here. I can’t just pretend I’m doing the right thing for the big picture if I’m compromising all the little details that make that up.”

Behind the wheel Nia’s look was unreadable, her eyes carefully placed upon the road as they progressed.

“I don’t know what the answer to this is yet Nia…but I need to know you’re going to support me standing up for things when I think I do.”

A pair of delivery vans, painted with the blue and red livery of one of the big supermarket chains, joined the road ahead of them, now a vital service to allow people to remain in their homes and some of the only people with a reason to be out here. Nia slowed and it gave her enough of a chance to glance across towards him.

“How long have you been rehearsing that in your head for,” she asked, her expression affectionate as she looked to undercut any tension with the observation.

“At least a day. Probably more like two,” he confessed. Nia had immediately seen how much he had agonised over how to say things, and the humour she took from that fact made him realise how unnecessary it had been. If he had thought that she might not have heard his concerns, she was rapidly disabusing him of that particular worry.

“That’s not all you wanted to ask though is it?”

Nia’s question caught Ethan off guard. It took him a quiet moment, as the car sped past another truck, to realise exactly what she had meant. He was struck by an appreciation that there was a larger question at the root of things, one which he hadn’t quite managed to thrust towards despite the amount of time he’d spent thinking things over.

“Aoife did the Delphi questionnaire at the same time I did…”

“She did. You were a good match for her.”

“So why isn’t she…”

Ethan’s feelings spun into motion as his question tailed off, like a machine clearing an obstacle from its gears. His brow tugged slightly into a frown. It was an odd discovery, noticing that he’d been avoiding asking what the serum would mean for Aoife. It was as if he knew the fact she hadn’t already been paired up meant that it wasn’t going to be with him, and he had been doing everything he could to avoid looking reality in the eye. And it was only in the sudden knowledge that he would never be able to have a relationship with her that he realised how much he might have wanted it. Confronting that stung more than he ever thought it could.

“Because she’s a terrible match for me,” Nia said, slowing the car slightly. There was guilt in her voice, noticing the confused emotions prickling across Ethan’s face. A finger tapped anxiously at the car’s wheel, and she exhaled. She spoke gently as she tried to explain plainly for him without retreating behind the mask of over-composed professionalism. “Delphi has to deal with thousands of data points for each candidate. Even with the best AI we have, applying that across every possible match becomes exponentially harder with each person you add to a team, to the point of impossibility. To simplify things, as I understand it, the algorithm tends to weight things around a single person and then builds out from there. In the majority of cases it’s the man.”

“But not with you?” For the first time in days Ethan found a growing spark of resentment for the situation they were in, even if he couldn’t bring himself to direct it at Nia.

Nia nodded. “President Pelosi was the first one, as I understand it, to be prioritised by the algorithm ahead of her partner.”

“I suppose there’s a certain amount of sense to that.”

“I didn’t demand special treatment.” She continued, softly protesting in the face of what she suspected he was feeling. “But when the UK government were deriving the Delphi platform from the US’s Oracle, they were insistent that there were provisions in there to consider professional metrics too. They wanted it to make sure it could be used as a workforce solution for the public and private sectors too. There’s no sense pairing a minister who needs to be in London with a pilot or someone working on an oil rig. I don’t know if I was flagged manually or if it simply decided to prioritise me on its own.”

“You sound like you’re trying to justify something that you’re not in control over,” Ethan replied, caught between the sudden cut of things with Aoife, and the love he had for Nia. He could imagine the burden he would feel if their roles had been so easily reversed and he was a barrier to her, and he refused to hold that against her.

Nia’s response was with the same, earnest firmness she brought to her work. “When your feelings are being made to compromise for me, yes, I do need to justify it Ethan. Even if the algorithm is never going to put us with someone you can’t connect with, it’s not going to be able to let you have everything you might want either. I have to be aware of that.”

Everything he might want? No-one got that, even before the pandemic. He already had more than he should ever have been able to ask for. And yet it didn’t make it easier to avoid picking at certain questions. He couldn’t reason away emotions.

“So…It thinks you and Aoife wouldn’t work?”

“If it was just you and her it may have been different, but her compatibility with me is below 50%, and her professional suitability for Upstart was even worse.”

Aoife was brash, confrontational, and bad with whatever she considered to be undeserved authority. She was also deeply principled and outspoken about what she thought was right. It didn’t take much to see how much of a clash she might be with Nia, or how she might struggle to toe the line Project Upstart might demand of her. But then it also felt unfair that traits that seemed to be valued in Nia, traits he loved, might be the same ones being held against Aoife.

“I can’t change that we don’t work together, even if I would try for you,” Nia apologised. Her next words didn’t seem to come particularly easy to her, but she said them anyway. “However, even if she’s not on our Team I can see that this still means a lot to you. I trust your judgement, and know you understand the stakes. If you think you can find a way to tell her without it causing issues then I’ll stand beside that.”

Not for the first time, Nia’s response surprised Ethan. He had been prepared to have to stand his ground and make his case, or perhaps even insist that he would have done it with or without her approval, but instead she cut that defiance off, smothering it with understanding.

Nia allowed herself another glance away from the road and read his expression. “What’s the point of arguing when I know I’m not going to be able to say no to you on this? Regardless of who the algorithm thinks is in charge.”

“You could have told me sooner.”

“Part of me was hoping I wouldn't have to,” she said, almost sadly, the barest glimpse of self-consciousness showing through. As if she’d been waiting to see if she could simply have his heart to herself. “And the larger part told me I needed to let you work through whatever you were feeling yourself. We’re adults Ethan, I trusted that when you were ready to talk to me you would.”

Nia’s hand found his again, the most she could do while driving to reach over and give a loving squeeze.

“But I am sorry,” she finished. “About all of this with her.”

“No-one ever promised love would be easy,” he repeated, the statement feeling even more humorously understated than before, drawing a small chuckle from Nia. But then if someone offered him the chance to go back to an easy life now, was there really any chance he would dream of taking it?

A bold blue motorway sign breezed past the window, white letters noting that they were less than 10 miles from Nottingham, and Jessica McNamara, the young woman that the algorithm had picked out to be the next member of Team Knight for Nia. And for him. He was going to find a way to make all of this work, no matter what the rules or reason said. For the women he was already paired with. For the ones he was still going to be paired with. And for the one he wasn’t going to be.

******

Quiet followed them from the motorway into the centre of Nottingham, only sporadically broken up by other vehicles, just often enough to remind Ethan that the city wasn’t completely abandoned. Nia had slowed from her previous breakneck speed, subconsciously urged to a cautious crawl by the haunted feel of the urban fabric. At one point a pair of urban foxes strolled across the street in front of their car, emboldened in the half-deserted cityscape, disappearing behind a bus that seemed to have been abandoned by the side of the road months ago.

There were people, infrequent, nervous, shuffling, bundled up against the autumn cold with heavy masks covering their faces as they made their way in and out of the handful of shops still open for essentials. On a couple of rare occasions they passed those foolish enough to be out without any protection at all, and Ethan was left wanting to wind down the window and berate them for what they didn’t know. At one set of traffic lights they stopped, and Ethan’s notice wandered to the shape of a homeless body, curled up in a doorway with its back to them. They were covered up in a heavy sleeping bag despite the early hour, rendering them oddly formless, and they failed to move during the long minutes in which the Mercedes lingered before the red light. It was only as they drove away that Ethan realised he would have no way of knowing if they were dead or simply sleeping.

The state of things didn’t quite feel real as they passed. Too close to cliche. Ethan had been shut away in Taymont too long, and the stark difference of the world now made it easy to envisage as a dressed set rather than a place doing its best to keep pretending while people died in the millions.

Eventually they did reach the new-build apartment complex that was their destination. Delphi may not have paired Ethan with Aoife, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t generating other matches for Team Knight. The US data suggested a median of seven partners in order to achieve the levels of second-hand immunity needed from their vaccines, with a digital artist and graphic designer called Jess the next on their list, as the algorithm spread its search further across the country. Oddly, Jess’s sister, a programmer named Alex, had been flagged for Team Barclay at the same time, and Rhys and Dr Armstrong were headed to her apartment on the other side of town, knowing that if there were any issues Nia or Nell would be available to support the other.

Like with Farah everything had been carefully coordinated in advance, introductions made through odd digital interactions that made online dating seem simple. Jess had wanted a chance to meet in her own home, and to be vaccinated there, letting her use the familiar to ease into things before heading to Taymont. And so Ethan found himself ringing the intercom, buzzed through to find her apartment five floors up, while Nia followed with a clinical looking briefcase of polished aluminium.

He paused briefly in the stairwell, unable to stop himself checking his phone, and felt Nia’s frame slide alongside him, a hand around his waist.

“What did you say to her?” she asked, knowing he’d taken the time to message Aoife while she fetched things from the boot.

“Just that I had something important I needed to talk to her about pretty urgently,” he replied, holding up the screen to show her. “Still unread. I’m not sure what I’m going to say when she does answer.”

She leaned up to kiss him tenderly. “Then you are doing all you can for now.”

“And I have someone else that needs my attention waiting for me, I know.” Ethan closed his eyes, blowing his cheeks out as he took a moment to reset his thoughts, finding the determination again that he was going to be everything he needed to be to everyone who needed him. “Let’s go cast the next die.”

A dog barked from the other side of the door as they knocked, and Ethan’s immediate attention was forced onto the enthusiastic jack russell that emerged, rather than the petite redhead that accompanied it. It jumped up, paws against his thigh, eagerly sniffing his hand with an energy that suggested Ethan was the first new person it had met in months, and he stooped down to scritch at mismatched white and brown ears.

“Moxie, hey, calm down, I know it’s exciting but…”

Jess started to speak, but tailed off as Ethan looked up from his haunches and made eye contact with her, coming face to face in person for the first time. To call her cute would have been an understatement. She was short, only creeping a few inches above five feet with wavy red hair cut off at her shoulder, while a small number of freckles scattered across her cheeks, framing clear blue eyes. Her outfit was casual, a simple jumper with broad horizontal stripes alongside a faded pair of jeans, with the hint of colour from a tattoo flashed below the cuff of her right sleeve.

“It’s exciting is it,” Ethan asked, flashing her a grin as he echoed her own words back to her while continuing to try and pet her dog.

He had originally been a little unsettled when Nia had told him that Jess was only 22, but getting his head around the age gap was one of the smallest things that had been asked of him since this had all started, and their interactions so far had soothed any concerns that they might struggle to make a connection. While Jess seemed more than occasionally a little awkward, prone to speaking until someone stopped her, she matched it with a bubbly ease that Ethan had warmed to immediately, able to simply skip over clumsy moments with humour.

Jess blushed, breaking their eye contact. “Well yeah, I mean, it’s not like we’ve had much company in months and after I got my head around everything you told me it’s natural to be a little excited right? Nerves and excitement are just the same thing and I don’t know if you can tell but I am plenty nervous right now and…please don’t just leave me talking.”

“Maybe we could come in?” Nia asked, smoothly obliging. Ethan caught the look on the black woman’s features and saw how quickly she seemed to be taken with the redhead. The endeared expression didn’t exactly make it hard to accept that the algorithm was giving her preferences such strong consideration. Jess caught her eye instead this time, and blushed again.

“Oh, yeah, please,” Jess said, self-consciously moving to pick the dog up, prying the exuberance away from Ethan. “It’s not much, but it’s me.”

The young woman prickled with nervous energy as she led them inside, practically fidgeting in her desire to make a good impression. The apartment was the sort of pre-furnished affair aimed at young professionals that used the pretence of minimalism to cut corners with its sparseness, but she had worked hard to make it her own. Her profile said that she had apprenticed briefly in tattoo artistry before throwing herself in earnest into graphic design, and photographs of inked bodies lined the walls alongside what had to be large prints of her own digital art, framed colour at every turn. An Ikea bookcase in the hall held a hardback multitude of artbooks, neatly arrayed alongside the more haphazard sprawl of manga volumes she’d collected. And as they made their way, they passed the open door to a bedroom-turned office, Ethan glancing inside at a drawing tablet and microphone sat beside her computer, the set up seemingly the most carefully curated part of the entire home.

Jess was still talking as they reached the living room, mumbling explanations of various pieces of art more to herself than anything, whatever anxiety she felt left her apparently unable to leave any dead air unfilled.

“Jess,” Ethan said, interrupting her commentary on a work she had hung above the couch. “I know it’s easier said than done, but relax.”

The redhead perched herself on the edge of an armchair, leaving the couch opposite to Nia and Ethan. She exhaled.

“Right. Relax, simple. I can do relaxed. Just breathe and…” She’d set the jack russell down as she sat, only for the dog to immediately bound back in Ethan’s direction again, curiosity unsated as she attempted to clamber onto him. “Oh come on Mox, you’re killing me here. I swear she’s better behaved than this normally.”

“It’s fine,” Ethan insisted, playfully responding to the animal. “My aunt had one like this when I was a kid. And you did say one of your conditions was that she could come and was going to get on with me. Hopefully this is me making a good impression with her.”

Seeing the natural rapport Ethan had with her pet did more to help Jess relax than words could have done, and she settled back fully into the chair to watch. He scooped Moxie up, allowing her to lick his face, his time locked down in Taymont having left him starved of such simple interactions. For a moment he even let himself forget why they were there.

“You must still have questions,” Nia said, leaving Ethan to his over-enthused distraction.

“Honestly? No. Not really, we covered most things already, just think I need the chance to talk to him in person, get a feel for things before, you know…well of course you know.”

They’d already talked at length with Jess about the vaccine, joining them at Taymont Hall and what her role on Project Upstart would be. Despite her age, Jess had grown up in digital media, first flirting with video production for a friend’s Youtube when she was barely 13 and she had developed a precocious talent for animation and digital art from that point forward. It was the sort of skill set that Nia’s plans for Upstart leaned heavily on, with plenty of graphics and visuals to convey as much data and information as needed, along with keeping the production quality sleek and bold. If either of them had expected Jess to be daunted by the workload they were left surprised, with the younger woman quickly bringing her own ideas and insisting she could do more than Nia’s original ambitions. Professionally, Jess was clearly a perfect match for what Nia wanted, unburdened by preconceived notions of what should be possible.

But it wasn’t the professional side of things they all needed to be comfortable with, and it didn’t seem like there would ever stop being a leap of faith, no matter how many times they made it.

“How long has it been since anyone else was up here,” Ethan asked.

The question left Jess flat footed, and the dorkishly awkward speech faltered as she considered it and realised how long the answer was. “Here? Since lockdown started I suppose so, however many months that’s been.” She paused, saw the sympathy on Ethan’s face and murmured her way through an explanation to placate it. “I mean, I’m in a bubble with Alex so I head to her place a couple of times a week, and Mox gives me an excuse to go outside. And I find being myself is less cringeworthy online anyway, so I’ve been able to stream a lot which has been good. Mostly.”

She stopped and gave a small, unwitting frown, small wrinkles scrunching up between her eyes as she confronted how loaded that final word was. Ethan recognised the feeling, the sort of loneliness so heavy that you don’t even realise it’s there until it’s been lifted. He spoke again to try and spare her from it.

“You stream a lot then?”

“Yeah, most nights.” The question worked, a smile playing across her face as he drew her back from the feeling, even if her eyes remained slightly downcast. “It lets me keep my creative energy up to have projects that aren’t work, and I’ve got some good friends online. I go by DoodleFox on there and…”

She paused suddenly and looked straight up at him, searching for recognition. Ethan had heard the name DoodleFox already, finding now just how much it suited the cheery redhead. But it wasn’t the name itself that had prompted the reaction, rather the accounts it was linked to. On looking up her art Ethan had been surprised to find a truly prodigious amount of drawn and animated porn. She was an incredible artist, stylised characters with bold lines and bubblegum colours, who it seemed she just happened to enjoy drawing in lovingly explicit detail. What had also struck him was how sapphic leaning her content was, with the majority of her work featuring two or more women paired together, both characters he recognised and ones he had to presume were her own creations.

Jess cringed, body language curling inward so hard that she practically folded back into the armchair. There was a quiet whine of pained embarrassment before she spoke. “Oh god you’ve seen my socials haven’t you.”

“A little,” Ethan said, giving her his best reassuringly apologetic look. “Look, no judgement, you really don’t want to see my internet history from the last few months either.”

Nia shot him an ‘oh really’ look that was all at once curious, amused, and reproachful at his approach. But he continued, as he realised the self-conscious wave receded from Jess with his admission.

“Besides,” he said, “what you’re going to discover is that some of those things stop feeling quite so big. I don’t know if it’s the vaccine or the matching algorithm but so far everything like that has felt really…natural. Give it a few days and Nia will probably be giving you notes.”

It was hard to resist teasing Nia to reassure Jess, and the redhead gave a small, cute giggle as the older woman made a noise of protest. Ethan spread his hands to Nia, the playful gesture only slightly undercut by Mox following it too, expecting her own attention.

“You’re telling me you’ve not looked too then,” Ethan asked.

The response was one he didn’t think Nia was physically capable of, as she actually blushed with her own embarrassment, her response uncharacteristically faltering. “I…may have had my eye caught by a few pieces.” Quickly, however, she did her best to sweep back into her regular poise, gently adding, “and you do realise we’ve been here mere minutes and this is already what you’re talking about?”

“And you’re deflecting.”

Jess pulled her feet up onto the chair alongside herself, making herself comfortable as the paired couple light heartedly sparred with each other. Ethan watched her, keeping the conversation easy and uncomplicated, slowly letting her unwrap the anxiety of the unfamiliar from her own shoulders.

The three of them talked, and minutes bled through to several hours without trying. Even past her initial nerves Jess retained an endearing nerdy energy, but her words tumbled out with enthusiasm rather than awkwardness whenever the topic brushed up against one of the many things that sparked her imagination. She was frighteningly smart in her own way, jumping with ease from talking about her varied artistic inspirations to anatomy to speaking at length with Nia about the business side of being a freelance producer and designer online, a conversation he happily left them to.

They ordered pizza for lunch (with Ethan surprised at how much delivery fees had gone up in a world where the companies were fighting to find drivers), and it was only as Jess was finishing a final vegetarian slice that Ethan realised her attention had strayed back to the metallic case resting near Nia, vaccine cooled inside.

“Can we do this?” There was a resolved air to Jess’ sudden question.

Moxie had settled down alongside Ethan as they ate, but stirred with renewed curiosity as Nia stood and spoke. “Of course. I know the plan was for me to leave the pair of you to it for this part. Is that still what you want?”

Despite Jess’ proclivities with her art, she had confessed in their planning that she’d never kissed another woman before, let alone shared a bed with one, as much as the idea appealed. It meant the plan had always been for Nia to meet her, but to leave the vaccination to Ethan alone, letting Jess work through one thing at a time. However as the question was asked, Jess’ answer seemed rather less decided than it had been originally. She found herself giving a small shake of her head, setting her hair into a pretty red wave.

“I don’t think I mind, and I can’t believe I’m saying that, but you’re gorgeous,” she said to Nia, anxious pressure returning to her speech. “This is already pretty much the craziest thing I’ve ever done and, well, letting you be there for it doesn’t seem that much crazier.”

“You’re absolutely certain,” Ethan asked. “We don’t need to do anything you aren’t totally comfortable with.”

“Certain? No, god no, I’m not certain about any of this. Just, more sure than I’m not sure.”

Nia approached the artist with an affirmative smile before an offered hand drew the younger woman to her feet. They kissed, tenderly, and, although the gesture only lasted a handful of seconds, Jess closed her eyes and drank in the contact of the other woman’s lips on her own.

“Oh…wow. I could definitely get used to that,” Jess mumbled before turning apologetically to Ethan. “Not that I’m not looking forward to kissing you too.”

As the two women kissed, Ethan had gathered the vaccine case, popping the clasps open to avoid the moment seeming over dramatic. He joked, “don’t worry, I get it, I’m a fan of kissing her too. And I know what she’s like when she doesn’t get what she wants.”

The pre-filled syringe now visible, exposed from its cooled confines, Jess’ focus lingered upon it, and she closed her eyes once more, steeling herself before reaching for the hem of her jumper.  Removing the woven stripes, she felt the near-startled attention of the other two on her, blushing again as she did so.

“I didn’t think you could just give me it through my clothes, and you’re going to be seeing me anyway. Right?”

She wore nothing underneath but a lacy black bra, heavily contrasted against her pale skin as it did its best to enhance an adorably modest bust. It seemed expensive, certainly not the sort of thing to be worn every day but rather to entice and draw the eye, expecting to be seen. Most striking however was her right arm, covered from wrist to shoulder in the reds, oranges and blacks of a full sleeve tattoo. A fox prowled down her arm, surrounded by leaves and branches in a style heavily inspired by traditional Japanese art, sleek, sharp and elegant.

“We could probably have just rolled up your sleeve to start with,” Ethan pointed out playfully, getting a shy smile in return, her eyes darting away from his own.

“Oh, yeah…right.”

It was Ethan’s turn to kiss her, already won over by the sweet, earnestness of the girl.

He readied the vaccine, and for the briefest of moments his thoughts strayed towards Aoife. He dwelled on the idea that in another world it might be her getting the dose instead, and that a simple injection of serum was now the difference between being able to explore whatever his feelings were and them remaining unrequited. But Ethan knew that the distracting flicker of a thought was unfair, both to Jess and Aoife. Jess was with him now, resting under Nia’s contented gaze. And even if Aoife wasn’t there at that moment, that wasn’t going to stop him doing right by her too.

The actual process of administering the vaccine to Jess felt oddly perfunctory, a simple press of a plunger and it was done. Although Ethan was sure it seemed anything but for Jess, who scrunched her eyes shut rather than look at the needle as it entered her un-tattooed arm.

“Normally it takes a little while to start working,” Nia said, still waiting close enough to Jess to run a hand across the ink that covered the redhead’s other side with an easy intimacy. “But, maybe that just means I can take a turn with you before he does?”

Desire, shy but eager, played across the peppered freckles of Jess’ face. There definitely hadn’t been enough time for the Gemivax to kick in and fire her libido, and so the exposed want was all her own. It wasn’t hard for Ethan to imagine how starved she was for simple human intimacy, or for Nia Clarke-Mills to be offered as succour. The two women were, as far as the algorithm was concerned, made for each other after all.

“I should probably message Alex first, let her know how things are going here,” Jess said, with concern for her sister still managing to dally at the front of her mind before she really let go. “The bedroom’s back there on the left, I’ll meet you there?”

Jess took her time, disappearing to contact her sister before heading to the bathroom to freshen up. By the time she joined them Ethan was to be found sitting on the edge of the neatly made bed, as Nia greeted the redhead with the sight of her topless, sucking at their partner’s cock. The black woman’s head bobbed, dark nipples firm, and Ethan groaned as she worked, slipping the member out from her lips to give a long, provocative lick, her brown eyes locked upon the blue of Jess’.

“Oh…fuck…” the younger woman whispered, far enough under her breath that Ethan could barely hear.

Any worries Ethan might have had about being too preoccupied to perform had evaporated the moment Nia had begun to disrobe. Briefly he’d tried to protest that they should wait for Jess, but Nia’s attentions had been insistent, holding almost as much sway over his arousal as he did over hers. And who was he to argue with her insights into what Jess might want? He’d hardened almost instantly at the sight of her tits and luxuriated in the feeling of her mouth hot and yearning upon his crotch. As she’d blown him, he wondered if she’d been taking tips from Evie. The Asian girl had been much more practised previously and he was left unsure if Nia had simply been astute enough to watch what he enjoyed, hands joining lips and tongue to tease and fondle as she worked.

Nia peeled herself away from him, rising to cross the room towards Jess in a predatory sway. She paused only to reach past Jess, silently swinging the door shut to prevent the mood being interrupted by any intrusions by Moxie.

“Everything taken care of,” she asked, the glint in her eyes concealed from Ethan with her back turned, but the hunger in her voice was thick and obvious.

Jess could only nod.

“Be gentle with her Nia,” Ethan warned, sitting back against the pillows, as Nia claimed another kiss, fierce enough to press Jess back against the nearest wall.

“I have a feeling,” Nia said, breaking away after several long seconds that had left Jess flushed and breathless, “that that is the last thing she wants me to do.”

She pulled back just far enough to trail a hand provocatively down Jess’ chest. The redhead’s bra had become unclasped as they kissed, so as Nia’s gesture moved to grip the front of the garment it did so with the implied suggestion of it being roughly tugged away.

“Tell me beautiful, do you want me to be gentle?”

With a gasp, Jess gave her reply, little more than an extolled whisper. “Please…No.”

In response Nia swiftly yanked down, exposing Jess before flicking the bra absently to the side. At first Ethan’s view was obscured as Nia resumed kissing the other woman, obligingly forcing her back as her tongue assertively claimed her mouth. Jess surrendered, bracing herself against the wall as Nia kissed lower. It was only once she reached Jess’ chest, drawing helpless, inexperienced mewls as she nipped at the flesh, that Ethan was afforded a better chance to see his new partner. Wonderful, rose-pink nipples crowned petite mounds, areolas slight and puffy, made even more red and firm by the almost harsh, pinching twists of Nia’s fingers.

Ethan stroked himself as he watched them. Nia had been asked not to be gentle and she wasn’t, demandingly taking charge as she stripped Jess as the rest of their clothing was quickly scattered to the floor. Every one of the older woman’s movements was insistent, the pale swell of Jess’ arse pressed bare against the wall, nails raking against a creamy thigh until it positioned itself where it was wanted. Nia pinned her in place, kneeling before Jess and slipping one of the girl’s legs across her shoulder, angling herself to worship attention onto tucked pink folds. Jess writhed and held onto Nia's hair as if she might expire were the other woman to stop, face rapt with disbelieving bliss.

For several minutes Jess was left to succumb to tongue and fingers with her breath frayed and eyes clenched. When seemingly by chance she happened to open them, they fell upon Ethan and stayed there. He recognised the haze of lust that sat behind her gaze, the needy highs of the vaccine clearly building inside her. It was as if she couldn’t look away, rapt by the sheer thought of him, but was helplessly unwilling to escape Nia either. Ethan meanwhile lingered upon his own burgeoning thrill of being watched, practically performing as he masturbated for Jess’ heady gratification.

“Fuck…oh fuck…fuck fuck fuck fuck…”

The redhead stammered, vocabulary surrendered to pleasure as the word tumbled repeatedly from her.

Her final curse drew out long and slurred, shuddering past her lips as she desperately sought to climax. Her body rocked, half slumping down the wall as the one leg she stood on buckled away beneath her, only kept upright by the presence of Nia. And yet release didn’t come, held upon the crest without being able to topple over.

Nia had been oblique about what she knew about the vaccine’s origins in the US, but it seemed that one side effect of the serum was that until a woman had finished priming no amount of trying would allow her to come without the imprinting touch of a man’s seed. It was clear the longer things went out, the more Jess was being held under the serum’s sway. But there was to be no reprieve from any amount of Nia’s ministration. Not until the urges rewiring her mind were satisfied. But even so the older woman drew things out almost painfully long for Jess, reducing her to helpless twitches and whimpers as she struggled on the brink.

After what must have felt like a short eternity to Jess, Ethan moved to join them, realising Nia could do this all night if he let her. He was treated to the taste of Jess as Nia kissed him, lips still damp with the girl’s tortured gratification. But his first partner’s focus wasn’t on him in earnest for long, straying back to Jess as she taunted the girl.

“If you think that was good just wait for what’s to come.”

There was no answer, just a needy, desperate want that radiated from Jess still.

Ethan scooped her up, hands holding her by her backside and she immediately wrapped her legs around his waist and a tattooed arm over his shoulders. He wasn’t sure if he kissed her or if she kissed him, the lithe shape of her body soft and close and warm against his, but the insistence of her tongue against his only lasted for as long as it took him to lower her down and slide his cock inside her.

Trembles rolled through Jess at the first hint of his precum inside her serum laced body. Her eyes widened, mouth gaped, toes curled. She gave a long, honey-sweet whine and her head fell onto his shoulder, cunt spectacularly tight as it drew him in.

He was surprised at how easily he was able to raise her up again, lifting her so that he was able to bring her back down onto his shaft, fucking her firmly. Jess wasn’t so small that it shouldn’t have required any effort, but his muscles worked with strength that hadn’t been there weeks ago. Even with the amount of sex he’d had lately, it didn’t seem possible that he would feel this fit and ready without actual exercise. But then Nia had said that the serum was noted to have positive effects on the physique beyond just being a vaccine and it seemed hard to really conclude that the almost supernatural vigour he found to fuck Jess with had come from anywhere else.

She continued to cling to him, riding each upward jolt with a greedy squeeze of her pussy. Ethan fucked her standing, finding a rhythm as she rocked her hips for him and pressed the warmth of her body against his own. And after several obligingly assertive moments, she found her voice again, blathering to herself with arousal rather than awkwardness.

“Fuck…it’s too good. How is it this good…I can feel it, it’s in my head. You’re going to break me…”

Ethan was given the briefest of pauses as she said he was breaking her, not so wild that he couldn’t find concern for her, uncertain if it was a good or a bad thing. His answer came as she responded to even the momentary hesitation, leaning back as she tried to push herself more keenly down upon him. Ethan lost his balance, staggering forward with the artist still in his arms, and slamming her back up against the wall. Hung pictures rattled on the wall as the uncontrolled motion carried him into her, unintendedly driving his cock deeper and harder into her than any thrust so far.

“FUCK…yes! Please, I want you to fuck me until it hurts.”

Outside the room Mox barked, startled by the noise, but they were both too wrapped up in things to notice.

Pinioning her against the wall with his body, Ethan slowed his pace, but aimed to make each penetration as powerful as she wanted. He would later find out from Nia that Jess’ Delphi questionnaire had indicated a firm masochistic streak, something the most intense of her art would hint at further, but in the moment he was left to simply follow her responses, bucking hard into pale flesh.

Behind him, Nia had taken up his position on the bed, following his lead to masturbate while  watching Jess getting railed against a wall by her partner. Eventually his attention wandered to her out of the corner of his eye as he hands strummed at her crotch, languidly enjoying the display. Arousal, sticky and wet, clung to her fingers and she smirked as they gazes met. With an extra surge of vaccine-granted energy, Ethan managed to move from the wall, once again taking all of Jess’ weight. He didn’t stop fucking her, even as he manoeuvered them both to the bed, half throwing and half lying Jess down as they tumbled onto the sheets alongside Nia.

“You’re the one who matched with her. Seems unfair to leave you out.”

Nia laughed, running a head across Ethan’s chest as he adjusted to angle his thrusts down into the redhead who now lay below him. “How very gracious of you,” she cooed, and her eyes glinted with unguarded desire as she watched Jess’ body shake with each roll of Ethan’s hips.

The dark skinned woman rose from where she’d been reclining, slinging one leg across Jess’ face, coming face to face with Ethan as she straddled the young artist.

“I know you’ve got other things demanding your attention right now,” Nia said, teasing Jess. “But you’re going to have to get used to how much I want that pretty face of yours between my legs.”

Nia’s eyes closed, along with a deliriously pleased chuckle as Jess set about her task with a voracity that caught Ethan off guard. She did her best to grip at Nia’s thighs, leant up to pour what uneven focus she could into the other woman’s cunt all while her own continued to be filled beyond her imagining. It was Jess’ first time eating out another woman. Her attempts were unpracticed, her composure stretched beyond breaking, but Nia didn’t seem to mind, and she and Ethan made out, stirring each other towards climax as they fucked away the girl’s senses.

As Ethan reached his limit, Nia saw the building tension upon his face, she did what she could to tip him beyond it.

“Go on, fill her for me. Ruin that delicious little pussy, claim her like the nasty little slut she wants to be for us. Make her ours Ethan.”

He barely needed the encouragement, cumming with several final long, decisive drives between Jess’ folds. He felt her body tense, muscles strung out with bliss and she clutched to Nia as serum-laced cum overflowed her. Her body rode out Ethan’s climax, before collapsing back to the bed like a soundless sigh, the first utterances of ‘imprinting’ lost between Nia’s legs.

Ethan slid out from her, and Nia was quick to reach across and retrieve fingerfuls of his seed from Jess’ pussy. Lying back, she licked them clean and came herself, like an addict chasing a hit. She shook, and then the room was suddenly still.

There was a long, heavy moment as the pair hung in the afterglow, disturbed only by the soft repetitions of Jess’ voice. As Ethan’s senses returned he caught a dreamy look on Nia’s face, watching the still form of their latest partner with the same affection she only shared with the rest of them. Each time they did this he was worried he was going to find there wasn’t any more of himself to give, but then here they were for a fourth time, and she clearly hadn’t reached the limit of her feelings yet. No-one said love was going to be easy, but it seemed for Nia right now at least, it was much easier than she’d really thought possible.

Ethan watched as, slowly, she shifted back towards Jess and planted a soft kiss on the artist’s cheek.

“Welcome to the team, Beautiful.”

******

The sound of Nia’s phone vibrating on the coffee table startled Mox, prompting an anxious yap from the jack russell. The clock on the wall of Jess’ living room had long since crept past 11pm, marking several hours since the pair of them had decamped there, leaving Jess tucked up in bed while the serum did its work. It felt undignified to linger while the young woman imprinted, so instead they’d curled up together on her sofa to finish what remained of the wine and keep the dog company, waiting for word from Rhys or Nell. Word that hadn’t come until now.

They should have checked in hours ago. If things had been going to schedule then Rhys should have imprinted on Alex around the same time that he had done with her sister. And even if Ethan’s opinion of the journalist could have been higher, it was unlike Armstrong to not check in. Ethan had been waiting on a call of his own, and for as long as he hadn’t heard from Aoife he found it difficult to direct his concern towards Rhys and why they hadn’t heard anything hours past the point they were due to check in. However he could feel Nia’s own pacing agitation growing in her as they sat, and so they had both found themselves sitting, waiting to see which of their phones would be the one to stir to life first. Their answer was Nia’s and she had practically lunged to answer, as Armstrong’s name lit up her screen.

They had only half dressed again, with Nia content to lounge around in her panties and blouse, the latter hung open as she took the call with a look of growing consternation. Ethan felt her demeanour sharply shift, snapping immediately to well worn professionalism as in heartbeat she stopped being his lover and switched back to being a leader in response to whatever it was Armstrong was saying. Nia’s responses were clear and direct, but he could tell that whatever reassurance she was trying to give Armstrong covered over her own apprehensions.

He was already sitting up fully, waiting to see how she needed him to react by the time she finished the call less than two minutes later.

“What’s wrong?”

“We have an emergency with Alex,” she replied, hurriedly making her way back to the bedroom to find the rest of her clothes. “She’s had a reaction to the serum.”