Chapter 4: What The Hell Did You Do?

Walking out of the elevator to the lobby she was walking fast to get out of the building her mind wandering in a million different directions. She was eager to help finish her moms work. The fact that she just met an actual live alien. Understanding now the things that have been happening in the lab being moved and missing. The anger towards her father imposing on her life. Knowing her dad well enough to know if Phoenix hated her dad it was probably for good reason. Why did her dad want her to look at the wrong formula so bad was it to prove she knew it was wrong so he could discover that her mother's journals were with her and he wanted them.

Lost in her mind she couldn't hear him. "Ana. Ana. Analeigh. ANA!!" He said as he lightly pulled her hand back. "Huh, what? What?" She asked looking Jaxon in the face. "I called you but you were like a million miles away." He laughed at her. "It's been a couple days since I got to see you. Your dad said you were free tonight I wanted to take you dinner." Jaxon was smiling at her. "Oh. Um yeah that we can. We can do that. I just need to go to the store before I get home." She told him walking out the door jumbling her thoughts.

"No problem. Follow me to the town. I don't know about you but I am craving a good steak." He told her wrapping his arm around her. "Sounds good." She faked a smile to him. After the conversation with her dad she was trying her hardest not to take it out on Jaxon he was still her friend and it was really not his fault. You can't control who your heart wants. Or doesn't. After finishing up eating they had a nice meal and conversation. Walking her to her car. He insisted on following her to the store. Explaining it's a good way to bond over future things they will eventually do together anyway.

It was her own fault for not freeing her time up sooner. Going around the store she grabbed things that she would need in around the house as well as lunches and snacks. Various beverages and random things. "Guess you've been needing to stock up. You know I wish you wouldn't push your self so hard at work. You don't have to prove anything to anyone. Everyone knows your there on your own merit." Jaxon told her as he was pushing the cart while she gathered things again on his insistence.

"Really? My own merit?" She asked him giving him a daring look. Raising his hands up in surrender. "What I meant is everyone there knows how qualified you are to be there. They know how important you and your work is. I should have worded that better. I just don't want to see you killing yourself over projects. You know there are some of us who care for you and worry." Knowing where he was coming from she could have sworn he and Sienna made the same speech together.

"I know. I know. I'm sorry if I am coming off a bit short with you. I just really, really want to do well on a couple of them. They are super important to me. I don't mean to be so short with you." "You're not short with me. It just feels like your pulling yourself back from me." Jaxon cut her off sounding a little hurt. "I'm sorry." Ana said looking at him a little hurt he was one of her best friends she didn't want to hurt. Although it's starting to feel like she will do that either way down the road.

Taking a deep breath and looking back at each other. "Look I. You don't have to be sorry. I know how important certain things are going to be, even down the road. It's not your fault I know how you are. I just want to be clear on how certain things are going to go for this to work for us. Like some of my expectations of us. Like I know how sometimes you will neglect yourself so I will pop in to take care of you from time to time like I know you will eventually with me." Grabbing her hands low to their sides.

"Like making sure you eat and you leave work at decent times to get the rest you need. To go to the store more often so you don't run this low at home because you running yourself into the ground. If one of us has a problem I expect us to bring it up and talk it out. I also don't expect you to stay no or low contact with me for a few days. I mean we're starting to do so good. I wanna keep this going." Making her look at him.

"I can take this slow. I mean we have. I see you. I see you trying and as long as we can both see that we trying we going to be just fine alright. If you start neglecting my again as well as yourself I'm going to call you out. We aint going to be disrespecting each other that way ok. If you start feeling some type of way you need to let me know. Speak up baby, alright. I promise I will listen with an open mind. Now is there anything you want to tell me?" He asked her with a slight trying to hide his nerves smile.

Shaking her head no. "I'm a little tired and I'm pretty much got the majority of what I need. I'm ready to go now please." "You sure there isn't anything you need to say to me. You seem so stressed it makes me feel a little helpless." Jaxon was really reaching out to her. "No it's nothing just. I'm really happy to be working on a couple things and you're right I am just forgetting to take a step back every now and then and take better care of myself. It's still little hard for me I guess not be able to do what I truly want so I am just a little surprised at how I excited I got over a few things. Besides a little R&R could even improve my work. You know refreshed eye and all that crap." She said smiling to him.

He pulled her in to a tight hug. "Come on. I'm following you home and helping you put this away. Yor tired and some of this is pretty heavy." Jaxon told her in a tone that left no room for arguing. After a long twenty minutes of putting things away she was just waiting for him to leave as he stood in the doorway just staring at her. "You ok there Jax?" Shaking him back to reality he left out a small nervous laugh. "Yeah sorry. It's late. I know you're tired and need to rest. I just uh. I want some more time with you Ana. I miss you." He told her pulling her to him again in a hug in the doorway.

"Well I promise I will do better in keeping in contact and I will text you when I am free for dinner this week. Maybe Thursday? I'll even leave early we can make a date of it." She said smiling to him pulling away from the hug a little bit to see a big smile on Jax's face. "That would be so awesome. Thank you." Looking down at her lost in her eyes. Feeling the electricity coming off him he leaned down and paused at the nervous look on her face and kissed her forehead sweetly. "Lock up you know I worry about you out here. Sweet dreams babe." Walking out the door shutting it behind and locking it quickly.

Feeling her heart sink in disappointment. Knowing this week would be their third month dating and being engaged. At least she still had twelve more months. Worse case scenario maybe Phoenix can take me with him after all and let me escape this crap. All I got to do is just manage to get one alien pregnant how hard could that really be?" Turning everything off she started thinking more of what she could do better so no one would figure things out. She got up extra early grilling and chopping and making small meals that would last a few days in her fridge at work. She had an air fryer, a Keurig and microwave in her office as well.

A small pantry set up hidden in the wall you just had to push it. This should do just fine. She made sure to make twelve meals that would surely feed something of their size as she hoped they had no allergies. Although based on her mother's notes they didn't. Packing everything up in a huge, insulated bag as well as another bag of few drinks to stock up her fridge she even baked cookies and a few cupcakes and muffins. Eddie would love some as well. As she went through security it didn't look odd at all since most people do this couple of times a week. Stock up so they can work better and those around them.

Standing in front of her was three men arms crossed starring down at her. "Good morning to you too family." She smiled and went to walk around them only to have them block her path with blank faces. "We are going to see you and Eddie down today." Quinn told her flatly. "Ok I have missed you guys anyway." Ana said with a pep in her step. As she and the other three gathered in the elevator she waited for it.

"You want to explain to me why Uncle Gabe came to us and tell us we need to convince you to do better with Jaxon and talk him up to you? Like it was some damn mission?" Quinn asked her as they all looked at her mad. "Ugh. Well…" "I though you agreed this is what you wanted you went through a whole damn song and dance about how you invested into this. What's wrong bestie?" Jace asked her looking concerned they all knew her better than this. "Is this because of what happened yesterday?" Eddie asked her sadly. "What the hell happened yesterday?" Quinn asked stepping up to Eddie.

"Dad happened. He came in and said he can tell that I am not as romantically invested as I guess he thought I would be by now. He wanted to remind I already agreed and I better get used to the idea of getting married because no matter what it's going to happen." She said looking down not able to look at them. All of them pissed as hell. "Let me guess Jaxon doesn't know any of this." Jace told her. "You been spending so much time into him and can't see past more can you?" Jace added. Ana looking away not at them.

"It doesn't matter what I see. Jaxon is a great guy. He is truly amazing and I am lucky to have him in my life. I just need more time. I never had a real crush before I don't know what I'm doing. Time will get us there." Ana told them looking at all of them. "Bullshit Ana." Eddie told her as he laughed at how stupid the last part was. "Ana it's been years. Maybe you need to get use to the fact that you will never love him the same way he does." Quinn told her sadly.

"Look you're right about Jaxon we all are lucky he's in our lives ok. But that does not make our heart flutter. That does not make me want to strip him down and make babies with him." Jace added. "Damn dude I really hope not especially for Sienna." Eddie added as they looked at Jace weird. "I'm sorry Uncle Gabe got you in this mess. I wish I could help you." Quinn started. "Stop. It's ok. I will be ok. It will be fine. I really do believe this is the best choice available to me. I really think I just need some more time. I know love will be coming my way sooner or later. I promise when I have something to tell you I will come straight to you." Ana said hugging them all on the fifteenth floor. Entering the elevator to go down two more floors.

She saw how sad her friends looked when the doors closed holding some of the baked goods she slid to them. It took everything in her not let her tears roll down her face. Walking into her lab she looked around and put up the special wall so no one could see through the glass windows. Another thing only she could control. It looked like the lab only you couldn't see her or anything she was doing. Luckily it was sound proof as well. It was like a giant screenshot of the lab on the windows and no one could tell the difference.

As soon as Phoenix saw her put up the fake lab he walked over to greet her. "What is that smell?" "Does it smell bad?" "It smells great." Just than his stomach started to make noises. Making her laugh. I made a few meals for you and your siblings. I also brought drinks and snacks some baked goods. This way you can stop stealing from the store room inventory and just take from mine. I make a good wage I can afford to keep you guys feed from now on. I made about four days' worth of food and I will continue to do so every couple days. You know where to put it. So here please put these things way while I start getting set up."

Taking the heavy bags from her with ease he did the chore he was asked happily as he opened one of the Tupperware with his name on it and eat it quickly. "What is this?" "Beef stir fry with some noodles. The fruits are just some strawberries, cherries, and grapes." "This is amazing. It's been awhile since I got to have so much meat. Beef is the cow right?" "Yes it is the cow." She smiled " I'm happy you enjoyed it I will make you a variety of meals so you can try a bit of everything and not get bored." She teased him.

"Thank you little one. My siblings will thank you as well." "I just need you all healthy. Besides I already told you when I first saw you. You are my special friend. This is what friends do. If you need something you just need to ask I will do the same." Nodding to her in appreciation. "What are you doing now?" He asked her looking at her work. "I am trying to help my friend Archer make a cure for this effect on these wounds. I'm a plant short though." She said looking over the other ones she had that she needed.

"You don't need this one." Phoenix looking at the book plants walking over to a small section pulling one up that looked like the one she ordered pulling I tup and giving it to her. "This is what you want." "Oh my God where did you get this? Why is it a little weird looking?" "It's what your mother called spliced. It's mixed with another plant from the same part of the country the other part originated from. This will work better. Try it." Phoenix told her. Shrugging her shoulders she took the plants and extracted them in the right way she needed.

Blending and mixing adding some other light things and putting the sample under the microscope. "Oh my cheese and sprinkles!" "Did it work?" Phoenix asked eating on the raspberry cheesecake cookie. "Well I need to let it chill for a couple of days but so far so good I need to see how it progresses over a few days but this maybe able to be tested by early next week. This is amazing." Ana was so lost in watching the sample. "Thank you Nix." She told him happily.

"Can I call you that?" "Sure Emerie did too. It's nice to hear after so long." He said smiling to her. "Did she. Did she talk about me? After I got into the training camp. Did she ever say she was disappointed?" Ana asked looking up to him as he stared down confused at her. After swallowing down the snickerdoodle cookie he dusted his mouth and hands off. Still wearing the mask with visible eyes and low visible mouth walked up to her a few steps away.

"Your mom would tell us you were the greatest thing she ever created. She was so proud of everything you did. Her face and body would just light up and she would just beam as a whole new beacon of light anytime she got to brag about you. She showed us the pictures you would send her. None was ever in a uniform, which is what threw me off about your profession. She missed you dearly while you were gone that didn't stop her from sending her love and pride to you. She was very much the proud mother." He told her with ease. "We all miss her. It's ok to let out everything you keep holding in. It's cleansing for the soul. You can never move forward successfully if you don't cut your guilt." He told her flatly.

"What makes you think I have guilt." "I can see it. Your blood pressure, heart rate and energy are sad and that of someone with guilt. I assume you just feel guilty of not being able to see her in person one last time to tell her just how much she means to you. You should rest assured she already knew. She had made her peace with everything before she left us." "How do you know that?" Ana questioned him wondering how he could ever know that.

"That's just who she was you know this. She was never a person with grudges or things she would have regretted. She was a human who never left anything unsaid. You are very much like her." "How would you know that?" Ana said putting the sample safely away until tomorrow documenting everything that she saw. "You forget so soon yet you call me friend for about three months you did nothing but talk to me and I had to watch you do everything around here. It's like watching a clone of your mother flow through here. Although I always thought she was how you say a person with a green thumb. You have done much better here than she did." He said looking at the beautiful lab covered in the wild life.

"Wait you said you can see my heart rate and stuff?" Looking at him caught off guard. "Yes. The mask I have is apart of my equipment. It shows many things about and through the bodies of the creatures we come against. It also helps weed out the liars as we can see all their vitals. We can see in the dark naturally well so during the day this helps see even better. We still have better vision in day better than you humans and even some special animals but we see even better in darkness." He shrugged.

"So are you like nocturnal aliens or is just naturally darker where you D'marlians are from?" "Well back home a normal day looks like a cloudy day here. Too many moons I guess. It stays a good temperature and I guess you can say we have more of a three season world. That shapers up to be like your autumn, winter, and spring. We even have snow sometimes. It was nice being able to see it few years past. Our planets are very similar, we same." Nodding her head to him. "I like learning more about where your from. It will really help to know more about the environment for future mother and baby. It gives me more help as to try to get her body and babies ready for the environment around them when they get there. Also help get things set up for others there as well." She told him checking over some of the other projects making notes.

"Really? What do you need to know." He asked getting a little excited to be able to help and move things along. "Well like breathing is it oxygen? Do you know how different the levels of oxygen are there compared to here? Is it a water planet like here or more dry? I need to make sure the bodies can hold up to the niche you know? Things like that." Nodding his head he saw where she was going. They sat down and he gave her five hours' worth of notes to the best of his knowledge of what he can remember about his planet.

"Well I think I need a break. I have to go up and have lunch with my friends so they don't start to think I'm getting weird. I need to do some work for Archer when I get back and turn in some other results to another person to let her know her project failed the experimental test and to revise her data. Also need to go through some of the plants here and check them over. I really need you to make sure you talk to your siblings at some point and let me know tomorrow what they say." She told him gathering her things.

"I will go to them this evening when the staff thins out around their area. I will bring them the food and will walk them through the process as you have told me. You have to understand where this could be dangerous as we trusted some of the wrong humans before and look where it got us. It will be difficult to get their trust you need to be prepared for it." Scratching the back of his head." "I would be worried if it were easy she teased. You better take cover the window's image is going down." Pushing the button and walking out from the lab she looked back and he was gone.

After having a great lunch with her friend she had done everything she had set out to do. Before she went home she needed to get to Archer and give him her findings. Knocking on the door to the lab Archer, Richard and some others were in the looked shocked to see her a bit ahead of schedule. "Hey what a nice surprise." Archer said hugging his friend. "What brings you by?" He added pulling away being the nice person he naturally is.

Not seeing when Ashlyn walked in the room having her happy smile fall from her face. "Well I just wanted you to know that I have found a better plant and have already finished my part. It is ready to be tested. It should 100 percent safe with little to no side effects." "How did yo do this so quickly I thought you had to get the plant from over seas?" Richard asked excitedly. "Well I remember my mom used to splice some plants in her garden at the cabin. I did some digging on some research from others and this was a popular plant to splice so after all that I pulled all the ones I could and even put some in your inventory to use for later. This one is definitely better." She told them with confidence.

"Really you just so happened to have a spliced plant at the ready from your house?" Ashlyn asked as she scoffed. Making people look at her as it felt odd. "Well not anymore I gave it all to you." Ana said literally pointing to the box the two interns were holding. "It's funny how all of a sudden you can magically find spliced research out of nowhere. When I don't think any of us have come across an article of it in years." Ashlyn also pointed out. Archer giving her a weird look. "What are you doing? Why you being so rude?" He asked her getting offended she was being so disrespectful.

"I didn't know you followed herbology articles. Well good for you branching out your mind. However of course someone like you wouldn't be able to find them if you are not actively looking for them. How often do you go do research about plants again Ms. Hill?" Ana asked her in the same tone Ashlyn used on her moments ago making start to slowly seethe. "Well if it is in fact so easy to find than perhaps you should share it with us. I mean we should know more about if we plan to use it and test on subjects right?" Ashlyn pushed her.

"We have the results right here why would we need the article if she has already made the formula it's already altered that information will be of little importance now." One of the assistants to Archer asked her as the rest agreed. "Yes but we should still know as much as we can about the materials being used in the testing." One also pointed out. "Enough of this nonsense Ana just pull it up so wee can settle this Richard spoke getting annoyed.

Taking a deep breath the computer had a surge and shocked her. Everyone jumping back for a moment. "Are you alright?" She was asked a bunch of times. "Fine just a little surge it happens." She looked at the search bar and for some reason started to think of a place to search and there were about a hundred articles on the spliced plant itself. How and where the hell did that come from. The others started reading and was loving the research on it. All were happy and agreed everything should be fine. Ashlyn angrily stomped out and did not come back. Ana gave her best wishes and left sitting at home she was piled with a bunch of questions she needed to ask tomorrow. Making sure to make a twenty minute call Jaxon before sleep.

Getting in the lab an hour earlier than normal she noticed no one was on the negative 15ht floor. Not thinking too much on it she went down into her lab with a small bag that had some pancakes, sausages and hashbrowns. A few donuts and a couple of muffins. Putting it away she noticed how the lab felt. For the first time in weeks it felt wrong. She felt she was being watched. Turning around to move she was greeted with a swift kick to her stomach.

Standing in front of her was Phoenix attacking her. No this wasn't Nix the height was off. The weight was off the mask was slightly different. Otherwise perfect twin. Fighting back in the form of defense only against the other alien male. She got a lot of great moves in. Ana was very quick to pick up on an opponents fighting style. Catching the attacker off guard he didn't think she would be this skilled which only left him more agitated. After kicking him clear cross the lab. "Are we done with this now, Nikolan?" She asked him arms crossed like she was bored.

Anger flowed through him as he charged at her only to be lifted mid air holding onto to something she couldn't see. Nix body suddenly appear visible to the eye. As he held his brother in the air by his throat and then slammed him down putting his foot against his brothers chest keeping him down. They started speaking in a language she couldn't understand. Than looking back at her Nikolan was what she thought cursing her as he struggled. Phoenix looking at her with what look like an eternal struggle in his eyes.

Looking back down to his brother as he removed his foot. He stormed up to Ana like he was on a mission. Staring at him for a minute he was just staring into her eyes deeply. His brother yelling at him. "Please understand enough to be open minded and I hope you can forgive me." He told her softly. "What?" Before she could finished he pushed his forehead against hers and little blue electricity flowed through both of them surrounding them like a small cloud around their bodies.

Collapsing to the floor she faded into darkness. After what felt like being hit by a train she opened her eyes and slowly sat up. Her body sore every where. Remembering what just happened looking around she saw him at the end of the small bed in the office. His brother crossed arm blank expression on his face. "How long was I out?" Acting the fact she spoke in another language. Phoenix's voice echos inside her head. "Five hours." "What the hell was that? What language is that?" "D'marlian." Looking guilty and sad Nix responded to her. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?!"