“How did it go?” he asks, stepping in pace with me.
I shrug. “Jane’s hard to read and it took a bit of guilt-tripping, but I think I’ve got a spot on the team. How about you? Any progress finding out details about the vaccine?”
“Nope. Not a thing. The scientists working with your dad on the project aren’t discussing it.”
“Great,” I mutter. I’m tired of all the secrets and secrets inside secrets.
“Don’t worry. I’ll figure something out.”
We stop outside the lab door and I take his hand. “Come in here with me. Let’s see if he’ll answer your questions, too.”
Cole scrunches his nose. “I don’t know if I want to get in the middle of family stuff.”
Cole, unlike my father or my sister, sacrificed everything to get the information, and me, from Raleigh to Augusta safely. He nearly lost his sister—his twin. So yeah, Cole has earned the right to be involved in my family affairs. Unfortunately, my actual family are the ones that left me on my own to do their dirty work without even giving me a reason.
I reach for his hand, linking my fingers with his and squeeze. “We may not be family, but we’ve supported each other during all of this. More than Jane or my dad. Let’s do this together. You’re the only one I can really trust.”
He looks down at our linked hands and nods. “You sure?”
“Yeah.” I knock on the door marked with a huge ‘Do Not Enter’ sign and other warnings of danger. I push up on my tip-toes to look through the small window. My dad is at a shiny, steel worktable in the middle of the room clad in goggles and gloves. He’s surrounded by an array of microscopes and two other scientists dressed similarly work nearby. He looks up at my knoc
k and his eyes reflect surprise in seeing me there. Rightfully so, it’s the first time I’ve been down here—at least to see him.
He stops what he’s doing and points down the hall.
“What does he want?” I ask.
“I think for us to meet in his office next door.”
I wave in understanding, and by the time we get there he has the door open and his goggles and gloves have been removed.
“Alexandra,” he says, pulling me into a tight hug.
The familiarity of his scent—his voice—overwhelms me, and I find myself embracing him even though my heart and mind are still hurt.
“Hi, Dad.”
“I’ve been hoping you’d come visit.”
“Well, that goes both ways. You know how to find my room.”
He nods, guilt flashing in his eyes. I’m not here to fight. “I thought maybe you needed some space, or, that maybe you hated me.”
This is crazy. This tension and conversation. We’re survivors of a world-wide, society-ending crisis and we’re behaving petty. I glance at Cole and say, “You remember Cole.”
“Of course.” He gives him a genuine smile and shakes his hand. Something passes through their expressions—more familiarity than I expect from Cole being a lowly lab assistant for him in Raleigh. But then again, he’d asked him to make sure I got down here with the information. He trusted him. “I’m glad to see you safe, son.”
My father gestures us to seats in his office. I notice the couch pushed against the wall and the pillow and blanket on the couch crumpled at one end. Piles of paper work tower on every available surface, his familiar handwriting visible on each sheet. He’s been working hard on the vaccine—no surprise—but it makes more sense now why he hasn’t been up to visit. From the pale pallor of his skin to the stack of dinner plates next to his computer, it’s obvious he hasn’t been anywhere other than in this room or the lab next door.
Cole and I take chairs across from my father’s desk. A framed photograph faces away and I wonder whose photo he’s placed inside. My mother? Jane?
“I assume you’re here for a reason,” he says from his side of the desk.
“Yes, actually. Cole and I would like a more active role with the vaccine, preferably with distribution. Jane told me I needed your approval.”
His forehead creases and I’ve seen that expression before. He wore it when I asked to go to Myrtle Beach for spring break. Concern. Disapproval.
FTR: I wasn’t allowed to go to Myrtle Beach.