For The Greater Good

"Look, John," I got right to the point. "I have suspicions about how Ashley is overcoming the mental impediments she's experiencing during her research, and now I notice that she and Chad Beltran are not in the lab yet both of their cars are in the parking lot. What gives?"

John could tell that I was agitated. He spoke hesitantly, without making eye contact. "Kurt, you can't do anything to hurt our research. We're so close, and we need Ashley at her best to get over the peak. You know that she loves you completely and Chad is crazy about his wife – but Ashley has this idiosyncrasy..."

I interrupted. "Where are they?" I sternly inquired.

John looked defeated. "You have to promise me that you won't do anything rash – that you'll wait until we've found the cure or permanent treatment – your brother's life, as well as the lives of hundreds of other people in our country with the same condition, depend upon it."

A sudden calm came over me when I thought about Tom, Melinda, and my young niece and nephew. "John, I will not be doing anything rash. Where are they?"

John sighed. He reached into his desk and handed me a key. "They're in the napping room. If you're careful when opening the door you'll be able to see them behind the two way mirror, but they won't be able to notice your presence. PLEASE – your brother's life depends upon it – don't confront them or do anything rash!"

I had seen the "napping room" once before. It had a couch and a twin bed in it that the researchers used for breaks from their long hours. I didn't have to go through the lab and alert the other employees to my presence to get to it.

As I silently unlocked the door I heard the sounds that I expected. Looking through the two-way mirror I saw Chad Beltran doggy-fucking Ashley. I felt faint, then sick, as his cock vigorously stroked in and out of her glistening cunt. I silently closed the door, stopped off at the men's room and tossed my cookies, then returned the key to John.

"How long has this been going on?" I asked John with a calm that belied the turmoil inside me.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think that this may be the third or fourth time. There have only been two or three times in the past that they have been gone together, each time when we had reached a plateau in research, and those times when they returned Ashley saw a solution within hours. I'm so sorry."

"Keep my visit between you and me – and tell the receptionist not to say anything to anyone either," I said. As I walked out the door I turned and said "I promise not to screw up the research – I have no idea what I'll do after that."

That night on the phone I asked Ashley about the problem that she had mentioned the night before. Not surprisingly she had solved it. She asked why I sounded distant. I told her that I thought that I was coming down with something. That weekend I feigned sickness because I couldn't face her yet. She expressed real concern and said that she'd visit me, but I told her we couldn't take the chance that she'd get ill. "The kids need Tom, Ashley; I can't have you getting sick."

I'm sure that Ashley worked all weekend. On Monday morning an obviously sleep-deprived Ashley called and said that she thought that she had come up with a breakthrough, and that Dr. Lee and two of the technicians were implementing it right now and that John and Chad were visiting the local hospital for access to a patient there that had HDGC. Two hours later she called me back.

"I just talked to Dr. Lee and then to John by phone. I'm certain that we've achieved not just a treatment but a cure. However, the local HDGC patient wants nothing to do with a trial. Can you bring Tom here?"

"I'll call him right now," I said. "Thanks, Ashley – you're fantastic."

Of course Tom was more than willing. Despite the drug that he was taking "off-the-books," in the last few days he felt himself getting worse. I drove him to RCA, he signed some forms, and Ashley and John had him hooked up to an IV dispensing an experimental drug, and to a pulse generator that Ashley had designed, within an hour of his arrival. I could see Chad making his way toward me to say "Hi," but I quickly ducked out. I didn't think that I could refrain from knocking his teeth out, which would not have been good for future developments.

Ashley called me on my cell phone as I was driving back home. "Kurt, I was so disappointed that you left. I was hoping that you would stay a few days while we treated Tom."

"Sorry, Hon, but I have a meeting I can't miss this afternoon. When will Tom be done?"

"In three days we'll take him back home and continue treatments there. I'll give you a progress report tomorrow, but I hope that I can move back as soon as Tom goes home. I've really missed you, Kurt!"

"I've missed you too Ashley. Let's hope that it works out."

*********

I picked Tom up and moved him back three days later. Ashley started closing up her apartment that day, and will be coming home tomorrow, three days after Tom got back. According to her, especially given how Tom has responded to treatment, RCA expects to have all details for the new HDGC cure worked out within the next two months, and there is no reason for Ashley to stay and work at RCA. She and Tom can videoconference with Dr. Paxton every day, and she can simultaneously work on optimizing the pulse generator aspect of the cure that she developed to work along with the medicine administered via IV every few hours.

I can tell that Tom is much, much better. In fact, he even thinks that he's well and wanted to play me in tennis this morning. Ashley and Dr. Paxton put the kibosh on that, big time. "Tom, I have every expectation that you'll be normal..."

"You mean as normal as he's ever been," I interjected to laughter all around.

"Yes; as normal as you've ever been within a month, six weeks at the most. But don't do anything stupid to set back your progress," Paxton seriously warned.

"Can I at least play Kurt in chess?" Tom asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"As long as the pieces aren't life-size," Paxton chortled in reply.

************

After the videoconferencing session with Ashley and Paxton, Ashley called me on my cell phone.

"Hon; there's something that we need to talk about as soon as I get home. I probably should have talked about it with you sooner, but I was so focused on a cure that I put it off. I love you so much, though, and we need to talk about it right away so that it doesn't affect our future together."

Of course I knew what it was about. I played dumb, however, because I was still playing ping-pong in my mind. "Whatever you want to do if fine with me; I just need you back as soon as possible," I replied, hopefully without any trace of my inner turmoil in my voice.

Now it's fish or cut bait time.

I knew what Ashley was like when she was getting her PhD; what led me to believe that things would be different now when she was laser-focused on developing a cure for my brother – to save him for his family and not leave Melinda a widow and my niece and nephew without a father. When Ashley was putting everything on the line I should have said "to Hell" with my career and joined her. There is no way she would have cheated if I was around to help her fill her idiosyncratic need.

However, cheating is still cheating, and it is so hard for me to get past it. I know that she didn't love Chad – hell the fact that given her views on things that they were doggy fucking instead of being face-to-face made that clear – that she was just using him. But that is little solace to my guts being ripped out.

I can't imagine life without Ashley – but how can I get past her cheating? It probably will never happen again, but will I always have doubts?

I know that I have to at least have a plan of what to do when she admits her cheating tomorrow – however, right now I can only wonder what it might be!

Yeah, life is strange; and right now, it sucks!

******************

Don't like my ending? Make your own!