Sonication

The door to the lab opened for the third time that morning, and as it had the first two times, Elisa Down's heart began to pound violently. Her mind began to whirl; firstly with fear, then with apprehension and finally with disappointment as the slight frame of Jimmy came sliding through the doors. As he grinned sheepishly at her she could barely hide her regret that the geeky postdoc Jimmy, not the strong handsome Thor, had entered the room.

"Elisa," asked Jimmy cautiously, "is Thor around yet today?"

Just the sound of his name made the hairs on the back of her neck tingle. Dr. Thor Love had arrived on his sabbatical less than a week ago, but already his presence had become the focus of all of Elisa's fantasies. Her every waking thought seemed to contain his masculine, domineering body, his manly Swedish face, his bear-like hands driving the shaft of his P5000 into the tip…

"Elisa?" probed Jimmy, shunting Elisa out of her reverie.

"Oh, erm, no he.." began Elisa, but then a sight from the corner of her eye caused her to falter. The door was opening again and this time she knew that it would be him. Jimmy turned to follow her gaze.

"Elisa," rumbled Thor's gently accented voice. He held her gaze for a moment, then turned to address Jimmy. Elisa quickly turned, allowing her curly hair to cover her rapidly reddening face. It was as if he could read her thoughts, gain access to her deepest desires. She turned to the bin she had been emptying, desperately trying to busy herself in the task. She firmly tightened the tag around the neck of the bag, pulling harder than was needed in an attempt to relieve her frustration. Instead of having the required effect, the action deepened her desire for Thor, bringing to mind a snippet of a fantasy she had had the night before, in which Thor tightened the bonds around her wrists, held above her head as she stood naked in front of him, his naked body…

"Elisa," his voice, barely a whisper, sounded from close to her ear, making her jump a little and sending her heart pounding, "my column has arrived, would you like to see?"

The prospect of seeing Thor's column caused her blush to deepen further, but Elisa tried to keep her voice calm.

"Oh, yes, I… wow."

Thor lifted from its packing an enormous column. The length and diameter far exceeded anything Elisa had ever seen.

"It's… it's huge!" she gasped.

"Yes, it is," replied Thor, a smile playing in the corner of his mouth, "and now I must go and do some flanging."

Gently, Thor rested the column back into its bed and stretched an extra-large latex glove over his gigantic, Scandinavian right hand. Elisa felt she could bear it no longer. As Thor left the room cradling the box, one of her protein samples burst open on the 100 °C heat block, spilling its contents all over the floor.

Elisa's heart was beating dangerously once more. She was instructing Thor on how to assemble the Hereaus rotor and the close proximity of his tall, muscular frame was causing her blood to pump hard and fast around her body. His wide finger, covered in grease, slid slowly around the inside of the O-ring as he followed her commands.

As he turned away carrying the fully assembled rotor, his lab coat brushed against her leg. Elisa leaned against the counter for a moment to compose herself, and then set to filtering her 6 M guanidine solution through a 0.22 μm filter. As the thick liquid began to dribble through the filter, she turned around to face the lab. Close to her stood Thor. He carried out in front of him two round bottom flasks, one in each hand. As he looked at her, she gripped tightly onto the 50 ml falcon tube in her hand. With a barely perceptible smile, Thor regarded her a moment longer, looked down at the flasks and then turned to leave the lab.

As Thor quit the room, the end blew off the filter system, spilling Elisa's carefully prepared buffer all over the floor.

Elisa stood before the sonicator, positioning the long probe deep into her liquid. She pressed a button and the deep pulses began coursing through the sample, causing little more than a ripple on the surface. After ten pulses she stopped the machine and lifted the falcon tube from the clamp stand.

Suddenly, a strong hand gripped her shoulder caused her to jump violently in surprise. Before she could comprehend what was happening, the liquid flew from her hand. In slow motion, both Elisa and Thor watched in horror as the lukewarm liquid flew through the air, drenching their clothes through their lab coats. For a moment, they stood in shock staring at each other.

As the situation began to sink in, Elisa thought that she would curl up and die, but before she could begin to apologise, a subtle expression passed over Thor's eyes, causing her to pause.

"Emergency shower," whispered Thor under his breath.

For a moment, Elisa was about to protest at Thor's idea, but then the full impact of his words began to filter into her brain. Before her body had time to react, Thor had grabbed her hand and was tugging her persuasively towards the corridor. Elisa's heart began to thump once more as the structure came into sight.

As they reached the shower, Thor positioned her under it and pulled off his lab coat. As he reached for his trouser button, he stopped, as if only just noticing the look of shock on Elisa's face.

"To be properly cleaned, we must be naked," his deep throat resonated.

And then, without warning, Thor's hammer was revealed. His column was as large as he had promised and Elisa averted her eyes in shock. Thor pulled the string, causing the cold water to come gushing out of the head, and then his hands were on her lab coat buttons, unbuttoning them one-by-one. Elisa's blood rose to her head, making her dizzy. Her body was aching with desire as she stared at the wet, powerfully built chest in front of her….

Meanwhile in the lab, a peak was starting to rise on the HPLC. Thor, it seemed, was a step closer to probing deeply into the protein fold, as first Elisa's and then his protein came off his column via the newly flanged tubing.