First of Her Kind Part 5

Adam sat still at the rec room table while Jessie attached little sensors to her arms and legs with round medical stickers.

“We want to start testing how you are developing physically,” Jessie explained. “You’re lifting capacity, stamina, regeneration, metabolism. See if you are operating at human standard or if the nanite and biomechanical prosthetics and implants have enhanced your abilities. No doubt, the experience of being dead has caused some loss of muscle and stamina, especially since you were an athlete. So, this will also be like a little bit of a physical therapy as well.”

Adam nodded and stepped up on the treadmill as Jessie directed her towards it.

“Lets start with a nice jog,” Jessie pressed the buttons on the treadmill. As the machine started whirring, Adam moved with it. Jogging wasn’t hard at all. Jessie became engrossed in the tablet in her hands as Evander walked in, his gaze fixed on Adam. She held his gaze as he picked up a dumbell and sat down on the bench. His gaze dropped for a second as he began doing curls with the massive hunk of lead.

“I’m not feeling anything,” Adam said so suddenly she almost startled herself. “Can we turn it up?”

Jessie looked up from her tablet, blinking a couple times as if she was trying to comprehend what Adam had said.

“Oh,” she finally said, “go ahead.”

With a few presses of the buttons, Adam was moving at a steady run. She looked back to Evander. His eyes locked on her and she could almost swear he nodded in approval but it was so subtle. He set the dumbell down and laid back on the bench sliding himself under the bar. It was hard not to notice how his muscles flexed and rolled as he lifted the bar off the rack and drew it down to his chest and pushed it back up again. Adam took note of the weights, 4 plates stamped with “75 lbs” occupied each end of the bar and Evander seemed to move the bar up and down with relative ease.

Without taking her eyes off him, Adam reached for the button again. Her feet hit the black belt of the machine in perfect rhythm. She didn’t even have to think about it. Evander cast her another sideways glance. At this point, she had to wonder if Jessie was noticing what was happening. She looked to her side to see Jessie looking intently at the tablet and scibling, in a notebook simultaneously. Certain that Jessie wasn’t paying her much head, Adam hit the button a few more times. She was now sprinting to keep pace with the machine, sweat began to dampen the collar of her shirt as her legs started to ache at first then burn.

“Adam!” Dr. Sheridan’s voice startled all three of them.

He hurried across the room and shut the machine down.

“What are you doing?” Dr. Sheridan demanded as Adam stepped off.

“I just wanted to see how fast I could go,” Adam said.

“Your body has been through a lot recently,” Dr. Sheridan reminded her, his brows furrowing with concern under his wire framed glasses. “Pushing it so hard…”

Jessie cleared her throat and tapped the doctor’s arm with the tablet in her hand.

Adam noticed the burning sensation in her legs increasing. She debated with herself whether or not to say anything. Again she cast a glance at Evander who was watching the group, the weight bar suspended over his head. To her surprise, he nonchalantly tossed the bar straight into the air. Only a few inches, but it was enough. As he caught it, he brought it down again in the same controlled manner as if he was simply lifting it.

“Adam,” Dr. Sheridan spoke up after looking at the tablet for several moments. “How do you feel?”

“My legs feel a little hot,” Adam shrugged.

In truth, her legs felt as if they were on fire.

“A little hot,” Jessie scoffed. “Remind me to test your nervous system.”

“What is it?” Adam asked, nodded at the tablet.

“Well,” Dr. Sheridan began, “it seems you and Evander share a predisposition for physical advancement. You’re not quite as extreme as he is, it seems. But, you should not have been able to jog that long, much less reach and hold a 19 mile per hour sprint.” He paused, his brows furrowing a little again. “And, you're sure you’re not in a lot of pain?”

“No,” Adam said. “I’m fine. Are we done? I kind of want to eat.”

“Yeah,” Jessie ushered Adam back to the table and removed the sensor stickers. “You go ahead and go eat, we need to go over these results.”

Jessie and Dr. Sheridan left together muttering between each other over the results on the tablet. Once they were gone, Adam allowed herself to give her legs a vigorous rub.

“Feels like your muscles have turned into molten metal?” Evander spoke up.

“Yeah,” Adam answered.

“They failed to tell you what’s actually happening,” Evander lifted the weight back onto the rack and sat up. “When you exercise, muscle tears, new muscle grows to repair the torn muscle and that’s how you get more muscle. Your body is doing that incredibly fast. So, all the pain a normal human would experience over weeks or even months, you and I pack into minutes and hours.” He stood up and walked towards Adam, coming uncomfortably close to her. “Do not let them know if you can,” his voice was barely above a whisper.

Adam looked up to meet his shocking blue eyes. This was no ‘robot’. The intensity of his gaze caused her to feel… something… a warmth radiating from her ears to her cheek and down her neck. For a brief moment, that gaze even seemed to soften a bit.

“Learn from my mistakes,” he said. “Go eat, then go hide in your room, the pain will get worse before it gets better. If you want to build muscle, work out more frequently, not with heavier weights. Run longer, not faster. You’ll draw less attention that way.”

“I… I appreciate the advice,” Adam said awkwardly.

Evander turned away from her and went back to the weight machines. Without another word, Adam hurried out of the room to follow his instructions. She tried to wrap her head around why she felt so breathless as she rummaged through the cupboards, grabbing some jerky and protein bars before retreating to her room.

Evander wasn’t wrong. The pain in her legs became almost unbearable. It was as if she could feel white hot metal fibers in her legs weaving themselves into the muscle of her calves and thighs. Desperate for relief, she staggered into the bathroom and ran the tub full of cold water. She sat on the edge and submerged her legs. With a sigh of relief, she went back to thinking about Evander and more so, whatever he made her feel. As she recalled his gaze, those icy eyes staring down at her. Again she felt the warmth in her face.

The cold soak had provided some temporary relief but the burning sensation in her legs continued for over an hour. She managed to crawl back to her bed and lay down, trying not to stir as movement only seemed to exacerbate the burning sensation in her muscles.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the pain ebbed away. Adam sat up and cautiously stretched each leg before rising and returning to the bathroom. Her shirt was soaked in sweat and her black hair clung to her face and neck. She quickly showered and changed, wrapping her wet clothes in her towel and shoving them into the wicker hamper in the corner of the bathroom. She had barely finished dressing when there was a polite tap at the door.

“Yes?” she called out.

Jessie entered, her face glowing with excitement. “You did really good on your tests today.” She bounced. “It’s incredible how your body is accepting your implants and prosthetics. You really shouldn’t have been able to do much more than a casual jog, much less sustain a sprinting speed for several minutes.”

“Dr. Sheridan didn’t seem happy,” Adam observed.

“Dr. Sheridan is…” Jessie drew a long breath between her teeth.

“My father,” Adam finished.

Jessie’s face drained of color and eyes widened. She hurriedly shut the door.

“Who told you?” she hissed.

“I figured it out,” Adam said. “He worries about me more than the other two. He had a picture of me on his computer in his office. He asked me about family and reacted negatively when I didn’t have a reaction. And, we have the same eyes.”

“But, you…” Jessie inched closer. “You don’t remember him?”

Adam shook her head.

“Dr. Sheridan pulled a lot of strings to do what he’s done,” Jessie whispered. “He couldn’t bear to lose you. But, the professional and moral repercussions are… debatable. You understand? Most of the staff thinks you are just another donor body. Just us here in the residence know the truth.”

“I don’t want him to know I know the truth yet,” Adam said. “I am still… still adapting to this whole situation. I’m concerned he may try to push me to try to recall my life and I would like to see if that can happen organically first.”

“I understand,” Jessie nodded, her expression softening. “I think it would be best if he heard from you that you know who he is anyway. I do have to ask, now that you know the truth, any feelings coming up?”

Adam thought long and hard. “I…” she searched for the words, “a little bit. I feel like there’s something… heavy, I think, in my chest and I feel like I want to be near him. But, it doesn’t last long.”

“I’d say that sounds like missing him,” Jessie said. “Part of you misses the father-daughter relationship.”

Adam thought for a long moment before posing the next question. “Do I have a mother? Oh, you aren’t my mother are you?”

“No! No, no,” Jessie’s cheeks flushed a little.

“I just noticed you and Dr. Sheridan are closer than the other staff,” Adam observed.

Jessie cleared her throat and adjusted her glasses. “We… are close… for a couple years now, that is. Um,” she crossed the room and sat on Adam’s bed. “You’re mother died, suddenly and horrifically from what I’ve been able to glean. When you were really young. John really doesn’t like to talk about it. All I know is that all of this is a continuation of her work.”

“She was a scientist too?” Adam asked.

“I guess a brilliant one,” Jessie said. “I think, though, that if you have any more questions about your family, you should ask Dr. Sheridan.”

Adam nodded in agreement, partially because she knew that when the time was right, she wanted the most accurate information possible, but also because she was becoming increasingly famished. No doubt a side effect of her advanced muscle development. Jessie offered her some soft assurances that her secret was safe before leaving.

The residence was quiet and dark as Adam made her way to the kitchen. She found several unlabeled tubs of leftovers and ate most of them at the counter as she pondered everything she had observed today. Her conversation with Evander. The intensity she felt during her interaction with him. Dr. Sheridan being her father. And, what strings did he pull? The fact that, even though it was fleeting and subtle, she was definitely feeling things. It dawned on her. She was the perfect combination of Evander and Lucian. If she regained her memories from her life, she would be exactly what Dr. Sheridan was trying to achieve. What she couldn’t figure out was why that thought made her suddenly lose her appetite