It's A Part of Her Now...

"What? What do you see?!" Rebecca said, touching the spot on the back of her neck where the patch was supposed to be. It very much was still there, I could see that, but it was IN her skin now.

"It... it's almost like the patch fused with your skin or something." I said quietly, trying to calm myself and her down. "I don't know how, but there's a layer of your own skin covering the patch-"

"No fucking way..." She was in hysterics now, and she ran out of the Research Room in search of a mirror to get a better look at it. I followed suit to make sure she didn't do anything to herself in her panic. When I caught up with her, she was in the bathroom attached to her room looking at the purple-colored oval where the patch had buried itself in. She was breathing faster and looked to be on the verge of a panic attack.

"What the fuck do I do? What do we do Brett? This didn't happen with the patch yesterday." She turned to look at me, scared tears starting to run down her face.

I was freaking out too, but I didn't want her to hurt herself, so I tried to calm the situation down. "Hey, Rebecca, look at me. Breathe. Does it hurt at all?"

"N-n-no, it doesn't hurt. I don't even feel it, that's what's so scary."

"Okay, then we need to call Mr. Draymond. Or the developers. Or even 9-1-1. It's okay, I'm sure it's just a simple accident and, if we can see it, it probably won't be too hard to dig out of there right?"

Rebecca didn't look convinced, but she breathed in and out and calmed herself down. As she wiped the tears from her face, she asked shakily, "are you sure they can help?"

"Of course I am." I wasn't. "They made the stuff, didn't they?" I smiled and held her shoulders as she gathered her emotions. "Let's give them a call and find out, okay?"

She hesitated, then nodded weakly as she did one last sniffle. I led her out to the living room and to one of the comfy armchairs. As she gingerly touched the spot once again, I pulled out my phone and called Mr. Draymond as I sat at one of the breakfast bar stools.

The phone rang 3 times before Mr. Draymond's gravelly voice arrived from the other side. "Yes, Mr. Ettridge?"

"Good evening, Mr. Draymond. We have a situation here.. uhh, we were testing the 'Body' patch today and when Rebecca Grafton went to remove it, it's... well it's fused into her skin."

There was a momentary silence before the gravelly voice returned. "I see. And I'm the first one you've called on this matter?"

"Um, yes sir. Should I have called 9-1-1?"

"No, no, you made the right call. To be frank, you were only supposed to have access to the 'Cross' patch as the other 2 are still in development."

"What? Really?" I was floored. And pissed. "There should've been a note or something so that we'd know that!"

"Now calm down, Mr. Ettridge. It shouldn't be a huge issue, we've been able to remove the patches fairly easily weeks after they've been embedded in subjects. Has Ms. Grafton had any side effects or pain?"

"No, nothing like that yet. But, what are we supposed to do? Are you going to come remove the patch tonight?"

"That won't be feasible," Mr. Draymond said with an annoyed sigh. I wasn't sure if it was from me or whoever made the mistake in the first place. "We're not allowed to interfere with your research until the month is over unless it is to remove the pair of you from the situation due to **** circumstances."

"I'd say these are fairly **** circumstances, sir." I was getting annoyed with his lack of care for Rebecca's problems. "She's got one of your 'products' in her skin. She's rattled, I'm rattled, and as amazing as this program is, this isn't what we signed up for."

There was another calculated pause from Mr. Draymond. "I understand, Mr. Ettridge, I do. You were never meant to test the other patches and if you want to cancel the research and have someone else test out this app, I don't mind whatsoever. However, your name will not be attached to the project if it successfully is sent to market."

Fuck. This asshole was using my own temptations against me. I looked to Rebecca, silently trying to guess what was going on inside her head. She was raptly watching and listening to our conversation and seemed, to my surprise, determined and calm. We locked eyes as we compared the pros and cons. I was ready to admit defeat and call for help, but Rebecca smiled and shook her head no. I guess we were sticking with it.

I sighed in frustration before I responded. "If we stay, will there be any long term effects to having the patch.. in her?"

"I can guarantee that the removal will be painless and easy at the end of the month, but I can't guarantee that the patch won't cause any lingering effects. You have seen what the patch can do yourself, yes?"

I looked to Rebecca for another confirmation before continuing. She looked worried, but nodded her approval anyway. "Yes, we have. It is certainly something... Do you want us to test the other unfinished patch as well?"

"That is ultimately your decision. I believe it may, too, embed itself into the subject's skin, but there hasn't been any effects from wearing multiple patches. Yet." That sounded ominous, but I chose not to focus on it so that I wouldn't worry Rebecca further. Mr Draymond continued, putting on a more serious tone now. "This does, however, limit Ms. Grafton's ability to leave the apartment though."

My brow furrowed at this comment. "What do you mean?"

"I mean she has an extremely valuable and untested product fused with her. Until the testing is finished and we remove the patch, she can't leave the premises of the apartment." He paused, perhaps sensing my own anger and concern. "Does this change your feelings on continuing the experiment?"

I looked over to Rebecca and jumped when I realized she was now standing right next to me listening intently. Before I could respond, she grabbed the phone from my hand and said "I expect to get a few extra things added to my agreement if you're going to keep me contained here, sir."

"Ah, hello Ms. Grafton. Yes, I'm sure we can meet your standards within reason. Do we still have a deal?"

After several minutes of hashing things out, Rebecca unceremoniously hung-up and handed the phone back to me. They'd agreed on several new ground rules, like daily delivered meals, less surveillance, and a gaming console from her place I suppose, but she'd agreed to stick with the program to my surprise. We were both a little rattled after that, so we retreated to our separate rooms to have dinner and calm down for the night. As I caught up on some shows I was slacking on, I looked down at the phone lying next to me in bed. I opened up the Project Altered app, curious to see if I could still alter things outside of the Research Room. I wasn't surprised to see that everything was still just as functional. I wasn't going to perform tests on Rebecca without her consent though.. or was I?