Lucy

You sit alone in the big sterile lab. Machines beeped and whirred around you. You knew you ought to be scared or at least nervous but you were only anxious to get it over with so you could get home again.

You are surprised to see Lucy enter before Fiona. With how long she was taking you assume Peg had told her of the condition that had to be agreed to. She was likely having words with her Aunt right now.

You watch your Aunt's stocky assistant go about her business. The first thing she does is drape a sheet over your naked bottom half. Lucy was everything Peg wasn't. Peg was lean and Lucy was thick and wide. Peg was white and Lucy was cocoa brown. Peg's dark hair was straight and ran down past her shoulders where Lucy's was short and tightly curled. Peg exuded class, education, and refinement while Lucy's speech and mannerisms were salt of the earth. Sometime a touch of a Southern drawl would sneak through. You could see they were close to the same age but Lucy wore her years more plainly, she had the look of a woman who had overcome struggles and had to scratch to make it where she was.

"I heard you had quite a night back when the virus took hold." You say to fill the cold silence.

Lucy gives you a long hard look. "You could say that."

"They didn't hurt you I hope."

She smiles. "Nah. You're mother was a brat but manageable."

"And my Aunt?"

She sighs. "She was...intense." She then lets out a puff of a guffaw. "Let's just say I won't be telling my boyfriend about that night."

You giggle. You watch as she places three syringes in a line on a tray nearby. Trying not to think about what they were going to be pumping you full of you ask. "You don't agree with this, do you?"

"Playing God on family members?" She shakes her head. "Hell no, I don't agree with it. But it's not my place to question your Aunt. She's...she's a brilliant woman. She knows what she's doing."

You tilt your head with curiosity. "Why do you stay with her? With my Aunt. If you don't agree with what she does...why stick around? There must be other labs to work at."

Lucy stops and stares down at the syringes, though she wasn't actually looking at them. "I'm very well paid." She finally replies.

"You stay with her for the money?" You knew that couldn't be the whole story. Peg wouldn't have brought Lucy into the secret if she was a simple employee. "That's it?"

Looking over her shoulder at you she gives a sad smile. "No kid, it's not for the money." She pauses. For a moment you thought that was all she was going to say, but she then continues. "Your Aunt, God bless her, she...she's a special woman. She...she saved my child. My daughter, Angelique...my little angel..." She pauses again. "Doctor Bailey risked her career to save her. Angel was born with a mutation, not like yours, hers was a disease. It was not a matter of if she would die before her teens, but when it would happen." She takes a deep breath. "Doctor Bailey...Peg...she used some of her own DNA, using your family's miraculous mutation to remove the defect. She paid for it...she took care of everything. The hours she spent...the woman is a saint. Angel...changed. Her skin went lighter and...there were other side effects but...but she's alive and she's healthy and she's happy and she's beautiful and...I owe...I owe everything to your Aunt. Everything." She swallows hard and struggles to keep the tears at bay. "I might not always agree with Doctor Bailey, but I will never abandon her."

You sit there for a time speechless. You hadn't heard about any of this. You weren't sure any of your family had. "Wow." You finally say.

Lucy shakes her head and lets out a ragged breath. "Sorry, all this talk of saving a baby has me soft." She waves a hand at you. "Don't get it mistaken though, I don't agree with any of this. Not one bit. I think y'all are nuttier than squirrel turd."

"Pffff! Squirrel turd!?" You begin to giggle and laugh. "Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Lucy rolls her eyes and shakes her head, your tittering only confirming what she already knew...the Bailey's were fucking crazy!

She returns to her work as you continue to wait to talk to your Mistress.