Kristen buried her face in her hands, eyes closed, and tried to push the end of her career from her thoughts. Up until now, everything had been going her way. Top of her class at Yale, master's degree from Johns Hopkins, doctorate from UNC, then a choice position in the pharmaceutical research division of a major corporation. Kristen had been assigned to lead the development of EC-401, an experimental drug for erectile dysfunction. All the early research had been so promising! This was the drug that was going to dominate the market, and cement her reputation as a leader in the industry. Right up until the first human trials.
Kristen raised her head, casting a dismal look at the information displayed on her screen. Of the initial ten volunteers, four had experienced no effects from the trial. They were the lucky ones. Three others had suffered heart attacks, two of them fatal, and two of the remainder had to be hospitalized for priapism and dangerously high blood pressure. And then there was patient #6.
At first, everything had looked great. The dose of EC-401 had worked as intended, without any significant side effects at first. Within eight hours, however, patient #6 had begun displaying some odd behavioral changes - dramatically increased libido, then sexually aggressive behavior towards the nurses. After 24 hours of observation, he'd become practically incommunicative and agitated, prowling around his room like a caged animal. Most astonishing of all, however, was the effect on his genitalia. The intake exam hadn't noted anything unusual in that area, but patient #6 had since displayed an incredible growth spurt - his once average-sized penis had grown to well over a foot in length when erect, with similar growth apparent in his testicles.
"This is a gold mine!" Steven, one of Kristen's assistants had exclaimed. "A drug that causes actual penis growth?"
"With the side effects of turning the patient into a sex-crazed animal?" Kristen had retorted hotly, gesturing to a monitor displaying the camera feed from patient #6's room. On the screen, the man stalked back and forth across the room, his hospital gown bulging outwards below the waist in what might be comical fashion, if it hadn't portended professional ruin for Kristen. "Not to mention that fully half of our subjects have experienced life-threatening complications?"
This is going to be a PR disaster,
Kristen thought bitterly.
When word of this gets out, the press is going to have a field day, and I know damn well who the company's scapegoat will be.
A growl from her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten in awhile; in fact, the sun had set and most of her co-workers had left for the day. Kristen sighed, pushing back from her desk and standing up. "Sarah, I'm going to run out and grab some dinner," she told the last hold-out. "Keep an eye on things while I'm out, okay? I won't be long, once I get back you can head out."
"You're not pulling another all-nighter, I hope?" Sarah asked, a concerned frown flitting across her face. "You need to get some sleep -"
"What I need is to figure out what the hell went wrong here," Kristen replied, more curtly than she had intended, "and to try to salvage this project."
And save my job,
she added silently.
Kristen walked slowly down the hall to the elevator, lost in thought. She'd devoted her life to her work. There'd been no time for friends, relationships, hobbies - her job was her life, and now that was in danger. "What am I going to do?" she whispered, staring at her reflection in the polished steel of the elevator doors.
Kristen's reverie continued as she walked through the building's lobby, acknowledging the few people she knew with a half-hearted wave. The convenience store across the street was her go-to for late night meals, and she grabbed her usual - turkey sandwich, chips, apple, a Snickers, and a Coke - without thinking. On her way to the counter, though, she paused, seeing a small display of wines.
What the hell,
she thought,
if ever there was a night to drink at work, this has got to be it. What's the worst the company could do, fire me?
Kristen grabbed a bottle of white wine, paid for her things, and returned to her building.
"Evening, Ms. Smith," the guard at the front desk greeted her. "Another late night in the lab, huh?" She nodded in reply as she strode by. The guard turned to watch her, though Kristen was far too distracted to notice she was being ogled.
I bet she'd be pretty cute if she just took care of herself,
he thought. Chestnut brown hair, worn in a slightly messmessy bun, framed a round, warm face. Sure, eating cheap pre-packed food and not getting out much had given her more than a few extra pounds, but she carried most of it in her hips and ass, and carried it very nicely indeed. The guard gave her round rump one more lecherous look before turning back to play with his phone.
"Ok, Sarah, I'm back," Kristen announced as she re-entered the lab. She paused briefly. "I... look, I'm sorry if I snapped at you earlier. It's just that I have so much riding on this-"
"It's ok, Kristen, honest. I understand, you're under a lot of pressure. You should take a night off, you know? Clear your mind, go have some fun. Maybe go find some cute guy to -"
"Sarah, please."
"Okay, okay, just a suggestion. You're pushing yourself too much, Kristen, I'm just saying you need to find an outlet, you know?"
Kristen sighed. "Yeah, I know. Maybe some other night, ok? Go have some fun for me, ok?" She forced herself to smile as Sarah packed up her things and left.
When the door closed and she was alone in the lab, Kristen finally allowed her composure to slip. "Fuck, fuck, fucking fuck!" she cried, glaring at the computer screen in front of her as tears welled up in her eyes. One window showed a video feed from the next room, where Patient #6 lay in his bed, deep in a drug-induced slumber. Below that, a readout of his vital signs. Another window held dense columns of data, the results of the patient's bloodwork that Kristen had ordered a few hours before. A fourth was open to the preliminary test results of EC-401. Wiping the tears away, Kristen unpacked her dinner, eating absentmindedly as she pored over the data yet again.
A few hours later, Kristen was no closer to figuring out what went wrong. She sighed, slumping back in her chair and rubbing her eyes wearily. She glanced over at the bottle of wine, shrugged, and opened the cap, pouring it into the now empty bottle of Coke.
"What the hell happened?" she asked, looking at the screen while she took a drink. "The others, ok, I figured out why the drug did that. But you? What the fuck?" Another drink. "If I don't figure this out, everything is ruined. Everything, you asshole! You're fucking me!" She paused. "Well, figuratively, not literally."
She drained the Coke bottle in one long swig, then poured some more wine. "Maybe Sarah was right. If I'm going to get fucked professionally after this, I ought to have at least gotten some dick, too." Her eyes drifted back to the video feed of the patient's room.
"No. No, no, no, no. Bad idea," Kristen scolded herself. Just because in the next room was the biggest dick she'd ever seen, or even heard of, she was *not* going to... she squelched that train of thought and drank some more.