Chapter 6

Bob was sitting there, when they came slowly into the kitchen looking like frightened mice venturing into the cat's lair. Bob had switched from tea to whiskey, and didn't feel at all bad about it. He'd been trying to think of how to deal with the situation. It was completely unexpected. He was pretty sure yelling wouldn't do any good. He had laughed long and often at the people who thought teens could be convinced to practice abstinence, so just telling them to stop wasn't going to cut any mustard either. In fact, he couldn't think of ANYTHING that would do any good. That Matt was willing to engage in this activity somehow didn't seem that odd. Bob was well aware he'd been thinking along those lines himself earlier in the day, as he jerked the spunk out of his own balls.

When they stopped and just stood, looking at him fearfully, he said, "Sit down." They did, but didn't say anything. Bob couldn't think of anything to say either. What he came up with was "I don't know what to do."

It was Clarissa who spoke next.

"You don't have to do anything."

He almost snorted. That was the way a young person would think of it. Just ignore it! No problem.

"Of course I do," he said. "Matt wasn't using a condom. Unleass somebody gave you birth control without my knowledge, you're not protected. What if you get pregnant?"

Both kids blinked. It was obvious neither had thought of this little problem before. Geniuses they might be, but both had the full capacity to be pretty stupid. Neither of them said anything.

"How long has this been going on?" Bob asked.

"About two weeks, I guess," mumbled Clarissa.

"Ever since she got boobs," Matt added helpfully.

"I had them before that," she said automatically. "You just never noticed them until I showed them to you."

"You showed them to him." Bob sounded like he'd eaten something that tasted bad. "Why did you show him your boobs ... breasts, Clarissa?"

"Because they grew so fast!" she moaned. "I thought something was wrong with me and I felt so jittery all the time, and you were always at work."

"And you thought Matt might be an expert on growth and development," said Bob dryly.

"I came to you when I realized I needed a bra," she said defensively.

"And you showed them to me too," said Bob. He had a thought. "But that was after you two ... uh..."

"Yeah," she said softly. "Matt told me the jittery feeling was because I was horny. And he said you told him to masturbate, so we did that, except that things got all mixed up and it was fun to rub against each other and..."

Bob felt terrible. He had, in fact, been at work almost constantly since the anomaly was discovered. Part of his brain pointed out that it was interesting that Clarissa's horniness gene got turned on at the same time...

He pushed that thought away. Work had already screwed things up for him and the kids. He needed to think about them now, not work.

"Surely you knew better than to do it with each other," he said. It felt like what he was supposed to say.

"Well I wasn't going to let some boy from school play with my titties!" said Clarissa darkly. "We didn't MEAN to have sex. It just kind of happened."

Bob sighed. He should have seen this coming. Pandora's box had been thrown wide open, and there was no closing it again.

"I'll have to get you on the pill," he said.

"What?" Both teens spoke as one.

"You need to be on birth control pills so you don't get pregnant."

Matt looked incredulous. "You mean we get to keep doing it?"

"I didn't say that," said Bob. "I understand how you feel. She affected me the same way when we were fitting bras." He looked at Clarissa. "You were teasing me on purpose, weren't you?"

She blushed. "I just get so horny," she moaned. "And I love the way you and Matt look at me. It makes me feel so good!"

Bob looked back at Matt. "The point is that you shouldn't be doing it. Not with her and not with anybody else. You're too young to understand the consequences ... or deal with them, for that matter. But I also understand how hard it is not to, once you find out what it's like." He glanced at Clarissa, who looked miserable. "And from what I've seen, even if YOU stop, she might not. We don't want her getting pregnant by some random boy either."

"I don't WANT to have sex with some random boy!" she almost shouted. "I love Matt!"

"So do you think you can stop completely?" asked Bob.

Her face looked anguished. "I don't want to stop either," she admitted.

"At least you're truthful about it."

"If I didn't get so horny it would help. Maybe there IS something wrong with me," she said.

Matt, who felt like a death sentence had just been pardoned by a governor, absently got up and went to the cupboard. He got a piece of candy and returned to the table. He had it unwrapped and was about to pop it in his mouth when he heard a gasp from his uncle. A hand gripped his wrist firmly ... VERY firmly.

"Where did you get that?" Bob's voice sounded almost scared, and that scared both kids.

"In the cupboard," said Matt. "From a box."

Bob took the candy from Matt's fingers and peered at it. He picked up the wrapper and examined it as well.

"Oh no," he groaned.

He got up and went to the cupboard, opening it. He saw the boxes and took them all out. Frantically he tore each one open. Two were almost empty. He turned around, his eyes wide.

"Did you eat all these?" he gasped.

"Rissa ate some of them," said Matt defensively.

Bob was almost overwhelmed with the flood of questions, potential answers and issues that almost robbed him of the ability to stand up. He swayed and sat down before he fell down.

"Shit, shit shit!" he groaned.

"What's wrong?" asked Clarissa. She was getting scared now.

"This is RD684," said Bob weakly.

"RD ... what?"

"It's an experimental drug my company is testing. These are samples of how it might be marketed."

A chill shot through both teens' spines.

"What's going to happen to us?" asked Clarissa.

"I have no idea," sighed Bob. "It was designed for women much older than you, to deal with hormone imbalances and the effects of menopause."

"But it won't HURT me ... will it?" Her voice sounded tiny and as if she was about to cry.

"I don't think so," he said. His mind was working better now. Her amazing and sudden physical development was beginning to take on new significance. "When did you start eating them?"

"I don't know," she said. "A month ago? Maybe more?"

He looked in the boxes. "You ate ALL these in just a month?"

"Yes." Now she sounded really scared. "Matt ate some of them. He pigged on them more than I did."

"But I've only been eating them for a couple of weeks," added Matt. He also sounded scared.

Bob sat back. His scientific mind was whirring.

"You've always been underdeveloped. I just thought it was taking you a while to catch up. But it must have been a genetic problem. Both of your parents had very slim builds. The RD684 corrected the hormonal deficiency with you, just like it does in the older women." His face showed surprise. "This is fantastic!" he yelped. Then, as he realized the complications, his face fell. "This is horrible!"

"Which is it?" asked Clarissa, fearfully. "Did that stuff make my boobs grow?"

"Yes," said Bob, only half paying attention. "And your hips too." He frowned. "I think," he added.

"I'm going to grow BOOBS?!" gasped Matt. That got Bob's attention. No thought at all had been given to what might happen if RD684 was taken by a male.

"I don't know," said Bob. It was an honest, if somewhat thoughtless reply. Now THAT issue vied for space in Bob's crowded thought processes too.

"I DON'T WANT BOOBS!" wailed Matt.

Bob looked at Matt for the first time in a long time ... really LOOKED at him. He saw changes immediately, but they were much more subtle than what he'd missed with Clarissa. Matt's jaw was stronger, and his neck muscles were thicker.

"Take your shirt off," he said to Matt.

"What?" Matt looked fearful.

"Take it off!" barked Bob.

The differences there were subtle too. There was more muscle, but it wasn't developed or shaped, like muscle was when it was grown during exercise. The ribs weren't as pronounced as the last time Bob had noticed.

"Raise your arm," ordered Bob. There was a nice, dark tuft of hair under the arm Matt lifted. Bob leaned forward to see the same hair on his chin that Clarissa had noticed. As incredible as it seemed, Matt's body was using the RD684 to enhance his MALE hormones, just like it had worked on Clarissa's FEMALE hormones. He'd have to test Matt to be sure, but the levels of both estrogen and testosterone in Matt's body would be fascinating. That was a given.

"You're not going to grow breasts," said Bob. Matt sank back in his chair, obviously relieved. "I think," Bob added again.

There was much more discussion. Bob interrogated the kids, trying to determine exactly when each had started eating the "candy" and what dosages they had received. That part was impossible, except to say that they had both obviously overdosed, at least in terms of what the trials were using. And, considering the unexpected side effect he had just been dealing with, it was suspected that the dose in the trial might be too high.

Then he took measurements, while he thought about what to do. He didn't know whether to let them keep taking the drug, regulating their dosage, or make them stop. He had no data to work with, and only the barest of hypotheses. It was unethical in the extreme to test the stuff on these kids. On the other hand, based on the results, they needed to be studied. But if he did that openly, it would screw the pooch for sure on the main trials. Not to speak of getting his license revoked. Unauthorized trials were frowned on heavily, to put it lightly ... especially when humans were involved.

He felt guilty for even thinking of letting them continue as he remembered they were his family, and he was their guardian. He felt a bit like Victor Frankenstein. At the same time, neither youth had suffered any negative effects. At least not that he could discern. The over dosage was troublesome, and there was the horniness issue, with Clarissa, but that actually supported the new data in the authorized trials. And it was helpful to know that it affected young women just as much as it affected older ones. There had been arguments at the lab about how that might be controlled. Some thought there was no need to control it, and that it was a benefit. Finally, no one knew what the effects were of suddenly stopping the drug. That had never been done before, and wouldn't be studied until the final stages of the trials, when women stopped taking it then.