Chapter 2
created: 2023-06-04T10:39 updated: 2023-06-04T10:
Chapter 2
Cassie backed the black GMC Yukon into the garage next to Sarah's red Honda Civic. After the engine had been shut off, and the garage door closed they both got out of the car. They walked into the kitchen and sat their bags on the island.
"So, how long before I set up a call to Senator Gordon?" Sarah asked, still visibly concerned about the report. She still hadn't read it, but had heard enough about it to get an idea of what was going on. She looked at the clock and sighed. It was after eight and they had last eaten at two, a brief meal before the meeting had been held. "Also, it's after eight Cassie, what are we doing for dinner?"
"Lets give the department heads until Tuesday to try to figure out anything other than Quentin's plan." Cassie said, looking at Sarah. "You're worried that is going to be the only plan any one comes up, aren't you?" Cassie had seen that her young assistant was concerned by the suggestion that Doctor Quentin Jones had suggested. Even Cassie wasn't too sure of the plan it self, from looking at the document that he had passed out during the meeting, it would be great at protecting the female population from getting pregnant. In a way, what they wanted to do, but not necessarily the way to go about it. "Do you want to order a pizza or something for dinner?"
"Yes, I am," Sarah said, biting her lip. "I was going to do some research on some pieces of his plan tonight and gather all of that material together for you. I'm going to go change and then order pizza and I'll be up in my office." When Cassie had been appointed to the Office of the Director of the CDC a year ago and Sarah and Cassie had moved into the house, they had set up two adjoining bedrooms as home offices so they could get work done from home. When they had done that, it left the smallest bedroom in the house for the twenty two year old girl. It was still larger than the bedroom that she had slept in when the pair lived in Columbus Ohio...
"Ok," Cassie said, almost wishing she could read her assistant's mind. "That sounds good to me. I propose that tomorrow night we cook in and have a meal at the table rather than in the offices..." Before the move to Atlanta, and before Sarah had graduated from high school, Sarah would cook dinner for the two of them as soon as she knew that Cassie had left work. It was something that Sarah had done for her mother when she was alive, so it was a comfort thing; it also hadn't happened since they had moved to Atlanta because they both put in the same number of hours a week.
"Can I cook?" Sarah asked. Cassie would help if Sarah asked her to, but generally stayed out of the way when there was cooking going on.
"Yes," Cassie said, smiling. "It's been a while, I miss your cooking." She gave the brown haired, grey eyed girl a kiss on the top of the head. Sarah smiled and then turned on her heel and headed up the stairs, her skirt swishing as she went.
Sarah sat down and docked her laptop in the dock on her desk. The monitor lit up as soon as the laptop was docked, and there was a crackle from the speakers. Sarah played with her hair as the computer booted and she thought about the first report that Cassie had seen right after lunch. She pulled her copy of all of the stuff that Dr. Jones had handed out at the meeting, plus the initial report. She spread them all out on her desk and started at the beginning. She was so wrapped up in reading the initial report that Doctor Jones had written that she didn't hear Cassie knock on the door. The pizza getting sat next to the other stack of paper brought her back to reality.
"Learning any thing from the report?" Cassie asked, sitting her own pizza down and sitting across from Sarah.
"Only that either I'm screwed as a girl, or we're screwed as a species..." Sarah replied with a chuckle. It was the first time she had smiled since the first time that she seen the title of the report.
Cassie smiled. She was glad to see a smile cross Sarah face. "Or both?"
"Yeah," Sarah said, flipping her hair back over her shoulders, exposing the hot pink straps for the tank top that she had put on. "If I have to pick one or the other, I'd rather get screwed because I'm a girl." Sarah took a bite of the pizza and looked at Cassie who had a odd look on her face. "What?"
"Quentin didn't cover any details on causing pregnancies to try to help alleviate the problems caused by the unbalance..." Cassie said, a thoughtful look on her face. "There are going to have to be some girls that volunteer to get pregnant by artificial insemination and have babies. Let me see that note pad." Sarah looked thoughtful now too, as she handed the notepad and a pen to Cassie who jotted down what they had just talked about. Sarah turned to the computer and started typing, typing almost verbatim what Cassie had written on the notepad without even looking. The two looked at each other.
"Damn I'm good," Sarah said, starting to giggle. "So, how do we determine who has the babies?"
Cassie smiled, another side of Dr. Jones's plan coming together in her head. "A lottery." Sarah hands flew over the keyboard. "Preferably the girls, excuse me, women," Cassie winked at Sarah. "Use the sperm of their significant other, if they have one. If you were selected they would probably use the sperm out of a sperm bank." Sarah typed for a few seconds and then looked at Cassie.
"First, I would be honored if I were chosen," She said, "And I would give the baby my mother's name, but personally, I think I'm too valuable to you as I am, loosing me for the third trimester would cripple the Office of the Director..."
"You have a point." Cassie said. "What about someone that harms a protected female or a pregnant female?"
"Depends on how bad they injure." Sarah said, stacking the plates from the pizza on one end of her desk. "Serious injury or death of a female should be punishable by death, automatically, no questions asked, just take them out back and shoot them." Sarah's voice was flat and even, and her grey eyes flashed hatred for a few seconds.
Cassie was slightly taken aback by what Sarah had said. "No trial? What happened to Due Process?"
"Yes, there will be a trial, but upon a guilty verdict, and there will be one, there shall be no appeals, just an execution." Sarah wiped a tear away from her eye as it escaped.
Cassie blinked. "Why that harsh?"
"For the first eleven years of my life, I watched my father beat my mother up." Sarah said after collecting her thoughts for a few seconds. "He would come after me too, There were times when he would hit me after he had hit mom just because he could. At one point mom got pregnant and he automatically assumed that she had cheated on him. He beat both of us that night, beat mom hard enough to cause a miscarriage. That would have been my baby brother or sister. Mom was defenseless until she took me one night and just ran. Left everything behind. That was how we ended up in Columbus. Mom filed the reports, filed a restraining order and he was later executed for murder."
Cassie sat there, mouth open as Sarah broke down in tears. She had no idea when she had started working with Erica Wilson how she had gotten to Columbus or anything about her past. It had been something that both Erica and Sarah had kept very quiet. Cassie got up and walked around the desk and just hugged the girl. She had been keeping that in for who knew how long. "Shh... You're safe. No one is going to come hurt you." Cassie picked the younger girl up and then sat down and started to rock Sarah.
"I miss my mom." Sarah wailed, before suddenly leaning back and looking at Cassie. "Not that you haven't been great and everything..." Sarah instantly went from crying to laughing so hard that she couldn't breath. This had happened before so it caused Cassie to start laughing as well and she opened a desk drawer to pull out Sarah inhaler.
"I think you need a few puffs..." Cassie said, handing Sarah her inhaler, watching as she took a few puffs off of it.
"I may need a few puffs of something stronger..." Sarah said, her breathing returning to normal. "It's been a while since I've talked about that. I feel better now."
"You sure?" Cassie asked, reluctant to switch spots with Sarah.
"Yeah," Sarah said, one of her flip flops falling from her foot and hitting the floor. "I can't type the notes very well from your lap..." Cassie released the girl and watched as she returned to standing and slipped the hot pink flip flop back on her foot. Cassie got up and went around the desk to where she had started. "Do you agree with my thoughts on punishment?"
"As unorthodox as it is, yes." Cassie responded. Sarah nodded and started typing.
It was after midnight when Sarah and Cassie finished going over all of the papers that they had brought home. They had done preliminary research on the device that Dr. Jones had suggested, even identifying manufacturers. They would need to bring production to the US if this plan were to work. Sarah wished that there were another way to do this, but the more that she went over Dr. Jones's plan, and provided suggestions to fill in the gaps of the initial plan, there didn't appear to be any other way. Sarah sent the document to the printer that sat on the end of the desk and looked at Cassie.
"That was productive." Cassie said. "I think we've filled in the gaps in Quentin's plan and have answered a few questions that we had about it. Now lets see if anyone else comes up with anything."
"Yep," Sarah said, saving the document and shutting the laptop off. "I will type up a proposal to preset to Senator Gordon tomorrow."
"Why don't you take tomorrow off and relax?"
Sarah chuckled. "You know me, I can't take a day off when something like this is looming... I'll end up in here working on it. I'm going to bed. I will see you in the morning."
"This is true," Cassie chuckled. "Ok, Sweetie." Cassie stood and they embraced before the younger girl headed to bed.