Quaranteam - Team Tim Ch. 10

This is a spinoff of CorruptingPower's Quaranteam Universe. I have 'written' many stories in my head and have started typing some of these into the computer in the past, but it has been the Quaranteam Universe that has spurred me to keep going. Thanks go to CorruptingPower for letting me play in his universe, and a big shout out to the growing group of spin-off authors for their help and encouragement.

Quaranteam: Team Tim

Chapter 10.

Thursday, 23rd July 2020

Tim awoke at just after 7am and didn't need to open his eyes to hear the rain beating against the window. He wondered what he should do rather than going for his morning run. Going through the available options, he eventually decided that he'd go for a swim instead.

Cautiously, Tim extricated himself from Siobhan and carefully made his way off the bed. Jenny opened an eye and looked at him, before cuddling up closer to Rana. Meanwhile, Siobhan moved across to where Tim had been and spooned Rana from the other side.

Tim quickly completed his morning bathroom routine before making his way to the attached dressing room. It took him a few minutes to locate his trunks, eventually finding them in one of the drawers, and selecting his pair of black Speedos. Tim threw on a pair of gym shorts over his trunks, plus an old tee shirt and, after slipping on a pair of trainers, made his way down to the swimming pool.

Walking through to the swimming pool, Tim was surprised to see someone else already there and it took him a while to work out that it was Maria swimming up and down in a black one-piece suit. Tim noticed that Maria was swimming front crawl, but with minimal leg kick.

Tim had been in a swimming club for a few years when he was much younger and had also done some life saving courses, so had a reasonable technique, but hadn't been swimming for many years. Tim wasn't sure how much he'd be able to do but, after noting the time on his Garmin, he decided to try to swim for 30 minutes.

He moved to the other side of the pool from where Maria was swimming before diving in. Maria noticed Tim after he dove in, giving a slight wave without breaking her rhythm.

Tim also swam front crawl using a two-beat kick with his legs and breathing alternately to the left and right. He thought he'd be might be able to go faster than Maria, so was surprised to find that they were probably going at around the same speed. After Tim had been swimming for about 25 minutes, he became aware that Maria had left the pool and decided to push himself for the last five minutes, increasing to a four-beat leg kick.

Having completed his half hour, Tim climbed out of the pool. As he moved to leave the pool area, he noticed Maria sitting on one of the benches. Assuming Maria was waiting for him, Tim went over to her. He couldn't avoid noticing the scars down her left thigh.

"You swim well, Tim," Maria offered, looking up while moving slightly along the bench to give a little more room for him to sit.

"You do too," Tim replied as he sat down. After sitting, he swung round to look at Maria.

Maria sat with her legs together, looking down at her hands which were clasped in her lap. "When I was recovering from my injury and the surgery, I could hardly walk, and then only with crutches," she began. "Swimming was part of my recovery and helped me start to get the strength back in my legs after months of inactivity. When I came to England, I tried to swim two or three times a week until the pandemic when all the swimming pools were shut. Since arriving here, I've been swimming every morning. It's helping me a lot, being able to swim again. The water supporting my body helps me to exercise without the pain."

"I prefer to run; when the weather's fine, that is," Tim stated. "I enjoy cycling, too."

Maria looked up at Tim. "I can't run or even ride a bicycle, it's too painful. Before my fall, I used to love riding my father's horses and thought my life would be working with them. I've not had a bad life since moving to England, but the one thing I miss is not being able to ride a horse."

"That must be so hard for you, especially as there are horses here," Tim offered, reaching out and briefly placing a hand on top of Maria's.

"No, I love to watch when Rana or Jenny is riding. It brings back so many good memories." She returned her gaze to her hands in her lap.

They sat quietly for a while.

"Tim ...," Maria started, tentatively, reaching out and placing a hand in his knee.

"Yes?" Tim replied, covering her hand with his own.

"The changes to Ashley. They're real, aren't they?" Maria asked, looking at Tim. "It wasn't just a makeover. I occasionally saw the scars on her arms, even though she was trying to hide them, and they have actually gone." Tim could see a need to believe in Maria's eyes.

"Yes, the changes are genuine. It was a shock to us when we saw her just before she woke up. And there were worse scars on her back that have gone now, too."

"Do you think ... Could it ..."

"I don't know, Maria," Tim stated, shaking his head slightly. "There's not an instruction book. As I mentioned yesterday, Siobhan and I have seen a document from the US that describes a number of cases where injuries and disfigurements have been repaired after a woman received the vaccine. What we don't have, though, is a report that identifies instances when similarly injured women were vaccinated and little or nothing happened. I'm sure the data will be collected with time, but we don't have it available now. We don't know the likelihood that any one woman who receives the vaccine will undergo what the American document calls a regeneration, or what might trigger a particular response."

"Thank you, Tim, that sort of helps. I understand that you're leaving the decision up to me and I'm still unsure. Sex has been painful for me and I only tried a couple of times after my injury. I've not had sex for over twenty years. When I came here, I was adamant that I wasn't going to have the vaccine, but now I'm wavering. It's like there's this possible miracle cure but it has consequences. But if I don't try, then I'll never know."

Although Maria usually came over as this strong, confident older woman, Tim could see how scared she was of making the wrong choice. Tim reached out, putting his arms around Maria and giving her a big hug, with Maria leaning into him. After a while, Maria pulled away slightly and Tim withdrew his arms.

"Thank you, Tim. Even if I choose not to have the vaccine, I don't want to miss out on more hugs like that. I can't remember when I was last hugged. Well, by an adult. I used to get a lot of hugs when I was working as a nanny, but they were all from the children in my charge."

"You're part of the family and welcome to a hug whenever you need one, whatever you decide."

Maria started running her hands up and down her arms. "Maybe we should move and get dressed. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel a little cold," she stated, before standing up.

Tim stood up after Maria and they made their way through to the changing area, where Maria put on a towelling robe and slippers before leaving. Tim dried off using one of the available towels before putting his gym shorts and tee shirt back on over his trunks, slipping on his trainers but leaving them untied.

----oOo----

Tim went down to the breakfast room to see what Tammy had arranged in his absence. There, he found Ashley sitting at the table by the kitchen door in the seat that Tammy usually occupied, a smoothie sitting at the place where Maria usually sat.

"Oh hi, Tim. You weren't out runnin' in all tha' rain, were ya?" Ashley enquired, giving him a big smile.

"No, I went for a swim instead," Tim replied, leaning against the back of an unoccupied chair. "Maria was there."

"Is that where she goes every mornin'? I wondered."

"Yeah, I think it must be good for her hip."

"Anyways, are you wantin' your usual?"

"Not today. I need to go for a shower to get all the chemicals off me," Tim explained. "I'd love a glass of orange juice now, but is there any chance of bacon and eggs on brown toast in about twenty minutes, though?"

"For you, Tim, anythin'," Ashley stated, getting up from the table and making her way towards the kitchen doorway. "I owe you so much an' know I'll never repay it."

"You owe me nothing, Ash," Tim called after her.

Ashley was soon back with a glass of orange juice for Tim. After placing it down carefully in front of him, she sat down again. "Maybe you'd like to use my shower again?" she offered, looking coyly at him over her interlaced fingers, her head slightly tilted to one side.

"I'd love to," Tim replied, "but I know we'd end up having sex and Siobhan has banned me from having sex until after breakfast as she wants to take a blood sample. Maybe I'll take a rain check for another day." Tim drained the glass and placed it back on the table.

"Sounds good. Go an' get your shower an' I'll 'ave your breakfast waitin' for you."

----oOo----

Arriving in the master bedroom, Tim found the three young women in various stages of dressing. He quickly discarded his clothes in the hamper, including his swimming trunks, and made his way into the shower, all of his actions followed by three sets of eyes. Twelve minutes later, Tim was showered, dried and dressed and sitting on the end of the bed waiting while Siobhan, Rana and Jenny applied their final touches. Tim wondered whether the time taken to get ready increased in proportion to the number of women involved, but decided to keep this thought to himself. Eventually, though, everyone was ready and they made their way down to the breakfast room.

As soon as Tim sat down, Ashley placed a plate in front of him. Not only was there the bacon, eggs and toast that he'd requested, but also a couple of sausages and a slice of black pudding. The three young women just looked at Tim, who gave a shrug. Ashley disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a mug of freshly brewed coffee, placing it down in front of Tim.

Looking at the other three at the table, Ashley asked "What?"

Jenny made a gesture towards Tim's breakfast.

"'E didn't 'ave is bacon buttie this mornin'," Ashley explained. "Asked for this instead."

"What bacon buttie?" Jenny enquired.

"Tammy's been preparin' Tim a bacon buttie for when 'e comes in from 'is run. She asked me to do it this mornin', but Tim went for a swim instead 'cos it was rainin'. When 'e come 'ere, I asked if 'e was wantin' the buttie, but 'e asked for bacon an' eggs for breakfast instead. So that's what I done. I'm 'appy to cook anythin' the rest of you want."

After a short discussion, they all agreed on scrambled eggs on toast and Ashley went to prepare it for them.

After preparing the breakfasts and serving everyone with their choice of drink, Ashley looked over at Tim. "You know, your 'air is getting' a bit long, Tim."

"Tell me about it!" Tim replied, shaking his head so that everyone could see how long it was getting. "I used to have it cut every five to six weeks, but it's been five months at least since I last visited a hairdresser. I'll need to be tying it back if it gets too much longer"

"Now, if I 'ad the kit, I'd 'appily do it for you." Ashley offered, getting a few looks from the others in the room. "Well, I were trainin' as an 'airdresser after I left school," she added, defensively.

Jenny looked shocked and nearly shouted at Ashley, who cowered slightly. "What? Why didn't you say something? My hair feels so bad, even my split ends have split ends. And you didn't tell us?"

"Well, you're all bright people, what with your degrees an' the like. An' I di'n't even finish the course 'cos of the pandemic," Ashley stated defensively.

"So how much have you learned?" asked Rana calmly, trying to diffuse the situation.

"I learned all the ways to cut, you know like layerin' and such, and different styles includin' for men. Then we learned about washin', dryin' an' stylin' 'air. An' I did about treatment products an' skin care, also 'ow to treat damaged 'air, plus a lot on safety of chemicals an' the like. We were just startin' to learn about bleachin' an' colourin' when the pandemic stopped everythin'," Ashley explained, ticking things off on her fingers. She then added "There's really no way to do 'airdressin' by video."

"Well, none of us look like we need our hair colouring. So, if you had the right equipment, you'd be able to cut and style our hair?" Rana enquired.

"Yeah, totes," Ashley agreed, nodding her head vigorously at the same time.

"Then you make a list of what you need and we'll get it all bought. I can't wait to get my hair cut," Rana exclaimed.

"You know, some of the stuff is expensive. A single pair of the good scissors can be like 25 quid, even more for the best ones," Ashley offered, looking somewhat concerned.

"You don't get it, do you Ashley," Rana explained. "I'm now a multi-millionaire. Jenny is at least a millionaire. Before the pandemic, I'd think nothing of dropping £250 to get my hair cut. If it's going to cost a few thousand to get you set up to be able to cut my hair, I'm going to spend that money. I'm just wondering which room we should use as your salon. That's for me to think about, though, you just make a list of what you'll need."

A good half hour later, and after a lot more discussion, Tim, Siobhan, Rana and Jenny finally made it to the lab.

Tim and Siobhan quickly checked in on Tammy, who was still sound asleep. Siobhan placed a glass of water for her on the bedside cabinet, beside the WiFi button.

Returning to the lab, Siobhan logged in to her computer before taking a blood sample from Tim and analysing it. This showed a strong antibody response but some of the antibodies didn't match with those on record from any of his partners. Tim's analysis showed that he had antibodies matching each of the post-vaccination analyses for each of his partners in varying proportions, he also had a range of antibodies that appeared to represent an amalgam of those from his partners in slightly different proportions.

Siobhan then showed Jenny what to do and allowed her to take and analyse Rana's sample. This gave a similar result to Tim's, in that while she had a small percentage that were similar to those sampled straight after she'd been vaccinated, most of her antibodies were similar to some of the amalgamated antibodies that Tim now had. Siobhan concluded that, somehow, their sharing of fluids was transferring antibodies between all of them, and that within women, their antibodies were being modified for some reason.

Siobhan then took a sample from Jenny for analysis, while they discussed what they thought might be present. As Jenny had only been vaccinated the previous day, they expected to see a lot of Jenny's unmodified antibodies. They were present, but so were a larger number of modified ones of two distinct types, one type showed a lot of similarities with those from Rana. Jenny just shrugged. "We're girlfriends," she offered, as though this was all the explanation required.

Siobhan's sample was taken by Tim, and this showed various modified antibodies of different types and very few of her original ones, which is what they now expected to see.

By the time all of their samples had been analysed, the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to break through the clouds. Rana and Jenny decided that it was probably a good time to tend to the horses.

"What do you think, Tim? I've not seen anything regarding the modification of antibodies in the American documents, nor about transfer between women. It's as though the antibodies are changing, merging, to become a Team antibody, although we're only part-way through the process. And antibody transfer between women is logical, if you think about it. What effect do you think this is having on us all?"

"I'm not sure, we'll just need to keep observing."

"I can't imagine that it's not been noted before, but maybe we're looking at things in more detail than others by taking follow-up blood samples."

"That's true. I can't see that it's a big deal. I'd suggest we produce a small note, no more, and let Hillary know. If we find some effect later that correlates with the changes in the antibodies, then we can revisit it."

"That sounds sensible." As she was saying this, Siobhan was logging off the computer. Standing and approaching Tim, she continued, "anyway, the blood samples have now been taken, so my embargo on you having sex has lapsed. And Tammy isn't due to wake up for the best part of two hours. So, what do you think we should do?" This last sentence was spoken in a whisper, as Siobhan now had her arms around Tim's neck.

Tim kissed Siobhan on the nose. "Have you messaged Hillary yet today?"

"Feck, Tim, you sure know how to break the mood. But you're right, we do need to talk to Hillary."

Siobhan retrieved her phone and, sitting in one of the office chairs, phoned Hillary's number. The call was answered on the second ring.

"Dr. Hillary Grainger."

"Hi Hillary, it's Siobhan. Are you free to talk?"

"Hi Siobhan. Yes, I'm free. I was going to message you this morning, anyway."

"Tim's here; I'm going to put you on speaker," Siobhan said, doing it and placing her phone on the desk. Meanwhile, Tim had sat down in one of the other office chairs and scooted it across on its wheels next to Siobhan.

"Hi Tim."

"Hi Hillary," Tim replied.

"Can I go first?" Hillary enquired, continuing to talk without waiting for a reply. "I've read your initial observations on Ashley. I'd taken some of the things that the Americans have said and written with a pinch of salt. I'm now having to re-evaluate a few of these in the light of what you've documented. Please keep me informed with anything else you notice."

"It came as a shock to us, too, and we definitely will. We think it's causing Maria to reconsider having the vaccine, too," Siobhan replied.

"It'll be a good thing if she does, but no pressure."

"Definitely not, we're leaving it up to her."

Leaning forward to bring his head closer to the phone, Tim spoke up. "Hillary, yesterday in the meeting, we enquired about Laksmi and Rachel. Do you or Reg usually talk to them before they make their decision?"

"It depends," Hillary responded. "Sometimes there's a straight 'No'. Very occasionally, there's a definite 'Yes'. Mostly, though, they ask to talk as the initial information we're able to provide at present is so limited. If Laksmi and Rachel ask to talk, do you want to be the ones to do that?"

"That's what we were going to ask for," Siobhan replied. "And, yes, we would like to be the ones to talk to them if at all possible. I'm assuming there's not been a response from either of them yet, has there?"

It was a few seconds before Hillary spoke. "The invitations haven't actually gone out yet, they'll probably go out later today. That's bureaucracy for you. If you'd like, I can have them set up so that any request for a chat will come through to you directly, Siobhan."

"That would be great," Siobhan responded with enthusiasm. "There's one other issue we have. I don't know whether you're aware, but Tammy has been making cookery videos during lockdown."

"Yes, I am aware. They're quite good, actually," Hillary acknowledged. "I tried a few of her recipes myself before joining Reg and Joyce."

"Well, she wants to continue making them," Siobhan continued. "She's already produced the recordings for two more, but she's concerned that the kitchen here looks a lot different from her previous one and that people will ask questions. She feels the need to explain the move, but doesn't quite know what to say."