The Bullpen Ch. 03

"Wendy," Hannah put forth. "But not really."

"They've acknowledged it," Vijay interjected. He knew. He'd watched the video, and listened to the dialogue, the moaning, and the exclamations. "But nothing much deeper than that."

"This is obviously the deuterotone," Noah stated, glaring angrily in Natalie's direction. He couldn't believe that his boss would allow Erica to be put through what was happening to her.

"It's certainly part of it," the blonde conceded. "I'd say that it's definitely greasing the wheels."

Turning her attention to Jake, Natalie spoke slowly and clearly. "But one could make the case that it's Erica's personality, and not the drugs."

Jake nodded. One could, in fact, make that case to Medical Oversight. Would they buy it? Would they accept it? Would it prevent ConnPharm from being shut down by the FDA?

Turning back to Noah, Natalie tried to calm the naked girl's partner. "And may I remind you, Noah, that Erica volunteered for this assignment."

"Because there was no other choice!"

"Irregardless," the blonde replied. "She volunteered. She could end the project today if she wanted to. She could have ended it Saturday afternoon, if she felt too at odds with what she ended up doing in the Bullpen."

"Does she know that?" Hannah asked.

"Of course she does," Natalie answered.

"Does she?" the Korean woman repeated. "I mean, forget the science. Does she know that she can step down? That she can put her clothes back on and go home?"

"It's certainly not recommended, given the chemicals in her system..." Takahashi began.

"But she has that option, no?" Hannah asked again, addressing them all. "And we're sure that she knows she has that option?"

There was a silence around the table.

"This is her project," Hannah continued. "She's the principal. She should be the one making this decision."

Looking around the table, she added, "Not Noah. Not Jake. Not Forrester. And not goddamned Medical Oversight."

"So who brings it up with her?" Jake asked, after glancing around at the faces in the group.

"I'll do it," Hannah answered. "I'm her friend. I might be best-suited to talk to her about this sort of thing. And I'm going down there in a few hours to give her the next injection, anyways. That is, if she still wants it."

"No," Noah spoke up. "Erica may be the principal, but this is my project, too. I can take ownership. I can do what needs to be done."

"With all due respect to both of you," Natalie stepped up, "I'll talk to her. The deuterotone is more my project than anyone's, with the possible exception of maybe Erica. Oversight isn't going to let Hannah go anywhere near Erica with a needle until they have one of their stooges talk to her, anyways.

"And," Natalie addressed Noah. "I really think that this conversation would be less embarrassing for everyone involved if it were initiated by another woman."

***

Though she was significantly more clothed than the darker-haired woman in the Bullpen – and not to mention nearly twice her age – Natalie Hart was every bit as alluring. If not more so. She had aged well, her skin still smooth, her body still fit and trim.

She strutted. She didn't walk, or saunter, or race. She strutted, with power and confidence, her long, stocking-covered legs swishing back and forth and hypnotizing any man of any age who saw her enter a room.

Today, as she strutted into the Observation Room, it was Colin Eggert who took notice. His attention, if ever so briefly, was drawn away from the stark naked woman across the room, and to the aging beauty just entering. Dressed in a grayish tweed pencil skirt and a simple white blouse, Natalie had command. She knew the curves of her body had power to them, and she used those assets to her own advantage.

"Colin," she acknowledged, smiling in the technician's direction.

"Natalie," Colin nodded.

Whereas Erica had youth, a gorgeous figure, and complete exposure, Natalie had what Erica herself only dream of – confidence in her own body.

Stepping up to the Observation Desk, Natalie told Colin, "Erica and I are going to need some privacy." She paused, and then added, "Relatively."

Colin wasn't quite sure what the blonde woman meant.

"Can you turn off the audio recording for a few minutes?" Natalie asked. When Colin began to object, Natalie simply smiled again to silence him. "Erica and Noah are not going to be upset about missing audio for a few minutes. It's not going to affect their data."

"Sure," the technician replied. Typing a few commands into the computer. "Sure, I guess."

"And would you mind taking a walk?" Natalie continued. "A bathroom break, if you will?"

Again, Colin just nodded. He'd only been a work for a few hours, but a break didn't sound unappealing. The urinalysis sensors in both the toilet and the shower drain had been on the fritz since he'd first arrived that morning, which wasn't entirely a surprise – they were the most problematic pieces of equipment connected to the Bullpen. A few minutes away might allow him to clear his head, and return to the task at hand with a different approach.

He took a few steps, glancing back at his desk, and back towards the dark-haired figure on the far side of the mirror glass, before smiling again politely and leaving the two women alone.

"Thank you," Natalie purred after him. Flipping a switch on the desk, she called, "Erica."

The nude girl inside the Bullpen didn't even look in the direction of the Observation Room. There was no point; all she'd have been able to see was her own reflection. Instead, with her attention still focused on the numbers and data projected onto the far wall, she absentmindedly responded, "Yes?"

Erica was obviously annoyed at having to break her concentration on what she was doing. Natalie was annoyed at being so casually disregarded.

"We need to talk about this past weekend," the blonde woman said into the comm.

That got Erica's attention quick. Inside the Bullpen, Erica swallowed hard.

It had been enjoyable. It had been stress-relieving. And it had been undeniably erotic. But Erica didn't want to talk about what she was doing, any more than she truly wanted to do what she was doing.

"I'd prefer that we didn't," Erica answered, doubting it would end the conversation. It wouldn't have with Wendy, but perhaps Natalie would have a bit more decorum than the technician.

"I'd prefer that we didn't, either," Natalie answered from the speakers above. The data projection blinked out on Erica's wall, and her boss's image replaced it. Looking sternly over the bare scientist below, she continued, "But we need to."

Erica swallowed again. She wanted to get this conversation over with quickly. "It's just a long time to go. What with the deuterotone and all."

"That's what we need to talk about, Erica. The Oversight people have expressed some concerns about the extent to which you've been...pleasuring yourself."

Erica's entire body flushed with embarrassment, even as her labia swelled with excitement. "So the Oversight people have been watching me masturbate? Are we sending out tapes to the entire company?"

"You know as well as I do that that's not true," Natalie sighed. "And you knew going in that Oversight would be, well, overseeing."

"George Anders? Jamie Finneran? Dick Abbott? Were they sitting around watching the tapes with a bucket of popcorn?"

"No," the blonde shook her head. "They're taking this very seriously, Erica. So is Noah, for that matter."

"So Noah's been sitting around watching the tapes with a bucket of popcorn?"

"Your staff and I sat down this morning with Jake Rinaldi to watch them this morning, Erica."

Silence. Embarrassment. Mortification.

Natalie continued. "There's concern. There's concern about how you've been behaving recently."

"No," Erica answered angrily. "There's concern about me fucking myself in front of them."

A shiver ran down her spine. It felt good to be upfront about it. It felt good to talk that way to her boss.

"A little more blunt than I would have been," the older woman said. "But yes, essentially."

A pause.

"Noah's worried that you behaving this way is a bit out of character."

"'Out of character?'" Erica asked in disbelief. "But stripping naked in front of all my colleagues isn't? Pissing into a drain in front of him isn't? Injecting hormones into my body to increase the size of my tits isn't? So it's just the masturbating that's 'out of character'?"

"Erica – "

"It's the goddamned deuterotone!" she answered, beginning to break down. "My whole body is chock-full of fake testosterone. It's like an aphrodisiac, Natalie. I can't think about anything else most of the time!"

"We know, Erica," Natalie lied. The blonde woman had her doubts. She'd expressed them to Erica before. She'd expressed them to Noah, Jake, and the others that morning. "But Abbott is going to pull the plug on the project because of what it's doing to you."

"What are talking about?" The girl wiped a tear from her eyes. She felt frustrated, unable to fully get across what the pseudo-pubescent hormone was doing to her. "We've got the second round of injections today."

On the screen in front of her, the larger-than-life figure of Natalie Hart shook her head. "Not if Abbott decides against it."

"Why?" Erica cried. The whole project was in danger of being fucked, simply because Erica had finger-fucked herself a few times. "It's my experiment! I'm the one doing this to me! I know what I'm feeling isn't natural, but I'm not going to sue ConnPharm. It's not like I'm in danger of dying, and the company has to deal with my death. The only thing being lost here is my dignity."

Natalie just shrugged. "It's not you and your lawyer that Oversight, and Abbott in particular, are thinking about. If the FDA comes sniffing around, and they decide that this experiment should have been cut off, we could be in deep, deep trouble.

"Besides," the blonde continued, "it's not as if we're going to go straight to market with the deuterotone if it's really the stimulant it appears to be."

The girl inside the Bullpen mulled this over for a few minutes.

"There are kinks, yes. We'll work them out," she finally said. "And not everyone undergoing deuterotone therapy is going to be under observation 24/7 for five weeks. They could always slip off from some alone time."

"Three times a day?" Natalie asked with a raised eyebrow.

Erica started to blush, but offered, "It's boring in here."

The joke lightened the mood, briefly, and even caused Natalie to giggle a little.

Changing tone, however, Erica stated flatly, "I'm not a whore."

"I know."

"It's just that I did it once. And the threat of being caught doing it again didn't seem as scary."

"I know."

"I ruined my reputation on Saturday afternoon. It wasn't any more ruined on Saturday evening."

"Erica, don't..."

"I just get, I don't know, worked up, and I can't come back down without it."

Natalie nodded.

"And five weeks is a long time to go without anything."

Natalie nodded again.

Erica stared up at the projection. "But I've made my peace with it."

"You have?"

This time, it was Erica who nodded. "Getting over the initial shock of what I was doing was hard. Just from a pure and innocent viewpoint. A sexually conservative viewpoint."

"But now...?"

"But now," the naked girl went on, "I'm coming to grips with it. It's natural. It's really no more or less embarrassing than having Colin watch me take a shit, or having his interns gawk at my crotch when I'm exercising."

Erica smiled weakly, and added, "And it really is boring in here."

"And it feels good," Natalie said.

"And it feels good," the younger girl echoed. With mischief in her eyes, she looked up at Natalie, "You have no idea."

"I have some idea. I watched the tapes this morning, didn't I?"

Erica chuckled, though it was a bit awkward. She had, of course, talked briefly about pleasuring herself with Wendy, but even that had been somewhat utilitarian. But Natalie had always been her mentor, her teacher, and her confidante. From the moment that Erica had started at ConnPharm, the older woman had felt safe.

"And I think you may be partially right about what you said last week," Erica offered. "About my personality and about being exposed in front of everyone."

"Well, I'm sure there are more than a few people, male or female, that would have very similar reactions if placed in similar conditions." Continuing on, Natalie smirked, "Do you remember the volunteer we had from Wesleyan a few months back? From Jim Bernard's adrenaline tests?"

"The Walking Erection," Erica laughed. She had forgotten about that particular test subject. For the forty-eight hours he had spent naked inside the Bullpen, the college student's dick had stood at attention for nearly thirty. She hadn't seen him herself. But she'd heard the stories.

Similar stories might well have begun circulating the ConnPharm campus about her.

"The deuterotone, though," Erica interjected. "I'm sure it's more to blame in this case than any deep-seated fetishes."

"Most likely," Natalie said slyly. "But Dick Abbott doesn't need to know that."

Erica wasn't catching on. She looked back at Natalie with a puzzled expression on her face.

"If he were to believe that your behavior was, in fact, stemming from some long-standing exhibitionist pull," the blonde suggested, "he might be a bit less concerned about the chemical side of the equation."

"So you want me to lie to him?"

Natalie ran a single hand through her blonde hair, pulling it away from her face. With a slight sneer, she replied, "If it's a lie."

Erica was a bit caught off-guard by her boss's comment, but she didn't linger on it. She did, however, let the original suggestion seep deeper into her mind.

She couldn't deny that having the project pulled, at that point, would have been a relief. Her clothes sat tantalizingly close, just outside the Bullpen. If she wanted to, she could step out right now, get dressed, and go home.

Home. Where she could have her privacy again. Where she could masturbate to her heart's content. Where Tom could fuck her until she couldn't walk.

Dick Abbott held all of those possibilities in his hand. He didn't need Erica's consent to stop the deuterotone trial – he just needed enough evidence to suggest that her compound was having an adverse effect on her body. He couldn't be bribed to let things slide, as he would be one of any number of people hauled into the FDA to explain if things took a negative turn. Dick Abbott could, in a way, force Erica to put her clothes on. Dick Abbott could, in a way, force Erica to go home to Tom and get screwed in countless different positions.

But the science would suffer. Erica's years of work would suffer. Natalie's years of work, before Erica had even joined ConnPharm, would suffer. They'd retool the compound, of course, but it would take months, if not years, and Erica doubted whether the Bill Forresters and Jake Rinaldis would be very happy with her, her partner, and her group.

Erica looked behind her, and caught sight of her own reflection. Her breasts had continued to grow, but she was uncertain what would happen if the injections didn't continue. She couldn't stop now, take a week to herself, and then pick the experiment back up once she'd received permission – the science wouldn't allow it. She needed the subsequent injections to better control her mammary growth, to slow it in the third week, to ensure that she didn't start sprouting chest hair or a mustache because of too much false testosterone.

To put on her pants, and her shirt, would have been divine. She could leave behind her the indignity of her nude captivity, her public urination, and her constant need to touch herself while wondering who was watching. Her reputation was being destroyed.

But she still had her reputation as a scientist to think of. She was on the verge of revolutionizing breast augmentation, if not revolutionizing the way doctors thought of puberty and development. She couldn't let the fact that she was a prude stand in the way of where she was taking her deuterotone.

Erica's eyes twinkled. "Bring Abbott down."

"Are you sure?" Natalie prodded.

The dark haired girl nodded, adding, "And tell Hannah to begin prepping the needle."

***

Dick Abbott had been convinced, for some time, that he was going to be a Presbyterian minister. All throughout high school, when his peers were drinking, smoking pot, and fornicating with one another, little Dickie read his Bible in his bedroom. He volunteered at his church, reading verses to the congregation on Sundays and raking leaves for elderly parishioners on Saturdays. But college had come, and while other young freshman were tempted by unsupervised freedom, Dickie had been tempted by biology.

And so, Dick Abbott deserted his old dream for his new love – he became a doctor.

Years later, Dick was still very involved in the Second Presbyterian Church of Avon. He participated in Bible studies. He had long talks about his faith with his pastor. And he still raked leaves for the elderly on Saturdays.

At fifty-six years old, Dick had been married to his wife Debbie for thirty-three years, and then had three grown-up young women to show from their union. His sex drive, like that of his wife's, had diminished over the years, but it wasn't something that he obsessed over. While other men his age were rushing off to find sexual supplements (some of which had been developed at ConnPharm itself), Dick simply shrugged off his de facto celibacy. As of that Monday morning, it had been over five months since Dick had last orgasmed.

Erica Rivers, meanwhile, hadn't orgasmed in just four hours, and it was killing her.

The whole situation made Dick uncomfortable. He hadn't been comfortable with the deuterotone experiment from the get go, troubled by the thought of women across the country injecting themselves with chemicals to increase the size of their breasts, wanting to become the sexual playthings of pornographic male fantasies. But Dick had little say in what ConnPharm developed for their consumer base.

He did, however, have quite a bit to say in how far he'd letter certain experiments go on. As a member of the Medical Oversight board within ConnPharm, Dick Abbott held ultimate say about the duration of any experiment once adverse effects began to arise. He had pulled the plug on Helmut Stohl's hair growth study after two of Stohl's subjects had developed severe diarrhea. And after seeing the significant increase in Erica Rivers's libido on the tapes he'd been shown, Dick was sure that it wouldn't take much for him to bring this particular trial to a close.

He'd watched tapes of Erica masturbating on Saturday afternoon. And on Saturday evening. And on Sunday morning, while Dick and Debbie Abbott had been at church. And though parts of Dick responded quite excitedly to the show the young woman was putting on, the greater emotion that came over him was disgust. This woman was touching herself and writhing on the ground like an animal in heat. And the only explanation that Dick could give, having met the quiet and reserved Erica Rivers a number of times before, was that the injection she had pumped into her body the previous week had corrupted her sense of decency.

And to Dick Abbott, this was a side effect that would not be stood for.

At the door to the Observation Room, Dick hesitated. Was he supposed to knock? He was, in all truth, walking in on a woman in her birthday suit. Should she be prepared for his arrival? Or was it Dick that needed preparation?

Either way, he told himself, Erica would be behind the mirror glass. She wouldn't hear the knock. She wouldn't even know that he was there until he announced himself through the comm system at the ops desk.