Three hours past midnight, all windows open, with the wind splitting the white-off white stained curtains and blowing away papers scattered all around from a dot-matrix printer continuously screeching from left to right. A dim incandescent bulb crying to glow and at the corner of that messy room was Ryan Bailey sitting, trying to work on some molecular structures and docking them on his laptop. He looked weak, with untidy dress, uncombed hair and improperly trimmed beard. Ryan was a professor of experimental medicine at Touchstone Medical University, a post Doctorate fellowship in neuropsycho-pharmacology, one who bagged all the gold medals in his undergraduate as well as post graduate. It had been his dream project to develop an unique drug molecule, which could partially put a person to sleep, yet play with his unconscious mind by hypnotizing an individual and eliminate the drug from the body without any traces.
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He has been working in this research project for the last 6 years, back from his Ph.D days and success was nearing. Though he was married 8 yrs back, he was more dedicated to his research work and romance got buried deep within leaving behind no time for his beautiful wife Janet Bailey, who was a Chief Gynecologist at Touchstone Medical University Hospital. They both were undergraduate class mates and a love story had developed between them. Though Ryan and Janet were separated by destiny to pursue masters in different Med schools, they both met each other at a reunion, following which Ryan proposed Janet. Their love story went smooth and they got married the following winter, But, soon Ryan started getting more involved in his research. His lab became his home, his laptop was his world and some times there had been weeks together where Ryan hadn't met Janet, yet conversations used to happen over his mobile. On the other side Janet was busy as well, conducing deliveries and advising new mothers on handling children, even though she didn't conceive through Ryan. She loved Ryan fully and supported him in his research work, but couldn't tell him much about it.
The drug molecule was ready, and in-silico (computer based study done to assess drug action) studies showed a positive result, following which Ryan conducted a small toxicology study in a group of rodents to study about dosing and toxicity of the molecule. His planning was so perfect that all the clinical studies were perfect and soon he was able to make it into an injectable form. There was one issue that Ryan was worried about - the drug being misused and denied sharing any details with others. Weeks later he was desperate to try the drug on a human volunteer, but scared, so he decided to inform Janet and try the drug on himself, while she could record the video or provide any medical emergence if needed.
Ryan was in his glass cabin, where he decided self inject the drug and carry out his experiment. But, Janet didn't want Ryan to experiment the drug on him, and decided to speak to him as he prepared a set of recorded questioners, which the tape recorder would ask him, while he would be video taped for the same.
In a nervous tone Janet started " so dear, all done with your preparations ?? "
There was silence around. She again spoke " How confident are you on your molecule, what if something goes wrong, whom will I live for ??"
Ryan was trying to focus on his checklist, yet replied " don't worry dear, I trust in you"
Swallowing a lump of saliva, she again interrupted " How long would you be self hypnotized ??"
For which he replied " Just 30 minutes dear" "and Promise me dear, even if anything happens to me, your not telling about my research to any one"
Janet remained silent, "but why?????"
Shhhhh..!!!!
He was all set to perform the experiment, he pecked a kiss to Janet, locked his glass seethrough cabin checked the emergency kit, kept his mobile phone next to the bed, started the audio player and video recorder, then injected an intravenous cannula. All set, he took a deep breath and infused the drug into his own body. Though Janet was seated outside, she was carefully seeing him, as he went into sleep. Along side she was monitoring his Heart rate, Oxygen saturation and blood pressure very carefully.
