Broken: Chapter 27 - Outburst

[FingerToes]

Long time lurker.  This is the first story I have written.  Writing isn’t my strength, and It takes me forever to write, re-read, and rewrite.  I have already written 20 chapters.  I hope everyone finds this story different but interesting.  This is a slow burn, but it does get into the diapers and regression.  It will take a few chapters to really get into it.  I can see this going for at least another 20 chapters on top of the twenty chapters already written.

Chapter 1:  The New Intern

 

Avery let out a deep sigh of relief as he read the email he had just received from the biomedical technology department. He was finally being recognized for his hard work and dedication. His complex calculations and programming to demonstrate the interactions between a relatively new drug and a person's DNA had proven correct and valuable, leading to him being hired over a month ago - despite the doubt and ridicule from his colleagues.

He leaned back in his chair, feeling overwhelmed with emotions. On the one hand, he was elated that his efforts were beginning to be acknowledged, but on the other hand, he felt uncertain if this would lead to further respect or more challenges from those who never believed in him. A sense of pride mixed with apprehension began to stir within him, thoughts of the potential applications of this research tumbling through his mind.

Ever since Avery Sage was a little boy, he has experienced problems with keeping his pants dry. Maybe it had something to do with the car accident that claimed the lives of his parents. Perhaps the foster homes he cycled through caused him stress, or maybe he would have always had this problem. All he knew for sure was that he needed to wear protection when out in public because when he got stressed, his bladder gave way. As a result, whenever he left the security of his home, he wore pull-ups, which made him feel like a little kid and dampened his confidence.

His confidence wasn't helped because he was only five foot and one inch tall for a young man.

These anxieties certainly didn’t help his mental health. He suffered from depression, anxiety, and insomnia. He regularly saw a psychiatrist and was on medication, but life could still be a struggle.  He thought back to his first week of work.  

Avery graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Biochemistry at the age of 18. A year later, he was offered an internship while working on his master's in Biochemistry and Genetics.

Avery stepped through the doors of DNA Pharmacia, feeling equal parts nervousness and excitement. He had been preparing for this moment his whole life – the chance to finally earn some respect and prove all those who had doubted him wrong. Flashbacks filled his mind of all the running between foster care families he had endured; it had made his self-confidence falter, but nonetheless provided the motivation for him to finish high school years early and break free from the wings of his current foster family. Now was the time to show what he was made of.

As Avery sat in the HR office, he wore his dress clothes for his first day, which was saying much– a little too large for his slim, small frame – but still managing to make him feel small and helpless against the world around him. People seemed to look through him everywhere he went as if he were invisible, yet he couldn't shake off the nagging sensation that all eyes were upon him. His shoulders sagged under the weight of defeat that shrouded his self-confidence. His wavery, untamed hair was combed back the best it could be.

“Ok, Avery.” Julian, the HR representative, said.  “You're done.  You're officially an employee of DNA Pharmacia.” 

“I won’t let you down. I promise.” Avery smiled as he stood up and reached across the desk to shake Julian’s hand.  Julian's expression was warm and encouraging as he shook Avery's hand. Julian was a tall, distinguished man in his late thirties, wearing a navy blue suit and a striped tie. His brown eyes twinkle with kindness, and he has a slight, friendly smirk while speaking to Avery.

His handshake was firm but slightly frail, making Avery feel nervous that he had no idea if he could uphold such a promise.  Doesn't everyone think that on their first day at work? Avery thought to himself.  Julian just smiled back at him from his kind face, like he could read Avery's mind.

“Great, I am hoping for good things from you.  Shall I show you to your new desk and department?” Julian returned the smile.

“Yes, please,” Avery followed Julian out of the room.  They took two flights up in the elevator to a department called “Chemical DNA Sequencing Department.”  and walked side-by-side down the long corridors of the main building. They passed glass panels on every wall and Avery marveled at how modern this building was. He watched sensors scanning vials of chemicals and equipment, feeding data into computers across the room. It was clear no money had been spared in making DNA a cutting-edge company. Every window they passed made him want to stop and ask what was happening; it all looked so exciting, and he couldn’t wait to start. All this made him forget that he secretly wore a pull-up underneath his clothes as protection was needed.

It was down one of these corridors that Avery met an older man. The man had a strong jawline and sharp features, aged but wise. His eyes were a deep blue, crinkling at the corners when he smiled. His gray hair was neatly trimmed, and his beard was flecked with silver. He wore a crisp white shirt with black trousers and polished black shoes. He towered over Avery with an air of authority, yet his demeanor was warm and friendly. Avery recognized him from some of the interviews he had gone through to land this job.  

“Welcome! You must be our marvelous new intern. I am Bryan Wells, and you'll report directly to me! At your desk we have a laptop and a corporate iPhone with the works waiting there for you. From your resume and job interviews, my colleagues have noticed your peculiar knack for math and biochemistry, so we have an exciting task ahead for you! On your desk is a folder that outlines our challenge: debug a computational logic program that looks at DNA to determine designer drugs for fighting cancer. It's a riddle waiting to be solved - think you can do it? Report back any bugs as soon as possible, and we'd be grateful!” Bryan said cheerfully as he led Avery to his desk.

“Yes, sir,” Avery replied. He would have agreed to do whatever Bryan needed. He was eager to impress.

Bryan continued to talk to Avery.  It was a one-sided conversation. Avery was too in awe of everything he was seeing to really contribute much. For him, this place was like a dream—top-level research with some of the smartest people in the world where his work could actually help people.

Avery looked around the room. A long row of cubicles ran down one wall with a dozen or so scientists already hard at work on their projects. Avery's desk was tucked into the corner by an emergency exit. The light blue walls were sparse, containing only a few motivational posters and pictures of animals from Earth. Bryan led him to his chair and showed him how he could adjust it to fit him since the chair was probably to tall for him. Avery blushed a little but said nothing about it.

Bryan reviewed with him how to log in to the server and the IT policies on using company-issued equipment. Bryan also went over where the relevant programs were located; he would review the folder with all the notes on the development of this program. 

“If you need anything, come to find me over there,” Bryan pointed to his private office.  “The other scientists and engineers should be coming around to introduce themselves to you today.” 

“Ok, sounds good… And thank you for this opportunity,”  Avery said as Bryan returned to his office.

On that first day, he met a few scientists and a few engineers.  They all seemed friendly enough, even though Avery didn’t have much to say.  He wanted to just focus on the task at hand.  He felt he had something to prove.

Avery had been dealt a tough hand; growing up in the foster care system meant that he was constantly met with obstacles and negative comments. He was told time and again what he couldn’t do, but instead of accepting those limitations as his fate, he used them as motivation. Everyone’s doubts about him only strengthened his desire to prove them all wrong.

The rest of the day was slow.  Avery needed help concentrating on the program he had been asked to look at. Quite frankly, it was dull, and after seeing all the other scientists and engineers doing much more exciting things, Avery was keen to do something that felt more meaningful. This need to do something drew him to the thick handbook about all the research involved with this program and more.  He was fascinated with it.  

Avery brought the program to his apartment that night. He abstained from indulging in his usual nightly video game escapades. Instead, he spent hours poring over the computational intricacies of DNA's involvement in cancerous growths, absorbed in deciphering the energy states of cancer cells. The realization that this program was an amalgamation of these complex calculations completely captivated him, particularly as he examined how the drug had to be manipulated to match the energy state of the cancer cells so that it would interact effectively with them. It was nothing less than astounding. As he delved deeper into the notes, he discovered a vexing inconsistency in one of the mathematical formulas that disrupted the programming and prevented it from reaching a conclusion on what drug was needed for treatment.

Avery closed the notebook for the night, satisfied he knew what he could start looking at and he was glad to be out of the pull-up for the day. As he lay in bed, his mind kept running through what he had read. His insomnia medication meant he wasn’t awake for long, but even in sleep, it felt like his brain was searching through everything he had learned the previous day. The morning came too quickly as his alarm went off.  

“Ugh, I hate mornings,” Avery muttered as he hit the snooze button repeatedly.

The alarm kept ringing, and every time it did, Avery reached out a hand and hit the snooze button again. It was an almost instinctive reaction to the annoying noise. His brain wasn’t clicking into gear. All he knew was that he wanted more sleep. At one point, as the alarm went, Avery pawed at the snooze button yet again but only ended up knocking his phone off the bedside table.

“Oh shit,” He said as he looked up at the clock. It was 7:30 a.m. He was supposed to be at work at 8:00 a.m.  His alarm had been going on and off since 6:00 a.m. this morning.

Avery quickly removed his boxers and slipped on new pull-ups, light gray tan dockers, and a maroon golf shirt. He quickly wet down his hair and combed it back, knowing it would still look like a mess when his hair dried.

Avery quickly left to grab the bus to work at 7:30 a.m. and hopefully be at work at 8:00 am. It was a rush, and Avery didn’t feel particularly ready, but as he walked out of the front door into the early morning air. He didn’t know how anyone could be a “morning person” when he always felt… tired.

That morning, when Avery got to work, the first thing he did was get a large cup of coffee.  Afterward, he sat down at his desk and began to take a look at the code.  The code wasn’t easy to follow.  It didn’t follow too much of a logical path in his mind.  Two hours later, John Taylor, the most Sr, Engineer on the project and project lead, stopped by his desk.

John was a 45-year-old engineer with a commanding presence and an ego to match. He stood at an imposing 6'2" and had a burly build that spoke of years of physical labor. Despite his advancing age, his muscles were still firm, and his torso remained taut, reflecting an unwavering commitment to physical fitness.

Avery thought John's walk exuded confidence, each step resonating with a deliberate thud. His posture was impeccable, with his chest puffed out and his chin held high. He had a square jaw and piercing blue eyes that seemed to bore through any obstacle in their way. This made Avery very anxious to be around him.  He was very much the opposite of Avery, who was dressed in a pair of tan dockers and a collared maroon shirt That he had quickly thrown on minutes before leaving the house.  If someone were to judge Avery.  They would say he dressed not to cause a stir and just wanted to blend in. The differences between the timid Avery and John, who exuded machismo and confidence, couldn’t have been starker.

John wore an expensive suit that hugged his broad shoulders and accentuated his chiseled physique, a testament to his attention to detail and his love of the finer things in life.

“Impressive work on one of my projects, huh?” John scowled as he snatched the notebook off his desk. “I wouldn't waste your time with all the irrelevant data scribbled in here. It'll do nothing but distract you.” He flicked it to the other side of his desk like an afterthought. Avery noticed John's hazel eyes were framed by creases that spoke to years of meticulous research studies and calculations. 

“I tried to get a grip on it, but honestly, I stumbled over the complex calculations necessary for developing designer drugs. Despite that, I was still captivated by the work yesterday."  Avery sighed, not convinced of his own abilities to do this kind of research but determine to make a difference still.

“Well, just weed out the bugs and get the program working.  My team and I will take care of the rest.”  Johns said with a condescending smile.  “If you do that, you will do good here, kid!”

“It’s just….” Avery started. He wanted to prove his knowledge by suggesting a change to the handbook.

“Seriously, don’t worry about it.” John cut Avery off with ease.

Avery felt a little put out by this overconfident man. He had been hired to be equal to all the other scientists, and yet John was acting like he was somebody hired to do data entry. He knew he could make the program run better and make the handbook better; he just needed John to listen to him.

“I’m just thinking that if we…” Avery tried again.

“If you have any suggestions, just write them down and slip them under my door,” John said as he started walking away without looking over his shoulder.

The rest of the day went on without a hitch.  A few people came by and tried to introduce themselves to him, but he kept the small talk to a minimum and just wanted to look over the program. Avery took a lot of notes that day.  At the end of the day, he decided to retake the notebook home and leave the laptop at the office. He left the office at 4:30 p.m. to catch the bus at 5 p.m. If he missed the bus past 6 p.m., there wouldn't be another bus till morning. He was hungrier than normal because he skipped lunch all day to work on debugging the program.  He stopped by a McDonald's and ordered a Big Mac.

As he stood in line, he couldn't help but notice the Happy Meals on the counter, offering small Lego kits to children. It was a cruel marketing strategy to exploit parents and make them buy more Lego sets for their already spoiled kids. He knew this well, but it only reminded him of his own childhood, one filled with deprivation and lack of affection. He watched as the children played with their toys, ignoring the food in front of them - something he would have cherished as a child. But no, he was never allowed such frivolous things growing up; his foster parents made sure to remind him how unworthy he was of such luxuries. The memory brought back painful emotions that festered deep within him. 

[Pierry Louys]

Good beginning! Like the way you described Avery 

[Kaleros]

This story is off to a good start. Other than a few minor errors this story is looking good. 

[Eagle0769]

Good start doesn't look like this is your first story.

Good job. 🙂

[FingerToes]

Chapter 2 - New Friend

Avery collected his McDonald's order when they called out his name and hurriedly left the restaurant. He did not want to linger and bring up old memories. He was trying to push the memories of his past aside and act like it never happened.

Once Avery arrived home, he had already finished eating. tonight, Avery's routine was set; as soon as he entered his apartment, he changed out of his pull-up and work clothes into pajamas and hopped in the shower. Afterward, he grabbed a glass to drink and propped up a pillow behind him in his bed to settle down and read through a large notebook filled with research reports.

Avery already knew that cancers were caused by errors in cell division. The instability of the cell is caused by changes in DNA, which occur in the DNA genes.  So, the drug DNA Pharmacia is trying to produce will try to stabilize the cancer cells so they won’t split by addressing the broken gene.  Since everyone’s genes are different, the drug would have to be different for each person.

Apart from the minor bugs that Avery was hired to resolve, Avery quickly realized that there were more serious errors in the program. While it attempted to work out the energy level of a stable cell compared to an unstable one, it failed to get further and stopped with an error message. This was not just an issue with coding but a fundamental flaw.

It was 1 a.m. by the time he figured out what had happened and knew he should speak to John in the morning. He took his sleeping pills but wanted to be sure not to repeat the same mistake, so he placed his phone on the dresser across from where he slept, making it necessary for him to get up if he wanted to turn it off.

Avery groaned as the alarm clock blared, bright light from outside streaming through the blinds as the sun was rising and illuminating the room in a pale yellow. He stumbled out of bed to acknowledge the alarm clock on his iPhone. With a large yawn, Avery pulled off his boxers, then grabbed a fresh pull-up and slid it on. Then he grabbed his tan dockers and red-gold shirt off the floor. He could feel the sleep still tugging at his eyes, and rubbed them with the heels of his hands before attempting to tame his wild hair. In one swift motion, he quickly made a bagel and cream cheese and grabbed his notebook and notes from the nightstand.

 

He stuffed the notebook and notes into his backpack and slung both of his smartphones, identical models except for the black protective case provided by DNA Pharmacia on the company phone and a dark hunter-green case on his personal device. He meandered half a mile to the bus stop, spinning the notes from last night's cram session while he waited. He wished for some coffee; the effects of the sleeping medication seemed to linger, leaving him drowsy. He pondered how long he could keep going on five hours of sleep

 

When the elevator doors opened, Avery walked to the end of the row of cubicles to where his desk was next to the emergency exit.   At the desk he placed his notebook and notes on the desk before reaching for the company coffee mug. He had to take a deep breath to steady himself before venturing out of his comfort zone into the community lunchroom. It was then that he remembered he had left his lunch at home. Cursing himself quietly, he knew that the company restaurant downstairs could provide him with delicious free food. But, facing one-on-one conversations wasn't something he was used to, so we would forgo lunch. Even getting coffee felt like a risk. Just then, he noticed the sexy young engineer pouring herself a cup of coffee and realized she'd spotted him, too. With a slight blush, Avery turned away to avoid eye contact.

“Ah, you must be the newest recruit!” Christy's smile could light up a room. "I'm Christy."

Avery fumbled for the coffee pot, fingers trembling as he filled it. "U-uh, I...I'm Avery," he stammered.

"It's lovely to meet you, Avery." She offered her hand in greeting.

Finally looking up, Avery was taken aback by Christy's slender, toned physique and athletic legs that strode with grace. Her bright green eyes sparkled with knowledge and curiosity, and her short bobbed hair framed her gentle face perfectly. Avery blushed and took her hand shyly, mumbling his thanks before quickly averting his gaze.

 

From Christy's point of view, his smile was bashful and quiet. She was wearing a blouse and skirt that fitted her figure perfectly and gave off an impeccable vibe. The blouse was made of silky material in a deep emerald green; it went well with her complexion and made her eyes pop. It had a high neckline with a dainty frill outlining her face, drawing attention to her graceful neck. The fabric hugged her curves in all the right places yet still gave her some room to move around without being too tight on her stomach area. The slim sleeves ended with small buttons at the cuff for added sophistication. She tucked it into a sleek, high-waist straight skirt, completing the professional look she was going for.

 

“Uh, if you - uh... need anything? I'm just - uh, a few desks down? Y'know and I can help...umm...maybe show you around?" Christy said.

Avery gawped nervously before stammering out a half-hearted “M-maybe.” He fumbled as he scurried off to his desk; social situations weren't his thing, particularly when he found the other person attractive.

Christy blinked in surprise at Avery's behavior. Typical engineer, she thought with an amused snigger. “Yup... That explains the stigma, alright.” With a smirk, she turned back to her work.

Back at his desk, Avery knew that he had to make tremendous progress in debugging the program if John was even going to give him the time of day. He set out on the mundane task with determination and devoted the entire morning to solving these basic issues, hoping to an audience with John to show him the flaws he discovered last night.

Just as lunch came around, John strutted briskly by. “Excuse me, Sir!” Avery said authoritatively, trying to capture his attention.

John stopped and directed an intense gaze at him, his piercing eyes glinting beneath his dark navy blue suit tailored to perfection for his broad shoulders and tall stature. The suit jacket had a single button and a notch lapel, paired with a crisp white dress shirt and a coordinating silk tie with a subtle pattern.

“Avery, how are you doing with the program?” he asked expectantly.

“It...it's coming along; I've found some things that don't crash the user interface and a better way to input data, but....” Avery started before John cut him off curtly.

“Good job. I have an important business lunch. I want more details on this in our project meeting." Without offering another chance for Avery to talk, John spun around sharply and marched towards the elevators.

"But..." Avery felt powerless as he watched John leave yet again without taking any of his suggestions into consideration.

As Christy unpacked her lunch, Avery watched from across the room with a look of disappointment on his face. He rolled his shoulders and started to say something but couldn't find the right words.

"He's just like that with everyone," Christy said with a sympathetic shrug. But it was clear that Avery wasn't listening; he was too despondent. Turning back to his computer screen, full of lines of code he'd been working on for hours, it all felt pointless. Why bother putting in so much effort if John was just going to ignore him?

Just as Avery was questioning his decision to take the job, he felt a sudden pressure in his bladder. He stood up from his desk and moved as quickly as possible towards the restroom, hoping no one was watching his rushed steps.

He always went to a stall when using the bathroom so he wouldn't have to worry about anyone finding out he wore adult pull-ups. As soon as he entered the stall, he fumbled to remove his belt before lowering his pants and the pull-up underneath. His timing couldn't have been better--as soon as he sat down, his bladder released.

It had been a few years since Avery had experienced a genuine accident, but there had been plenty of occasions where he had come uncomfortably close. His last accident had been back at college. He had left his last lecture, and instead of going to the bathroom before leaving campus as he normally did, he went straight to the bus to head home.

Avery had realized he was in trouble about three stops away from his dorm room. By the time they were one stop away, he was crossing his legs and clamping down hard. He hadn’t come to terms with his bladder weakness at that point and wasn’t wearing any protection.

“Are you OK, dear?” An old woman next to Avery had asked.

Avery had nodded his head and tried to give her a reassuring smile, but even as he did so, he felt a little urine escape and soak into his underpants. Fortunately, his stop was approaching fast, and he hurried to the doors; every few seconds, he found a little more urine leaking into his pants and knew it had started running down his legs.

As soon as the doors opened, he jumped off, and as the bus pulled away, he shuddered as what little control he still had gave way. After a brief moment, he felt the heat from his urine blossom all over the front of his underwear. Almost immediately, the warm liquid started running down his legs. Some of it dripped onto the floor and the rest onto his shoes and socks.

After that, Avery had to waddle home awkwardly. Fortunately, it was dark, and there weren’t many people around. He was able to get to his dorm room without too much trouble. It was the next day that he had bought his first packet of protection.

Avery was broken out of his reverie when he heard the bathroom door open again. He started thinking less about his past and more about his present. More specifically, he started to think about the department meeting the next day. He remembered what John had said previously, that if he had any suggestions, he should “slip them under the door” of his office. 

Coming out of the restroom, Avery made sure not to look at Christy, whose beauty intimidated him, and sat down at his desk.  He decided to write a letter to John to describe what he was learning in all the research notes and articles and seeing in the code.  He was hoping he would listen.  Maybe then he would come to talk to him one-on-one.

He grabbed a piece of paper and laid it down on his desk.  He took his pen and twirled it in his hands while he tried to think how to start this letter…

“Dear John,

I have conducted an in-depth analysis of the program and notebook pertaining to current theoretical calculations. Based on my review, I have identified two potential issues; the first is the discrepancy between the stable and unstable cells in computational miscalculation, and the second is the lack of consideration for external forces impacting both cells. If it is possible, I would be pleased to discuss more details with you in my office.

Sincerely, 

Avery”

Avery folded the paper in half and wrote on top. “Please read.”  He walked over to John’s office, which was empty because he was still out for his business lunch.   He leaned down and slid the paper under the door.  When he did this, he realized his golf shirt had slid up and temporarily exposed the white pull-up he was wearing. 

He stood up quickly and pushed the back of his shirt down. He was feeling embarrassed and unsure if anyone saw him.  He walked back to his desk while never looking up.  His anxiety was through the roof.  He felt like he was about to have a panic attack.  Avery quickly got into his backpack, grabbed one of his Valiums, and swallowed it down with some water.  “Come on, don’t freak out.  You can do this,” he kept trying to tell himself over and over.  Finally, the Valium started working, and he felt a little calmer.  He was able to focus back on the program.  About two hours went by, and John finally came back to the office.  Avery watched the corner of his eye as John bent down and picked up the letter.

Avery had been struggling all day to focus on improving the subroutine, even with the help of Valium. He was still having trouble calming down and focusing. He was eagerly waiting for John to come over and discuss his idea and potential solution to the calculations, but to his disappointment, John didn't show up when the clock turned past 5 p.m. It was officially after hours. Avery was determined to talk to John, so he decided to stay late, hoping that John would come and talk to him. He began to get nervous, knowing he had to leave by 6 p.m. or he would miss the last bus to get home.  Shortly after 5:30 p.m., John finally came back to the office.  Avery watched from the corner of his eye as John bent down, picked up the letter, and walked into his office.  A few minutes later,  Avery watched as John stepped out of his office with his work bag, locked the office door, and walked towards him to get to the elevator. 

As he approached, Avery tried to get his attention... “Ah, John, do you have a minute?  I would like to talk about my notes. I think it would be of benefit to you and the program.”   

John looked down at Avery sitting in his office chair. “I don’t really have time.  We can discuss this in the project team meeting tomorrow.  That is actually the proper forum for you to explain your idea to the team.”  

John’s voice was very dry and monatomic as if he didn’t really care one way or another if Avery presented his idea.  Avery tried to say something, but John was too quick to turn and leave for the elevator as it opened, and he saw someone stepping in. That short talk with John made him pee just a little into the pullup.  He was so shocked that he lost control for even a second as he felt the slight warm dampness in his pull-up. It must be from the extra valium. Avery looked defeated. 

Christy took notice as she was shutting down her computer and grabbed her purse. She walked over to Avery’s desk. “Don’t take that personally.  He does that to everyone.  I used to think he didn’t like women!''  

 “He does play favorites, though, and there are two engineers that have been with him for a while.  Everyone else sort of takes a back seat.” Christy continued as she leaned in closer to Avery, “Your best chance of getting him to listen is to explain your idea in the meeting, but you will be challenged.  He just likes to push people.” 

Avery sighed. He couldn’t help but feel the dream job may not have been what he thought it was. He had expected his ideas to be listened to and respected, but John seemed to have no interest in them. He looked up at Christy, who was still giving him a sympathetic smile.  Avery also felt awkward in a wet pull-up in front of Christy, wondering if she could tell something was a miss.

“If John is so bad, how come you still work here?” Avery asked, “I mean, with your skills, you could probably walk into a job anywhere else.”

“That’s kind of you to say.” Christy sighed as she seemed to think about Avery’s question, “The truth is… I do actually like it here. Like I said, it takes some time to get used to John, but once you get his respect, you’re all set.”

“Getting his respect appears to be easier said than done…” Avery said ruefully, “This job isn’t what I thought it would be. Do you feel like that? Do you ever wonder if this is really the right place to work?”

Christy smiled sweetly and replied, "I enjoy the work and the people I work with. Yes, John can be difficult, but I've learned to navigate his style. But you get used to it, and there are some perks to the job, and the company has good benefits and opportunities for growth. Plus, the work we do is important, and I feel like I'm making a difference." 

Christy thought for another second and then continued. "Aside from John, the people I work with are good, and Byran, our boss, is great. Yes, John can be difficult, but I look at my long-term goals. “

Christy walked with Avery to the elevator.  She was going to get off the 2nd floor for the parking garage, and Avery pressed the first floor to get off for the bus stop. 

As the elevator was going down, Christy spoke up again.  “I have been here for two years.  When you take a job here, you have a two to three-year commitment on the job you take before you can take another job. I will be honest. In that time, I scoped out the other departments and found some that I think I would enjoy with great people.  So, I hope to transfer out soon when the right job opens up.  I believe Bryan will give me his support, and my performance reviews with him have been good.”

“I guess what I am saying is that this isn’t forever.  Hang in here for a couple of years, do well, and you can go to another department. I figure any place you work will have some asshole you have to learn to work with.”  Christy looked at Avery.

Avery was staring into the distance, thinking about what Christy was saying and wondering if he had the patience to stick it out for years without getting the respect he felt he deserved. Unlike Christy, he didn’t have too many other options. He was new on the scene and didn’t have the CV or connections she did. For him to get another job would be tough.

The rest of the ride was quiet, but just as the second floor opened to the parking garage, Christy started to walk out. Avery spoke up. 

“Wait, I just wanted to say thank you.  I really do appreciate it. I don’t mean to come off so unappreciative.” Avery smiled bashfully

Christy looked back at him as she exited the elevator. “No problem, any time.”

Avery nodded, feeling a little better as the elevator closed.. He knew that he had to prepare for the meeting and come up with a solid argument to convince John to listen to his proposal. With Christy's words in mind, Avery started to imagine how the meeting would go and how he could sway John to his side. He knew it wouldn't be easy, but he was ready for the challenge he was going to go home and prepare.

As he exited the elevator, he felt the slight wetness of his pull-up.  He cursed himself for losing control again as he walked to the bus stop and stood next to the bench. He had just finished a long day at work and was exhausted. He was also wearing a wet pull-up, and he was starting to feel self-conscious standing around others.  He wanted to get home, strip out of this pull-up, and take a shower.

A few minutes later, the bus pulled up to the stop. When he got on the bus, he noticed it was quite full. He passed by several people as he made his way towards some empty seats near the back of the bus. Avery took a seat near the back, which was almost empty except for a woman in her 40s with a small dog on a leash.

Avery sat down and took a deep breath. He felt the wet pull-up between his legs squelching as he did so. For a horrifying moment, he thought there was a trail of urine running down his leg, but he was mistaken.  He hated crowded buses even when he was dry.  He felt as if everyone knew he had a wet pull-up on.

Avery glanced down at the dog, a small brown and white terrier mix. The dog wagged its tail and licked Avery's hand.  He smiled. He had always been fond of dogs, especially small ones.

"What's your dog's name?" Avery asked.

"Her name is Lucy. Mine is Sarah," Sarah said. "She's a rescue dog. We found her abandoned on the side of the road a few months ago."

"She's so cute," Avery said.

"She is," Sarah said. "She's a great dog. She's very loving and playful."

“I have always wanted a dog but never been allowed one, or any pet for that matter.  My apartment forbids any animals.  Maybe someday, I will get lucky and find a friendly and loving dog like yours.”  Avery sighed a little, thinking about how he asked for one several times growing up.  Regardless of which foster family he was with, the answer was always no.

Avery continued to pet Lucy. Enjoying the attention the dog was giving him. He started to relax a little bit. Sarah talked for a while about her job, her family, and her hobbies. Avery found out that Sarah was a nurse and that she had two children. She did most of the talking, but he did tell her about his job as a biochemical engineer and just hired into a new job.

As they talked, Avery started to feel more comfortable. He realized that Sarah was a nice person, and he was glad that he had started a conversation with her.  It was easier for him to talk to someone he didn’t know and felt he wouldn’t meet again.  There was no fear about what people would think of him if they never met again.

A few minutes later, the bus pulled up to Avery's stop. 

“This is my stop, and thank you for letting me pet your dog.  I enjoyed that.”  He smiled at Sarah.

As he got off the bus and waved goodbye to Sarah and Lucy, and Sarah waved goodbye back.

As he walked home, Avery felt a sense of relief. He had been feeling self-conscious about his wet pull-up, but petting the dog had helped him to relax. He realized that he didn't have to be as worried about his incontinence accident because the pull-up did its job.

[Eagle0769]

Very good chapter. I hope his group meeting goes well

and he gets a chance to show everyone he is part of the

team. 🙂

[FingerToes]

For those who have given me feedback Thank You!  Anyone is welcome to point out things that seem to be inconsistent as they story gets farther along.   I am always open to positive and negative feedback. 

[Pierry Louys]

Love the way you are building the relationship between Avery and his colleagues! Hope to see more interactions maybe he can find someone to help him to be more healthy and happy 

[FingerToes]

Some will find this chapter a little much.  I apologize, but I think it is still necessary for the next chapter, which I hope you will like.  Please keep the comments and feedback coming.

Chapter 3 - Preparation

Avery arrived home, feeling relieved to be back in his haven. He quickly made his way inside, pulled his clothes off, and quickly tossed his wet pull-up in the trash. He could see that it was very wet. The normally white padding of the pull-up had swollen and yellowed but did its job admirably. Egared to get to work, he took a quick hot shower and then put on fresh boxers and some comfortable clothes. Avery was thankful; he didn’t need pull-ups when he was home alone and glad to be out of them.

Avery's stomach grumbled, and he knew that he needed to eat something. He opted for a quick meal of mac and cheese with peas and tuna fish, which was easy to make and perfect for such situations. He didn't want to waste time cooking an elaborate meal, for he had work to do. He wanted to spend every possible moment figuring out solutions to the problems he was working on.

As his food cooked in the microwave, Avery set up a small battery-powered camera that his company had given him. He turned it on and mounted it on the kitchen counter directly above the trash can. The company's IT security protocol required employees to record the location of their computers at all times when used outside of the office. These tiny cameras were almost invisible, and no one ever noticed them unless they were specifically searching for them. However, in case of theft, the IT department at DNA Pharmacia took intellectual property protection seriously, and these cameras would prove invaluable in locating stolen electronics.

With his camera set up, Avery sat down with his notes and reviewed the code's calculations while enjoying his dinner. He felt content, knowing that he was doing his best to protect his company's intellectual property while also working hard to solve challenging problems. Whoever ran DNA Pharmacia's IT department was very serious about their intellectual property protection.

After dinner, Avery made himself a pot of coffee as he was exhausted and tired from staying up so late the last few days. He wanted to prove where the calculations were wrong tomorrow and go over methodically why they were wrong and how to fix it. 

While eating, he referenced his college math books.  This was graduate-level math he was working with luckily for him, he had taken graduate-level math already in his undergraduate studies.

“What I want to do is break the problem down the best I can into manageable steps”  He thought to himself

“What I need to do is to apply the calculations of the external pressure on the membrane cell that was lacking in the calculations.”  He wrote down some notes while eating his dinner.

His feet were tapping the floor as he clicked his pen on and off and he thought about the problem. He needed to find the pressure distribution in the boundary layer of a fluid flowing past the membrane cell.  In his mind, the boundary layer is this thin layer of fluid that adheres to the surface of the membrane cell. The pressure in the boundary layer is affected by the viscosity of the fluid, the velocity of the fluid, and the shape of the membrane cell. 

He wrote it down on his paper.  Pressure is a function of viscosity, velocity, and shape.

This wasn’t easy.  He understood the concept and the fundamentals of this problem.  But solving it mathematically was a whole other problem.

Avery rattled his fingers on the table and dropped the pen.  The silence was getting to him and making him more anxious.  He got up to turn on some music. The radio was set to a pop music station, and whilst he didn’t much care for the music, at least it was some background noise.  He sat back down at the table.  “Ah, better”.  He went through his math books again.  Stared at the screen where the calculations were taking place in the program.  After about an hour, it occurred to him. 

He was going to need to try to solve the problem by using the separation of variables and by applying the boundary conditions of the problem at the same time. To do this, he needed to specify the pressure at the edge of the boundary layer and the velocity of the fluid at the surface of the membrane cell. 

In theory, if it were done correctly, Avery would be able to calculate the pressure distribution in the boundary layer. This information can be used to design and optimize the thickness of the membrane needed for both a normal cell and a cancerous cell.

“I got this,” he said out loud as he stood up to go get another cup of coffee.  

As Avery stood up, he felt a sudden pressure coming from his bladder, and he had to clamp down on his muscles quickly. Despite his quick action, he could still feel a little urine drip into his underwear.

Avery nearly knocked over his table as he dashed through to the bathroom. He fumbled with his pants, and for a heart-stopping moment, he didn’t think he was going to make it. Just as the pressure became too much, he was able to lower his pants. As he directed his stream into the bowl, he leaned back and sighed with relief.

  “That was a close one,”  he thought to himself.  “I must be really wrapped up in my head to not feel the need to pee.”  He grabbed his iPhone and decided to set an alarm every hour to remind him to pee. He didn’t want to break his 6-year record of not wetting himself or in his bed.

After grabbing his cup of coffee and sitting back down, he brought some paper out and started to write down the difficult partial differential equations while listening to the music. 

He told himself.  “The problem involved eigenvalues, which are special values that can be used to solve the equation.” 

Avery had never worked with eigenvalues before, but he was determined to solve the problem.  He read up as fast as he could on them in his partial differential equation book; it took him about four hours into the night.  It was 11 p.m. with four bathroom breaks and two more cups of coffee; he figured he understood how to work with the eigenvalues.

Avery was only able to self-teach himself because math was really his primary language.  Growing up without many toys, he would entrain himself to learn math outside of school.  In high school, a teacher who had a Doctorate in Math decided to teach higher math than what the school taught him. He absorbed it very quickly.  For him, Math was a game or a puzzle, just like his favorite toy, a bucket of legos with no instructions to them.

The other issue with the eigenvalues was how to program them correctly, but he would worry about that part later.

Avery wrote down the pressure boundary layer equation as a partial differential equation, which describes how the pressure of a fluid changes as it flows past a solid surface, in this case, the cell membrane. The equation is given by:

\frac{\partial p}{\partial x} = \frac{\mu}{2} \frac{\partial^2 p}{\partial y^2} 

where p is the pressure, μ is the viscosity of the fluid, and y is the distance from the solid surface.

It was 1 a.m. when he found what he thought was the correct equation. “Now I need to solve this equation,” he thought to himself.  “I don’t have much time,” as he looked at the clock and yawned.  “I need more coffee,” he told himself as he went on his hourly bathroom break. 

Avery knew that he could solve the pressure boundary layer equation using a technique called separation of variables. 

“I need to use separation of variables, which requires me to rewrite the equation in terms of two independent variables, x and y, as a function of pressure.” 

Avery could write the equation as in a very simple formula “p(x, y) = X(x) Y(y).”

Substituting this into the pressure boundary layer equation, Avery got a new drawn-out equation.

Avery now needed to find a solution for Y of y. He did this by substituting the solution for X  of x into the pressure boundary layer equation. This gave him a new and final equation after taking the derivatives and simplifying the equation, which took about two pages.

He looked down at his general solution to the pressure boundary layer equation.

“There it is, I got it!” Avery exclaimed as he circled the final answer to the equation. 

 

Avery told himself, “This solution can be used to solve a wide variety of environments where a membrane cell could exist.  This is incredible.  They will be so thankful for this!”

It was 4 a.m., and Avery still needed to figure out the values of constants A, B, C, D, and E using the boundary conditions. Once he solved that, he'd be able to calculate pressure anywhere in or outside the membrane cell.

Avery was exhausted but proud of his solution. He had applied partial differential equations to a real-world problem and felt sure the team tomorrow would give their approval so they could update their program to find a cure for cancer.

Despite his weariness, Avery's mind wouldn't turn off, mulling over everything he had worked on that night. It took him two hours before he awoke to the sound of both his alarm clock and iPhone. All he wanted was another few hours of sleep after all the work he put in the previous evening. After a quick shower to wake himself up, Avery grabbed his pill box and took his morning medication with some water.

[zzzz50]

I totally followed all the math, I was surprised Avery did not think to adjust the modulation of the flux capacitor, I am sure that would solve all the problems.

[CCApril]

I hope John is not a credit thief. Avery is working hard and deserves recognition for his hard work (Before things go to hell that is 😀) . Good start!

April

[FingerToes]

Avery gets to present his work and hopefully impress everyone, especially Christy, after her words of encouragement. 

Chapter 4 - The Presentation

Avery arrived at the office early, nervous and exhausted but determined. It was 8:00 a.m., but he had been there since 7:00 a.m. He wanted to make a good impression on his first day. Setting up his computer and backpack, Avery began the workday with a sense of contentment in the office's morning calmness that made him contemplate if working alone wouldn't be best for him.

He went to grab another cup of coffee as his eyes felt heavy, but since no one was around, he had to make the coffee for the first time.  He wasn’t sure how many scoops to put in the machine.  He guessed three scoops looked about right for the size of the coffee pot.  

While the coffee brewed.  He went to the bathroom.  He had been going to the bathroom much more frequently due to all the coffee and water he was drinking. He decided to do the same thing as before and set the alarm for him to use the restroom every hour, just in case. He just had to hope no one noticed his odd behavior.

The project meeting was scheduled for 10 a.m. Avery had two hours remaining to finish preparing his notes, which he printed out in a Word document to distribute among his project teammates.

Next, John marched into the room with an air of arrogance, striding confidently past Avery without so much a glance. His voice bellowed in rage through his phone as he shouted fervently about some work-related crisis. Avery could feel the fury and intensity radiating off of John in waves, leaving him feeling insignificant and small.

Christy then emerged wearing a light pink blouse and a matching skirt that fell to her knees, accentuating her small frame. Her eyes were gentle and warm, her lips curved in a comforting smile, and she gracefully approached his desk. Christy leaned over on his desk. “I'm so excited to see the outcome. I have faith in you; I know you will do brilliantly.” She smiled at him compassionately, offering him some comfort and support.

“I was up late last night putting in some work. I think I made some real progress. Can’t wait to show everyone,” Avery said with a wide grin.

Christy leaned over his desk to take a look at the document he was working on. She got a little too close for comfort, and Avery began to squirm slightly. “Wow, you managed to knock out all of this in one night? That's really impressive!”

Avery could smell the perfume from Christy as she continued to lean over the desk. The scent of Christy's perfume was a refreshing mixture of the lily of the valley, the sweetness of freesia, and the warm, earthy notes of jasmine. It was an exquisite blend. “I was just going to present the problem with the calculations, but I sort of got on a roll and fixed the calculations and solved the formulas, which I hope we can plug into the program.”   His voice choked a little as he could smell her perfume. She smelled as beautiful as she looked.

Avery observed Christy examine the list of equations he had presented her. She stared at it for a moment, and Avery felt almost like a student eagerly awaiting their professor's assessment. Christy blinked twice, which told Avery she was having trouble comprehending everything that quickly, not because she wasn't smart enough but rather because it was too early in the morning.

“Well, I am sure John will appreciate it a but he will ask you a few questions so he can sound smart.”  She chuckled as she stood back up and walked to her desk

As Avery watched her leave, he couldn't help but be captivated by Christy's scent. It was almost too much for him to handle, making it hard for him to concentrate on his paper. Still, he managed to finish it just before 10 a.m. He quickly printed out copies and distributed them to those in attendance. Just as he settled back into his seat, his alarm went off again—a reminder to use the restroom. He swallowed down another Valium and chugged the last of his third cup of coffee before standing up to present his paper with shaky hands.

He got up and grabbed his folder with his notes and the documents he had printed out.  He was walking by the conference room.  John and everyone were already there.  He was going to put his papers down on the table and then go to the bathroom real quick.  But as he turned around to leave, John stopped him.  

“Where are you going, Avery? Are we starting without you? My philosophy on meetings is that they start on time—and if you're not early, you're late." John punctuated each word with conviction as he leaned back in his chair.

Avery really had to pee but sat down at the end on the tables for fear of being laughed at again or upsetting John. Feeling anxious about needing the bathroom only seemed to amplify the pressure in his bladder; his foot rapidly tapped the floor nervously.

The meeting began as a storm of tension and urgency. John hastily summarized the current progress issues in play and emphasized the critical importance of this project for the company. He slammed his fist down on the table to bring attention to the slide show that illuminated behind him: “Team, it is the first week of June - and time is running out!” A bug in the software has been identified that causes the calculations to either error or go into an infinite loop. He ordered Zak Carter and Ethan Astrum to rapidly discover the chemical makeup needed based on blood type, DNA, cancer type, and its stage of progression.

Zak and Ethan have been working with John for many years, since before they both reached middle age. They both deeply understood the project and respected John, and he favored them in return. Their hair is starting to grey, and they have a confident air about them, knowing they have John's backing.

Avery nervously eyed the agenda as John continued with a detailed explanation of future schedule and budget expectations. Relieved he was next in line to present his findings, Avery momentarily forgot about needing to excuse himself for the restroom until John spoke about the programming issue. Proudly remembering how he had uncovered the program problem, Avery felt empowered to speak up confidently – it wasn’t actually in programming code but rather within their strategy for calculation.

“We have six million dollars at our disposal,” bellowed John - money allocated for salaries, third-party experts, analytical work, technical software, and hardware needed - sufficient funds if applied correctly - yet insufficient time to make it all happen.

John's voice was like thunder, reverberating off the walls as he spoke. “The pilot plant will launch in mid-next year, and we have to make this work if we want to create drugs for human trials. We are talking about a massive study that involves 200,000 participants worldwide. This is a lot of custom drugs and lives on the line; the pressure is immense!”

John pointed at each member of the team one by one. “We only have 6 million dollars to work with, and $1.3 Million has already been allocated for personnel for the whole year. If someone decides to leave, everything changes.” He eyed Christy intensely, her skin crawling with fear as his gaze lingered on her.

Avery felt bad for Christy. He wasn't sure why John eyed her, but Avery's heart sank as he watched helplessly, wishing desperately that he could do something to shield Christy from John's intimidating words.

John continued to outline the details of their budget as Avery paid little attention and worked his notes over in his head again.  Johns's voice was deep and direct as he spoke. “Another $565,000 for the third part consultation was spent to date.“ John continued,  “So, does anyone else know of any more consultations we may need?”

“Analytical to date has been $1,500 million.  I know we need more support, at least through the summer.  Does anyone have a feel for what that number is?” There was silence as John moved on.

“We have spent 240,000 and 270,000 on software and hardware, respectively.”

“Now that we are done with the review. The first up to discuss their progress is Avery.”

“Avery, would you like to tell us what you have found or progressed on?”

Avery took a deep breath and stood up. He walked over to the whiteboard and grabbed a blue dry eraser. Every eye in the room was drilling into his skull as he slowly stepped towards it, clutching onto the blue dry eraser like a lifeline. Even with the Valium, his heart was racing. Avery started to speak “'there are two types of stable equilibria in a two-dimensional space: knot and focus.”

Before he could continue, Zak quickly spoke up. “What does this have to do with solving the program problems?”

John shifted in his chair as he made a tentative gesture with his hand towards the table, “We can....take a look at this...it could be interesting.”

Avery couldn’t quite tell if John was mocking him or not, and his heart skipped a beat in worry. He tried to stay composed as he drew in a deep breath and felt Christy's reassuring gaze upon him, urging him to maintain his composure and remain steadfast.

“What I'm trying to say here is that when I examined the program calculations, I noticed both methods were being used – for normal cells, the knot method was utilized while for cancerous cells the focused method was employed. However, when the program attempted to analyze the two results and identify the differences between them, it crashes or goes into a never-ending loop depending on its starting point.”

Avery heard Zak murmur something under his breath to Ethane, which sounded suspiciously sarcastic. “He actually thinks he knows more than Ethane and me after we've been working on this for two whole years.”

Ethane fired back. “Yeah, he doesn’t know what he's talking about…”

Christy seethed with anger at their insolence. It seemed that she had heard similar words early on in her career. “Enough! Just listen to him for once. He put some effort into this.”

John shot both Ethane and Zak a threatening look of warning.

“Ok, let's review the difference between the two methods for stable equilibrium. A knot is an equilibrium point where the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix have no imaginary part. This means that the system will always return to the equilibrium point after a small disturbance. A focus is an equilibrium point where the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix have an imaginary part. This means that the system will move away from the equilibrium point in a spiral motion.” Avery explained tensely.

Avery busily scribbled notes and diagrams onto the board, trying his best to illustrate his lesson.

“No way, he's not teaching us anything new! Keep going if you think this is going somewhere though...” Zak said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Avery felt like he was about to burst from anxiety and fear; his bladder felt tight and uncomfortable, and a subtle trickle of urine trickled down his inner thigh before he could stop it. Struggling to contain himself, he turned away from Zak, Ethane, and Christy, facing the board instead as he continued to draw.

“There are also three types of unstable equilibria in a two-dimensional space: knot, focus, and saddle, which is valid in the case of a cancerous cell since it is always changing. A knot is an equilibrium point where the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix have a positive real part. This means that the system will move away from the equilibrium point in a linear motion. A focus is an equilibrium point where the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix have a negative real part and a nonzero imaginary part. This means that the system will move away from the equilibrium point in a spiral motion. A saddle is an equilibrium point where the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix have different real parts. This means that the system will move away from the equilibrium point in two different directions.”

“From this, you can select two methods to come to a solution the results will diverge and be different.  You must choose either the focus method or saddle method for calculating the cancer cell and the noncancer cell to ensure that the difference between the calculations doesn’t occur.”

Christy was quite impressed with his calculations and logic.  “So why don’t we select the focus method because we used it once for the cancerous cell?”

“Actually, Christy. That is the method I would recommend for the same reason.  There is less program editing, and the cancerous cell is already harder to program.”   Avery turned to smile at Christy. 

“Christy, don’t say anything till Avery is done before we make any judgment calls,”  John lashed out to Christy.

Avery could hear snickering as he tried hard to hold his bladder and closed his eyes once again.  John, Ethan, and Zak were all talking, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying. Avery noticed John did not lash out at those two. 

Avery needed to get through this as quickly as possible. He felt another few drops of moisture drip out of him. He wondered if that was from the first leakage or if it was happening again. He tried to tense up again to hold on. He just needed a few more minutes…

“Now, let's talk about the setup of the initial equation. The initial equation looks at the wall strength of the cell and the internal pressure created in the cell due to density as a function of the pressure and temperature in the cell. However, it does not consider the external pressure exerted on the cell by the fluid surrounding it.”

Avery was starting to fidget back and forth like a little kid who needed to go to the bathroom as he held his bladder.  “I should have never had all that coffee,” he told himself before continuing. “This means that the initial equation is only a simplified system model. To get a more accurate model, we need to take into account the external pressure. We can do this by adding a term to the equation that represents the external pressure.”

Avery stood back from the board and looked at all his formulas, and then began to finish it up.

“Once we add this term to the equation, we can then use the methods that I have described to analyze the stability of the equilibria. This will allow us to determine whether the cell is stable or unstable under different conditions.”

He turned around, confident he proved himself right, but the faces on all three except Christy didn’t look too impressed. He hadn’t exactly expected rapturous applause, but he didn’t think he’d get completely stonewalled. A simple pat on the back would’ve done.

Johns's voice was cold and serious as he spoke. “Ok, Avery, do you really think that this is all correct, and after only two weeks, you were able to come up with all this?” John looks offended; someone would have the nerve to tell him how to do these calculations. “Second, even if this is right, you must’ve had help.  Which department did you get help from?”

“I... I didn’t.” Avery got cut off by Zak when he stood up quickly. 

“You think this is going to work? It's just a load of crap math!” Zak jumped up, rage radiating from him. “Ethan and I have worked for years as and so much harder than you on this project!” He shoved Avery out of the way and proceeded to wipe the board clear, snarling in contempt.

“Don’t! It is right!” Avery started to tear up, and not realizing he let go of his bladder as pee quickly filled up his pull-up and started to leak out and down his legs, as a wet stop showed up on his crotch and left leg.

Avery froze in place as he felt the pull-up fail. The padding swelled up, and the warm urine spilled over the sides. Unlike the warmth of his disposable underwear, the liquid on his legs rapidly cooled as the pee ran down his legs. He gasped and wondered if there was any way to keep this quiet. When he looked down and saw the wet streaks on his pants, he knew it was impossible.

Ethan's eyes widened with disbelief as he spotted Avery, and he yelled out in shock. “What the hell!? Is he PEEING?!”

John staggered back a few steps, mouth agape, and exclaimed incredulously. “I think Pissy Britches is so mad we don't like his fake solution that he's actually -"

Zak reacted quickly, spinning around to face the specter before him, his voice quivering as he blurted out in disgust. “Gross! He's peeing on the floor!" With fear racing through his veins, Zak quickly retreated away from this disgraceful sight.

Avery felt mortified as he couldn’t move. He wanted to run away, curl up, and die, or at least to evaporate and become invisible. With a quick scan around the room, he realized that Christy was nowhere in sight. Had she seen his embarrassing accident? He prayed she had already left the room, and he simply hadn’t noticed, but he know she ran from watching the disgusting scene.

The excruciating taunts seemed to stretch on for an eternity, though in reality it was only mere moments. Avery felt his body tense up as he tried his best to suppress the raging torrent of tears that threatened to break through. The door suddenly flung open again, and Christy reappeared with Bryan in tow. He strode into the room, scanning each person with a menacing stare. Christy stood meekly in the corner, too embarrassed to make eye contact with Avery. Her cheeks were stained with tears at the sight of Avery's torment.

“What the hell, John? You should know better than this! All of you get out of here! This is disgusting and shameful behavior for all of you!” Bryan roared at John, Zak, & Ethan as he saw what had taken place.

Zak defensively grabbed his belongings to leave. “It wasn't us who pissed in our pants and on the floor and made a mess everywhere.” 

Bryan snapped back in outrage. “Don't even start with me, Zak. Now get out!”

Ethan followed with John, folding his laptop down and then leaving also. There was still some laughter as they left.  Bryan looks John sternly in the face. “You are supposed to set the example and not be part of the problem.”  John said nothing as he walked past Byran, looking really unphased by the comment.  As he passed Christy, who was still behind Byran.  He gave her a dark glare as he knew she went and got Byran.

As they left, Bryan went over to Avery and put a caring hand on his shoulder.  “I will take care of John and the team later, but we need to get you cleaned up first.I know it is embarrassing, but we can’t have you standing here like this.  Can you at least go into my office and hide out there while we figure something out for you, OK?”

Avery couldn't bring himself to look up, feeling both Bryans and Christy's stares. "Christy, you can go now. I'm grateful for your quick thinking.   I will make sure there is no retaliation against you.” Bryan said.  

Avery watched Christy leave the room. He wondered what she was thinking. Any respect or friendliness she had for him must’ve evaporated as Avery stood in his puddle.

"I am going to go get the janitor for the floor, but please go into my office. Don't worry about sitting on the chair," Byran said as he was so infuriated with John, Zak, and Ethan. There was no need for this. They are professionals.

When Byran left, Avery took a deep breath and exited the conference room. Instead of going to Byran's office, he ran to the elevator, which had just opened, and someone walked out, leaving the elevator empty. Avery was done. He made a fool of himself. He was going to go straight home. He wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to come back.

After Byran got the janitor, he returned to his office to talk to Avery. When he entered, he wasn't there. Bryan sighed. "Poor kid." Bryan sat down in his chair and dialed a phone call.  

The phone picked up.  

"Hello, Byran. What is going on with you today?" Julian, the HR director, responded quickly to the phone call because the person calling him would show up on his office phone. 

"Not good news. It is John's behavior again. This time he really screwed up." Byran paused, and Julian could hear the sigh. "Let me just be blunt, he made our new Intern, Avery, piss in his pants, and I am not talking about a dribble but a full blow pissed in his pants all the way down to the floor, and then he and two of his engineers laughed and made fun of him."

"That guy is a pain in our ass," Julian replied. "Let me come up there, and we can talk in your office. Luckily, I don't have any other meetings for the remainder of the day".

"Sounds good. I will see you in a few," Byran hung up.

This wasn't John's first run-in with making employees uncomfortable or threatening them. Unfortunately for Bryan, the company's CEO favored John because of all the patents he had created for the company.

He leaned back in his chair and looked up, thinking how to best handle this. Avery is definitely upset and mortified. Would he even want to come back? Are there any legal ramifications Avery could take against the company? Just as he was thinking this. There was a knock on Bryan's office door. "Come in."    

"Excuse me, Mr. Wells." Christy walked in carrying several papers. "I think you need to look at these. I don't think John even gave Avery a chance".   Christy handed the documents over to Bryan, placing them on his desk and listening to Christy talk while he reviewed them.

Christy felt safe talking to Bryan because she, too, had several run-ins with John at work, where Bryan was able to take care of her. "I know you are aware of the long-standing problem of the program not converging and crashing all the time on the calculation for the drug formula. John has always insisted that the problem is in the program, not the calculations. I think he may be seriously wrong."

Christy then pointed to the second page of all the hand calculations Avery was doing. "See here. We tried to use two different convergence formulas between the cancerous and normal cells.   Each method has a fundamentally different starting point, which results which makes them incompatible with each other. Avery was trying to explain this."

She paused to allow Bryan to take it in. He flipped back and forth between several papers. After a couple of minutes studying the calculations, as Christy stood there silently, letting him digest it all in, Byran's face turned red to looked upset. "How did we miss this for almost nine months?" He looked at Christy as if he wanted her to answer him.  

"I.. I.. don't know, Sir." Christy felt terrible not having a better answer. "I was never allowed to work on that part of the project. John's overly protective of this project. He makes it well known we are not allowed to work outside our bounds. In fact, I had heard John make comments to Avery about not focusing on the calculations."

"I am sorry, Christy. I am not mad at you. I am just frustrated that we have wasted a lot of time looking for a problem in the wrong spot.” John sighed and shook his head. He had always tried to foster a spirit of teamwork, but clearly, it wasn’t working.

Just then, there was another knock on Bryan's door. Julian walked through.  

"Hey Julian, one second," Bryan said. "I appreciate you bringing this to my attention. I will look through the papers more later. I promise there will be no repercussions for bringing this to me or letting me know what happened in the meeting quickly." 

Christy nodded. "Thank you, Sir." She turned around to leave the office. "Oh, one more quick thing, Sir. Look over the second page on external pressure. That is something I am not sure would or would not apply.   Avery never got to explain this." She then walked out as Julian gave her an inquisitive look.

"I can’t help but ask, since I heard Avery's name in your conversation with Christy, what was that all about?" Julian walked over and pulled up a chair on the opposite side of Bryan.

Bryan sighed again as he looked at Julian. They had been working for this company for over fifteen years and had known each other for some time. "You know how we have been writing this program to calculate a custom-made drug for specific cancers and how we have struggled to get it to coverage on some of the most theoretical calculations." Bryan paused to let Julian catch up since the project's technical details weren't common knowledge for him. "John may have been severely wrong in his approach." 

Julian leaned back in the office chair. "So let me see if I can sum this up. John's own arrogance and lack of compromise have prevented his team from finding a solution to this problem, which billions of dollars are dependent on for the company to build this pilot plant. Which he is putting this project at risk. Then an intern arrives and finds a potential solution in less than two weeks."

"Yep, that sums the first part up well." Bryan looks through the papers still. "We need to do a much deeper dive into Avery's calculations to really vet them, but it looks promising." 

"So where is Avery, this brilliant young man, then?" Julian asked as he expected to find Avery in his office.

"I checked his badge just before Christy came in, and he has checked out of the building. I can only assume he went home." Bryan looked up at Julian.

Julian gave a little chuckle. "So the rest of this story is that we have a brilliant young man who left the office building. Who now holds the calculations and understanding of our fundamental problem. If I were that young man, I would not come back because I have been humiliated to death having urinated in front of his team members, and then I am sure others saw him on his way out. Which could lead to some possible legal problems if he doesn't return. Wow, what a H.R. nightmare."

Byran looked at Julian. Nothing could elevate Julian's blood pressure. No matter how bad things or crazy things got, he was always calm and humorous. "The problem is we both know we can't get rid of John no matter how badly we want to. Regardless of what H.R. rules he broke, our CEO will not allow us to terminate John. I can hear him just yelling at us and saying, 'Just deal with it!'"

Julian then spoke with confidence. "Your job is to get Avery back and ensure he is ok."  "I will pull in a favor with Darlene and ask her to house Avery and allow him to continue with the project under your direct supervision." He paused for a second and then continued with his thoughts. "We will still write John up yet again, but this time impose a restraining order within our company that he can not be alone with Avery without one of us present at all times."

"But, do you think that will stop John from harassing him? He won't listen to the so-to-speak restraining order." Bryan looked unsold on Julian's idea.

"I agree he might stay away a week or two, and then he will ignore that restraining order. But that is why I am putting him with Darelene's department.   I have never met a manager who takes more interest in her employees and becomes very protective of them. Her personality might put John in his place the first time she meets him and crosses her line of authority." Julian looked at Bryan with a sense of confidence that Bryan knew he knew something about this woman. He had only met her when the CEO would call for a leadership meeting.

"Well, I guess we both have work to do." Julian got up and smiled as he walked out of the office. "Let us salvage this. I will go talk to Darlene."

 

[Pierry Louys]

Great chapter 

[zzzz50]

Really good insights into how corporations will protect toxic employee’s because of their supposed value. I experienced this with a senior manager for 10 years because the CEO liked having a bulldog to fix “problems “. Once he was caught lying (again) he was finally fired and the company was much more functional.

[FingerToes]

I can't agree more.  John is a fictional character but loosely based on a character at my work. That employee had so many warnings, degrading women and yelling at people. HR wanted to fire him, and so did I. The CEO refused. At our company, you can't fire anyone without CEO approval. The person was finally exposed and fired after we had enough proof of money laundering and sex trafficking. I lost much respect in this regard for the company. I was and still am in upper management, so I got a preview of the horrible politics at play.

[FingerToes]

This chapter is all about introducing a new major character in this story, enjoy.

Chapter 5 - A Favor Turned In

Julian walked up to Darlene's office door, which was closed.  He knocked on it. 

"Yes?" He could hear Darlene's voice.  "It's Julian. Can we talk?"  

"Yes, sure, we can talk. Just give me a second to get decent,"  Darlene said as Julian could hear her putting something away.  "You can come in, Julian." 

Julian entered, saw a drawer closing, and Darlene buttoned the top of her blouse.  "Could you do me a favor and put those two bottles of milk up for me?"  

Julian reached over and grabbed the two small bottles of milk and put them in the small office refrigerator that she had in one corner of her office by one of the office windows where the blinds were currently down.

Darlene was a 34-year-old businesswoman, the IT director for DNA Pharmacia. She was young for her position.  Darlene was about 6’2” tall for a woman and weighed about 140 lbs.  She was the tallest of her two sisters by six inches. Her hair was pulled back in a neat bun, and she was wearing minimal makeup. Her nails were clean and trimmed.  Today, she wore a tank business suit, a light gray sleeveless jacket, and a pantsuit made from a wrinkle-resistant fabric. The jacket was single-breasted, custom-made for her large breasts with a fitted silhouette. The pants were a light gray pencil-leg. Underneath the jacket, she wore a pale pink blouse typically made of silk with a button-down front and collar with long sleeves and buttoned cuffs.

She had a long neckline and wore a pearl necklace that added a touch of elegance to her outfit.  She also wore small diamond earrings that didn’t distract from her face's soft, smooth skin.

"Well, Julian. I haven't heard from you for a while, so I know you're not here to ask me out for drinks.  Did one of my employees do something stupid?  Just tell me, and you know I will address it immediately.  I don't like my employees to give my department anything but a stellar reputation."   Darlene gave Julian that curious but serious look as she sat looking at him across her desk.

"May I sit?" Julian asked as he gestured to the chair opposite her.

“Oh boy, this must be something big.” Darlene sighed as Julian approached the desk, “Go ahead, sit down. What’s been going on?”

Julian sat down.  "I can assure you I do not have any issues with any of your employees.  I haven't heard anything negative, just good things from the other departments about you and your team."

"Oh good, so you’re here to offer me a raise?" She smirked, knowing that this wasn't the case.

"No, I wish.  DNA Pharmacia recently hired a new intern.  A rather talented one that is younger than a normal hire for an intern."  Julian paused as he thought about how to approach this, “A real go-getter who seems keen on making his mark. I won’t lie. We see serious potential for him in the future.”

"So you want me to take on this employee in my department?  Assign a mentor and train this individual. You know I don't like dealing with interns. I have resisted this in the past and will continue to do so.  My department demands highly skilled and experienced people to keep this company safe from all the cyber threats out there." Darlene gave Julian a hard stare as he could see the empathic "no" about to come from her mouth.

"Wait, let me talk before you say "no." It isn't what you think?"  Julian quickly cut Darlene off.

"I don't like where you are going with this, but I will hear you out.  It’s the least I can do before saying no.”  Darlene chuckled at her own humor. She picked a pen up and opened her notebook, waiting to write down notes from their conversation.  Darlene always took notes of every conversation.  They were there for her reference when she wanted to highlight points in a conversation or rebuttals, which would most likely be the case at the end of this conversation.

"Let's put a name on this intern.  His name is Avery.  He has only been here for two weeks.  He is a quiet individual for the most part, from what I gather from Bryan.  But we had an incident with Avery this morning." Julian said.

"Wait, Bryan, isn't he the Project Director for the Chemical DNA Sequencing Department?  Now, I am baffled about what this Intern has to do with me.  He would have no idea what to do in my department.  I am sure he is an engineer or some science-y thing like that.  I can bet my paycheck that he doesn’t have much experience in an IT department. Especially one like this that is so sensitive to cyber security with the constant threats it undergoes daily.”  Darlene quickly injected.

“Darlene, you promised you would listen, so please let me finish before you make any judgment calls.”  Julian showed a little frustration.  Darlene was known to draw conclusions too quickly sometimes.  She was doing this right now.  Julian could tell that Darlene didn’t like being called out.  Julian paused till Darlene finished writing her notes down.

“The rest of what I am about to tell you is strictly confidential.  This information does not go past these walls.”  He paused again.

“OK, it will stay here. You have my word.  Have you ever known me to break it?” Darlene replied sincerely.

“No, I haven’t.” Julian took a deep breath,  “Bryan has a Sr Technical Manager under him named John. He has quite the ego in the department.   He always seems to verbally attack anyone that questions his intelligence.  Bryan and I have dealt with him for years.  We have tried to get him dismissed from this company many times with the CEO.  However, the CEO refuses because John holds so many patents that are of prime importance to the company’s growth and future profit.  Before you say anything, yes, DNA Pharmacia owns all the patents.  However, the CEO sees him as critical to bringing this new custom-made DNA cancer drug to reality.  I will quote our CEO. “He is the most valuable asset we have right now.  He is worth more than gold, more than platinum.  He is the most valuable rare earth mineral. No matter how hard the mineral is to work with it.  Because it is the only mineral that makes this project a reality, end of conversation”  So you see, I can not get rid of this person, and he is the biggest pain in my ass!”  Darlene sees the emotion and frustration on Julian’s face.  

“This now brings me to Avery.  Avery has managed to piss John off.  Avery did nothing wrong except call John out on technical calculations.  Avery did this today in John’s monthly project meeting update.  During this meeting, Avery was given time to speak.  When he was up at the white board being challenged.  Avery got overwhelmed with John and his comrade's attacks on him, so to speak, and…”  Julian hesitated. He had reported many things to HR in his career, but nothing quite like this. This was very much a one-off incident, and he wasn’t entirely sure about the best way to bring it up. In the end, he decided being bluntly honest and getting it out there was probably for the best.

“Avery pissed in his pants quite literally, and it wasn’t just a little it was a lot.  To make things worse.  His coworkers made fun of the guy.”  Darlene continued to listen to Julian and took a few more notes.  She looks up to Julian.  She lifted her hands up near her breast and turned her hand upwards as if saying so, what does this have to do with me?  She didn’t want to interrupt Julian again.

“Avery may have unknowingly outwitted John.  According to Bryan and one of his younger engineers, Avery may have found a technical mathematical error in John’s fundamental calculation in less than two weeks where John and his team have been working on the problem for, I guess, about nine months.”

“This gets to my request.  I want you to house Avery.  Just house him.  He won’t be one of your direct reports.  Avery may have unknowingly become as valuable as John to this company if he did solve what John and the team can’t.  We need Avery to continue his work and development stress-free from ridicule. I chose you because I know you’re one person in this company who runs a department demanding respect and kindness.  It is your department.  I couldn’t think of a better place for him to feel safe. I will take this to the CEO if I have to, but I don’t want to.”  Julian paused.  He sat back, ready for her to counter this.

Darlene sat there finishing up her notes.  When she finished her notes, she calmly laid her pen down and looked Julian right in the eye with a dead stare. “Where is this Intern right now?” 

“Well, that is another problem that Bryan is working on. We don’t know exactly.  He left the building in tears. We can only expect he went home. Before you ask, no, we don’t know if he will come back.  But that is Bryan's job.”  Julian looked back at Darlene as if they were both having a staring contest. He was trying to strike a tricky balance between a serious discussion and almost begging for Avery to be moved. He could already see that if Avery was left around everyone else, this one incident could be the start of a major problem. In Julia’s opinion, Avery was very much worth the hassle.

“First, I don’t like ultimatums, so don’t do that to me again.  Second, I have a spare cubical two desks away from my office.  I can house him there.  From here, I can see his desk at all times.  My only responsibility to this intern is to make sure John doesn’t come by and talk to him. I am not going to babysit this intern.  Besides, I don’t know shit about DNA stuff.  I just know IT.” Darlene said sternly.

“Understood, Bryan and I will have an internal restraining order on John.  He can only be in his presence with Bryan or myself.  No one else.”

Darlene took a deep breath.  “Well, you have done me a few favors in the past in getting the right personnel in my department. I know many think my team is overpaid compared to the industry, so I guess this is payment back.”

Julian got up.  “You can call it that. I will bring him up here Monday morning.  I am going to let the poor guy take Friday off on us.  It is the least I can do for him.  Wish us luck in getting him to come back.”  With that, Julian walked out the door.

Darlene just shook her head and thought to herself.  I hate corporate politics.  Why do companies hold onto people who violate the company's own HR policies?  No one can be that important.

As she sat back in her chair, she thought about what Julian had just told him. Did a new employee really wet their pants in front of everyone? And that same employee was apparently some genius. It sounded to her like he belonged in a nursery rather than a serious office building. She had to admit she was curious, though. If he was worth the trouble, he must really be someone special.

[zzzz50]

Once again you nailed the corporate life. Almost every IT Manager I have worked with cannot wait for you to finish your thought and jumping to a defense of their department. I finally learned to interrupt them and ask them to let me clarify the request I was making. Hopefully Darlene will take Avery in and protect him as one of her team.

[Pierry Louys]

That’s a great chapter e interesting the way you build the characters that gonna make a important role in Avery life 

[FingerToes]

My goal in writing this story is to write it like you would pick up a novel in a bookstore.  Character development and plot development is very important to me so please continue to enjoy this slow burn of a story.  I really appreciate the encouragement and comments from those who have given it to me! Avery now has to make his way home.

Chapter 6 - Walk of Shame

 

Avery could not get out of DNA Pharmica fast enough. He did not stop and look to see who noticed that his crotch was soaking wet in the tan dockers, along with the wetness that ran down the front of the left side of his leg. He could feel other people’s eyes looking at him. "Why the fuck did I let this happen in front of everyone. I am a fucking loser." He shouted at himself internally. He felt like he had blown it. It was a chance to really show off what he could do, and instead, he had wet his pants like a toddler.

 

Avery was filled with so many emotions he couldn't sort them all at once. Why did John have to be such an ass? Mayle John was right. He is just a dumb ass. Why did he have to lose control like some dumb little kid? He is an adult." Tears continued to roll down his face as he walked briskly through the front entryway, quickly badged out,  and passed the automated front doors. 

 

When Avery stepped outside, he felt so small as the sidewalk was full of people walking in both directions. It didn't help that it was approximately eleven a.m. and lunchtime for most people, with his pants soaking wet and his pull-up thoroughly soaked past its usefulness. He felt the whole world looking at him. Things couldn't be worse. He almost bumped into a woman as he turned left. The woman paused, and a look of disgust went across her face. “Ew, gross," she thundered as she backed away and pointed at him. 

 

It was loud enough to cause others to pause and look at him. He heard people shouting and exclaiming; he heard some laughing and wolf-whistling. He kept his head down, but he couldn’t block out the comments: “He wet himself!”, “Get a picture!”, “Hey, buddy! The kindergarten is back that way!”

 

Avery quickly dashed around the woman heading for the bus stop almost a mile away. Avery made it down a few blocks, passing everyone. He could tell and feel several people watching him and occasionally catching comments about him. Panic and embarrassment took over as he saw an alleyway up ahead and ducked inside, hoping to escape the crowd. The alleyway was dark and narrow, and the only light came from the open doors of the businesses on either side. He ducked into the next alleyway between business buildings. He ran quickly to the back of the alley and hid between two large green metal dumpsters.

Avery closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart. He could hear the noise of the city all around him, but it seemed muffled and distant. He was safe here, hidden from the world.  At least till someone discovered him.  He felt his full pull-up and wet pant leg. He didn’t know what he could do from this point. He was in the middle of the city in obviously wet clothes and no spares. It was a nightmare.

Avery sat down on the ground with his knees curled up to his face and arms wrapped around his legs and cried with his back against one of the dumpsters. He sat there while the busy sidewalkers paced him by. The world had no idea he existed. Avery cursed his own existence. Things were not supposed to be like this. He was supposed to prove he was worthy and valuable to the company. But no, he had to piss his chance away, literally. As he cried on the cold, hard concrete, he slammed his fist on the concert floor, constantly cursing himself.

Finally, after about an hour, he calmed himself down and leaned back against the wall, feeling his full pull-up was no longer warm but cold. He closed his eyes and let the darkness wash over him. He felt the tension in his body start to melt away, and he took another deep breath. At the very least, he should’ve brought a spare pull-up.

He opened his eyes and looked around. The alleyway was still dark and narrow, but it didn't seem so scary anymore. He could see the sunlight streaming in through the open doors of the businesses. He knew that he couldn't stay in the alleyway forever, but for now, it was a safe place to hide. He could take a break from the world..

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  He would have to find a way to get on the bus and go home. He looked up between the two buildings to the partly cloudy sky. He thought this wouldn't be so bad if he got soaked head to toe in the water. At that moment, he realized he was just a few blocks from the downtown city park. It had a large fountain. Whatever he did, the one thing he didn't want to smell like pee when he got on the bus.

His full pull-up was not doing him any good now and only made him feel worse.  He needed to get it off before he got to the park. It had been an hour or so since he sat between the two dumpsters, and no one had come by.  “Maybe I can get his thing off me quickly before anyone walks by and sees me.”  Avery stood up and poked his head out between the two dumpsters.  There were still a lot of people walking down the busy sidewalk, but no one even noticed him looking, and no one was coming down that alley.  

Avery quickly stepped back to the safety of being between the two dumpsters.   He took a deep breath and dropped his pants, revealing the bulging wet pull-up.  He tore quickly at one side to get it loose and quickly tore at the other side as he was exposed for a brief seconds before he tossed the pull-up over into one of the dumpsters and quickly bent over to pull his pants back on.

After another deep breath, he decided to get back on the sidewalk, walking briskly towards the park.  Just a block before the park, the pedestrian crosswalk traffic light was red.  He stood there with a few other people, trying to focus only on looking forward to the green light to cross.  Before the light changed, he heard a little girl say, “Mommy, did that boy pee in his pants?” as the little girl looked back at him.  The mother turns her head and looks at him.  Avery felt so small with the mother of the little girl.  She pulled her daughter closer. “Not everyone can be a big girl like you, Lisa.”   The little girl couldn’t help but look back at him as Avery tried to ignore her and keep his composure. “You mean he needs to be in diapers.”   

Just then, the light turned green, and that was all that Avery needed as he rudely pushed his way past the other people waiting to cross and took off running for the park.

Avery arrived on the outskirts of the business park.  This was the first time he really ever paid much attention to it as he scoped it out.

What he saw as the downtown park was a tranquil oasis amidst the hustle and bustle of the busy city. The lush green lawns and well-manicured flower beds offered a serene respite from the concrete jungle of the metropolis. In the center of the park stood a large custom-made fountain with a towering spray of water that glistened in the sunshine. From the looks of it, people and children from all walks of life gather here to toss coins into the fountain, making a wish or a prayer for good fortune. The sound of the splashing water would normally create a calming ambiance for him, besides all the bushes surrounding the outer walkway to the fountain. Benches and tables surrounded the fountain.  To Avery’s dismay, there were people having picnics on the benches, and it looked like a couple of older people were playing a game of chess near the fountain. 

Why did there have to be so many people around this fountain?   Avery ducked behind some bushes to survey what to do and to hide his wet pants.  He took out his iPhone as he realized. “Shit, I forgot my backpack and computer.  This is my work iPhone, not my personal iPhone.”  If anyone went to look in his backpack, they would find a couple of pull-ups.  

Avery shook his head, upset with himself.  There was no way he was going to go back to the office now. He may never return to the office where he was sure the gossip was spreading like wildfire.  He will have to find another time to gather his things. Right now, he just wanted to get home.

Then he saw an opening.  He could make a run for the fountain.  He could jump on the ledge, pretend to be balancing, and accidentally fall into the fountain.  Yes, everyone would be looking at him and maybe laughing, but they would be laughing because he was being stupid and playing around, not because he peed in his pants.  He was pretty sure he wouldn’t be the first person to fall into the fountain. He didn’t exactly like being the center of attention like that, but it was better than anything else he could come up with

Avery laid his work iPhone down under a bush where he would pick it up on the way out.  He then walked briskly over to the fountain. He hopped up on it with the wet side of his pants facing the fountain.  He pretended to balance himself. Then, he saw an older man walking up toward the fountain.  This was perfect.  He could pretend to be caught off guard, bump into him, and fall in.   The old man went just behind Avery as he went to toss a coin into the well.  Avery pretended to back up and bumped into the older man's arm. “Oh, I am ve-... Argh!” Avery said as he pretended to apologize as he fell into the fountain. The fountain water was freezing as he got up, soaking from head to toe.  “Oh, I am sorry. I am so sorry,” the old man said.   Avery stood up.  “It is ok; it was my fault. I didn’t see you.  Don’t worry about it.”   Avery was cold from the water, but at least no one could tell he peed his pants anymore, or could they smell it if they lingered too long next to him?

He quickly exited the fountain as the older man kept apologizing.  Only if he knew the relief Avery felt right now as he briskly walked away. “It is really ok,” Avery shouted back as he leaned down to the bush to pick up his iPhone and then began walking casually towards the busy sidewalk again.

As he tried to walk to the bus stop, everyone stared at him; Avery smiled. “ I accidentally got pushed into the fountain.”

Even though he was a little chilly, the rest of the walk was so much better as he approached the bus stop.  He wasn’t dripping wet anymore, but his clothes were still soaked. 

Avery felt a sense of relief that he no longer felt like he was peeing in his pants.  When people looked at him, he just said. “I was playing around on the fountain and accidentally fell in,” laughing at himself when he said this.  He almost felt giddy for coming up with this idea.  It took about thirty minutes for the bus to come.  When the bus arrived, Avery tried to get on.  The bus driver looked right at him. “If you ride the bus, you can’t sit down on one of the chairs. You are going to have to stand holding on to one of the rails.” 

Avery looked up a female bus driver.  She looked like someone you wouldn’t want to cross.  “Yes, ma’am.  I won’t sit down.”  He hated the way she said this so loud and was drawing attention to himself when he stepped on the bus.  “Hold there by the front,” She shouted at him. “Kids these days,”  the bus driver mumbled to herself as she closed the door, and Avery stepped in and took hold of one of the bars above his head.

The ride on the bus was pretty uneventful.  The front seat where he was holding the bar remained empty because no one wanted to sit by him when he was so wet.  He really didn’t care and thought that was for the better.  Finally, his stop arrived.  When he exited, he walked briskly on his way home. His triumph was short-lived because as soon as he exited he walked to his apartment complex.  He realized once again what happened and how he made a fool of himself.  In addition to that, he left his backpack and his personal iPhone back at the office.  There is no way he wanted to go back.

As Avery was rushing back to his apartment, he was looking at the floor and not paying attention to where he was going. He accidentally bumped into a man in his thirties who was well-built.  “You are wet. What the hell do you think you were doing?”  He felt the guy push both of his hands hard on his chest as he stumbled backward, hitting the back of an iron fence.. “OW’ Avery cried. “Better watch where you were going next time, loser,” the guy gave him a mean look as he went on walking. 

“Fuck you!” Avery yelled back as the built man turned back, and Avery got up to take off running. “That is what I thought, loser, you didn’t have the balls to be a man,”  He yelled.

Avery ran the rest of the way home and went to his apartment door.  He quickly opened it and slammed the door hard closed.  He was sure his neighbors could hear he didn’t care.   It was only 2 pm.  He didn’t care much about anyone right now.  

The first thing Avery did was go to the kitchen and grab himself some orange juice and vodka.  He didn’t normally drink in the afternoon; if he did, it was only a small glass a night.  But today, he filled it up with vodka almost halfway and the rest with orange juice.

“I just want to fucking forget this day,”  he cried out loud to himself.  He then grabbed his drink and went into the bathroom, stripped off his wet clothes, and threw them on the bathroom floor.  He turned on the shower and stepped inside after the water warmed up. There, he just stood with his head against the wall of the shower as the water ran down his head and back.  He broke down and cried like he hadn’t in a long time. 

He stayed in the shower too long. When he got out of the shower, his toes and fingers were wrinkly like an old lady's fingers.  The bathroom was just a large fog, and the mirror was completely fogged over.   After fully drying himself, he got out of the bathroom and opened his drawer, grabbed hunter-green boxer briefs, and slid them on.  He felt emotionally and physically exhausted.  

Avery went over to his bed, pulled off the bedspread, and laid it down on the floor. He grabbed a pillow from his bed and his stuffed big red dog, Clifford, and placed them both on the bedspread on the floor.  He looked at his iPhone on the dresser.  Noticed a missed call from Bryan but decided to ignore it and power off the iPhone.  He didn’t want to talk to him or anyone.  He opened his walk-in closet, where he had a red and blue large mat against the wall. He laid down, pulled his bedspread in, and grabbed his pillow, and Clifford placed them down.   He basically made himself a small bed in a closet.

“I am giving up on this day… Maybe the whole week,” he told himself as he looked at the clock. It was only 3 p.m., and the sun was shining outside through his closed blinds.  He went back to the bathroom and grabbed one valium, one sleeping pill, and his Zoloft.  He is taking his meds early, which was fine; he had no problem with an early night after all the excitement of the day.   He then went back to the closet and got down on his knees to make the bed as best as he could in the closet.  Once the bedspread, the pillow, and Clifford were all in the right spot.  He closed the closet door with him inside and laid down, grabbing Clifford and hugging it tightly as he wrapped himself in the bedspread.  For some reason, the closet always made him feel safe and secure.  Growing up with foster parents, he slept many a night in the closet when he was in trouble or he felt bad or down.  As he lay down and his head hit the pillow, he then began to cry.  He cried for a good 30 minutes before he passed out in complete darkness.

 

 

[CCApril]

I have never seen a little boy in more need of a mommy. I hope Darlene is up for the job. Seems a match made in corporate heaven. 

Keep up the good work!

 

April

[Pierry Louys]

Wow that chapter was so intense , full of emotions! Poor Avery really hope thing turn better for him 

[Eagle0769]

Wow two very good chapters.

Great writing and clarification to everything going on.

Darlene the new boss sounds interesting. 🙂

[FingerToes]

Warning, before reading this. Grab a pacifier and your favorite stuffed animal to hold tightly as you read this.

Chapter 7 - The Nightmare

Avery's eyes slowly opened as he was suddenly woken up. He was greeted by the familiar sight of his mother's gentle countenance. Despite the slight signs of fatigue that marred her appearance, with her tousled brown locks and a natural lack of makeup, she tried to exude an air of ease and comfort in her casual yellow t-shirt and yoga pants. Avery couldn't help but feel a sense of comfort wash over him as he gazed into her calm and reassuring eyes, a silent acknowledgment of the unspoken bond between a mother and her child.

As he looked up and cooed to her, his hands stretched out to be picked up; something didn’t seem right. She appeared in a hurry, and he didn’t understand why. His mom quickly checked his diaper underneath the blue clues onesie he was wearing,  “Avery is dry. I don’t need to change him before we go,” she shouted down the hall.  “Good, let's go. We don’t have much time to waste,”  Avery’s Dad shouted back.   She leaned over the crib to pick Avery up as he held onto his red stuffed dog, and she grabbed a diaper bag. He felt a little uneasy. It didn't feel like morning.  Usually, at this time of night, Avery was ready to snuggle up in his cozy crib with his stuffed animals and drift off to a deep sleep till morning. But tonight, his parents were taking him on a ride, and he didn’t know why. They seem rushed and concerned for reasons unknown to him.

Avery sucked on his pacifier repeatedly because he was nervous as he was carried downstairs on his mom's hip.  Avery saw Dad pulling suitcases and exiting into the garage.   “I will be right there. I need to stop by the kitchen.” Avery’s mom shouted.  When she got down the stairs, she turned directly into the kitchen.  She placed the diaper bag on the counter and went to the fridge.  “We are going on an adventure,” she said in a cute voice to Avery. She pulled out two ice packs and stuffed them in one of the large pockets of the diaper bag, which was insulated and waterproof.  She then placed three baby bottles full of milk in there.  All while holding Avery on her hip, she searched the refrigerator for the last items she might need.  She grabbed several containers of homemade baby food and put them with the bottles full of milk.  “We just need some spoons,” She talked to Avery as she opened the silverware drawer and grabbed three small baby-sized light blue spoons. Holding on to Avery and the diaper beg, she exited the kitchen and headed towards the garage. 

When they entered the garage, his dad shoved the suitcases into the back of the SUV. Mom quickly put Avery into his car seat and buckled him tightly in. Avery started to cry through his pacifier. Something didn’t feel right to him.  “It is ok. Mommy is here. We are just going on a road trip.”  As Avery’s Mom and Dad got into the front seat, they opened the garage door.  The SUV was put in reverse and began to back out. It was dark outside, and the rain was pouring down really hard on their SUV as it exited the garage. Avery could hear thunder and lightning flashing all around the vehicle. It was terrifying for him, so he started to cry as the pacifier fell out of his mouth and onto the floorboard of the SUV.

Avery didn’t like the lightning because it made such a loud noise, and it was really bright just before the loud boom. He tried to hide his face in his blanket. His mom tucked him into the car seat, Mommy and Daddy were talking and debating together heatedly.  He couldn’t understand what was being said.

After several minutes passed by, Mommy turned on the radio and tried some fun music to play. Daddy and Mommy tried to sing along together, making him feel safe. They drove past lots of cars and even saw a few trucks. Sometimes they honked their horns, which was really loud! 

Avery looked out the window and saw all the trees bending in the wind and watching the raindrops race down the window. Scared, he put his thumb in his mouth and closed his eyes to pretend he wasn’t there.

Suddenly, his parents stopped singing. The rain was now louder, and he could barely hear his parents talking. He looked out the window again and saw that the sky was really dark, and there were several flashes of lightning. He was so scared as he held his thumb in his mouth, hugging his stuffed red dog tightly, but he knew his parents would keep him safe.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash of thunder, and the car shook. Avery jumped and squirmed, trying to get out of my car seat as he cried in fear.  His thumb was no longer enough to comfort him.  Avery heard his dad say. “That was a close one.” 

Mom looked back at him and tried to smile even though she looked scared. "Don't worry," Mom said. "That was just thunder."  She then began to unbuckle herself and crawl back into the middle seat to be with her son and try to soothe him.  She placed a hand on his head and tried petting him.  She so badly wanted to pull Avery out of the car seat and hold him, but she didn’t dare as she tried her best to calm him.

But then, the rain started to come down even harder, and the wind started to blow really strong. Avery couldn’t see out the window at all. The car began to shake more, and driving was getting more challenging, if not impossible. "We're going to have to pull over," his Dad finally said in defeat.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise and a jolt, and the car lurched to the side. There was a sickening crunching noise, and Avery’s parents started shouting and yelling at each other. Avery was so scared now he couldn't even cry. He was just frozen.  Avery's Mom was not strapped in as she flew all over the car like a rag doll, hitting the roof as the car rolled off the street.. 

After what seemed like an eternity, the car came to a stop.  His mom was lying over his car seat. Her head through the back passenger window.  Her face was full of blood along her neck. She wasn’t moving, and his mom's eyes were closed. He didn't understand what was happening, but he knew something was wrong. He screamed. “MOMMY” over and over, loudly trying to reach for her, but she was just too far away.  Rain was coming into the car, and lightning and thunder were hitting hard.  Avery was getting soaking wet.  Where was his dad? Why didn’t he come and help?

He was so scared, cold, and wet as the rain kept coming. He just wanted to wake Mom up.  Everything would be okay if she would just wake up. “MOMMY!”  Avery continued to scream and reach out for her. She never woke up.

Avery spent the next few hours crying and shivering in the rain until red and blue lights surrounded the sky.  He heard people yelling things.  Some opened the side of the door to another side of the car seat where his mom was hanging out the window.  “Oh shit, there is a baby in there,” someone screamed. “He is alive.” She crawled in, unbuckled Avery, and pulled his soaking body out.  She held the baby close to her as she slid out of the car seat.  When she got out of the car, Avery looked over to the side and saw a large tree branch punctured through the front glass. and his father was impaled by the branch and not responding.  “Daddy,” Avery kicked wildly, trying to pull free from the female officer.   The officer tried to hold Avery between her breasts so his face couldn’t take in all the crash site.  “Get the kid to an ambulance.”  She ran with the kid close to her as the rain continued.  The ambulance had just arrived as the back doors opened.  The officer stepped into the ambulance with the paramedics. “Are there any other survivors?”  The officer looked down at the baby. “No..”   Avery was crying hard and scared. Kicking and Screaming to try to get away. “Mommy… Daddy,”  his hands were out, wanting to return to the car where his parents were.

[Eagle0769]

Tornado? 😞

[Babyqtboy]

1 hour ago, Eagle0769 said:

Tornado? 😞

Sounds more like a hurricane 🤷‍♂️