Quaranteam: Remote Wor

The Quaranteam Universe is the creation of CorruptingPower, used with permission. Once again borrowing Agent Johnson from Bronan. Well... one of them, anyway.

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Chapter 10: Pre-Med

19 August 2020

A day and a half was not nearly enough time to make decisions like this. Not to read and analyze dense legal documents, not to run financial projections, not to ponder what expanding the family would mean. The breakfast table, like the day before, was quiet and reserved. The chatter was muted, the jokes essentially absent. "Okay, it looks like we're doing this." Adam didn't want to let the awkwardness draw out any longer, it seemed.

Callie scowled, her red hair conspiring to make the hot-headed lawyer look like her head was actually on fire. "I still don't like this, Adam. These contracts have more red flags in them than the last time an incel flirted with me. The heck of it is, I still can't find any real deal breakers. There just doesn't seem to be any traps laying around for us to step into on this, all the costs and deals are out in the open."

"Yeah, the hard part will be changing my messaging." Shannon was buttering a piece of toast, the motion setting her boobs jiggling like they had been doing every day. "I'm going to lose some followers who think I'm a sell-out, but all things considered that is a really small thing. Ten years is a long time."

Adam shrugged. "Or until they release us from it, if that's faster."

Callie let out a bit of a bitter snort. "We're talking about the

government

here, Adam. Since when have you ever, in person or in your history books, seen the US government take a benevolent step out of the goodness of their collective hearts? Honestly, that would scare me more than these contracts if they ever did."

"I can't argue that point. Then again, the nice ones rarely make history, do they? Especially around these parts." Adam set down his fork, plate empty. "I guess we're talking in circles, though. We need the deal we're being offered. You both know it, not just me. What we had was not exactly a good and permanent plan, especially knowing that there are going to be more women joining us. This isn't enough room for us, and last I checked neither of you knows how to set up a bed on the ceiling for the next person to arrive."

"Just be glad I like bean bags to sleep in."

"I was a college student once, Callie. Be honest, you probably started in the dorms when your actual furniture broke and never stopped."

"You are signing up with the government, so I'm allowed to plead the fifth now. Which I do." Callie's quip had the other two giggling into their coffee, if slightly hysterically. Still, the decision was made. All that was left to do was to go through with it when those couriers arrived. It felt real and permanent already, something to plan for and move towards. Even if it wasn't here yet.

Shannon took a rather vehement stab at her hard-boiled egg, dipping it in some salt and taking a big bite. Adam seemed to be concerned for her, bits that large were generally a bad idea with her gag reflex the way it was, but Shannon gamely chewed and swallowed as best she could despite it. She seemed thoughtful. "Callie, mind taking the dishes today? I need to talk to Adam a bit. One on one."

"Sure thing, it was probably my turn anyway since you two have been doing my part of the chores. Shoo." She stood and moved her large (but rapidly lessening) bulk around to pick up what she needed to. It wasn't as bad as previous days, Adam and Shannon had gotten used to how much food was actually going to be needed so there wasn't as much wasted.

Adam was a bit confused as Shannon took him to their bedroom. He couldn't think of anything which might need some privacy to discuss. "Are you alright? Need something different?"

"Not exactly different, no." Adam turned and she was suddenly in his arms, crying softly. Also naked, but that was almost incidental at this point. She just preferred to be that way. "I'm so scared, Adam."

"You aren't the only one. We have to be strong for this, though, and we've talked about why. That's not going to end any time soon." Adam was overdressed, really, but that was secondary. His arms were around Shannon, holding her close.

Slightly muffled by the fact that her face was, in fact, buried in his chest, Shannon replied. "I... I don't know if I can keep going. Being strong all the time is hard."

"Shannon, you ARE strong all the time. But you know what?"

She sniffed. "What?"

"There are at least three of us, not counting whomever else might be joining us. We can take turns being strong when one of us is tired." Adam, for his part, was torn. Half of him recognized the urgent need to comfort her. The other half noticed loudly that she was in love with him, sexy, horny, and nude in his arms.

He ended up settling on a compromise. Somewhere between where they had been standing and the bed, he lost his own clothes. They ended up snuggled incredibly closely on the bed, Adam hugging her close to his body as they made love with her on top of him. It was a slow and gentle kind of thing, sweet in its own way. They moved together, and they felt the comfort that only their bodies could bring. It wasn't long before Shannon came, and again, and Adam felt himself getting close. He had no problem with this, letting the feeling build and build until he was ready to burst.

Shannon felt it, too, and then went off-script. It seemed she'd had enough comfort for herself, so it was time to try something new. In a flash, she jumped off of him just as he felt himself begin to release. In a remarkable show of acrobatics, she moved herself down the bed until she was staring his massively erect and twitching dick in the eye, then plunged her face down on it. Before Adam realized what was going on, he found himself buried halfway into her mouth, cumming like crazy as she swallowed to keep up. He seemed to go on and on, the moment dragging out as he felt her tongue on him, until with a pop she finally let him go.

Shannon had done it. She had swallowed her first load of Adam's cum, and joined him in that impossible orgasm it brought in the post-Serum world.

She, rather understandably, looked like the cat that got into the cream. Lots and lots of cream, she was still licking her lips when Adam's brain finished restarting itself and put two and two together. "Shannon? What the heck? I thought your gag reflex..."

"Was hyperactive thanks to the scar tissue. Yeah, I did too until this morning. Swallowed some food that I didn't realize was too big until I'd already eaten it." She was back to laying on his chest, a tiny burp escaped her lips. "Excuse me. Anyway, since all those scars peeled off of the

outside

of me..."

"You figured that it might have been healing on the inside, too. It makes sense, and I must say that I appreciate your scientific method of checking the hypothesis."

"I'll make sure to repeat the experiment often enough for a research paper." Both of them broke down into giggles, cuddled naked on the bed as the midmorning sun streamed in the window. "I should ask Callie for tips. Never got to really learn so I need to make up for lost time."

Adam's cock twitched at that thought. "You won't need to twist my arm at that one, love. Come on, we do need to get dressed. Guests later, after all." He regretfully led the way by sitting up, slowly.

Shannon did with him, and made a face. "Much as I loved you cumming in my mouth, not that big a fan of the taste. I'll go brush my teeth and get showered first, deal?"

"Sounds good." She went to do so, leaving Adam alone in his room. Around the time he got his pants on, though, his phone rang. The number was unknown. He made a face, pretty sure he knew what was coming next. "Hello?"

"Good morning, Mr. Jeffries. My name is Alex, and I'm from the data collection team for the Serum program." It was a woman's voice, chipper in a customer service sounding way.

"You do know that I haven't signed the papers yet, right? The courier and notary are expected to get here in about two hours." Adam's eyes were closed and he was rubbing his temple with his left hand.

"Of course, Mr. Jeffries. You did make the decision to sign, though, so I figured I'd wait until you weren't busy and get started a bit early. We do have a lot of outside observable data, but we critically need to write down your own thoughts and feelings on the experiences for the reports and to annotate our archival footage and data."

"Want me to start with what I think of you watching me to time this call?"

"No, sir, that feedback has been remarkably consistent with others we've surveyed. Let's begin at the beginning, as you woke up in the hospital and the two weeks you spent recovering thereafter before going home."

"This is going to take a lot longer than I actually have." Adam did not look particularly pleased, but at least he was cooperating.

"Yes, sir. You thankfully survived, so we will have time to work through it."

It turned out to only be about 30 minutes of interview before a call for lunch came from the kitchen. Adam apologized and ended the call with a bit of relief in his voice. It's almost like sharing one's innermost thoughts during one of the most dangerous and traumatic times of their life is difficult and painful. Almost. In any case, he got to the kitchen with enough time to set the table. Sandwiches were good, especially since Callie knew their preferences by now. Shannon was looking at him a bit askew, but that might have been due to the fact that he was absolutely not bringing up what had transpired between them just now. Or, perhaps, the fact that he obviously had not showered and yet had to be called to the table. One of those. The meal went quickly, chips and all. Possibly due to two out of three of them having worked some energy off and the third not having eaten much for the last couple of weeks.

"You two ready? The courier is due any minute now." Callie had a notepad out and a pen, sketching down initial thoughts to plan out how the interaction was going to go.

Adam shrugged. "I'm not, really, but I'm as close as I'm likely to get. Whatever happens once they're here, it's likely to affect at least the next decade of our lives, and probably much of the rest of it." His phone beeped again, almost apologetically, and he looked at the notification. "Looks like they're about three minutes out. I'll go mask up, same as last time. I doubt they're going to send anyone who isn't vaccinated, but no sense taking chances and I already beat the odds one time."

"Good idea." Callie nodded. "Actually, you know what? Shannon, you and I can do so as well. We don't need to go full-on with skin protection, still way too hot for that, but if they arrive and we're all masked up it gives a certain impression which will help set the tone."

Shannon paused in thought for a moment, but then shrugged. "I don't mess with this kind of thing for a reason. You're better at it, I'll just follow your lead."

"Shannon, if half of my clients had that attitude more often then my job would be a thousand times easier. Come on, let's get ready."

The alert had said they had three minutes to prepare. Four minutes later, a knock came at their door, and Adam answered. The party outside was... not quite what he expected. Three people instead of two, all masked but in relatively casual clothing. The one in front was a woman, a really tiny slip of a thing holding a bag. Behind her was another, an older Asian-looking one with long white hair and a wrinkled face, wearing a plain black backpack that seemed full. Along with them was a more familiar face. A large woman who looked like she wouldn't move if a moose hit her was there, and looking a bit smug.

"Agent Johnson! I'm assuming you're the courier today? All of you can come in, apologies if the space is tight."

"I am, Adam. Got the opportunity to come here and finally see those NDAs actually get enforced on your bunch." Shannon stuck her tongue out at the bulky agent, hidden behind the paper mask. Neither Callie nor Agent Johnson noticed. Adam did, and had to suppress a smile of his own despite the fact that it would also be hidden.

They entered, but Adam wasn't done. "No need to be so rude, Agent Johnson. Who are your friends?"

She looked back at him with a light mix of contempt and disgust. "This is the notary, Amelia." The tiny woman waved, a bit shyly. "This is the medical professional, Dr. Esther Kim." The older lady nodded. "So. Are you gonna sign the new agreements or not?"

Callie took a couple steps forward. Agent Johnson, noticing her for seemingly the first time, started visibly sweating as if the redhead was a loaded gun pointed at her forehead. Callie noticed, and the smile at her eyes got a lot more predatory. "We have agreed to sign the paperwork in question, yes. Amelia, I assume you have your seal in that bag so that you can witness this properly?"

The tiny woman nodded. "Yes, of course." She reached in and pulled out a few things. The embossing seal was one, but with it were a fancy-looking pen and a pad of paper. Adam could see that it wasn't regular lined paper, more like some kind of record keeping.

Callie sat down in the chair and pulled the living room table over, laying out the papers in neat stacks. "As legal representation for Adam Jeffries and his Team, referred to as Team Jeffries, I have consulted with my client and have agreed to the terms proposed in these contracts. First signatures are for updated non disclosure agreements. We will be making copies of all paperwork signed today for our records, do you have a seal for copies?"

"Just a written note, ma'am."

"That will do. Shannon, you are up first. Sign here, like before." Callie's demeanor had changed. She was in full business mode now, and nobody present had any doubts that anyone who made a problem would promptly regret it. The NDAs didn't take long, and though she said nothing during the signing Agent Johnson was looking smugly pleased with herself. Her revenge was successful, the team that had dodged her and made her life a struggle this past week was caught.

Callie noticed this, too. "Alright. Next set of papers is for subsidies and information exchanges agreed to as fair consideration for and referred to in the NDAs."

Agent Johnson's smile vanished like a stage magician's final act. "What do you mean, 'subsidies?' This is not supposed to be a reward."

Adam signed where Callie indicated while the notary was embossing and signing the previous papers. He looked up. "Oh, it isn't. This is all an exchange. A new home and a salary in exchange for us helping figure out what the Serum scientists can use to push this further along."

Agent Johnson's shoulders slumped. It would have been slight on a regular person, but at her size this meant a lot more distance traveled than that. "But... but..."

Adam finished signing the contracts, feeling like a load had been lifted off of his shoulders only to be promptly replaced by another one of equal mass and wildly different proportions. "It is done."

"Not quite." Callie gathered the signed and sealed documents and brought them to the other room to be copied. It didn't much matter that they were being scanned by her phone and sent to a tiny printer over the house's WiFi, it still worked. The sounds of the printer running soon started coming softly from the dining room.

Shannon had been mostly standing to the side after she did her own brief part. Now, though, as Callie left the room, she seemed to realize something. "Hold on. I know why we had to have a notary come over, and why a courier, but I'm not sure why you have a doctor with you."

Esther looked over back at Shannon, her white hair standing out in its motion. "I assume they did not tell you, then. Since you have just signed paperwork requiring regular medical reports, and I fit the profile that Adam has in Oracle, I have been assigned to this Team as its third member. Or fourth, if you count Adam."

"Oh! Here I thought you were about to give us checkups as a part of the agreement or something."

"Oh, that too. Didn't Adam tell you that medical testing would be a part of it all?"

Adam's brain managed to catch up with the exchange at this point. "I did, but just like everything else for the last six months this isn't how I thought things were going to happen. The team didn't tell me you'd be arriving today, and since this was in response to a call I only got two days ago it seems extremely quick."

Esther's head quirked to the side a bit. "That does not seem right. I took my survey last week."

"It seems there are some scheduling and information flow irregularities, then." Adam's deadpan voice was remarkable for its blunt effectiveness. He did not seem to enjoy certain actions being taken behind the scenes on his behalf. Pity, that, especially since he had just signed and had notarized a commitment to the organization.

Callie chose that moment to return with copies in hand. "Alright, Miss Amelia, if you will go ahead and annotate the copies then you can be on your way."

The notary was way ahead of her, already writing with a steady purpose in her notebook, then on the papers. The room was silent besides the scratch of her pen as everyone watched with bated breath. She finally stopped and surveyed her work, checking for errors and seemingly finding none. "Unless there is anything else?"

Callie shook her head. "No, that's everything."

Amelia the notary put her equipment away and stood. "Agent Johnson, as soon as you're ready we can go. I need to get back to the office to turn in my logs."

Still slightly spluttering behind her mask, Agent Jonson collected herself. "One last thing, then. I need the clipboard I asked you to carry in your bag."

Amelia was puzzled, but pulled it out. There was one sheet of paper on it, a very familiar one. Department of the Army, form 6969-R. A delivery form for Oracle participants, already filled out by Agent Johnson and Dr Esther Kim. "Oh, okay. I should have figured. Sir, if you would please sign here?"

Adam took the clipboard, signed, and handed it over to Callie. "Sorry to make you take additional trips, I only found out about this one while you were making copies just now."

"I would be annoyed, but then again I know how Health and Human Services is with their notifications. That was frankly prompt of them, for a major department. Be right back." She returned in under thirty seconds, Agent Johnson took the original, and then left without a word. Amelia the notary at least waved as she exited, and the door closed.

Everyone in the room pretty much instantly removed their masks, at which point the awkwardness started. Esther set down her backpack and stood straight again. "I assume from your surprise that there is not a place for me to sleep just yet." Under the mask was more of the same. There were both smile and frown lines at the corners of her thin lips, her long white hair setting off a person who would be unremarkable if not for the look of restrained determination behind her dark eyes. She was on the small side, too, having to look up a bit at the others.

"You're correct on that. I don't even have a cot for you at the moment. It is the recliner or the floor for now until we figure this out." Adam was breathing a bit deeply, the physical air restriction of the mask combining with his still-healing lungs and the psychological pressure of the last hour to leave him feeling a bit suffocated.

Esther nodded briefly in acknowledgement. "I've slept on worse for worse reasons. You know that part of my instructions was to keep this team thoroughly monitored in medical terms, including utilizing the local hospital facilities as needed, correct?" Adam nodded, Shannon and Callie both did about a second later. "Good. Now, I am not your first partner, so you know how the next part goes. We can get better acquainted later. Perhaps tomorrow. I had to wait an extra day after getting inoculated due to courier scheduling, so the side effects are starting to get severe."