Ross set the specimen bag on the lab table in front of Alexa. He'd told her over the phone what to expect. She felt like a little girl waiting for Daddy to come home with a promised double-scoop of ice cream.

Ray had prepped the exam table and she had double checked it, making sure everything remained picture perfect. She even let Ray clip the zip-tie on the hazardous materials bag. But she wanted to be the one to spread the contents on the table.

When she slowly let the shucked form of a healthy newborn slide out of the bag onto her table a tear welled in her eye. Alexa had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. This discovery held so many possibilities. The regenerative properties of these beings alone could fix injuries and maybe even cure diseases.

"Ray," she whispered, "can you lay it prone?"

"Sure," he whispered back.

"Why are we whispering?" Ross looked between the two of them for a clue, ready to make a joke.

Alexa helped Ray smooth out the carcass on the table.

"This is the way we keep ourselves in check when working with delicate materials. It's one of Alexa's things." Ray's fingers made rabbit ears in the air and winked.

"Oh ..." Ross laughed. "... she has things, does she?" His hands went up in a mock quote unquote.

"Dozens." Ray giggled.

"Pipe down over there, I'm trying to think." She circled the table, clockwise as per her usual routine when doing an examination.

"See ... things ... plural," Ray said.

She caught the boys exchanging grins. "Ray. Do us a favor and find some decent coffee, we could be here for some time."

"Sure boss." He scuttled out of the room.

"Gruesome, eh?" Ross slinked in front of her, cutting her off.

"Excuse me." She walked through as though he weren't there. If he wouldn't have moved she'd have collided with a six-foot-four-inch wall. "If gruesome means beautiful, then yes, it is gruesome." How could anyone see anything but beauty?

"No. Gruesome means, gross, as in disgusting."

She'd looped back around the table. This time, she bumped into the wall. Unwelcome butterflies zipped around her stomach as she looked at him and then quickly averted her eyes to the specimen. She scurried around him and continued her visual once-over. The specimen seemed completely intact like an invisible zipper had opened in the back and the child's insides, skeleton and all, stepped out.

"What do you think it means, boss?" Ray sat the coffee cups on her desk.

"It means the infants are not infants for long. Traditionally, when an animal sheds its skin, it's either because it needs a newer, harder skin, or it's growing. I think we're no longer looking for an infant, we're looking for something larger, possibly a toddler."

"That's what I said." Ross raised his hand in a fist. It surprised her a little when Ray completed the knuckle bump. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Ross looking at her.

The space behind her ears warmed a little, but she suppressed the blush and didn't return the glance as she snipped a small piece of the de-gloved left index finger from the specimen. With a pair of forceps, she set the sample on a Petri dish and handed it to Ray.

He walked away with dedicated speed, which she liked to see in her assistants; hurry, not rush. Ray wasn't morbidly obese but could use some Weight Watchers. He had a pear shape to him; another genetic anomaly to add to her collection for the day.

"What are you thinking?" Ross flipped a chair around and sat.

Alexa stared at the backside of Ray as he turned the corner. He stumbled and she winced. She gave a silent "phew" when he recovered without spilling the specimen.

"Close one." Ross guffawed. "You didn't answer my question." He stood and placed his hand in the crook of her elbow, turning her until she had to look at him. "What are you thinking?"

She yanked her arm away.

"Sorry about that." He retracted his hand.

Maybe she'd been too harsh? Had she completely forgotten how to be around men? "It's okay, Ross. You ... you startled me."

"I'm really sorry."

Ughhh ... puppy dog eyes. So, lame. "It's quite alright. This is the most amazing find in the history of mankind." She paused, savoring the knowledge. "It's absolute evolution in progress. Maybe life, as we know it, has come to an abrupt end."

"You're talking about an apocalypse? The End of Days?" He glowered.

"Something of the like, at least it won't be a nuclear holocaust, or the Four Horseman riding down from Heaven raining fire and brimstone. The Bible says, '... and a child will lead them'. Maybe these children are here to cleanse the earth?"

"Didn't know you were religious."

"I'm not. I do find the Bible fascinating, so I read it once."

"You memorized a passage from reading the Bible once?"

"I memorize everything I read."

"Oh ... a photographic memory."

"I guess you could call it that."

"I have trouble remembering where I put my keys." He chuckled.

She appreciated the twinkle in his eye. This guy did enjoy life.

"My husband was the same way." Not that he lost his keys a lot.

"Was?" His deadpan face hastened her explanation.

"My husband passed away from lung cancer last year." Even to her, it sounded emotionless.

Ross stood and rested against the wall. His hands lingered in his pockets. "I'm sorry to hear that."

She'd never have guessed how emotional he would get. Her pencil scratched the clipboard in her arm. She wasn't writing, only avoiding eye contact. "It's, okay. We're dealing with it. Isn't the president addressing the nation soon?" She had to change the subject.

Ross pulled up his sleeve and looked at his watch. "Yeah, in about fifteen minutes. Do you have a break room with a TV?"

"Down the hall, but we can go to my office and watch it on my laptop. I think that would be more comfortable. There's a couch if nothing else."

"Will you make us popcorn?" His idiotic grin had started to wear on her.

Dummy. The office didn't even have a microwave. She walked past him down the hall. Soon they would know the government's take on the situation. The thought both frightened and excited her.

Ross settled in the crook of the couch. "What do you think he'll say?"

"Historically the government panics at the first sign of anything which threatens the infrastructure. In this case, it wouldn't be the cyberinfrastructure, but the fabric of humanity itself; our DNA." She closed the door, set her laptop on the coffee table and clicked on her CSPAN link. "I think they're in a panic and will probably do the wrong thing."

"Let's hope not." He had his arm spanned across the back of the couch.

"Do you mind?" She looked at his arm.

"Sorry." He placed his hands on his lap.

Better. She sat down and turned on the television. Then she felt a bead of sweat travel down her scalp and trickle down her back. Oh, no.

A woman's voice came over the air, "We are moments away from the President's address to the nation regarding what some are calling, 'the most catastrophic event since the bubonic plague or the Spanish 'flu'."

Alexa glanced at Ross.

He watched the monitor, eyes glued to the screen and twiddling his thumbs. She didn't have any nervous habits that she knew of, but he seemed normal for someone in his situation. She'd think nothing more of it. The President had stepped up to the podium.

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