chapter 10

"Becky, hope you are ok, you look a little tired, take a seat". Tom smiled at Becky as he sat down. Becky took a seat opposite him across the table and smiled back warmly, an image of her reflection in the mirror from a few minutes earlier flashed in her mind and gave her a jolt. "I'm ok thanks, just not been sleeping well recently, I've..... felt a little out of sorts the past few days". Becky shifted her position in the chair. "I'm sorry to hear that, I hope you aren't coming down with something, there is a bit of a bug doing the rounds. Now Becky, before we do the debrief I need to talk to you about something serious". Becky looked at Tom with concern. "Don't worry it's nothing bad, you're okay". Tom could sense Becky's unease so tried to reassure her. "Becky, I have to ask you about your relationship with Laura. It has come to the attention of Iain and myself that you two are becoming quite close". Becky panicked inside but remained composed. Did they know already? Had someone seen her leave Laura's room so late? She did a remarkable job at containing her alarm. "Er, yes, we are quite good friends now. She had some .. felt, some anxiety about the trails at the start so I talked to her and we became good friends. She's a nice girl, much more at ease now with the program". Becky smiled again at Tom. "I see... Well I feel the need to explain a few things to you. Becky, one of the behavioural psychologists has warned us that Laura may be, how can I put this, finding the trial rather agreeable". "Erm, how do you mean?", Becky replied with surprise. "Meaning that she has, or has discovered she has, feelings of a sexual nature about gaining weight". "Oh", Becky stammered, "Oh, I see". Images began to flicker again in Becky's mind. "Becky, have you noticed anything like this in Laura's demeanour? Being that you two are close". Visions filled Becky's head of the previous night, Laura's mischievous smile looking at her over her big belly. "Erm, no, no. Not that I recall", Becky lied. "Right, okay, well this is a little concerning to us especially because you two are close. Becky, Iain and I have decided to tell you about the matter of Paul. Have you heard about this debacle yet? Word gets around in this place". Becky genuinely hadn't heard the story of the mysterious Paul so was now filled with curiosity. "No, I haven't, you never told me". "Right, I think now is the time", Tom said, and began to tell Becky the tail of Paul.

Paul had been a junior researcher chosen and hired by Tom to help in the early days of the research. Paul had actually put himself forward as a candidate for the research, stating that this kind of biological investigation was the exact area of science he specialised in. His credentials were great and Tom had believed they had seriously got lucky finding a guy like Paul and he was right, at first. Paul was a tentative and tireless worker, his job on the trials among other things was mainly concerned with diets and records. At first Paul's work was exemplary, however, soon it became apparent that something was amiss. One of the very early participants was displaying a weight gain that was far more rapid than the other girls on the trial. This one participant was a rather reluctant gainer, but had been encouraged by Paul himself to remain on the trial. She was only a petite girl, being under five feet tall and around 115 pounds. Soon however, this girls weight was ballooning and showed no signs of slowing down. The other girls had alerted Tom and Iain to the issue as they claimed that she was seemingly oblivious to the extent of her gain and was gaining noticeably faster than anyone else. When Iain and Tom looked into her case file, they saw that all her stats were in order and she was around the same target weight as was prescribed. This was clearly not the case. They pulled her in to assess her personally and this is where events started to unravel. They found that the girl weighed 220 pounds, nearly double her body weight when she started. The girl had only agreed to gain 50 pounds in the trail and far far exceeded her target weight, she was now seriously obese, something that was never intended on the trial due to the health risks. However, when Iain and Tom tried to break the news to her the about true state of her predicament she was completely oblivious and unaware. It took weeks to finally get her to understand what was happening and when they did she was devastated and pulled out of the course immediately. This sent shock waves through the other participants and they were all clamouring for answers. When Iain and Tom confronted Paul and the scale of the situation was realised, Paul admitted it was due to him and confessed an astonishing story. Paul reluctantly explained that he was secretly a feeder and had taken a liking to this one girl which had gotten out of hand. As she was uneasy about the trial Paul had made it his goal to 'help' her as he put it. So he had been seeing to it that her calorie intake was grossly increased through feeding a drug laden unlicensed weight gain formula of his own creation. This resulted in the girl gaining over 100 pounds in an extremely short amount of time. Because of the effects of complex sedatives in the drug concotion, the poor girl was too relaxed to notice or even acknowledge anything that was happening and mainly spent her time sleeping and eating. Paul had been fiddling her stats so if her gain was ever questioned all would appear well. Through the use of these complex sedatives Paul's intention was to slowly change this girl's persona so that she would accept herself as she was. Obviously, upon cutting the formula treatment short, the girl slowly realised what had happened and had a full breakdown. The news of what happened spread to the other participants and they accused Iain and Tom of lying and conducting some kind of experiments on them. All of the girls left the trial and The Scientific Board of Ethics was notified. By some miracle, the story was kept out of the press, if that hadn't happened, it would have all been over. Regardless, the entire program was nearly buried and Iain and Tom were within a hairs width of being stripped of their doctorates and being totally discredited. It was only due to Paul's confession that the research was saved and Iain and Tom escaped criminal charges. Needless to say, Paul wasn't so lucky.

"So you see Becky, that's why we are concerned. One more incident like Paul and all this is over". Becky stared at Tom in disbelief. "That's, that's unbelievable", "Indeed". "Is that why Iain is so concerned all the time?", Becky asked. "Yes, we both are, but especially Iain. He has invested so much into this research, if it's all for nothing ... well I dread to think. That's why he keeps bringing up professionalism. I must ask again Becky, your relationship with Laura, it is professional?". "Yes, yes of course", another image of Laura's body flashed into Becky's mind, "She is just a good friend and I am looking out for her". Becky lied again. She hoped it was good enough. She looked at Tom and he was eyeing her closely. Becky felt a little uncomfortable so she broke the silence. "What, what happened to the girl?". There was a pause. "She is still receiving therapy for the effects of the concoction of drugs she was exposed to and initially refused to take our own drug to help. She was very mixed up and confused. The therapy team said any longer on that particular mix of drugs and she may not have made a full recovery, they had never seen anything like it before. She only came around after the therapist finally got through to her that we were trying to help her. She finally accepted treatment and is still in recovery. But the experience has changed her and I don't think she will ever completely recover. As for Paul, quite honestly I don't fucking care or want to know. Paul was a selfish, heartless asshole who was only thinking about himself". Becky was taken aback. It was the first time she had ever heard Tom swear. "Iain and I will hope you will take all this on board and have it serve as a reminder Becky. Also, please watch yourself with Laura, I'll be honest with you, I don't trust her. Now, I think that's all I need to say on that matter. Time for the actual debrief don't you think?". Becky nodded and the mornings usual debrief began.