“Yes, but we have very few donors with two PAN parents.”
“Why should that matter?”
“Have a seat, and I’ll show you.” He sat on a rolling stool and pushed a second stool toward Vivienne. She sat down in front of a microscope. “Back in a sec.” Alex scooted himself to the printer, grabbed a sheet of paper, and then glided back, sending a cologne-scented breeze over her. “Did you cover genetics in any of your high school science classes?”
“Maybe a bit in Biology.” She took a deep breath. He smelled great. “But I don’t remember a whole lot.”
“You’re about to get a crash course from a very smart doctor.” He pulled a pen from his lab coat pocket and wrote NN, Nn, and nn on top of the page. The nails on his right hand were painted sparkly pink.
“A very cocky doctor in pink nail polish.”
“Do you like it?” He held out his hand to give her a better look. “My niece did them this weekend. She said the color would match everything, but I’m not so sure it goes with these jeans.”
“How old is she?” Vivienne asked when she stopped laughing.
“Four and a half. She informed me the half is very important.”
Thinking of Alex sitting patiently while a little girl with chubby fingers painted his nails made Vivienne’s heart swell.
“Right. Here we go…” He scooted closer to the desk. “Your DNA encodes all your genes, and genes come in different forms called alleles. You get one set from your mother and one from your father. The Nevergene is what we call a recessive mutation. It’s represented by the small n.” He put an X across NN. “If someone has two dominant alleles like this, there’s no mutation present in their DNA.” He put a check mark over Nn. “In this example, the person carries only one copy of the mutation. Because it’s recessive, it’s overshadowed by the dominant allele. They can pass it on to their offspring, but there’s no chance of activating the gene.” He circled the final two letters. “This combination is the sweet spot. If an individual has two copies of the mutation, their Nevergene can activate.” He looked up from the page and smiled. “With me so far?”
“I think so.” She tore her eyes from his and stared at the paper. “Basically, we have to have two of these small n’s to have an active Nevergene.”
“Exactly. Now…” Alex drew a square on the paper. “This is a Punnett square. It’s a diagram used to predict genotypes.” After dividing the large square into four smaller squares, he labeled the top two squares N and n, and the two on the left-hand side n and n. “When we combine these genes, one from each parent, we can determine the probability of their offspring carrying the Nevergene.” He filled in the squares with the different combinations. “In this scenario, there’s a fifty percent chance the offspring will inherit the mutation from both parents.”
“And what’s the chance the Nevergene will actually activate?”
His smile wavered. “Thirty-seven and a half percent.” He looked back at the page. “Your parents both had active Nevergenes.” He drew another Punnett square with n on the top and on the left. “There was a one-hundred percent chance you would have a Nevergene.” He put the pen back into his pocket. “But what the diagram doesn’t tell us is that you had a seventy-five percent chance of having an active Nevergene.”
“Why did I have a better chance than this person?” She pointed to the first diagram he had drawn.
“That comes down to hormones.” He sat back and laughed. “Sorry…I’m probably boring you.”
“No, no. It’s really interesting.” Alex raised his eyebrows. “Please continue, Dr. Alex.”
“Come this way.” He rolled his chair between the desks to the counter.
Vivienne tried to do the same but ended up bumping off every obstacle on the way. “I’m not very good at this.” She laughed when she collided with him.
“It takes a lot of practice.” He twisted her stool so that she was the right way around.
Next to a stand of empty test tubes, she noticed a graph with different colored undulating lines. “What’s this?”
“This is my area of expertise: hormones.” He pointed to a black line on the chart. “Everyone produces human growth hormone, or hGh.” His finger slid to a green line. “But active Nevergenes cause a mutation in the hGh, producing nGh—or never-growth hormone—which keeps PAN young. When the adrenaline reacts with high levels of nGh—”
“It makes us fly.”
“Bingo.” He gave her a high-five. “According to the research, when two individuals with active Nevergenes have a child with an active Nevergene, the child produces much higher levels of nGh. And I’m sure you know Neverland’s goal is to activate every Nevergene.” He handed her the chart. “Right now, we administer a sedative and a large dose of nGh to PAN whose Nevergenes are activating to keep them active.”
“Sedative?” She scanned the numbers on the axis, as if she knew what they meant. “Why wouldn’t you give adrenaline?”
“Sounds counter-intuitive, right? But the sedative gives the body time for the mutation to…stick. However, I believe adrenaline may be the key ingredient to artificially activating dormant genes. It’s a matter of finding the right ratio of adrenaline to nGh.”
“If you activated your dormant gene, then you could fly too.” Vivienne traced the green line on the page.
“Who needs to fly when you have these?” Alex shoved away from the desk and spun in a circle on his stool.
She set the chart aside and leaned her chin on her hand. “If I gave blood, do you think it would help at all?”
“Yes.” He used his legs to scoot closer to her. “But that’s not why I asked you here.”
Vivienne liked Alex.
And if she didn’t like Deacon so much, she could see herself really liking him.
If giving blood could help Alex and others with lazy Nevergenes live forever, shouldn’t she do it?
Neverland had given her so much. It was time for her to give something back.
She slipped out of her lab coat and wrenched her sleeve above her elbow. “It’s not why I came.”
“You’re sure?” He frowned at her arm.
“Positive.”
“Wait here and I’ll grab some stuff from out front.” The keypad next to the door beeped as Alex pressed buttons. The door opened, and he disappeared.
Vivienne touched the cold glass tubes, then looked into the microscope. The image was blurry, but she was afraid to adjust the knobs.
“Make any ground-breaking discoveries?” Alex asked, returning with a silver tray of medical supplies.
“Not yet.”
He washed his hands, then snapped on a pair of rubber gloves and pulled an antiseptic wipe from the packet. “Set your arm up here.” He shoved a pile of folders out of her way. The cold wipe smelled like alcohol. “This is going to pinch for a sec.”
Vivienne closed her eyes but felt only a slight sting. There was a bit of discomfort when Alex swapped vials, but overall, it was a painless experience.
“All done.”