Chapter One: Preparation

Chapter One will be posted here first, then on modthesims shortly after. Feel free to look and comment wherever you like, but be warned, it might seem a little disturbing to some people. :) Enjoy!

Dusk had fallen in West Oakshire, and an unusual silence filled the smoggy air. A police siren broke the night as an axe would split wood. The old woman who was crossing the road jumped at the sudden noise, then reached down to comfort the whimpering child in her arms. Her footsteps were slightly hurried as she opened the gate of one of the largest mansions in the city and moved up the front path. She mounted the porch steps with what looked like trepidation, as though she was expecting someone or something to jump out at her. Her hand shook slightly as she reached up to ring the doorbell, but whether it was from nerves or simple old age was impossible to tell. The door swung slowly open to reveal a smiling woman and an intricately built, but still warm looking home.
"So kind of you to come, Mrs. Wells."
"Yes, well, I'm glad I found a family that would be willing to do this."
The younger woman smiled gently. It was a sweet expression, but the older woman saw something in those cold blue eyes that she didn't like a bit.
"Come in and make yourself comfortable. Can I offer you something to drink?"
"No, no, that's all right."

Miranda Wells followed the woman through an entrance hall and into an intimidating but somehow cozy living area. Miranda imitated the woman and sat on one of the two couches that were available. There was another person in the room already; a man who was bent over lighting a fire. Noticing the direction of Miranda's gaze, the young woman smiled slightly.
"I suppose we haven't properly introduced ourselves. My name is Dr. Cassandra Belson, and this is my husband, Dr. Steven Belson."
The man turned around and gave Miranda a nod of greeting before crossing the room to put an arm around his wife.
"You know why you're here, don't you Mrs. Wells?"
The old woman looked from him to his wife and back again. Suddenly, a powerful feeling of fear swept over her, worse than the uneasiness she had been experiencing before. There was something very wrong here, she just couldn't put her finger on it. But she didn't have a choice. She had to find someone to take the child. And these people had money. They were well respected scientists, and everyone in Oakshire trusted them implicitly. That was why she had agreed to come in the first place.
"Yes, yes I do."
Cassandra Belson smiled slightly, looking at the toddler in Miranda's arms.
"We know you don't want the government involved in this affair. We would love to have young Linnea come live with us, even unofficially."
A sudden reserve of courage rose in Miranda and she covered the child's head protectively.
"I still want to know you'll take care of her first."
"Of course. We would be happy to conduct an interview, just as they do in the agencies."

Miranda was still suspicious, but she nodded.
"All right, why did you contact me? Why do you want an unofficial child?"
The couple looked at eachother. Something very much like love passed between them and Miranda felt herself soften slightly despite her reservations. The man spoke this time. Steven's voice was measured and steady, giving a calming effect to the people around him.
"We have been married for almost five years now, and about a year ago, we decided we were ready to have a child. After a while of trying, we still weren't successful, so we went to see a doctor. And we found out that we would never be able to have children together. We thought about surrogacy, but the idea of breeding a child as though they were merely something in a test tube didn't appeal to us."
Cassandra cut in, looking anguished.
"Imagine our position. We're both scientists. Well respected. But there's too much fact in our lives and not enough variation. I gather that the house is not entirely what you expected."
Miranda grudgingly agreed. She had expected an ultra-modern condo, to be honest. Dr. Belson continued to talk.
"When we read about your son's death in the newspaper, we were deeply saddened by it. He was a colleague of mine, you know."
Miranda nodded. She had known that actually, it had been another reason she had agreed to come.
"But we also knew that he had a daughter who would need a home now. Cassandra didn't want to call you; she said you had a right to keep your granddaughter, but I insisted we just make sure you wanted her."
Miranda looked down at the child nestled in her arms.
"I do want her. I want her with all my heart, but I can't take care of her."
"But we can, Mrs. Wells. That's why we called you."

The child opened her eyes and looked at the couple across from her. Both she and the old woman were silent for a few seconds. Then, slowly, Miranda placed the child on the floor beside the couch.
"I'll miss you, little one."
________________________________________________________________
The minute the old woman had left, Dr. Belson took off her long wig and replaced her makeup. That was the last time she would ever have to act motherly. This was the beginning of an experiment that would make her career a success.

The child spent the night in a small crib in the attic. The following morning, both Cassandra and Steven rose at five o clock to examine their new possession. Both of them thought of the child that way. A possession. And, for the next ten years or so, a tool. Cassandra smiled slightly as she picked the toddler up off of the floor. Holding her up to the light, she examined Linnea from head to toe.
"Yes, you'll do just fine, I think. Perfectly healthy, good genes, and no government involvement to get in the way."
The child stared back at her with wide gray eyes. She did not cry, but her lower lip trembled as the strange woman took her outside, into a garage, and down a set of stairs.

Cassandra and Steven Belson kept the location of their laboratory a secret for many reasons, foremost among them being that it would ruin their reputation is anyone found out about some of the things they were doing. But to Cassandra in particular, scientific progress was more important than any moral value one might have. The lab was large and modern with whitewashed walls and fluorescent lighting. Various instruments littered the rooms, but everything was well organized and, more importantly, clean. Various experiments were kept in test tubes and glass shelves and a large fish tank adorned the wall, with various types of fish that Steven was in the process of genetically modifying. He was already downstairs when Cassandra entered carrying the child.
"She's in the suit now, so it should protect her from permanent damage."
"You have all the stem cells you need?"
"Of course. We've been collecting them for years."
"Let's begin then."

The child seemed to gain some sense of what was going on by the time Cassandra started to lower her into the water. She cried out and tried to touch the woman's face, but the shock of frigid water slowed down her reflexes and knocked the breath out of her. Cassandra watched the monitor carefully as she dropped Linnea into the tub.
"Everything looks fine. Her heat rate picked up of course, but her body temperature will soon be low enough."
"You're sure it won't hurt her?"
Cassandra smirked a little.
"Not permanently."

They both looked down at the toddler, who was now totally submerged in the water. Her gray eyes were wide and fearful and her small body curled itself into a ball to try and keep out the cold that had entered her bones.
"And so it begins, little one. This will be the greatest nature versus nurture experiment that has ever taken place. The only one we've ever conducted without a hypothesis."
It would be a very long twelve years for Linnea. She wouldn't remember any of her ordeals as a child, but they would scar her forever.