Several panicked moments passed before she turned towards the sound of rustling from the back room. One of the metal cabinets opened up, and to Madeline's great relief, the doctor emerged, safe and sound though looking every bit as worried as she was. The blonde's racing heart began to slow down at the confirmnation that Doctor Xiao was safe... only to rise its rhythm again as the insectoid woman approached, grabbing Madeline's shoulders with two of her three-fingered hands. With a surprising amount of force, she pulled the blonde in, and suddenly she found Jennifer's lips pressed against her own.
If she was going to be honest... there'd always been a part of her that went beyond simply admiring the doctor. Jennifer was an absolutely brilliant woman, even if she herself didn't think so at times - and more to the point, she was a rather pretty woman, with her tied-back hair, those tired yet kind eyes, that general air of a stressed genius desperate to make the world a better place. She'd said nothing, of course, knowing that a crush on a menor would only make things awkward... but that feeling hadn't gone away, and it kept her from pushing back against the kiss. If anything, she almost embraced it, not resisting as Jennfier's tongue slipped up against the roof of her mouth.
She almost felt saddened when it abruptly ended, Jennifer suddenly pushing away as she regained her senses. All four hands rush to cover her mouth in embarassment, mandibles clicking as her multiple eyes went wide in horror at what she'd just done. "M-Madeline.... I'm so... s-s-sorry, I..."
Quickly she put up both hands. "It's... it's alright, doctor, you were uh.... excited." So was Madeline, if her racing heart was anything to go by. "N-never mind that... what happened? I heard glass breaking, and there was a beaker broken... are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"
The blush on Jennifer's mutated face confirmed that the only injury was to her pride. "No... no, I... I w-wasn't used to gripping it with these hands, a-and... it... slipped." A mundane accident, but one that seemed to have worked her up into a frenzy. "A-a-and then I heard someone coming, and I didn't know if it was you... and I just..."
"Okay, okay, it's okay." She patted the older woman on the shoulder. "Let's just... just, please, get some rest. I'll clean up the mess, and then we'll... we'll deal with things tomorrow. One step at a time." She gave Xiao the best reassuring smile she could muster before the woman reluctantly nodded, turning to take a seat. Madeline quickly headed back into the front part of the lab, grabbing a broom and dustpan to clean up the glass shards scattered about.
In short order, the mess had been dealt with, Madeline offering the doctor one final reassuring hug before heading back out the door and down towards the parking lot. She did her best to focus on what had to be done next as she walked the empty lot, but her mind couldn't help but wander back to that kiss. Even with all of Jennifer's changes... it hadn't felt so bad. Kind of nice, even. Maybe... maybe when things had stabilized, and she had moved from being mere student to a partner in developing this incredible genetic breakthrough... maybe she could be honest about how she'd been feeling.
No, no, stupid. That was stupid to think about. Selfish, in fact, to be considering such things when the doctor was so vulnerable, in such a ragged state. Shame flooded Madeline as she reached her car, joined by an ache in her gut as she settled in to the driver's seat. God, how could she even think about that right now? A sigh passed her lips, as she found the pain inside her stomach growing, as if the guilt was literally gnawing at her. And then... growing further still, not stopping even once she had turned the key and started the car up. In fact, it quickly reached the point where she couldn't focus on putting the car in drive, instead simply doubling over in pain.
A thought occurred to her. The retrovirus had been transmitted to Jennifer via an exchange of bodily fluids... and for just a moment back there, the two women's saliva had mixed.