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Lauren was first found by Richard when she was in her second year of college. He had been touring through different universities across the United States as a talent search for his family, the Grimaldis, in the hopes of being able to sponsor and subsequently employ talented up-and-coming scientists. Unfortunately, Lauren did not meet the criteria that Twin Helix ultimately desired, but she did perfectly meet the qualifications for a side project that Richard had been entertaining for some time.
You see human scientists have to eat, drink, sleep, and normally require some period of time interacting with other humans to remain functional and working members of a team. The problem is that most of the Grimaldi experiments require round-the-clock hands-on experiments that are incredibly fragile and could go wrong if there are not at least two attendants to run the experiment. Since humans have to leave at some point to sleep this causes a break in the time that the test subjects could be studied and that research could be done more accurately than if they were forced to switch out the teams performing the experiment. Richard considered this a waste of time and company funding, and as such thought it best to "hire" an independent contractor on the side.
When he met Lauren she was the aloof and intriguing student at the far corner of the chemistry lab with two separate notebooks full of equations. At Richard's initial approach she quickly shut the secondary book and glared at him past dark-rimmed sleepless eyes. "How long has it been since you last slept?" he asked her quietly, pretending to point out an equation in the opened book.
Though she took her time in responding, the response itself was good enough. "Not long enough," she hissed at him.
There was one thing he did need to check on before he made his initial decision however. "What are you working on?" this time he clearly pointed to the closed notebook and held her gaze, which she returned with a suspicious and equally burning curiosity.
The test tube she had been holding was put back in its place and she had focused her attention on him instead, "Nothing that they let me do in here." Richard couldn't help the smile that broke across his features then. She had been the best candidate for his side project, and he was certain in the end she would be won over.
After that there had been wining and dining, all of which Richard was used to and Lauren was clearly not. She refused to dress properly for the occasions that were offered to her, and in the end Richard came to realize that her rudeness and blunt nature was due to a mental defect instead of a personality flaw. The company would never approve of her being sponsored into the program, but Richard was unwilling to lose what could be a valuable side asset to their research efforts.
One of the nights that Richard came to visit her he was shown into her lab. Everything was crudely fashioned due to a college budget and lack of time but it had potential, all it truly needed was Richard's backing and some guidance. When he proposed his business deal she had seemed dubious at first. She insisted on examining his blood beneath a microscope, inspecting his fangs, and taking a venom sample. Richard allowed her to do all these things, but first she had to complete paperwork, and privacy waivers. When she was satisfied that she had proven Richard's physical abnormalities as nothing she could find in modern science she decided to believe the possibility of vampires. This was the first step.
Richard kept in contact with her after his tour forced him to move onto another university. He acted as a springboard and encouragement for her research. Eventually when her barriers had dropped enough he offered her a job, but made sure she understood that part of the requirements were that she became a vampire like him. There would be no sleeping unless if she felt so inclined to do so, no eating, no need for breaks. All there would be was an infinite amount of learning and continued college careers, and a funded laboratory for secondary double-checking on Twin Helix research done through a private account. He would supply her with blood, her apartment, and college tuition. All she had to do was go back over the research and complete human testing when needed.
Lauren took a few days to respond, but when she did she agreed to the terms and requested that a formal contract be drafted. Richard returned not two days later with a draft for her to go over, and after a few minor changes that would ensure Lauren had almost complete privacy as well as her own choice of colleges to attend the agreement was formed. She would have her own private lab at each of the colleges she attended not too far from her apartment and monthly check-ins from Richard to see the progress of her research, as well as access to all of her research files.
In fact the act of turning Lauren was the simplest part of the entire agreement. It was clinical and unemotional. She did not whimper, or whine, or moan. When his fangs sunk into her neck she twitched once and then was quiet, enduring the slow burning draw of her blood leaving her body without comment. When he released her she crumpled to the ground, and it took her four hours before she awoke again with one large habitual inhale and a clarity to her eyes that had not been there before. Training her took relatively no time, because Lauren treated the entire process like an experiment. Each difference in her behavior and new abilities were marked in a separate moleskin dedicated solely to her changes and adjustments. Richard was sure she would do well in her new position, and he told her as much when he left. Two days later a packet arrived in the mail with a check and a detailed invoice of where she was to move and what she would be given in her lab and in her apartment. At the end of the semester Lauren would transfer, and her new life would start.