Emma liked her office. It was clean and well furnished with a desk and small sofa in the corner. There was a computer and an empty book case. She sat down in the desk chair and turned on the computer. It had never been used before so she gave it a password for herself and sorted out the basic things that she would need. Emma went onto the internet and looked up flats in the area to see if she could find somewhere cheap to stay. She found a couple of places and wrote them down so that she could check them out later. She looked down at the piece of paper that she had been drawing on. She picked up the pencil and began to finish sketching the other side of Dr Rosen's face. She felt herself relax just a little as she filled in his eyes. They were so full of kindness. She kept drawing for a while until she was interrupted.

"Emma, that's your name right?" she looked up to see Gary poking his head around her office door. She put her pencil down next to the paper

"Yes"

"Here is a paper copy of my routine. I also have it on this USB so you can download it" he passed her a single sheet of paper, covered with a timetable. He got up at 7:42, screamed and then called his mother at 8:00. Then he had breakfast, greeted everyone else at 9:00. At 3:14 he called his mother again at work. He went to bed at 9:30.

"That seems perfectly reasonable. Um, Gary, can I talk to you for a moment?" Gary looked at the clock in the corner of her office

"I can talk to you for 15 minutes before I need to call my mom" he walked in and sat on her sofa, closing the door behind him. Emma noticed that his lips always seemed to be pursing and unpursing as he played with the electromagnetic signals.

"Autism has always been quite an interesting subject for me. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Dr Rosen is my psychiatrist; you're not supposed to help me"

"I'm not trying to help you. I just want to know more about it and some of your views. If I can help you on the way then that is just a bonus"

"Ok" he continued to frown at her

"Where do you fall on the CARs scale?"

"32."

"Ok so the lower end" his fingers clicked as he fiddled with the lines running past his eyes. Emma paused

"w-what do the signals look like?"

"They're coloured lines. Bright colours"

"You said earlier that I had a signal?"

"Yes"

"What does my signal look like?"

"It's blue. Like a bright blue, like the W in the word document icon. It kind of radiates off you in waves, like-like the way sand looks underwater when the undercurrent gets it" she smiled at that. Her signal sounded nice

"But you said that people couldn't have their own signals?" he nodded. Pausing for a moment she picked up the pencil and drew in a few more of Dr Rosen's hairs. As she was shading he said "and on a different but not entirely unrelated topic, can I ask you why you scream after you get up at 7:42 but before you call your mother at 8:00?"

"I scream because I need to. I stopped living with my mom because it scares her. Screaming helps me"

"Do you know what caused it?"

"No! I don't want to answer that question" Gary suddenly changed in Emma's eyes. One moment he was calm and all of a sudden he was highly agitated. He started talking over her as she tried to say something. He got up and left, still talking to himself. Emma thought she heard

"Still can't have your own signal…" Emma sighed quietly to herself. This was not going to go well.

Kat checked the time on the clock in the office. Rosen had asked her to come and see him today. She dragged the picture she had done of the woman she suspected was her mother. Kat carried it out of the room and along the thinly carpeted corridor to Dr Rosen's office. Rosen looked up from Emma's file to see Kat carrying what used to be one of the plastic cover boards. But she had placed a large sheet of paper inside and drawn on top of the plastic in marker pen. He closed the card cover of the file as Kat stood in front of the picture, just staring at it.

"Is that her?" Rosen asked, getting up out of his worn office chair to take a closer a look. The woman was tall, wearing a blue dress, with hair that fell past her shoulders. She looked a bit like Kat.

"Yeah" she said with a quiet sigh. Kat sat down, still staring at the picture. Rosen also sat down, opposite and watched the young woman for a moment

"Kat you've been here for a while now" she said nothing in reply "can you remember how long?" she turned her gaze on him

"Nope" she said brightly

"Have you remembered anything else from your past? I know you remember that short sequence involving your mother. Was anything triggered by that knife you were given?"

"No. I mean, I remember the knife. Well I remember what I did with it."

"Can you do it again?"

"Sure" Kat got up, tucking a few stray strands of blond hair behind her ear and sat in Dr Rosen's office chair. She found several pieces of lined paper and put them in front of her – she didn't want to mark the desk. Kat placed her left hand on the little pile of paper, spreading her fingers wide, and flicked out the knife. Rosen watched in amazement as she repeatedly stabbed the knife into the gaps in between her fingers. She started of relatively slow, but got faster and faster in front of his eyes. She reached her top speed and then stopped. She put the knife away as Rosen pulled out the top piece of paper. There were six small holes in between where her fingers had been. Where the knife had landed in that space had never changed, Rosen realised – she hit exactly the same spot every time.

"Wow. That was incredible"

"Not really. I've seen someone else do it before"

"Of course you have. That's why you can do it so quickly and precisely" Kat said nothing for a while, she seemed to be lost in thought.

"Can you find her?" she said suddenly. Rosen was a little surprised at the request

"i-I don't know, maybe…" he trailed off. Her green eyes stared into his brown ones for a moment and then she looked back at the picture. "Kat" he said placing a hand on her shoulder "I will do my utmost to find your mother. Alright?" she nodded. She got up to leave and took hold of the handle of the board. "Do you mind if I keep that?" Rosen asked

"Sure" she let go and left it by the wall. Kat left, still thinking about the woman that might be her mother. She was so lost in thought she walked straight into Gary, who promptly fell over in astonishment. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Gary" she moved to help him up, trying to catch his hand to pull him up, but he slapped her away

"Don't touch me; I don't like to be touched"

"Ok" she backed away a little, holding her hands up in surrender "are you alright?"

"No! Why does she have a signal?! No one can have a signal! You don't, I don't, Bill doesn't! I don't like it!"

"Whoa hold on there" she moved a little closer to him as he frowned in anger at the lines floating in front of his eyes. Rosen had heard some of the commotion and came out to see what was wrong.

"Are you alright Gary?" He came over. Gary didn't say anything to him, he just kept muttering to himself.

"He doesn't like that the new girl has a signal. It's freaking him out a bit"

"Her name is Emma, Kat." He directed his attentions to Gary "Gary, listen to me" Gary kept waving his hands about in front of his face "Gary!" he said louder, snapping his fingers in front of his face. Gary's pupils dilated then focused on Rosen "there are some things that we can't explain ok? One of them is why Emma has a signal. I don't know why yet, but I am trying to find out. For the meantime just try to ignore it, alright? When I work it out you'll be the first to know" Gary hunched his shoulders, still unhappy. "Everything's going to be fine. Just go back into your office and relax for a moment" Gary shuffled off, still talking to himself. Rosen disappeared back into his office and Kat went into hers. Rosen leaned back in his chair massaging his temples lightly. He could feel a headache coming on.