"You're coming back tomorrow?" Julia asked excitedly.
"Yes, we should be landing late though, so I will see you on Friday at work" answered Sofia while sipping her coffee.
"And how's your little holiday with Mr. Serene proceeding?" Karin butted in with a mocking smirk, the girl sitting beside Julia in front of the computer.
Sofia's red face was perfectly visible even in her dark room, and the girls giggled from the other side of her laptop screen.
"First of all, this is not a holiday. And secondly, our… business trip is proceeding well" replied Sofia.
"What is it you are doing in London, anyway?" Julia inquired.
"I told you! We needed to meet up with one of Dr. Kim's fellow scientists, Dr. Mason, to discuss some new developments in finding a cure to the chronon syndrome. And since it was an important meeting, and Dr. Kim couldn't make it, Paul joined me instead" lied Sofia. She hated it, but could not risk revealing that Paul was the subject of their experiments. Julia seemed deep in thought but didn't say anything.
"Well, I really need to send this report to Hatch before tonight, or he will kill me. Literally. And then I am going straight to bed, because tomorrow I need to be at work early" Karin said while stretching.
"Yeah, I'd better go too" agreed Julia, who still seemed thoughtful.
"See you soon then, Sofia! Have a nice flight. You are flying with Sexy Serene after all!" Karin grinned, and left while waving at her.
Julia rolled her eyes at her friend, and gave Sofia a wide smile before disconnecting her profile, and Sofia was left to stare at the empty chat screen.
It was still relatively early in London compared to the USA, and so she had decided to take Paul to the London Eye to celebrate their achievement.
She met him in Leah's living-room shortly after, still wearing his casual clothes, and they left the shabby house to head to the nearest tube.
They traveled all the way to Waterloo Station, and walked to the London Eye. It was a Tuesday and so it was not particularly crowded. They bought the tickets and waited for their turn in line, before finally stepping into one of the cylindrical glass capsules which would take them all the way to the top, where they could enjoy a breath-taking view of London.
They were the only ones in their capsule, and had a full 360 degrees' view of the capital. Paul looked so captivated and for a second, Sofia couldn't picture him as the leader of a powerful company who was trying to save the world. She couldn't associate the man in front of her with the dangerous one she had faced over a week before.
He was simply Paul, a man who was enjoying his short holiday in another country.
She smiled at the very thought of Paul having a normal life and, by looking at his happy yet nostalgic expression while staring at the view, realized that was all he wanted.
He had not founded Monarch to gain power, fame or more money. He had founded Monarch to save mankind. And he had lost everything in the process.
She could tell he missed Jack, the days where they were young and without a thought on their minds.
She had never asked him how they had met each other, how they had become best friends and how their lives used to be before the fracture, and finally realized she wanted to know. She wanted to know everything about him, see pictures of him when he was younger, get to know his life better to understand why he had made certain choices.
Paul was still staring out of the window without saying a word. Sofia approached him and suddenly took his hand into hers. He squeezed it lightly and turned to smile at her.
"This is one of the happiest days of my life, Sofia. Thanks to you" he said softly.
"Is it?" she asked. She couldn't help but think he was indeed happy, but at the same time he looked so lost in thought, as if his spirit was somewhere else, far away…
He gave her a questioning look, and she sighed.
"I think you are not entirely satisfied. You look so sad sometimes" she explained.
He went back to staring at the view, and his face turned more serious.
"You must understand I have lots of responsibilities, Sofia. And many choices I have made have brought me this far, and I still think I did the right thing, but you must understand that my life has changed drastically in a blink of an eye" he told her.
"Is it because of Jack Joyce?" she asked. He simply nodded.
"You miss him, right? You miss the old times" she continued.
"The past is the past, Sofia. And it cannot be changed. I have tried so many times. I have tried to go back and undo things, but no matter what I do or what I say, my actions simply keep repeating. The past is already written and cannot be undone. It has taken me many years to accept this, and I have to take responsibility for my actions and my choices. Jack is buried with my past" he replied, and released his hand from hers just when the wheel started moving again.
Sofia almost regretted asking him about Jack, as his expression had turned possibly sadder, but also more determined.
When the wheels came to a halt, Paul jumped out of the capsule and then reached out to help her.
"What do you wanna do now?" he asked. Sofia only wanted to see him smile again and suggested paying a visit to the aquarium nearby. They walked to the entrance and bought their tickets.
Sofia tried her best to distract him, by pointing at weird-looking fish, or asking him to take pictures of her but, even if he occasionally smiled, she could tell he was still thinking about their conversation.
"I have an idea!" she suddenly said when their tour had finished. She pointed at a spot between the aquarium and a place called 'Shrek's adventure' "Do you like scary stuff?"
Sofia had always kept her distance from the London Dungeons: even though it was all staged and just meant to entertain, she couldn't help but feel scared at the very sight of the entrance.
The loud noises coming from the inside were enough for her to keep her away.
But her sixth sense told her that would do the trick, and so she grabbed Paul's arm and pulled him inside.
"The London Dungeons, really?!" he complained, though he was fighting back a smile.
"Shush" she commanded and decided to buy the tickets herself this time "you're gonna love it!"
"Oh, I'm gonna love it so much I'll build my own inside Monarch Tower" he said sarcastically.
"That would be fun" she replied jovially, and collected their tickets "come on!"
There was quite a lot of people waiting in line, and so they were divided into groups of 7 or 8.
After waiting for 15 minutes, and with Paul starting to become impatient, it was finally their turn to step inside the dungeons.
Sofia almost regretted her idea, and started walking through the dark corridors with uncertain steps, and jerking her head at the smallest sound.
"What was that?" she asked with fear in her voice when a particularly loud scream could be heard.
"Probably someone getting scared to death" replied Paul with an amused smirk.
They suddenly found themselves in a large chamber filled with real-size mirrors placed one after another, in order to create confusing paths. Only one led to the exit.
It was so dark that Sofia could barely see anything, and wherever she turned, she could see her own reflex. Her head started spinning, and she reached out with both her arms to make sure she was not bumping into anyone else.
She panicked even more when she realized Paul was not with her anymore.
"Paul?" she called "PAUL?!"
She kept advancing, trying to adapt her eyes to the darkness, and then an arm grabbed her and she screamed.
"Hey hey, it's me!" said Paul, trying to calm her down.
"Oh thank God!" she exclaimed relieved.
"This way" he said, and led her to the exit where the rest of the group was already proceeding to the next room.
"Don't you ever dare leave my side again" Sofia commanded, still agitated.
"As you wish, my lady. But you may regret it" mocked Paul.
As they approached the end of their tour, Sofia realized it was now Paul who was in charge, encouraging her to continue when she started rushing to the nearest exit.
"No" said Sofia firmly at the sight of a row of metal chairs in front of her. The sign read "Drop Dead: Drop Ride To Doom".
They were still wet after the boat ride, which had ended with a huge splash in the water, and Sofia had had enough.
"Anything but this" she continued "I'm leaving, bye bye".
"Come on!" exclaimed Paul "So you manage to fight and survive an encounter with a Shifter, and walk away from a carousel?"
"First of all, you were not a Shifter. And secondly, that's not a carousel!" retorted Sofia "It's how I die".
Paul laughed, a genuine laugh that took Sofia aback: he had finally returned to being his normal self, and she thought he looked extremely handsome with his still-wet apparel and that happy expression.
"Sofia, please! They will even take a picture, look!" he continued and pointed at a camera on top of the attraction.
"Oh, how pretty! A picture!" she said sarcastically. "Oh, alright then for goodness' sake!" she surrendered at the sight of his pleading expression, and reluctantly took her seat. Paul sat beside her and then they were slowly lifted until they could almost touch the ceiling. Sofia looked down and realized only then how far up they were. She swallowed hard and then focused on the speech some puppet judges were making. They were only dolls, of course, sentencing them to death, but she was nervous nonetheless.
Sofia's heart started racing at the thought of what would happen soon, but the volume was so low she found herself concentrating on the speech.
And then, all of a sudden and before the speech had ended, they were dropped.
She was so taken by surprise and horror that the scream froze in her lungs, and felt as if their insides had suddenly jumped to her throat all together.
The machine stopped slowly before reaching the ground, and the others simply laughed after having screamed her lungs out.
"Are you alright?" laughed Paul at her horrified expression.
"I hate you so much" commented Sofia, her voice still shaking with fear.
"Let's check out the picture! I bet it's epic!" and he ran to the desk where they could buy their picture of the drop.
Two hours later, when they were sitting in Leah's living-room, Paul was still laughing his heart out at Sofia's face on the picture. He had bought it as soon as he had set his eyes on it.
"Don't you dare show it to anyone" she said, sipping her tea calmly.
"You two are really cute together" said Leah out of the blue, making Sofia almost choke on her tea.
"I guess we are, yeah" Paul agreed with another smirk.
Leah Mason was not the cleanest or the most normal in the world, but it was with heavy heart that Sofia bid her goodbye the following day. One of Paul's private helicopters would pick up Dr. Kim's equipment later during the day, when Paul and Sofia were already halfway back to the USA.
"Don't be a stranger" said Leah hugging both of them "and keep up with the good work".
"There will always be an available position for you in our team, you know that Leah" smiled Paul.
"Thank you, Paul. But I know you have everything you need already. I know you will fix the fracture" replied Leah. She had been kept informed by Dr. Kim, but had never really wanted to get involved for some reason. Sofia suspected her husband's loss could be the cause of her solitude, and the reason why she had lost interest in research. But she couldn't deny either that Leah had been extremely helpful towards her and Paul with her hospitality and knowledge.
Their taxi was waiting for them outside the dark alley and, still waving at Leah, Sofia and Paul got in the car and started driving to the airport.
Their trip back to the USA would be one hour less than scheduled, thanks to some shortcuts the captain would be taking. But the flight would be long nevertheless, and Sofia bought a book and some magazines to keep herself busy during the trip.
Both she and Paul ended up sleeping for most part of the flight, since they didn't want to risk suffering from jet leg like they did when they had first arrived in London. They needed to get back to work as soon as possible, and resting was not part of their plan.
So when the plane landed, both of them felt quite refreshed, though hungry and decided to stop to eat before proceeding to Paul's Aventador still parked at the top of the parking lot.
He drove her to her place, helping her with the luggage.
"So, I guess I will see you on Friday" she said, her hair fluttering with a sudden blow of cold wind. She shot out her right hand to shake his, but he simply smiled and embraced her. She closed her eyes and breathed in his scent she had become so fond of, feeling suddenly empty when he let her go.
"Thank you, Sofia. For everything" he said softly and she felt truly happy.
"Look who's baaaaack!"
Karin and Julia had decided to wait for Sofia by the reception, and Karin was giving her quite a warm welcoming, attracting the attention of every single person sitting in the large room. Martha, the secretary, raised an eyebrow.
Karin didn't seem to notice, or maybe she didn't really care, and ran to hug her friend. Sofia smiled broadly, and hugged her back before embracing Julia too.
"We've missed you" said her calmer friend "I hope your trip went well".
"Yes, indeed! But I will explain everything once we are upstairs" and Sofia led her friends to the closest elevator and proceeded to their office.
Everything was just like she had left it except for a small cake on her desk, which read 'Welcome back, Sofia!'
She was speechless and hugged both her friends again before slicing the cake and offering it to Karin and Julia.
"You didn't have to…" she said blushing.
"We thought you'd need some sugar after all the traveling you've done" giggled Julia.
"Well, I beg to differ. I bet she got enough sugar with Serene, if you know what I mean" retorted Karin playfully wiggling her brows, and bit her cake.
Sofia blushed violently and told her friend they had simply been working on the cure, which they managed to find in the very end with the help of another scientist.
"So you were not alone on your honeymoon?" mocked Karin.
"No, we were working all along with one of Dr. Kim's colleagues and friend, Dr. Mason, as I already told you" replied Sofia "and we were not on our honeymoon, for goodness' sake!"
"You managed to find a cure, then" continued Julia calmly "How?"
Sofia then explained how they had had to stabilize the chronon particles first before the subject could benefit from them.
"Makes sense" Julia continued pensively "that was clever indeed. But how do you know it worked?"
Sofia felt like her friend knew more than she let on: the edge of her voice when she had asked the question made Sofia believe Julia was suspecting something.
"Ehm…" she started, but didn't know how to answer to her question without revealing Paul's condition "let's just say we have run tests, and they all showed positive results. All the calculations were correct, and Dr. Mason and Dr. Kim agree."
"Ok. But why did Paul Serene himself come with you to London? Couldn't you have gone alone, or with one of us? He is our CEO, and surely has other things to attend to than keeping an eye on the research team. His interest in the cure is quite… fascinating" retorted Julia, and Sofia now knew she definitely suspected that Paul was her patient.
Just when Sofia opened her mouth to speak, Karin sighed at said "He must have his motives, Julia. Leave her alone, it's only her first day at work after the flight!"
Sofia could have hugged her, and the topic was dropped. But Julia didn't seem satisfied, and kept eyeing her suspiciously.
Sofia tried her best to ignore Julia's stare and concentrated on her work. She would not be meeting Dr. Kim that day, as she had been assigned to paper work. She suspected Paul was giving her easy days to allow her to relax a bit, but right then Sofia had wished she could just leave her office instead of bearing Julia's annoying gaze.
At lunch time, just when Sofia was done filing some papers regarding the latest reports on chronon harvesting at Ground Zero for Paul to sign, Martin Hatch walked into their office.
"Good morning, ladies. I will be having a word with Dr. Amaral" he said without even looking at Julia and Karin. He hadn't asked for them to leave: it was a command, and the girls left immediately with a "See you at the cafeteria, Sofia".
"Mr. Hatch. What can I do for you?" Sofia asked without standing. She had tried to be friendly with Hatch, tried to cope with his commanding and invasive personality, but had failed. And so she had decided to simply ignore him, and avoid him as much as possible. The rare times they had to talk to each other, she would try to act civil and professional.
"I just wanted to congratulate you with your recent discovery. I can assure you that Paul is extremely pleased and grateful, and he has decided to promote you to Assistant Head of Research, raise your salary and your security clearance" he said, his expression unreadable "you may collect your new badge in his office. For security reasons, we will not be leaving security badges at the reception any longer. And you can expect a raise in salary next month. A bulletin will be sent to every employee in Monarch to inform them about your promotion".
Sofia blinked several times, and muttered a "thank you" before he turned around and left without another word.
She was a bit confused: why hadn't Paul mentioned this to her before? And why had he sent Hatch to inform her? She was slightly hurt, and thought that even a simple e-mail from him would have been hundreds of times better than sending Martin Hatch to brief her.
Sofia sighed heavily and thought that Paul was, after all, her boss and the CEO of the largest company every built, and he could do whatever he pleased.
She drew off the papers and stood up to run to the cafeteria before lunch break would be over.
"Wow Sofia, that is awesome!" Karin exclaimed at their table upon hearing the news of her promotion.
"Thank you! That was the least I was expecting" replied Sofia with a huge smile.
Julia hadn't said anything, and looked too focused on her food.
"Something's wrong?" Karin asked her.
"Uh? Oh, no nothing. Congratulations Sofia" Julia said coldly, and then she returned to her food and opened a magazine.
Karin gave her a questioning look, but didn't say anything more. Sofia suspected Julia was jealous but she thought her friend simply needed some time to mull over it.
"Well, I will be going back to work. See you girls later" Julia said a few minutes later. She had barely touched her food, and Sofia had noticed she was just pretending to read: her eyes were fixed on the pages, but were not really moving.
"What is wrong with her?" said Karin after Julia had left. Sofia simply dismissed the matter with a shrug.
Julia was not in the office the following Monday after the weekend, and Karin had not heard from her at all.
"Maybe she got sick, and yet it is weird she hasn't told us. She normally bombs me with messages on WhatsApp, you know"Karin said worriedly.
Sofia could understand Julia's frustration: she had been working for Monarch for much longer than her, had tried her best to please Paul by giving him the cure he so much wanted, but had been beaten by Sofia, the newest recruit. But she also thought her friend was acting way too childishly now by ignoring them and not showing up at work. If Julia had a problem with her, she might as well tell her square in the face and have an adult conversation.
"Are you going to the lab today? I have finally been assigned to CFR research this morning. I was getting tired of filing papers: I am a scientist, not a secretary!" Karin told her.
"Actually I was supposed to, but my workday has been changed and now it is just blank. I don't know what that means" replied Sofia, showing her friend her shedule on her laptop.
"Uhm" Karin hummed while examining the list "it is very strange they changed your workday all of a sudden. I found a blank day only once on my list, but they had immediately changed it a few days beforehand. Maybe you should talk to Serene".
"He has surely more important things to do than checking my shifts" retorted Sofia with a sigh. Truth was that Sofia still couldn't accept the lack of communication between her and Paul after all they had been through in London. Not only had he not sent her one single e-mail or text message since they had come back, but had even instructed Hatch to fetch her and give her the news about her promotion.
"Then ask Dr. Kim. He is in the lab right now" Karin suggested and went for the door.
Sofia followed her friend down to the laboratories and unlocked the door.
The research team was already at work as usual, but still no trace of Julia.
"Sofia!"
Sofia turned to her left where Dr. Kim was walking towards her with open arms and a broad smile.
They hugged and Dr. Kim congratulated her multiple times on her excellent work and her new promotion.
"They couldn't have chosen a better assistant for this job, really" he said and Sofia knew he meant it by his genuine smile.
"Sofia, I will get to work. I'll see you later at lunch?" asked Karin with a smile.
"Of course!" Sofia replied and her friend gave her a victory gesture and went to her station.
"Henry, I was actually wondering who makes our shifts? I got a blank day today" asked Sofia.
"Normally it's me when it comes to the research team. And either Paul or Martin takes care of mine" he answered "but I definitely have not changed the list this morning."
"Well, I was supposed to work at the lab today, but the list has been changed all of a sudden and now it doesn't show anything" Sofia retorted.
"It might be that it has something to do with your promotion. Have you asked Paul?" Dr. Kim suggested.
"No, I haven't. I didn't think it was that important actually" replied Sofia.
"I would ask him. Maybe he expects you to. It is in your interest to ask about your shifts, and since you just got promoted maybe you need to report to him to find out what to do next" Dr. Kim continued.
Sofia didn't have much choice than leaving the lab and walking all the way to Paul's office. She would have preferred not to, she still felt hurt by Paul's lack of interest.
She knocked at Paul's door and entered when she heard his voice inviting her in.
"Sofia!" he welcomed her. He was sitting at his desk and looked much healthier. His face was fuller and had more color, even his hair looked darker and his eyes were bright and vigilant.
"Good morning, sir. I was just wondering about my shift today. I appear to have a blank day, which was not on my list earlier" she replied, clutching her hands behind her back and looking impassive.
Paul gave her a questioning look, and opened his mouth slightly as if he wanted to ask her something in return.
"Sir?" he finally asked after several seconds.
"Pardon me?" retorted Sofia politely.
"You called me sir?" Paul repeated with a confused smile "did I do something wrong?"
Sofia was not sure if she should tell him or not. It felt childish, like she didn't really have the right to say anything about that but it was stronger than her: she couldn't simply ignore the fact that he had been avoiding her ever since he had gotten what he had always wanted.
"Well, where do I begin? Yes, after coming back from London where I almost risked my life to find a cure for you, you disappear without a trace. Then you send Hatch to tell me I just got promoted. Still no message from you, no nothing. I suppose you got what you wanted, so you don't really need me anymore, right?"
The words left her lips without control, taken over by anger and frustration. She almost regretted it as she thought of the consequences of nearly screaming at her boss.
Paul just sat in his chair, staring at her with a confused expression.
"I'm sorry" he finally said, massaging his right temple with one hand "I have been so busy lately. Martin has done an excellent job at helping me while we were in London, but I still have a lot of paperwork to do and it's not easy to plan your private life when you must deal with investments, the market, coordinating the different departments or keeping in touch with the city's mayor, the local police, the media… It's a lot of work. I hope you understand, Sofia. But I want you to know how truly grateful I am to you for helping me with my syndrome. My life has been so much better without having to deal with the attacks, and I can focus more on the future plans. That is all thanks to you".
Sofia felt immediately ashamed: she had been so selfish to think Paul had been ignoring her after being cured, while he was simply dealing with a great variety of things she had no idea about. He was, after all, an influent and powerful individual. For some reason, the days they had spent together in London, seeing him living an almost normal life had made her forget who he still was back home.
He had been cured, but that didn't mean the fracture had been fixed. There was still a lot of work to do.
"I am so sorry…" she said with a small voice and lowering her head.
She felt him stand up and approach her. He lifted her chin with his thumb and index fingers and looked straight into her eyes.
"Hey, it's fine. But I want you to know I have not been ignoring you. You saved my life and I will forever owe you for that" he whispered, and gently stroked her cheek.
Sofia's heart was hammering so hard she was afraid everyone nearby could hear it. They stared at each other for several seconds, Paul was getting closer to her face, his lips slightly parted-
"Excuse me" a deep voice said from behind them.
Paul immediately stopped and lifted his head to see who had come into his office without bothering to knock.
"Martin" he said with a neutral voice.
"Have I interrupted something?" Hatch said. He had a horrible smirk that made Sofia shiver.
"Not at all" answered Paul with a tone that made clear he had interrupted something quite important "how may I help you?"
Hatch looked at them for a while, as if inspecting them, before approaching Paul's desk holding a folder.
"This is the latest report on the Lifeboat. Its construction has just been initiated, and it is required of you to read the file, sign it and monitor the operation. This is by far one of the most vital for Monarch" explained Hatch.
"Excellent!" exclaimed Paul "this is the first step towards our success. Thank you, Martin".
Hatch nodded once and then left the office, and Sofia felt the hair on her neck stand on edge when he passed by her.
"Sorry about that" Paul apologized after Hatch had closed the door behind him "Martin has his own ways, which are not particularly polite. But he is a very dedicated employee. The Lifeboat construction has finally been initiated, which means in a couple of years we will have the certainty of a safe haven when the zero state will strike. You, of course, will have a place of honor. Unfortunately, the boat will not be large enough to host all of our employees, so I have selected the fundamental ones who will help me find the ultimate solution to the fracture. Now, about your blank day. It seems that your new promotion is the reason why your previous duty has been cancelled. Honestly, your job will not be that different. You will have some more paperwork to do, and you will be able to coordinate the rest of the team in case Dr. Kim is not present, but you may simply continue with your normal duties".
Sofia just nodded. Paul was so happy about the new operations regarding the Lifeboat that he had completely forgotten about them nearly kissing.
"I will go back to the laboratory, then" she said politely. Part of her wanted to run away in embarrassment, the other just wanted to slap him right across the face.
Paul had opened Hatch's folder and simply smiled at her, wishing her a good day.
Sofia almost stomped out of his office, hurt and irritated.
Had she just imagined him getting so close to her? Had she grown so fond of him that she was just seeing things?
She was suddenly brought back to reality when she realized that Martin Hatch was still standing not too far from Paul's office, leaning perfectly still against the opposite wall and insistently kept staring at her.