Lisa glances up from her work after hearing a hissing sound. She gets up in an attempt to discover where the noise is coming from, but it immediately stops. After hearing only silence for short time, she sits back down, but is immediately interrupted by the hissing sound again and the sound of clanging.
The noise continues, and Lisa follows it to Francisco, who is dragging his feet in pain as he transports glassware. She examines his movements and notices how poorly he is moving, "Excuse me," Lisa interrupts, "but may I ask why you are currently employing improper biomechanics?"
"What? No, I'm fine," Francisco tries to assure her, but Lisa isn't convinced.
"Raise your leg," she commands.
He shakes his head and tries his best to walk as normally as possible without letting Lisa know that he is in pain, however, despite his best efforts, Lisa can still tell that he is injured. Rather than letting him continue to walking in pain, she calls another lab technician to finish Francisco's job.
Lisa grabs a chair, "Please sit," she instructs him.
"Lisa, I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
The scientist doesn't listen to him and forces him into the chair so that she can examine his leg to determine what is ailing him.
Francisco takes his leg back from her, "I'm fine, and I don't appreciate you grabbing my leg like that."
It has been five months since Lynn restarted their exercise regiment with added vigor and while she has been thriving, he has been doing poorly, especially when his knees and back are becoming increasingly more rigid. Regardless, he joins her, so that she's not alone.
Lisa watches him as he attempts to walk as if nothing is wrong with him, but she knows that he will soon drop the charade and reveal that he is struggling. She knows some details of how he got to his current physical state, but she didn't bother remembering an event that happened when she was a child.
When Francisco is sure that Lisa wasn't watching him, he leans against the wall in exhaustion. His heart is pounding and he's sure that he's going to pay for his little stunt, but the last thing he wants is for anyone at work to treat him like he's helpless.
He pulls out his medicine. He knows that is only been a short time since his last dose, but it was a smaller dose than usual, "I just gotta finish taking my usual dose, then I'll be fine."
Francisco takes a pill and breaks it in half to swallow dry, "Just a few more hours. I can do it. I don't want a damn repeat like last time," he angrily tells himself.
For the rest of the day, Francisco keeps an eye out for Lisa and any of the other staff, who may tell her that he is slowing down and attract her scientific curiosity. He figures that he will be able to endure for a few more hours and then he'll have the rest of the day to recuperate until he has to return to work.
Lynn drinks from the bottle; she has been staring at her book for hours, but despite all that time, she doesn't feel as though any information has stuck. She reads to herself, it doesn't work; she reads out loud, and she is sure that she's misreading every other word in front of her.
She groans; she should be used to it after so many years, but finals are still hell, especially when they're all on the same week, "You'd think the bastards would care to not put their tests around the same time," she mutters to herself before taking another drink.
She knows that she probably shouldn't be drinking, but it makes her feel as though there is a little clarity in her mind, otherwise, she feels as though she'll do everything except study like she's supposed to. All throughout her time at the university, she has struggled to study; finding more joy in everything else, but regardless she had to do it in an effort to stay in school and play softball.
"This was much easier when mom and dad were around…and my family…and the principal…and the counselor…and my friends…"
Lynn closes the book and grabs the bottle; she doesn't know how other students can sit down and study and have it actually work well for them. For the last couple of days, she has forgone class and decided to stay in her dorm to try and spend her day studying, but reading a chapter a day isn't helping, especially when she struggles reading the text.
"I can do this," she tells herself. "I can do this…I have to do this…" she threatens herself as she picks up the textbook again.
She reads the first paragraph and immediately turns the page before she is able to finish reading the first page. Lynn turns back and stares down at the page; she sees the words, but she isn't reading anything, only staring at the letters.
She stares outside the window and looks down at the ground; despite there being no one, she still found it more interesting than her boring textbook, "I shouldn't have told Megan to take my sports balls," she complains to herself.
During the test, she takes a seat and looks down at the papers in front of her; her head is throbbing and she feels like she wasted her time getting out of bed in the first place. However, Lynn knows that she can't miss this test, she already forgot to turn in plenty of assignments, and she'll need to do whatever she can to at least say she tried to do some work.
The sound of the clock's second hand ticks away and takes Lynn's attention from the test and onto the blackboard in front of her; she wishes that she could have a ball to toss around, but those days were over, especially after her coach benched her over her abysmal grades.
A teacher's aide walks past Lynn, "Eyes on your own paper."
Lynn looks up at the aide and then looks back down. The words on the page feel as though they are getting blurry; she feels sick, but she can't leave, not without at least trying to answer a question.
The students all over the room begin making noises and it makes Lynn take her focus off of the test and look in the direction of the source.
'Do others struggle like this? Maybe, I can't be the only one…'
She rests her head on her desk and looks at her pencil, which she holds in the writing position by the first question.
'How long has it been? It probably hasn't been that long, maybe five minutes…'
The professor announces, "Thirty more minutes."
'I wish I was back in my dorm…maybe trying to study a little more…or worrying…maybe a drink or two; that would definitely help out. I wouldn't have to hear every damn sound in this room. I mean, seriously?! Whose bright idea was it to make such a noisy room?! There's the vent, and the clock, and do the others have to make so much noise as they get up, they're like the chalk…what is chalk made of? Wait…didn't I have to do something?'
She lifts her face and notices the drool stained test, 'How much time do I have? I should probably try to answer something.'
Lynn randomly circles the multiple choice answers, but when she reaches the open-ended response questions; her mind completely blanks.
'What is…What is…What is…' she shakes her head and tries again, 'Why can't I finish reading?! Let's try again. What is…What is…What is…What is…'
She tightly grips her pencil in frustration; she can barely read it without her attention wandering towards an eraser shaving the girl next to her left behind. Lynn swallows, but her mouth feels dry, 'I'm just gonna have to guess…' she tells herself, as she randomly starts writing words that she recently learned in her textbook.
"Time's up," the professor declares.
She sighs, and gets up to hand over her test. She didn't finish it, but hopefully luck is on her side and she answered the multiple choice questions well enough.
It is early morning when Francisco's back pain wakes him. He tries to take a deep breath, but just the movement itself begins to intensify his pain. He does his best to reach for his medicine, but he doubts that it can help at this point.
His heart begins to beat erratically and he feels tears forming in his eyes. He doesn't want to think about that day, he just wants to sleep and not go out and drive on the icy road.
Tears begin to fall, and he tries harder to grab his medicine, successfully reaches for it without waking Lynn. He opens the bottle and pulls out two pills. He shakes his head, but begins to hear an accented man's voice, 'No…I can't…' he breaks one of the pills in half and swallows it and a full pill, 'You'll be fi–'
"Done…" he whispers to himself, before he places the broken pill back in the container.
His heart begins to calm down, when he begins to hear a familiar woman's voice, 'I thought you cared…you've had plenty of opportunities…'
He quietly mutters to the voice, "I do…it just…"
The man's voice returns, 'It's not too bad right now…'
"Yes, it is…" Francisco quietly told the voice.
The two voices go back and forth, with Francisco muttering to them, 'I think its best that I go…'
"No…I can turn this around…"
The man's voice told him, 'Be careful…'
"I will…"
'I hope so…just remember–"
"Francisco, wake up!" Lynn says as she shakes him. "Are you okay? You were muttering and shaking a lot."
His heart feels like its pounding as he wakes up and opens his eyes. He looks over at Lynn, who appears worried about him after his episode. He gets up and gave her a kiss on her forehead, "I think I was just sleeptalking or something. Just go back to bed; I'm going to get a glass of water."
"Do you want me to get it for you instead?" she offers.
He shakes his head, and feels dizzy, "I can get it. Just go back to bed."
Francisco isn't convinced that she is going to sleep just yet, but there isn't much he can do until he gets back in bed. He gets up and slowly walks down the hallway; he can feel his head spinning and is sure that he's going to fall if he's not careful.
'I feel sick…'
The man's voice returns, 'Just a little more…we're almost there…'
"Are we? It's so dark…" he responds to the voice.
'You're going to be okay…' says the woman's voice.
"I hope so…" he whispers.
Francisco finally reaches the kitchen and looks around, "What was I here for again?" he asks himself.
'Do you need water?' asks the woman's voice.
"No…wait…maybe…" he can't remember anymore. Francisco looks around the kitchen, "I'm so tired…"
'You're young…you can do it…'
Francisco shakes his head, but is overwhelmed by the motion that he falls over. When his head makes impact with the floor, he screams at the top of his lungs as holds onto his head in hopes of soothing the pain. However, it is unbearable and begins to overtake him.
Lynn runs to the kitchen and looks at him with worry after hearing him scream, "Do you need your medicine?"
Francisco loudly asks, "Can you get me a cup of water?"
Lynn takes a hold of his head and moves it around, as if looking for something, but when she doesn't find what she wants; she lets him go and gets him a glass of water.
"Are you okay?" she asks
He nods his head, "Yeah, I don't know what happened…"
As far as Lynn knew, Francisco has never screamed with such pain in his voice, but it has been more common in the past few weeks and it has happened even years ago.
He drinks the water and they both head back to bed, "Maybe, I should take a break from the gym today," he suggests.
"Okay…" she says, a little disappointed that he won't be able to join her later today.
Lynn stares at laptop; she is reading an email from the university warning her to meet with the Academic Review Committee after her second straight semester with a below average GPA. She had five days to respond, and she just remembered the email…two days after the deadline. She knows what's going to happen next; she's going to get kicked out of school and she has two options – go home and tell her family what happened or lie and leave the school after her 'graduation'.
She can already imagine her dad bawling his eyes out just by telling him that she is getting kicked out of school, and she can imagine her other family members asking what happened to have caused her to go from the dean's list as a freshman to flunking out in her senior year.
Lynn tries to open her mouth to think of what she would say to her family, but nothing seemed like a good idea; she can imagine then thinking how her reason was silly and that she could have gotten over it, but it's not that easy.
She can feel tears form in her eyes as she thinks of everything that has led to her be where she is in her life, then she wonders, 'Who's got something going on? Is it Lucy? Maybe Lincoln, no wait, the twins! Are they almost sixteen? They're probably planning their birthday; it's a big one after all.'
She takes a deep breath, but she keeps thinking about how badly she's disappointing everyone by flunking out. Lynn can feel her hands shaking and her throat tightening as she tries to breathe; she can't tell them, she doesn't want to take a good moment and turn it bad because she couldn't succeed.
Bryton looks over at Lynn, "Are you okay?"
She stares up at him and nods her head; Lynn tries to say something, but words couldn't come out of her mouth. She reaches over for a bottle of water and quickly takes a drink.
"What did the school say?" asks Megan.
"I, uh, I forgot to get back with them…"
"What?! How?!" They both ask, surprised that she could forget such an important task.
Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "I don't know…I guess I'm…outta here."
Both of them look at her sad eyes; they give her a hug in hopes of comforting her, but Lynn just stands there.
Bryton asks, "What are you gonna do?"
Lynn shrugs her shoulders.
"Have you told anyone?" Megan asks.
Lynn shakes her head, "You know what? It's fine. I mean, I was getting sick of school anyway. I hated the tests and the studying and the classes and the projects and homework; I think I'm better off."
They know that she's lying; she's been a wreck since her sophomore year, and it's only gotten worse since she was benched by her softball coach. While they acknowledge that school probably wasn't the best fit for Lynn, they know that she was a capable student based off of her grades during her first year; however, she has never been able to repeat that streak since.
Lynn turns to her friends, "What are your plans? I can probably get some ideas from you guys."
"I got a job with an internet start-up in Detroit," Bryton mentions.
"And I'm heading home for the summer. I wanna kick back and relax before I come back for continue for dental school."
"Great…" Lynn mutters to herself.
Bryton shrugs his shoulders, "I'm staying in the city. You can come by if you want. Your family lives nearby, right?"
"What if I live with you?" Lynn asks.
"Excuse me?"
"Yeah, I stay with you and it'll motivate me to try, I mean you were doing cool things before I even knew you, and you even said I could come by. It'll be a great idea!"
"To visit, not to live," he corrects.
"What if I help you pay rent? I can get a job and help you save some money," she suggests.
Bryton stares in fear at Megan, hoping that she can help him; he fears that Lynn might not be the most reliable person, especially after hearing failing to meet with the university regarding her possible expulsion.
Megan shakes her head, mouthing out, "You did this to her, now you deal with the consequences."
He groans, and gives his a strained smile, "Sure…you can stay with me in the city…"
"See! I told you that it'd be a good idea."
Francisco pulls into the university parking lot in front of Lisa's office; he told himself that he didn't want to do this, Lynn warned him not to do it, but if his scare earlier in the week isn't a wake-up call, then he's a fool. He takes a deep breath and slowly walks to her office, 'It has to stop…somehow…'
"Enter," Lisa responds upon being alerted. She is confused by his presence, "It's not Monday, is it?"
"No," he says before taking a seat, "look, I need your help. I know that you do those drug trials on people and I was wondering if there was something that you had in terms of a pain management project."
Lisa stares at him; she isn't surprised that he has come to her for this request, although she expected it years ago, "You do realize, that by becoming my test subject, you are no longer allowed to work in my laboratory, correct?"
Francisco nods his head. Between the radiating pain that keeps him from sleeping well and the sudden hypersensitivity, he needs to get a grip on his pain, and if Lisa is able to offer treatment, despite the loss of his job; then he's willing to do so.
"Do what you need to do…so long as it's legal and ethical."
Lisa chuckles at his cautious nature, "I see Lynn has filled your head with worry."
"She doesn't know I'm here."
Lynn has told him before about how Lisa would use the siblings as guinea pigs in her scientific experiments, and that alone was making him dread this decision, but if anyone could help him, it was her.
Lisa pulls out a voice recorder, clipboard, and pen, "How long have you been in pain and what was the cause of your pain?"
"Since I was seventeen," he can tell that she wants more information, "January 2020, in a car accident. The pain has gotten worse after years of sports. A couple of years ago, I began feeling a sort of pain in my legs and knees when I walk, but my right knee has been more troublesome when I touch it."
"How would you describe you back pain and at what times are you most likely to experience your pain?"
Francisco tries to think of how he would describe the pain, "Throughout the day it's continuous, no wait, constant, from morning until I go to sleep, going in a rhythmic pattern with momentary lapses of intensity."
Lisa looks at him after he gave his answer. She didn't let him look at the questionnaire, but yet he was able to choose the exact adjectives to describe his pain that were listed.
"It's typically relieved with brief rest like sitting or laying down, but prolonged rest makes the pain worse. It's also bad after strenuous exercise, but that's when my knee begins hurting. Recently, I've felt some warmth, and noticed some inflammation as well."
She approaches him, and checks his left knee, which leaves Francisco confused, "It feels a little warm."
"That's not the right knee," he corrects.
"Apologies," she says as she turns her attention to his other knee. "Was this the joint that was giving you trouble a few days ago?"
"Yes…"
"Why did you claim to be well?"
"I've had issues for weeks, but normally the pain subsided; this time it hasn't."
Ever since his fall, he has been struggling to hide how much pain he was in; nearly every small hit or injury was becoming more unbearable than usual. He can't even explain why the short fall even caused him to scream as loudly as he did or why it hurt so badly when he had taken his medicine.
"Can you stand?" she asks him.
Francisco complies while Lisa examines him; she makes note of his posture and looks at his troubled areas.
"Is there any family health history I should be aware of?"
"What? Well, there's heart problems, diabetes, and cancer – can you tell I hit the genetic lottery?" he jokes.
Lisa doesn't laugh, "Any other abnormalities that you've noticed?"
"I hit my head and I felt an intense pain," he mentions as this the back of his head.
She examines his head to look for any external injury, but she fails to find anything, "How would you describe the pain?"
"Pulsing, maybe throbbing or something like that," he says, "but each one felt like a stab to my head."
"I see," Lisa takes the opportunity to pinch his arm, and Francisco immediately screams in pain.
"What was that for?!" he yells.
She takes note of his reaction; noticing how tightly he is gripping his arm, as well as the tears and his teeth biting down on his bottom lip. Lisa enters the information into the computer, "I believe I have some sort of medicine that could help you. Luckily, despite your past use of medicine, I have something that you can begin taking. However, you will have to discontinue taking your previous medicine."
With a strained voice, he asks, "Should I be concerned about side effects?"
"Drowsiness, shallow breathing, and potential numbness; however, do let me know if there are any other symptoms that occur." Lisa pulls out an amber bottle, "Behold, my latest pharmaceutical product, Fencotab, name change, patent and FDA approval pending.
Francisco is breathing heavily, as the pain begins to subside, "Where the heck do people come up with these drug names?"
"Irrelevant. I need you to begin consuming this medication once every twenty-four hours. Please, try not to stray from schedule." Francisco nods, and takes the medicine from her, "I'm sorry that we couldn't continue this work arrangement."
"Yeah, me too…"
Lynn packs up her possessions; she was happy that she wouldn't need to worry about school, but now comes the next step – figuring out what to tell her family. She settled on not telling them that she flunked out, but she doesn't want to go home in case they start asking questions.
Her phone rings and she sees the caller ID; it's her mom, "Hey, mom. What's up?"
Rita squealed a bit, "I just wanted to hear from you, and congratulate you on finishing your last tests."
This is Lynn's last opportunity to tell the truth, "Thanks mom, they were really tough."
"Have you heard back from your professors yet, sweetie?"
"Yeah…"
Rita is waiting for a response, "And?" she asks excitedly, before the sound of the twins running to their mom about a venue for their party grabs Lynn's attention. Lynn can hear her mom tell the two sisters to wait, "Sorry about that, what were you saying?"
Lynn can feel her mother's judgment, despite knowing that Rita wouldn't shame her for struggling in school, "I passed my finals," she lies.
She can hear the sound of squealing in the background followed by her mom calling the rest of the family to let them know the good news. Rita places the phone on speaker and all of her younger siblings are congratulating her for her accomplishment and Lynn is sure that she can hear her dad sobbing as he declares how proud she is of his little namesake.
Those words hurt the most.
Lily speaks up, "When's the ceremony? We have to go! It's gonna be the first college graduation I see!"
"Oh…I didn't feel like going," Lynn tells them.
"What?! Why?!" the family asks, surprised that she didn't want to go through with the ceremony.
"It's gonna be hot and crowded and I know that they're just gonna get some speaker that goes on talking forever, besides, I was offered a job in the city and that's better, right?"
"Are you sure?" Rita asks, "You might enjoy it."
"I'm sure. I'll see you guys on my way to the city."
"If that's what you want, okay."
The family gives Lynn one last congratulations before she hangs up and sees Bryton and Megan staring at her, "What?"
"You really lied to your family like that?" Bryton asks.
Lynn doesn't answer.
Megan warns her, "They might find out, especially the little smart one."
"Her name is Lisa! Is it so damn hard to learn our names?!"
Both friends are surprised by her reaction; they know that Lynn has brought this issue up before, but she has never snapped at them.
"Look, I'll deal with it when it happens, but for now we have to get in the road before traffic starts."
Bryton speaks up, "We were still planning on sticking around for the ceremony. You're welcome to join me and my family."
"Or mine," says Megan.
"Uhh…sure, I guess."
Lynn chops vegetables for lunch; she looks over at Elena and notices her reading through her textbook to do homework, which causes the woman to work as quietly as she can so as to not interrupt her.
Elena notices the obscene silence; normally when Lynn is in the kitchen, she can be noisy, so to not hear a sound, takes the girl by surprise, "Lynn, can you check on my math homework when I'm done?"
"Are you almost done?" Lynn asks, hoping that she no longer has to worry about disturbing Elena.
"Yeah, I'm almost done."
Lynn begins to cook like normal to finish their meal when her phone begins to ring. She looks at the caller ID and sees her friend's name, "Margo! It's been a long time," she says, abandoning the food on the stove.
"I know, but I thought that today would be a good day to tell you something."
She takes a seat next to Elena, who looks over at the kitchen, "You got a new job?! A promotion?!" she guesses, "No wait, are you moving back home to Michigan? I'm sure Tom can do his space engineering stuff up here, and you'll have your family and friends around too."
Margo laughs at Lynn's suggestions, "Close, we're actually thinking of taking a trip up to Royal Woods."
"Are you serious?!" Lynn says excitedly over the phone, surprising Elena, "When?"
"We were thinking maybe July or August," Margo says.
Lynn laughs, "Can't take the heat anymore, huh? Alright, I promise that I am going to make your trip back home the best thing ever. I'll take some time off from work and we'll catch up. So how long do you plan on staying a week? Two? More?"
Margo lets out a slight laugh, "We aren't sure yet. Tom still has to hear back from his supervisor. Now I can't promise that we can spend every day together, I am still going to visit ny family after all, but I promise that we will spend some time together when we go up there."
"Alright! I can't wait!" she says. "I'm gonna plan a whole weekend for the two of us."
"You know I'm not going up there alone, right?"
"Okay, a weekend for the six of us, maybe eight if I include your parents."
"I can't wait. I'll let you know when we figure out all the details later."
"Alright, let me know the minute you know what day you're coming, even the flight, and I promise you guys aren't gonna spend an hour in a car after your flight."
"Still not letting that go?" Margo asks, despite warning her to pay attention to her destination.
"Not one bit," she jokes.
The two women laugh and chat for a few more minutes before Margo has to go.
"So your friend is coming to town?" asks Elena, as she looks up from her homework, trying to get some information on a potential summer activity.
Lynn takes a seat next to her, "Yeah, I haven't seen her since I went to visit her after her son was born, I miss seeing her." Realization dawns on Lynn, "I have so many things to cram in like a road trip to Traverse City or Houghton up in Keweenaw; I bet your dad would love a chance to go to–"
Elena points back to the stove, "Lynn, you're burning lunch."
Panicking, Lynn quickly runs back to the kitchen to save what's left of their meal. Luckily, Elena managed to stop her rambling before things got bad, "Speaking of your dad, did he tell you where he was going today?"
Elena shakes her head, "No. I thought he told you, he's been gone for a couple of hours too."
"I'm sure he'll turn up, chances are he's probably at Lisa's organizing something that he forgot to do yesterday. He's been like that for the last couple of days since he took that tumble to the ground."
"Again?"
"He does that a lot?"
Elena isn't surprised to hear that her dad has gotten hurt, ever since she was a little girl, she could recall moments where she would be seeing him in bed or in pain. Her mom used to tell her that it was either his back, his arm, or his shoulder, but this is the first time that she is told that he hurt his head.
"It happened a few times when I was growing up," she mentions. "Although, I guess if he was able to get back up then it wasn't a big deal."
Lynn finishes the meal, "It wasn't. With the way he screamed, I thought that he was bleeding, but nope. Nothing!" She looks over the textbook, and sees the questions that the girl is working on, "I don't remember sixth grade math being that hard."
"Mom said the same thing too. It's okay, if you can't help, Grandpa can usually find a tutor if I need one."
"Why hire a stranger?" Lynn asks, as she takes the assignment from her, "I mean, I was a Michigan State Math Bowl champion, I think I can handle sixth grade math," she boasts as she looks through the questions in the textbook and at the assignment.
Before Elena is able to ask if there was anything that needs to be corrected, Lynn presses her head on the table to read; she can feel the girl's eyes staring at her and it reminds her of when her teachers would look at her in case she would struggle. She knows that she has to work fast or she's going to turn into a blank slate that won't be able to help with anything.
Lynn gets her head up from the table and hands the book back to Elena, she points to a paragraph, "Read this section, it'll help you with the fifth question."
As Elena reads the book, Lynn lets out a sigh of relief; happy that she is able to help her with her homework.
"Thanks," Elena says, as she reads through her book and corrects her mistake.
"No problem, just never ask me to help with your English homework," she warns.
The two young adults open the door to the apartment. Lynn takes a few steps forward and she immediately crashes on the floor.
"Seriously? Lynn wake up, I know that you're used to skipping class, but we need to unload our furniture before I start work in a few days," he tells her before heading back down to get some boxes.
Lynn groans, as she slowly gets up. She slowly blinks and sits on the floor as she stares at the ceiling.
Bryton walks through the door and sees her sitting still as she stares up, "What the heck?! Lynn, get up. We have a lot of boxes to get in here and I need your help." She takes her eyes off of the ceiling and looks over at Bryton, who is mad, "Get up," he firmly tells her.
She is taken aback by his mood, and nods her head to follow him to their cars. As she steps out, she thinks about the look on his face; he is clearly frustrated, but after their drive from Ann Arbor, she just wants to crash in a bed.
'I should have gone home,' she thinks to herself. 'Just faced the music…no! I already disappointed a lot of people, I can do it. Just be good. Just try to do better. College is over, I'm in the real world now. I have to get a job, then I can help Bryton, and he won't look at me like some burden that is making his life harder.'
Bryton hands her a few boxes, and Lynn quickly runs them back to their apartment. She carefully places them on the ground and runs back to grab more; the faster they finish the better, they can unpack eventually, but all she was focused on was getting the boxes inside and keep Bryton from realizing that he made a mistake by letting her live with him.
He doesn't know what suddenly came over Lynn, but he is glad that she still had that athlete's hustle, as she quickly hauled the boxes with a word. While, he's aware that the inside of the apartment won't be pretty, he's just happy to know that the job won't take too much time.
When all the boxes are in the apartment, Lynn crashes against the wall, "Is there anything to drink?"
"Just water."
She groans, "I guess…"
He hands her a glass and she drinks from it before resting on the floor and staring up at the ceiling in exhaustion. She knows that her body can't be physically tired; she has trained more than enough all her life to not get winded from a few trips back and forth, but she regardless, she felt drained of her energy.
"I should have worked harder; I would have been able to stay on the team."
Bryton nods in agreement, but he knows that it wasn't the only thing holding her back in school. She mentioned all of her trophies from her younger years, but she wasn't that all-star athlete anymore, and she eventually became just another anonymous player that barely showed up on the team's roster. However, it didn't stop Lynn, who was obsessed with proving her worth in hopes she of becoming a star player again.
"What about–"
He notices her ignoring him as she silently scrolls through her phone. After a few minutes, Bryton hears snoring and spots her sleeping on the floor with her arms around a box. The sound of buzzing grabs his attention, but it stops before he able to find the source. Bryton hears a notification from Lynn's phone. He looks over and sees that there was a voicemail from Cesar, "What the…"
Lynn never mentioned that she still keeps in contact with him, although he doubts that Lynn does especially after never mentioning the man in three years. However, he can't imagine what would make him just contact her out of nowhere.
Curious, he grabs Lynn's thumb and places it on the home key to unlock her phone and listen to the message.
"Hey, Lynn, it's Cesar. I know that you probably don't want to hear from me after what happened, but I was hoping that we could, you know, be grown up for a few minutes…anyway, I was online, and I saw your family was posting stuff about you finishing school…uh, no, I mean, I wasn't stalking, I think I was still following them on social media, anyway I just wanted to say congrats on graduating. I know that it probably wasn't easy, but I'm glad that you were able to finish school… so yeah, congratulations, I hope you're doing well, and maybe take a minute to talk one day. So, um, uh, once again, congrats on finishing school, and hopefully we can talk again…Bye."
Bryton looks at the phone; he isn't sure if Lynn would want to listen to a message from Cesar, especially, since she hasn't spoken about him in years. He is tempted to leave the phone as is and let Lynn decide to listen to the message, but he can only imagine that she probably won't take it well and will spend the next few days obsessing over how her 'wronged' her.
Rather than risk seeing her hurt, Bryton deletes the message and places the phone back where Lynn had it.
Lily walks into Lisa's underground bunker/laboratory, "Lisa, mom has been calling you for ten minutes; you've got a phone call." Lisa remains quiet as she focuses on the pipette in her hand as she tries to steady her arm to place her sample in gel well. "Lisa!" Lily yells, annoyed at her sister.
"Gah! Must you yell?! This is delicate work and I do not wish to waste time making another gel for my electrophoresis," scolds Lisa, as she turns back to the gel.
Lily rolls her eyes; she knows that Lisa takes her work seriously, but she needs to relax every once in a while, "Francisco called. He said that he was going to send you a progress report of what's been happening since he started his medication."
Lisa presses down on the plunger, "Was that all? I fail to see how that was urgent news."
The younger sister sits down on one of Lisa's lab chairs, and in a playful tone tells her sister, "Well to be fair, your good friend from the country kept calling about meeting up and how he wanted to talk to you."
Lisa scowls at her younger sister, "Did he mention a date?" A big smile forms on Lily's face, "You know what I meant," groans Lisa.
"I know, I know, he asked if you were available later today and to bring your research on Fencotab, whatever that is."
Lisa finishes placing her samples in the well, "That is confidential, however I will ask if you are available to transport me to his lab."
Lily raises an eyebrow, "You mean his farm? Sorry, I'm busy later today; my friends and I have to practice for our gaming tournament, and I don't know when I'll be back."
The older sister sighs; playing in professional video game tournaments is her younger sister's current career and while she does want to chastise her for changing careers so frequently and abruptly, she stays quiet after being reminded of other older siblings in the same predicament.
"Fine, I shall find my own transportation."
As Lily walks up the ladder, "You know it wouldn't hurt for you to get a driver's license, Lisa."
"I'd rather perfect the self-driving car."
Lily rolls her eyes, "I guess whatever's easier, huh?"
Lisa scowls, "You may leave for your afternoon of virtual reality merriment."
"It's not merriment if I have a team depending on me!" Lily yells as she closes the hatch.
The scientist chuckles to herself, "She almost sounds like Lynn."
Hours later, Lisa steps out of the cab, and looks at the farm that her colleague calls home. Despite his intellect, he seems to enjoy the physical labor and simple lifestyle that comes from agricultural living. She knocks on the front door, and sees a brood of chickens walking into a barn. She follows them, and sees her colleague milking a cow.
"Am I interrupting, Dr.–"
Liam cuts her off, "You know I don't like being called Doctor, I still prefer my given name, even with my fancy city degree."
"I prefer the title, after all, you have worked hard for it and I do prefer to keep our relationship more professional rather than friendly," Lisa stares at Liam, who doesn't look like he is going to back down, "Fine. Am I interrupting, Liam?"
"Nah! I was just finishing up," Liam gets up from his milking stool and walks with his bucket of milk towards the farmhouse, "So how are our patients?"
Lisa follows after him, "Most of the patients are responding positively to our drug, although I have had some reports of patients experiencing hypersomnia."
Liam puts the bucket in the fridge and asks, "How bad is it?"
Lisa places the patients' files on the table. She sorts them out into four neat stacks and points at the first one, "These are out control patients," she points towards the larger second stack, "These patients are not having any side effects with the medications," she points to the third stack, "These patients are not experiencing any relief from the medication, and these patients," she says as she hands Liam the files from the smallest stack, "are the ones experiencing hypersomnia."
Liam looks through the files in hopes of finding something that the patients may have in common with one another; however, physically, they don't appear to share much in common.
"Are there any patterns with the other patients?" Liam asks, while still burying his nose into a patient's file.
"It appears not. We may have to delve into each patient's genetic makeup to determine what may the cause of their reactions."
Liam sighs, that is going to be a lot of work going through each genome and identifying where the differences and similarities between each patient and their reaction are, but it has to be done, especially if they want to get FDA approval.
"Would you like to divide the work between the two of us?"
Liam snickers, "You mean between me and whatever computer you build to do the work?"
Lisa rolls her eyes, "I choose to use my time efficiently so that I may accomplish more in a given day."
"Whatever you say, Liser."
A little later than usual, but what can be done about unexpected website errors.
To answer the comment, the Lynn bashing and the bad luck stories was part of the reason that I wrote this in the first place, although it originally started as a Lincoln growing up fanfiction, with Lynn having the first line. My desire to get the kids' manner of speaking started a marathon to watch Lynn like a hawk and pick up how she talks and her personality. Honestly, I'm not sure if I ever got it right, but since I haven't heard complaints, I'll accept it as good (even with my theory that I'm incorporating into her). Eventually, I just transformed it into her story based off what was going to happen in a sequel fic, and thus we end up with our current story.
Also, don't feel bad about being a silent creeper; while I do appreciate the kind reviews from everyone, don't trouble yourselves too much
As always, thank you for reading and see you next time
(P.S. loading samples for electrophoresis is a pain and you definitely don't want to break the well, I so wish that either the buffer or the gel could be a different color)
