I was sitting on the bench top again, letting Chi search for file after file for me while I tried to type up notes on my latest idea. The team had been right and Chi had been invaluable to me in sourcing research material for me and assisting me in converting my phone into a keyboard that I could connect to my holoboard.

I'd seen less of York lately since he'd been returned to rotation on the team's rosta and gone on several missions since then. My first night in my room had been tricky, figuring everything out on my own because I refused to let anyone help me, but eventually I got understanding of my surroundings. And Chi had my back, he'd been rather odd, he was the labtech I'd always wanted when I was working for the US army and always seemed optimistic and supportive of my every endeavour. I was a little suspicious, but I guess that was just this AI's personality.

''Okay,'' I slid my phone shut. ''Chi I think we're ready to start drawing up some designs, figure out what this thing is going to actually look like.''

''Awesome,'' he replied enthusiastically. ''This is gonna go so great.''

''You're going to have to do the leg work on this one, I can't really see what it's going to look like, but I think we've discussed what I want in enough detail you should be able to pull it off,'' I told him. ''One step closer to putting myself back together.''

''Hey you,'' I heard and my head shot up in the direction of the door, a grin on my face.

''York!'' I called out.

''Long time no see,'' he replied. ''You wanna get your grub on?''

''I could eat,'' I said. ''What do you think Chi?''

''I wanna keep working on this, it's so important to you,'' he told me. ''You should go with York, and when you come back, I'll show you my designs.''

''I know it's important to me Chi, but we can take a break,'' I said. ''Come on, there's more to life than being stuck in here. You should stretch your legs a little.''

''Fine,'' he replied.

''You wanna keep working on it at lunch?'' I smiled softly and he quickly agreed.

''Your AI is a nerd,'' York teased.

''So's yours,'' I smiled. ''Looks like you're outnumbered three to one, you still wanna get lunch?''

''It's more like dinner and yes,'' he replied. ''I think I can take you.''

''Oooh, hear that Chi, York's taking us to dinner,'' I teased and he laughed.

''Sorry Agent York but we're very busy and don't have time for boyfriends,'' Chi replied and I giggled, assuming he was joking but being unable to tell with the tone he'd used.

''Come help me down and we'll go,'' I called to York, instinctively reaching out towards him. I'd memorised the sound of his footsteps both armoured and in civvies so I always knew when he was nearby. I pushed myself off the table a few moments before he'd reached me and he caught me without faltering, lowering me easily to the ground.

''You seem to be getting along well,'' York commented as we walked along the corridor, my holoboard under my arm and phone in my pocket.

''I'm still a little suspicious the machine uprising is coming,'' I joked. ''But yeah, it's the first time I've had a labtech that didn't swing his dick around the office thinking he knows more than the one with a doctorate.''

''I think you should file for harassment if someone's swinging their dick around your office,'' York told me. ''Do I need to tell North?''

I laughed and moved behind him when I noticed we were getting closer to the familiar noise of the mess. I usually stood behind him whenever we used the doors so I wouldn't have to deal with people walking into me. I'd been walking around longer than a month now, I thought word would have spread around by now that there was a short angry blind woman wandering around. I wasn't hard to miss.

''Great news, mon petite,'' York said turning back to me. ''It's Taco Tuesday. I hope you like fake Mexican food because that's all this ship is full of. Best third Tuesday of every month.''

''What do you mean fake Mexican, tacos are Mexican, it's just the hard shell ones that are American,'' I replied.

''You'll see what I mean when you taste it,'' he replied and I offered him a bemused smile.

He led me to our usual table and I sat down, hearing his footsteps disappear. I heard North and Wash walking over sitting down in front of me.

''Hey Marisa,'' North greeted. ''Wash and I here.''

''I know,'' I smiled. ''I've got your footsteps memorised now. It's just Carolina I'm trying to get now. She's so quiet that if there's a lot of background noise, she's virtually undetectable.''

''I'll keep that in mind,'' she said from behind me and I jumped.

''Jesus Christ! We need to get you a fucking bell,'' I yelled. I did hear her let out a very quiet, breathy laugh. I heard York returning and scooted over closer to where I'd heard Carolina sit down so he'd have enough room beside me. I felt something brush across the front of my knee and assumed either Wash or North was sitting directly across from me.

''So this is what you rushed off to do when the mission debrief was over, huh?'' Carolina teased. ''Had a dinner date planned?''

''Shut up,'' York brushed off. ''You know I'm still her guide dog, even if I'm back to doing missions too.''

''What makes you think she needs you?'' Carolina asked. ''She seems to be coping perfectly fine by herself.'' I moved my hand off my lap and reached over under the table to softly pat his knee.

''I do miss you guys when you're gone,'' I said. ''You're the only people in my life besides Chi.''

''I thought you hated people and had no friends on purpose,'' Wash said.

''I hated the men of my time and was angry that all the women I came across seemed to make the fight against the patriarchy harder because they were always sleeping with our bosses for research grants and promotions. It always reinforced the belief that women were in our field as nothing more than sex objects,'' I replied. ''I disagreed with people. Not hate them. I had a friend once, she was awesome and I wanted to be just like her. But I just didn't have any time for anyone else's bullshit. You guys are different, none of you have once tried to get me to wear heels to work or grabbed my ass as I stood at my workbench. Of course I miss you.''

''I don't know, I think Carolina tried it once but you move too quick,'' York joked.

''I just can't keep my hands to myself,'' Carolina deadpanned. ''Your booty just won't quit.''

I choked on my corn chips. I heard York let out a burst of laughter and North and Wash chuckling softly. I was even giggling to myself, never hearing her make jokes like that. While she'd been nothing but kind to me, she seemed very serious and work dedicated. Like she didn't have time for anything but her job, oh. She was future me.

''Chi I can practically feel you squirming,'' I said after a while. I hadn't had him implanted yet but I felt like I could read him well enough without our impending Vulcan mind meld. ''How you going?''

''I think I've got a winner,'' he told me. ''You're going to love it. I can 3D print a copy of it when we get back to the lab and you can check it over. It's just like we talked about.''

''That was quick,'' I commented. ''Good job.''

''I try,'' he replied, sounding bashful all of a sudden.

''You wanna start pulling up some research material on our other project?'' I asked. ''Start with my branch's databases, see if any of my dumbass coworkers came up with anything since I left.''

''How dumb can they be if you're stealing their ideas?'' Wash asked and I chuckled.

''I'm not,'' I replied. ''Reading through their stuff usually gives me a migraine and then I figure out a better way to do what they were trying to. It's inspiration to further the world of science so no one is ever experimented on like that again.''

''Although I will admit, had I not been having those dreams about what Dr. Smith was talking about when I left the day of the accident, I never would have even thought about artificially stimulating the visual part of the brain,'' I continued, swallowing some of my fake Mexican food. It was more like fake food than fake Mexican. It didn't exactly taste bad, but it did taste wrong. Like, it didn't exist as I was eating it.

''I must say, I really hope this works, because if it doesn't it's probably not the designs, not to toot my own horn or anything… I don't even begin to know what Chi and I are going to do if it's a different part of the brain. I'm kinda pissed it's not the eyes to be honest, because I already developed an artificial lens implant for that.''

''Wait you have?'' York asked and I nodded.

''Yeah, my project got shut down due to lack of funding but it was past development and we just needed a human test subject,'' I answered. ''Worked on the rats and the monkey we fitted it on. I had my eye on this giraffe for a little while but my boss thought that was dumb. Blindness doesn't discriminate, that giraffe could have gone on to do great things if he hadn't have stood in it's way.'' I joked.

''I can't tell if you're joking or not,'' Wash said and I smiled.

''I kinda am, I'm kinda not,'' I replied and North laughed.

''Which part is you fucking with us,'' York asked.

''There was a blind giraffe at the local zoo that I asked my boss if we could try it on, because I saw the report on the news and I felt sad,'' I explained. ''But my boss said we weren't a charity organisation and it was my job to make money and prepare soldiers for going back to the field. If I couldn't do that then I should walk my pretty little ass out of his office and into a different career.''

''What'd you say?'' North asked.

''Might have implied I already made more money than he did and brought the departments more bread than he ever could,'' I shrugged. ''Then suddenly the project was canned.''

''Petty,'' Wash replied and I nodded.

''Life,'' I shrugged again. ''But thankfully not mine anymore. Kinda bummed about the not seeing thing, but nearly dying in an explosion has really worked out well for me.''

''You're more cheerful about this than usual,'' York commented.

''Chi must be rubbing off on me,'' I told him.

''Gross,'' he replied. ''I didn't know AI could do that. Delta, you'd better not get any ideas..''

York walked me back to the lab after dinner and it kinda felt like he wanted to hang around for a bit but he kept mentioning that he had to go train during his scheduled slot and I didn't want him to be late so I sent him on his way. According to Carolina and North they were pretty strict about those kind of things. And it's not like I could go watch.

Chi seemed pretty happy after he left too, it was almost like he was jealous whenever York got more attention than he did. It was cute if that was the case, but I'm pretty sure he was just extremely work focused like myself and Carolina.

As promised, Chi had printed me a model of our design and when I ran my fingers over it it felt exactly like I imagined it looking. I smiled, telling him it was a job well done and that he should write off to the Director for me that my project was ready for testing. He happily started constructing a message while I worked on listening to the different files that he'd pulled up for me. It was difficult for me now, not being able to read through everything now, having to listen to it and take notes, repeating paragraphs over and over as I did instead of just stopping reading, scribbling something down and then going back to it. I was usually a visual learner. I basically had to learn how to learn all over again.

I slipped off the bench onto the cold floors, someone from the quartermaster had sent off an order to one of the resupply stations to get me shoes specially made along with some more clothes but it would be awhile before we would get them. Which didn't really bother me, I had socks and being able to feel the floor helped me a little bit with finding my way around. I could feel the vibrations of people coming and going too, so it made it easier to know if Carolina was near if I was standing by myself.

I climbed into my far too big bed, placing the board Chi currently occupied on the nightstand and wished him a goodnight. I closed my eyes and slipped happily into the light. Dreams brought me back my sight, I knew it wasn't real but I felt better not being plunged into darkness for the entirety of my life. I wondered how people who were born blind felt, how they experienced dreams.

I pushed myself up out of bed, I didn't need Chi to tell me what the time was, it was the same time I woke up every day and had done since my first night here. I sighed and wandered through to the bathroom getting ready to shower, then back through to the lab to work for a bit before I got hungry and went for breakfast. Worked some more, got lunch, worked some more and got dinner. My routine felt stale. It hadn't before when I was back in the 21st century but now for some reason I was getting melancholy. I wondered if it was because I had friends now. I imagined it probably had something to do with not having the sight to do anything else, but I couldn't blame everything on being blind, that was getting old hat.

I yawned as I sat at the usual table in the mess, pushing whatever food was on my plate in the mess. I had bumped into North and sat with him for a little bit before he'd had to go but I missed York. I'd only seen him yesterday, it was weird to be missing him like this. Chi certainly didn't want to talk about it either. He was rabbiting on about how the texts would come out on our project but I was barely listening.

''I think I need a hobby,'' I blurted out while he was mid sentence.

''Is that what's been bothering you?'' he asked. ''Are you bored? Should we start another project?''

''I never thought I'd say this but, I think it's too much work,'' I told him. ''I loved my job before, I still really like it now, but it's all I do. I don't want to stop but I don't wanna just do the same thing over and over and over again.''

''So not a new project…'' he answered, sounding a little sad. ''I'm sure we can figure it out. What did you do before? You know, when you had free time?''

''I used to be a gymnast when I was in school, I used to compete and used it to get me a scholarship in college,'' I answered. ''That paid for what the military didn't. So when I wanted to blow off some steam I'd go practice after work. But that's not really something I can do now.''

''Ahh,'' he replied, not really sure what to say. I could hear him muttering to himself like he did when he was skimming through files. I wondered if he was still working as we were chatting.

''I know,'' I agreed. ''There's so many things I can't do anymore. I mean I'm happy we've been able to find a way around things, like touch typing with my phone keyboard or remembering how to do everything in the shower because I usually had my eyes closed for the suds anyway.''

''Wait,'' he paused. ''You know how people shut their eyes when something scary is happening, like when people jump off cliffs or people who've never fired a gun before shut their eyes in movies?''

''Yeah?'' I asked. ''Is that why you used to shut your eyes when you'd do tricks?''

''What are you talking about?'' I asked.

''I pulled up your old gymnastics videos, your eyes are shut half the time, mostly on the balance beam, why can't you just do that like the shower thing?'' he asked me.

''How could I convince the people in charge of scheduling time in the training room that I, a blind person, not only needs to use it, but I need them to conjure me up a balance beam?'' I asked.

''Are you asking me or...?'' I heard Carolina's voice from beside me. I hadn't noticed her sit down.

''Sorry, I was talking to Chi,'' I told her.

''I can help you, if you want,'' she told me. ''I don't know why you want one, but FILSS can conjure up pretty much anything you ask her for, to use your wording. And I'm the one who writes up the schedule for extra training, if you want some time on the floor, it's yours.''

''I used to be a gymnast before this, Chi thinks I can still manage it in my current situation,'' I replied.

''That would certainly be interesting,'' Carolina replied. ''Finish your dinner, we're going to the training room after this.''

I was stood on a significantly colder than usual floor, in a large breezy room. I knew it was large because sound took forever to bounce back to me, and I imagined, if this was the room used for most of the training, it was breezy because of the air conditioning. Didn't make me any less cold though.

''You need anything else?'' Carolina asked me. I shook my head.

''So long as the beam's here,'' I replied. ''Not unless you got any chalk.''

''Probably not,'' she replied and I shrugged.

''Guess not then,'' I said. I pulled my shirt up over my head and then bent to push down my sweat pants. ''You mind taking these, if I put them somewhere I'll never see them again.''

She snorted. "I'll take them with me to the observation deck. I'll be in there if you need me, just say the word,'' she told me. ''I'll leave you with Chi, he can help you out from here.''

I took a deep breath, walking out with my arms in front of me. Once I found the beam I pushed myself up with relative ease. Once I was up there, it was a different story. The footing felt familiar, but the air was whirling around me. I'm sure it was the air conditioning. And probably that I didn't notice before because my senses were paying much more attention to what I could see.

''You good, Marisa?'' Chi asked as I stood there a little longer, unmoving.

''Yeah,'' I replied awkwardly.

''Looks like it,'' he replied sarcastically and I wanted to laugh.

''It's just, you know,'' I said. ''I'm psyching myself out.''

''Why? You got this in the bag,'' he told me. ''You've done this thousands of times before, with your eyes closed no less. You can do this, you already have.''

''I know,'' I nodded.

''Okay, close your eyes,'' he told me. ''Maybe doing the physical action will take care of the anxiety.''

I nodded, taking a deep breath and closed my eyes. I held it there for a moment,picturing what I wanted to do and then I let out my breath. I lifted my hands in the air and took a step forward, bending and standing on my hands, a swivel and I was standing on my feet again. There, a cartwheel, I did it.

''See, that wasn't so hard, you got this Marisa,'' Chi told me. ''Now do another one.''

''You be sure and let me know before I fall that I'm teetering towards the edge, yeah?'' I turned to the sound of his voice.

''I'll never let you fall, don't worry,'' he told me. And I believed him.

I threw myself with more force forward, cartwheeling with more speed before turning quickly and doing the same thing the other way. Chi cheered every time I finished a trick and I felt my confidence growing. He was right, I did usually do this with my eyes shut, so why couldn't I do it now?

I wondered if I could do something a bit more challenging? Right now I was only doing tricks where I could still touch the balance beam in some way. What if I was to break contact with it completely? Could I do it? Was this false confidence? No, Chi believed in me. He said he wouldn't let me fall.

''Oh my god,'' I heard him yell as I made contact with the beam again. I rolled forward over my shoulder after landing on my thighs, beam between them. ''Yeah! That was awesome!''

I pushed myself up onto my hands, walking across the beam with my palms, leaning my legs over my head. I felt the strain as I took one and off the beam, reaching for my feet hanging just by my arching spine. I straightened my legs out, pointing my toes and then spread them open, going back to walking on my hands, turning around when I heard Chi making a strange beeping noise.

''I didn't know you could do that,'' I laughed and he chuckled to himself.

''Neither did I.''

I began to regret having gone so hard after an hour and a half of training because it had been well over a month since the last time I was even in a gym and I'd lost all the fitness I usually held. Especially with York portioning out my food for me when he was around. I think he was trying to kill me.

''Alright,'' I groaned, dropping down to sit on the beam. ''If I do this any longer my limbs are going to fall off.''

I climbed off the balance beam and my toes touched the cold floor again. I let Chi lead me over to him and I picked him up, getting him to signal to Carolina I was done for the day. She met up with me before taking me to her team's locker room and filling me up an ice bath.

''I'm sure this is fine,'' I said. ''You don't need to go to so much fuss.''

''Don't be like this,'' she told me. ''You trained hard, you haven't trained like that at least since you came here and you need to look after yourself if you want to do it again.''

''Fine,'' I sighed and I heard her chuckling as I lowered myself, underwear and all into the tub.

''I've actually got to run, I have a meeting,'' she told me. ''But I've got York on his way with some new clothes. Stay in here for 15, yeah?''

''Yes mom,'' I told her with a roll of my eyes and she laughed.

I sat in the tub feeling some of the strain on my muscles leaving, even if the water was almost painfully cold. I relaxed into the edge, hoping my skin making contact with the side would generate some heat eventually. After a few minutes, I started to feel comfortably numb. I rested my head against the rim and sighed. I should know better than to train myself like this, Rosa was always telling me as much. I wanted to be a gymnast as a kid, not because of all the tricks, or because it was fun, but because she was. I loved her. I miss her.

''Hey you,'' I heard and jerked out of my thoughts. ''You didn't hear me coming this time? Where were you just now?''

''Thinking about an old friend,'' I replied.

''And what's with you training this hard, hmm?'' he asked me as I heard him kneeling beside me. ''You're the science type, although the gymnast thing does explain why you're so tiny.''

''And also you're a genetic freak,'' I told him and he chuckled. ''I was bored.''

''Bored?'' he scoffed. ''You trained this hard because you were broed?''

''I hate everything,'' I continued. ''I love my job, but it's all I can do, and even then, not well. It's all I ever did before so now I don't even know what to do now I can't do it. Every day is the same, get up work, eat, work, eat, work, eat, work, sleep. Over and over and over again. Because it's all I can do. So Chi helped me come up with something I could do to blow off steam. He watched every video over made of me doing this kind of thing and concluded since I shut my eyes whenever a scary bit came up I might as well have been doing it blind. So we tried it.''

''It's been fifteen,'' Chi said and I laughed to myself, pushing myself up out of the tub. I felt York's hands on my forearms hoisting me out over the step. He guided me to a nearby bench with a towel waiting and I wrapped it around myself, shivering slightly.

''It's not going to be easy,'' he sighed. ''You're going to have to completely rethink everything you've ever done and learn it all over again. That sucks. And there's not really anything I can say to make it better.''

''You still gonna be here through all of it?'' I asked.

''Of course,'' he told me. ''Even if it's not really my job anymore, I'm your guide York. You're my friend, of course I'll be here for all of it.''

''Then say that,'' I told him, smiling sadly at the floor. A large arm dropped over my shoulders and pulled me across the bench, closer to him. He held me tight in a one armed hug.

''Alright,'' he said quietly. ''I'm here. I'll always be here.''

We sat like that for a moment, feeling the comfort in everything left unsaid. I hummed contently, we'd said just enough to keep us going but not enough to get hurt. I let out a shiver and he chuckled softly beside me.

''You should probably get dressed,'' he said. There was the sound of a pile of fabric dropping beside me on the bench. ''I'll leave these here for you, get Chi to grab me from outside to lead you outta here.''

''Got it,'' I nodded and started using the towel to dry off.

I stood up, the cold tiles almost felt warm now I was so numb. I pulled off my soaking sports bra and panties, reaching for the new ones in the pile. I tugged my shirt and sweatpants on my body and rung out the old underwear. I grabbed all my old clothes and towel, Chi assuring me if I put them in the hamper here they'd find their way back to me. Apparently all my stuff had been microchipped with my staff code. It was nice to know I'd been assigned one, that meant I technically existed in this time.