She was always interested in my studies of the heart. I could never understand why. Xenos didn't need to study the heart. She had one.
But nearly every day she would come down to my lab. She would ask what I was doing and I would give her a lengthy explanation that you would never expect someone so young to understand. Very rarely she would ask what I meant. And I would tell her, mainly because she really wanted to know. No one else ever wanted to hear about my work until I got results.
"Whatcha doin'?" she asked, just like every other day.
"Same thing as yesterday." For the first time I didn't elaborate. I was too absorbed in my work.
"And that would be…?" she asked. She didn't like being ignored, I realized. We'd all given her too much attention. Just because she wasn't a nobody? Just because she had a heart? She had a heart… suddenly I had an idea. I looked at her.
"You know," I said, "I think you could help me."
"Really? Cool!" She got up from her chair in the corner, happy to be useful (for once). "So… what exactly am I helping with?"
I smiled. "I'm going to see just how much pain a heart can take."