Ryan sat up in bed, panting heavily. He clutched his left eye, grimacing in pain. Keats sat up beside him, squinting in the dark.
"Ryan…what's the matter?" She mumbled sleepily. Ryan shook his head.
"Nothing, Keats. Go back to sleep."
Ryan padded softly into his kitchen, getting a glass out of the cupboard. He filled it with water, gulping it down swiftly. This wasn't the first time he had woken up because of his eye, but somehow this time was a little different.
There was more pain.
He had been fine for awhile…he could see quite well, as a matter of fact. His sight would never be the way it used to be, but as long as Ryan could still function at work, that was all that mattered.
Keratitis…it was just a rumor. But now even Ryan wasn't so sure that it was just a rumor anymore.
"So what are your plans for the day?" Ryan asked, donning a tie in front of his bedroom mirror. Keats stared at his reflection from the bed jovially.
"Patty and I are going to go to a movie. Maybe the zoo. We haven't really decided, yet." She murmured, her head off in space. Ryan grinned.
"The Amazing Keats Remington does regular civilian things like going to the movies. Fancy that." He smirked. Keats threw a pillow at him.
"She's really happy that she has my apartment all to herself. She insists that I stay over from now on." Keats said. Ryan turned around and gazed into her eyes.
"I thought that's what we agreed on doing." He said. Keats tried to hide the surprise on her face by nodding.
"Yeah. I was just saying…"
"You don't have second thoughts, do you?" He asked. He sat next to her on the bed, holding onto her arm with gentleness.
"No. But whenever you realize that this was a bad idea, I'm going to rub it in your face that it was all YOUR bad idea." Keats giggled. She gave Ryan a goodbye kiss as he headed off to the Lab.
Keats stared into the cages belonging to the tigers. They were magnificent, beautiful creatures, but they had maintained a deadly reputation.
"Didn't a white tiger kill one of the Ringling Bros.?" Patty asked, slurping on an ice cream cone.
"That was Siegfried of Siegfried and Roy. And he's not dead, I don't think. But they tiger really screwed him over, I heard." Keats said, watching as the tigers prowled around instinctively.
"Were we going to catch their show? It goes on in, like, ten minutes." Patty pointed to her watch. Keats sighed and followed her into the dome, where Barnum and Bailey Circus were featured as honored guests at the zoo.
"I'm surprised to see you here, Berkeley. Keats is on leave and there's nothing you can really do to cause damage in the meanwhile." Ryan said, eyeing Jake as he entered the lab.
"Cut the crap, Wolfe. You've got something I want. I'm a man who always gets what he wants." He began. Ryan laughed.
"Too bad I'm not a man who just gives things away." He replied thinly.
"I tried to get her through persuasion. Special tactics, that sort of thing."
"Special tactics? You are something else, Berkeley, you know that?"
"…the one thing I haven't tried is going after her through you. Since you aren't married, it'll be easier for you to break it off with her." Berkeley said. Ryan shook his head.
"Keep talking, Berkeley. It'll never happen."
"Hear me out, Wolfe. I think you're a bargaining man. And this would be a rather even deal when all is said and done." He added. Wolfe said nothing.
"It's up to me whether Keats progresses in her chosen field. Sad but true. If you let her go, I'll make sure she gets top honors. If you don't…then I might just have to retain her." Berkeley said, leaning against the wall.
"You can't have that much power. It doesn't seem ethical." Ryan said in a soft voice. Jake Berkeley gave an ugly grin.
"Even if I did break up with her, she'd never go to you." Ryan mentioned, effectively ending the conversation.
But Jake was not one to be trifled with after all, it seemed.
"Oh, boy. Check out that elephant…" Keats said sarcastically. In all honesty, she preferred the dancing horses compared to the elephant that did nothing but poop onstage.
Patty, however, was pro-Dumbo all the way.
"Woo! That was awesome." Patty squealed as the lights dimmed. Keats sighed, hardly believing that her best friend was really Patty. They were so alike and yet so different.
"But the horses are sweet, too." She added. Maybe we're not so different when the chips are down.
The horses filed out one by one, brilliantly white and elegant. They stood on their hind legs and did complicated legwork. The trainer worked diligently to get them to dance in correct formation.
Keats and Patty cheered loudly, ignoring the stares from children younger than they were. So what if they had never quite grown up? It was a good life when you could be easily entertained.
The horses did a few more impressive moves, the trainer leading them into the climax of the program.
Suddenly a shot rang out from backstage and the horses began to go hog wild.
The head horse bucked like crazy, knocking down his trainer with brute strength. The trainer rolled out of the way before his horses could trample him into the ground.
"Somebody killed the clown!" "Clippo got iced in his dressing room!"
Patty gave Keats a glance of sheer disbelief. Keats rolled her eyes.
"Since when did my job follow me to the circus?" Keats mumbled, munching on cotton candy.