"What did Dr. Johnson figure out?" I ask Eric as we walk back to the lab.

"I'm not sure, but he got this look." He shows me the face Dr. Johnson made. I chuckle. "Then he yelled eureka! So Angel told me to come find you." He shrugs.

"There's no way he figured this out that quickly." I shake my head.

"Well it was kinda his job once upon a time. One of the most brilliant scientist of his time." He says.

"What's your deal Eric?" I place a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from walking.

"What do you mean?" He asks as I take my hand off him.

"You're like this super smart kid that knows more than he should. I don't get it." I tell him with narrowed eyes. I never said what Dr. Johnson did for a living and he figured that out. He's just all too 'in the know' to be an outsider.

"I don't know." He shrugs. "I read a lot and I watched a lot of science shows." Doesn't explain anything really. Does anyone else feel like he just avoided my question?

"Okay." I brush it off, not really wanting to get into it right now.

"What were you thinking?" He looks to me and asks as we reach the lab.

"Nothing." I shake my head He opens the door and I follow him in. "Dr. Johnson did you find something?" I ask, walking over to him.

"It's in her blood." He says with a smile then goes back to what he was doing.

Huh?

"I don't understand." I tell him.

"Well technically, it's in both your blood."

Yeah I'm still not getting it.

"Dr. Johnson can you be a little more-"

"Here, take a look." He tells me, stepping aside to let me look into the microscope. I give him a puzzled look before stepping up to the microscope.

"What am I looking at?"

"This is a sample of Rebecca's blood and this is what happens when I mix it with yours." He says, as he mixes our blood.

"Nothing's happening." I look up from the microscope at him.

"Precisely." He smiles.

"Then what is-"

"This!" He cuts me off, holding up a finger as he picks up another slide. "...is what happens when I mix Spencer's tainted blood with yours, then with Rebecca's." He says, practically jumping up and down.

I squint harder just to make sure I'm seeing this right. "It's fighting the dead cells in Rebecca's blood." I gasp.

"Right." He nods and smiles.

"What does this mean?" I ask. I feel like a little kid right now. I feel like I used to be so much smarter.

"It means that we're gonna save the world!" Angel shouts behind me. I turn to see her and Eric smiling, then turn back to Dr. Johnson.

"It means, that we're closer to the cure." Dr. Johnson adds with a nod.

"This is amazing." I shake my head at the two behind me and smile. We've been working on this for days and Dr. Johnson comes in and figures it out in a couple of hours. "I'm gonna go tell Spencer the news." I say.

"Getting out of work again?" Angel asks with a smile.

"I can rescind my blessing for you to date my sister you know." Is my reply.

"What?" Eric turns to Angel then back to me and asks. The look on his face right now is priceless. I guess Kyla didn't tell him.

"Kyla and I are um..." Angel trails off, looking to me for help.

"Nope, un uh. I'm staying out of it." I say raising my hands.

"Ashley." Angel calls my name as I start to leave the lab.

"You got this." I throw over my shoulder as I leave to find Spencer.

–

"Skipping out on your work again?" Spencer asks when I walk into the room everyone is eating lunch in.

"Here you go Ashley." Jo says, handing me a plate of food.

"Thank you." I tell her as I dig in, making my way over to Spencer.

"Dr. Johnson has it covered." I say with a mouth full.

"Ew." Spencer makes a disgusted face and turns away.

"Sorry." I mumble, swallowing my food and smiling. "He think he's got it figured out." I tell her.

"What exactly does he have figured out?"

"The cure." I reply as I shovel more food in my mouth. I was not aware how hungry I was until this moment.

"What really?" Aiden asks, poking his head around Spencer.

"You could mind your own business." Spencer jumps in before I could swallow my food to say pretty much the same thing.

"You're talking around me, pretty much the same thing as talking to me." He shrugs and continues to stare at me, waiting for an answer.

"I'm pretty sure I could still kick your a-"

"Ashley." Mrs. Carlin scolds me. Seriously Mrs. Carlin! We're back to this again. I swear she has hearing like a bat.

Glen, Spencer and Aiden all chuckle. I roll my eyes and pull Spencer away from Aiden and Glen.

"Dr. Johnson found out something interesting." I tell Spencer with a smile, placing my plate on the table then taking hers out of her hand, doing the same.

"Why'd you-"

"Because of what I'm about to tell you." I cut her off with a smile.

"What is it?"

"Well, when Dr. Johnson was running some test on the blood he figured out that my blood kills the infected cells in your blood." I tell her.

"Yeah, we knew that would happen." She nods.

"Let me finish. He found that out, but he also found out that when your blood and mine are combined, they kill the dead cells in Rebecca's blood, essentially curing the virus." I add. The look on Spencer's face tells me exactly what she's about to do.

"I told you!" She shouts, jumping in the air, flailing her arms around. See why I took her plate?

"What is it?" Aiden stands and asks. So nosy.

"Still minding others peoples business I see." I say to him, Spencer chuckles. He sits back down, rolling his eyes.

"I told you I had super blood." She shrugs and smirks.

"That you did." I nod and smile at her cuteness.

"So what happens next?" She asks, picking her food back up from the table.

"I'm not sure really. I mean, I know what the next step in the process is, we're gonna have to isolate the cells and things like that but Dr. Johnson seems to have everything taken care of so I think I'm gonna just let him work."

"That's mighty lazy of you." She says and smiles.

"Meh." I shrug and she chuckles. "I'll be right back." I tell her as I walk over to Aiden and Glen. "Hey Glen, can I ask you something about Eric?"

"Look who wants to be in someone else's business now." Aiden smirks, sitting back in his chair.

"I believe I said Glen." I playfully snap at him.

"Yeah." Glen chuckles and shakes his head at us. "What's up?"

"When you guys picked Eric up from the pharmacy, what exactly did it look like?" I question.

"The pharmacy?" He asks and I nod. "Well, it was cleared actually. No zombies in or out really. It's like the whole area had been taken out. Easiest run I even went on."

"And you said he lost his dad, right?"

"Yeah. He said that he'd lost him to a herd a few days or so earlier, I think."

"Then who killed the herd?" I ask no one in particular.

"Good question." Glen nods and knits his brows.

"Thanks, Glen." I tell him before walking back over to Spencer.

"Everything okay?" She asks when she sees my face.

"I'm gonna tell you something, but I'm not even sure of it myself so you have to promise not to tell anyone okay?" She smiles before raising a brow at me.

"Dramatic much?" She questions.

"I'm serious, Spence."

"Okay, okay." Her face and tone both turn serious. "What is it?"

I pull her into the hallway. "It's about Eric." I start.