Kyle was sitting at his computer when Jessi came into his room. She stopped next to him and looked over her shoulder at the door then bent down to kiss him before sitting in the chair next to him.
Kyle guiltily double checked to make sure no one was watching. Something caught his attention. He listened for a moment and smiled, "Lori's playing again." He looked at Jessi, "Did you say something to her?"
"I told her that the family missed her music," Jessi said.
"I did," Kyle admitted. "The silence reminded me how unhappy she's been. It's been hard for her since we found out about Mark."
"What are you working on?" Jessi pointed at the screen in front of him.
"I've been looking at the fusion idea," Kyle said, "using the atomic lattice structures that we designed for the quantum battery. I've been looking at ways of using the same approach to building a structure that would facilitate fusion. I think this might work."
"You're constructing funnels which will allow you to multiply the pressure applied by several orders of magnitude as the flow narrows to the size of our battery channels," Jessi observed, looking at his diagram. "You're planning on putting the hydrogen in under pressure and using that multiplication to override the natural repulsion?"
"That's essentially the idea," Kyle nodded. "The fusion would take place in the small channels and the heat and products would go out the exit channels, right here," he pointed to a part of the diagram. "The neutrons will, of course, go in all directions so it would need shielding."
Jessi frowned, "I think the compression will be close but not sufficient for significant fusion."
"That's what these perpendicular channels are for," Kyle pointed at another place on the diagram. "These are more like the channels in the quantum battery. By charging them we can slightly move the wave form of the channel walls adding further compression. This would have to be pulsed rapidly."
"And the fusion would occur on the pulses," Jessi nodded. "It might work. We should model it on our computer system. We haven't been using it for anything since Madacorp got their quantum battery pilot program in production."
"It should be much faster to model," Kyle suggested. "We understand the lattice structure much better now that we've built the batteries."
"I can write the model if you'd like," Jessi offered. "I'll get started on it tomorrow."
"That would be great," Kyle said. He met Jessi's eyes and they leaned toward each other and kissed then suddenly separated and sat back, "Nicole," Kyle said, turning toward the doorway.
Nicole was standing, hesitantly in the doorway.
"Nicole, I'm sorry," Kyle apologized. "We didn't know anyone was watching."
Nicole tilted her head and smiled, "Kyle, I know I've asked you to be discreet, but I don't want you to be paranoid, either. By now we've all gotten used to the two of you being a couple." She shrugged, "Just don't have a make out session on the couch, Ok?"
"Ok," Kyle agreed with a smile. Jessi looked happy at Nicole's acceptance of their kiss as well.
The smile on Nicole's face faded and she began, "There's something I need to ask you."
"What is it, Nicole?" Kyle asked anxiously.
"Two more people who were your enemies have died, Kyle," Nicole said. "I know that Jessi wanted Cassidy to be punished for her mother's death, and the Latnok guy – Milworth – he was potentially dangerous." She took a breath, "Did you arrange that too?"
"No, Nicole," Kyle assured her. "We gave the authorities the information we had on Paul Milworth and Robert Lukeson. We expected that they would be arrested and probably go to prison for what they did. Robert Lukeson has. We were surprised by Paul Milworth committing suicide."
"And Michael Cassidy?" Nicole asked, looking at Jessi.
"I'm glad he's dead," Jessi said firmly. "He killed my mother." She opened her hands, "If we had arranged it, Tom wouldn't be dead."
"He just surprised us," Kyle added, "and started shooting."
Nicole took a breath, "I just had to know. It was bothering me. I know both of them were killers and the world is better off without them, but I don't like the idea of the two of you taking the law into your own hands."
"We didn't, Nicole," Kyle said. "All we did was to tell the authorities about Paul Milworth. Cassidy was an accident. We didn't plan that at all."
Nicole nodded and then sighed, "I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around the three of you burying two people. It's not the kind of thing I ever thought I would have to deal with in my family."
"I'm sorry I brought this into your family," Kyle said. "We didn't know what else to do."
"It's our family, Kyle," Nicole said. She glanced at Jessi and added, "All of us." She hesitated, "I don't know what else you could have done either. I'm just worried about where this is all going to take us. There's so much you've had to do, things that teenagers should never have to face."
"We're not normal teenagers," Jessi stated.
"That's certainly true," Nicole agreed with a wry smile. She looked at Kyle, "Never think that I am unhappy that you and Jessi are here. Life just isn't as simple as it used to be. We can all cope, I'm just trying to figure out what to expect."
"You should have less to cope with from now on, Nicole," Kyle assured her. "I promise."
"I hope so," Nicole said. She shrugged, "I guess I'll let you get back to what you were doing." She turned and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Jessi smiled at the tacit permission and leaned over and kissed Kyle. He enthusiastically returned the kiss.