A short chapter. It's more transitional if anything. A bit of a break from the longer stuff….

Is anyone lost? Is anybody not understanding my writing? I don't want anyone suffering from my mental ramblings during this story. LET ME KNOW!

There may be mistakes in this. Please let me know if you catch any. I'm too lazy to read it through…. I have too many books to read, and Steins;Gate otakuing to get into. –is a loser-

HERE YOU GO. Don't forget to review. Want something written? Think you have something to offer to the story? TELL ME. I'm lax with suggestions. I won't make fun of you. :]

Physics-ing all day long,

Kelsey

CHAPTER 27: PRELUDE OF INTERFERENCE

Sunlight glaring sharply off of her shades, Laura walked as briskly as she could manage across a plaza, avoiding the purveyors and salesman that were trying to hand out free samples in order to coerce her into buying their wares. She slowed her pace as her legs cramped up unceremoniously, just before she reached an old weathered bench.

"All that time standing, and not a chair in sight…" She grumbled to herself and wiped her brow, a frustrated grimace on her face. Just in front of her, a taxi cab pulled up to the curb and let its passengers out. The Professor's characteristic hat was hard to confuse or miss. He calmly paid the cab fare as Luke and Flora bolted to the bench and gave Laura a 'WE HAVE SECRET INFORMATION AND WE REALLY WANT TO TELL YOU BUT WE CAN'T' sort of glance, accompanied by an excited sort of jig, Luke nervously bouncing from one foot to the other. Whether or not Laura understood their anxiousness was another matter, but the children didn't think so far ahead.

Laura smiled with relief. "Just in time! I hope you guys had a better afternoon than I did."

"Oh yes, we…oh, wait…Yes." Luke gave a guttural whine, fit to bursting with information, but another glance from the Professor made him bite his tongue. Again.

Laura winked at the boy and laughed. "Don't worry, kiddo. Just enjoy the rest of your day. Investigations can wait."

The entire group began walking down the cobbled sidewalk, past the open doors of restaurants and laid-back offices that welcomed in the warm summer breeze. Luke looked at the Professor, who returned the glance with a slight shrug.

"My boy, some things you just have to wait for," he tried reasoning. "We can't very well just come out and blurt out all our information. Should someone be trailing us, they could—"

"Oh, lookie!" Flora giggled and beamed as the sight of the ocean became apparent as they neared the shore. She ran forward a few steps along with Luke and looked on merrily near an old wooden fence that outlined the area. "It's so beautiful! Look at all of the sand!"

"We can make sand castles! And bury the Professor!" Luke shouted. Both children laughed hysterically, the mental image of the Professor with sand up to his chin proving to be extremely comical. Laura's lips stretched demonically, her smile crafty and off-putting.

"There's an idea…"

"Well, I'll tell you right now what I'm not doing, and that is it!" Layton grumbled, sighing in disbelief that his company would even dream of doing such a thing to him. "However, I can't say I'm surprised that you'd be in agreement with it, Laura…"

As they continued up ahead, seagulls brayed and cried from many metres up in the sky, circling the area in hopes that someone would leave their fast food wrappers or cruddy leftovers. The children reached the coast first, testing the tide with each rising wave rushing to their toes. They chased at the ocean as the water was sucked from the shore, then ran away when it flooded back onto the sand again.

"It's definitely beautiful. A bit different than visiting the beach back home in England," Laura said with a lazy smile, flopping herself down on the ground. "Don't even need a chair. The sand is soft enough."

Layton sat next to her in the sand. "Quite windy. I suppose I should take this off." He removed his hat and ran his fingers through his hair, wincing as he pushed his hand painfully through sweat-streaked strands. "Or maybe I should have done that earlier… Not enough ventilation underneath, it seems." He glanced at Laura, who was looking longingly at Luke and Flora. The two children were dancing in the sand, still racing the tide. Flora bent down to examine some sort of shell and called Luke over to join in.

Somehow, even after so long, even though she never uttered a single word, Layton still knew his student's thoughts.

"I wish immensely that I could go do that," she said quietly, her voice barely sounding above a whisper, the loud ocean competing for attention. "I could barely get myself to that plaza just now, to meet you. When I mentioned meeting at a 'central location', I wasn't thinking about how far my legs could actually take me; I was thinking what would be the most easy for the taxi, I suppose…" She gave a flat laugh and wrapped her arms around her legs, hugging her knees to her chest. "You know, to this day, I regret being in London on that morning."

"That morning…of?"

"Getting into that car accident."

"Ah, yes…" He turned his attention back to the ocean, unsure of what to say, even though he felt he should say something. He swallowed, his brain running circles.

"Even though I know that I can't change it, that I can't take it back, that everything happens for a reason, I still regret ever going to London then."

"Why did you go, anyway?"

"The single most dumbest reason. And I'm using two superlatives because it was so entirely dumb." The Professor chuckled, relived that she was at least trying to make light of an unfortunate circumstance. "To buy tea ingredients, of all things. I found myself wanting a cup of your recipe, and I needed items I could only find in London. So…" She smiled plainly. "Got a bonus, I guess."

"Ever considered surgery?"

"It doesn't cure everything!" she laughed, somewhat annoyed. "Don't you think I'd have done that by now?"

"Well, I suppose funding would be necessary, so perhaps you just couldn't afford…"

"My parents would have, but…like I said, surgery doesn't cure everything…" The tone in her voice made Professor Layton shiver, as he was certain she was referring to more than only her leg injuries. Maybe it was his paranoia, but… Something in him wanted to get cocky, give some bitter retort, but he thought better of it. His gentlemanly conduct was eroding, his patience wearing thin ever since she showed herself again.

'Ignore it, Hershel, it's probably just your conscience. Do you really have that guilty of a conscience?' He sighed heavily, resting his weight back on his hands. He dug his fingers and palms deeper into the sand, releasing his irrationalities as he squeezed the grains.

Staring into the ocean's waves, becoming mesmerized by the setting sun's infinite reflections, Laura felt the bridge of her nose burning. She sniffed, acting as if she merely had trouble with allergies by rubbing her nose nonchalantly.

"We'd been to the beach once."

"I'm sorry?"

She shook her head, grinning as she stood. "Nothing. Just talking to myself."

"You still do that?" He stared after her, disappointed that she didn't respond. He'd caught her on multiple occasions, speaking with no one but herself during her first year of college. He thought maybe it was a nervous habit she'd developed in school, not having others to talk to, but perhaps it really was just her, one of her many idiosyncrasies.

He watched her shuffle to the water's edge, catching the attention of Luke and Flora. As she bent down to touch the sand, the children quickly ran past her, towards the Professor.

"Ready to go back to the hotel, Professor?" Luke yelled. "Look, we found a huge shell!"

Flora handed it to the Professor, who looked at it with feigned interest. "Very good. Yes, let's return, shall we?" He kept his eye on Laura as he stood at full height, stretching. Something in the way she threw a clump of the wet ground out into the ocean told him that she was frustrated. Frustrated beyond her capability of expression. Frustrated with things she didn't quite understand. He immediately felt pity, a mutual self-pity, a shared anguish.

"What were you looking at?"

Layton shook his head, looking down into Laura's face. He figured he must have gotten lost in a daze. "Er, I…I was thinking. Only thinking."

"Of?"

"Of what I found during our investigation today. That's all."

"Hmm." She looked at him with suspicion. "So you found something? Very good. Now I'm curious. I thought you were thinking of something else. Sorry, I guess I shouldn't assume."

He nodded, energy of recalling the afternoon's search taking over. He was reminded of everything that had occurred that day, reminded of all the things that just didn't quite add up. It wasn't until he got to talking with Laura just moments before that he was drained from the elation of his findings. He couldn't continue letting his conscience get in the way.

'There are more important things at stake here. My…problems can wait.

'Or…can they…?'

"No need to apologize…" he whispered.

"At any rate, let's head back. I can't do anything here anyway besides slug about."

After a short taxi ride back to Ostia, they boarded a small ferry. The vessel bobbed up and down joyfully in the canal, waiting for others to join the passenger deck before returning to Rome. The children walked along the boat's sides, looking over the railing and scaring the Professor multiple times.

"We haven't even left yet, and you're already making my stomach drop just watching you lean like that! Step away from the edge and—LUKE."

He grabbed the boy's sweater as Luke leaned forward a bit too much, his small blue hat almost falling into the dark water.

"Whoops! Whoa, come back hat!" With his feet firmly planted back on the deck, Luke pulled the hat on and smiled, embarrassed. "Sorry, Professor…"

"Good heavens…" He leaned against the railing beside Laura, who merely snorted and tried covering her amusement.

"Don't you know you're supposed to prevent accidents, not step in while they are occurring?" she chided him with an aloof tone. "Perhaps I'll report you to the authorities when we return to London?"

"You'll do no such thing. I can handle them fine." Scratching his forehead, he looked down into the water. The boat had started moving in all the excitement. Luke and Flora went to the front of the boat, trying to look into the captain's cabin.

Several minutes went by before either Laura or the Professor spoke. Laura stared into the water, her hands gripping the rail firmly. Her eyes were fixed on the seemingly perpetual wake, the water's surface distorting and becoming dark, lost as the day faded.

"What are you thinking about?" the Professor chimed in, leaning against the side of the boat on crossed arms. Laura turned to look at him slightly and caught a smile out of the corner of her eye. She couldn't help but smile herself.

"What? Nothing. Only of things that don't matter. That's all. I'm coming up with irrational theories of what your news could be."

"No sense in bothering with that. I haven't told you anything."

"Yeah, well… My brain works faster than the world around me, you know that. A wise man hears one word and understands two. Luke's excitement, your secrecy. It's urgent, I can tell."

"And the wiser man doesn't worry about things that haven't come to pass," he chuckled. "Laura, before we get back, I just thought I'd tell you—"

The boat let off a loud, belching hurrrnk as they pulled closer to the dock, the horn sounding off to let those around become aware of its presence. The Professor rolled his eyes.

'What a movie-worthy noise interruption, if I've ever heard one!'

Laura viewed him through pinned eyes, though her alert pupils were lost in the increasing darkness. "What were you saying?"

"Nevermind. Just…nevermind."

Unexpectedly, the girl patted him on the shoulder. "Just stick to the reason you're here. You'll be better off that way. I don't need your sappy human problems getting in the way of mine." She walked away towards the exit, calling for the children.

Layton looked at the city, dressed in lights, drowning in loud, typical urban sounds. It fought off the night, the oncoming darkness with minimal effort. Was it a sign? Should he be able to do the same? He sighed.

"Yes, I need to…shed my problems for the moment, fight them off. Sure. Easier said than done."

'You're not the only one with problems!' He looked at Laura menacingly, even catching himself off-guard. Was he so buried in contempt, so well-fed with bitterness that he'd resent her? Had she done something so terrible to him that he was someone other than himself? He frowned, upset and angry, mostly at himself. 'Why do I have to seal mine away? Why can't I work on my own problems too?'

"Come on, Professor!" Flora and Luke waved after him as they followed Laura off of the boat. He was thankful that no one had noticed his short-lived, internal soliloquy. With a shake of his head, replacing his hat in its proper position, he smiled and chased after them.

"Wait up! …For one with such disability, she still keeps a quick pace, doesn't she…?"

He caught up and forgot his troubles, hoping he'd left them to sail endlessly on the ferry.

END.