Late June
Progress
Jeremy rubbed his temples as he tried to tackle the problem in front of him yet again. Recently, he'd finally finished building a device that was capable of emitting and picking up most of the types of waves on the electromagnetic spectrum and sound frequencies possible, which was practically a technological breakthrough in itselt! Because of that, he was now able to finally move on to the experimental portion of his research, but so far it had been very slow going.
His stomach growled, causing the young genius to sigh. Dr. Lowell was out of the office for the day, which meant he had the whole day to work on his own projects. Opportunities like that were few and far between and while he knew that Aelita wouldn't be happy about him skipping meals again, it he didn't want to waste it. He was pulled out of his thoughts when everything suddenly when dark!
"Guess who!" Exclaimed a familiar woman's voice that instantly brightened up his day!
"Hmm..." the young genius hummed, tapping his finger to his lips as though he was deep in thought. "I'm thinking maybe Yumi or Sissi..." he teased, and suddenly he could see again.
"You're so silly sometimes!" Aelita exclaimed as she walked out from behind Jeremy. He stood up and pulled his fiancé into a hug.
"What are you doing here, shouldn't you be at work?" The young man asked when they separated.
"It's lunch time!" Aelita put on a fake pout. "Here I was, thinking you'd be happy to see me!"
"I am happy to see you, but your lab is all the way across town..." Aelita dropped the pout and nibbled her bottom lip excitedly.
"Well, I had something important to tell you, and I wanted to do it in person!"
"Ok," replied Jeremy, chuckling at his pink-haired fiancé's obvious excitement. "So, what is it?"
"This morning, we managed to successfully virtualize and rematerialize one microliter of water!" Jeremy's eyes shot open and he excitedly took Aelita's hands.
"That's amazing!"
"I know!" Aelita sprang to her toes and gave Jeremy a quick kiss, then hugged him tightly in her excitement.
"So I take it that this must be Aelita!" The couple broke apart quickly with a fair bit of blushing as Jeremy's coworker, Paul walked up laughing.
"It's nice to meet you Paul," replied Aelita, regaining her composure.
"Well, I was going to ask if you wanted to get lunch, but it seems you've already got company!" He left and Aelita turned toward her soon-to-be husband.
"Shall we go get something too?" Jeremy sighed and braced himself.
"Umm... I wasn't planning on taking a lunch break today..."
"Jeremy," Aelita lightly scolded, "you need to eat. It's not good for you to skip meals!"
"Dr. Lowell isn't here today so was going to take the chance to work straight through on my own projects..."
"This isn't life or death like when we were fighting XANA..." She shuddered at the memory of all his sleepless nights, skipped meals, and how worried he used to make her. She let out a big sigh, but then her face brightened up as she got an idea. "Ok, how about this: if I can get Dr. Singh to give me a pass for the rest of the afternoon, we go to lunch together, and afterwards I help you here?"
"I couldn't ask you to do that!" Jeremy protested.
"I know, that's why I'm offering!" Aelita countered with a giggle.
"But you just had your big breakthrough!"
"I'm starting to think you don't want me to stay!" Aelita teased.
"That's not it..." Jeremy muttered. Aelita reached out and rubbed his shoulder reassuringly.
"It'll be fine. Our support computers are going to be compiling the data from the successful experiment for the rest of the afternoon, and we pushed the quantum computer to the limit of it's capabilities so it needs some time to cool down anyway." reached out and rubbed his shoulder reassuringly. "Besides, it looks like what you're doing now is right in my field of study!" She smiled sweetly and gestured to Jeremy's waveform emitter. He knew that she was right, that her assistance would certainly help, but that wasn't the only thing that convinced him.
"Ok, Aelita. I've missed working with you like this anyway!"
"Me too, I'll call Dr. Singh!" She exclaimed with a giggle and pulled her phone out. She stepped away for a few minutes, but was back soon with a huge grin on her face! "So, do they have anything good at the cafeteria?" she asked teasingly.
About ten minutes later, the two geniuses were sitting down somewhat enjoying the ravioli that was the lunch special for the day. Aelita excitedly told Jeremy about the modifications to the programming that allowed the morning's success, and the further tests that her and her mentor had planned. While she was telling about it, Jeremy couldn't help beaming at his fiance proudly. When she was done, Jeremy explained the difficulties that he'd been having with his own endeavors, and the table took on a much more frustrated mood. Soon enough though, it was time to get back to work.
"Ok Aelita, due to company policy, you can't actually touch anything or else I'll get in big trouble," Jeremy said once they got back to the lab. "But I'm willing to try any idea's you've got!"
"I think we can make that work,' the young woman assured Jeremy with a smile, and the two of them got to work!
"I'm really glad you came, Aelita," said Jeremy when the work day was coming to a close. "We got more done than I expected, and much less than I would have ever been able to do on my own!"
"I'm glad too. We make a good team," she replied with a grin. "I wish we could work together more often." Jeremy stood up and kissed her forehead.
"Me too. Let's go home," Jeremy replied with a smile.
"Hey Jeremy, could you come here for a minute?" Called Paul from across the lab.
"Go on ahead, Aelita. I'll catch up in a minute." The couple smiled at each other for a moment before Aelita left to go wait in the lobby, and Jeremy headed over to go see his coworker.
"What's up Paul?" Asked Jeremy, when he made it across the lab. At first the small man just leered at him.
"How on earth did you manage to snag a girl like that?" He asked with a smirk.
"We originally met online and we just kinda clicked," Jeremy replied coolly. It was his usual placation when asked about how him and Aelita met, and it was true enough.
"Well, you're a very lucky guy! Seriously, she's got looks, brains, personality, the whole package... She's totally out of your league!" Paul exclaimed, causing Jeremy to chuckle.
"Maybe..."
"Definitely, you're one lucky guy! I've got one more question," Jeremy cocked an eyebrow curiously. "Does she have a sister?" The young genius laughed out loud.
"No, she doesn't!"
"Aww, that's too bad. You should get going." Jeremy clocked out and went out to go meet his fiance.
"That Paul guy seems to be really nice," said Aelita, while the two of them sat down at the bus stop. Jeremy laughed.
"Yeah, you certainly made an impression!" Aelita looked up at her fiance, waiting for him to explain. "He said you're out of my league," he admitted sheepishly and Aelita's face fell, causing Jeremy's to fall as well.
"Do you really believe that?"
"Sometimes..." Aelita took a breath to counter, but Jeremy continued, "but I know that you love me anyway." While it was much better that it once was, once in a while Jeremy's lack of self confidence would rear it's ugly head. Aelita hated it, especially when she knew first-hand just how wonderful a man her fiance was. She let out her breath and thought for a moment how to use the foothold he had given her. Suddenly she had an idea, one that made her cheeks warm considerably. Despite their public location, she pulled his face to hers, kissing him deeply.
"Don't ever forget that," she said after pulling away just a little bit, keeping her face close to his. "You are an amazing person. You're sweet, incredibly smart, and always putting others before yourself..." Aelita leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "It helps that I think you're very handsome too!" Jeremy cheeks, which had already been flushed from the public affection, darkened even more. Adding credibility to her last claim, he'd noticed Aelita stealing glances of her own in the last couple weeks after she'd caught him 'peeking.' She made no attempt to hide it, and from the smile that would always sprout on her face clearly indicated that she enjoyed looking. She kissed his cheek before pulling her face away, then continued in a more normal tone of voice, "no one is out of your league, Jeremy. I know because I'm the lucky girl that gets to keep you!"
"Thanks, Aelita. You're incredible." He said with a grin that Aelita returned.
"And don't you ever forget that either!" Aelita exclaimed, giggling while she tapped the tip of Jeremy's nose lightly with her finger, eliciting a giggle from both of them.
The bus they had been waiting for just turned around the corner, prompting the young couple to stand up and get ready to board. The trip home was a happy one, with most of the time being spent talking about dinner for the evening.
A/N: Again, I'm sorry for the late post, I've kinda been having a hard time getting motivated for these 'at work' scenes. This is probably going to be one of the last ones for a while though, which might help me be a bit more regular in updating.
Lost Lantean: Thank you so much for the 'nerd rant' in your last review. Your comments about Schaeffer's computer being astronomically more powerful than a new quantum supercomputer is what gave me the idea of this computer being pushed to the limit with a mere microliter of water, and there's a number of other stuff as well.