Leo was waiting for me in the kitchen the next morning.


    “I’m all out of party tricks,” I greeted grumpily. “So don’t ask.”


    “I’m not going to,” he promised. “Coffee?” I nodded, and he pressed the buttons to make the machine start. My favorite mug already sat in place. If he was trying for a peace offering, this wouldn’t cut it.


    I eyed him suspiciously as we waited in silence for my coffee to brew, the machine running quietly. He didn’t meet my gaze, instead focusing on something on the tablet in front of him. After a few more awkward moments my coffee finished brewing, and I busied my hands with adding cinnamon and my creaming when I asked, “So, what did you find out?”


    “I…I don’t know.”


    I glanced over my shoulder at him, but his gaze was still focused downward. Holding my warm mug between my chilled fingers, I stepped up to him and looked at his screen. A plethora of stats was displayed there in different colors.


    “What do you mean?” I finally asked.


    “I don’t know what happened. Or, I do know what happened. I just don’t know why.”


    “But there’s a scientific explanation for what happened.” There had to be, even if it was something we hadn’t discovered yet. And by we, I mean Leo.


    “Absolutely. Problem is, I can’t figure it out.”


    I took a sip of my coffee. Perfect. “Did you pull my stats?”


    “Not yet. I wanted to ask first. I know I pushed you too far last night. And for that I owe you an apology. Again. But I had a suspicion that you’d have to get mad again for it to work, like you did the first time with the table. But if I told you what I was doing—”


    “It wouldn’t have worked,” I finished for him. I let out a long sigh, trying to let my lingering anger dissipate with it. I was partially successful.


    “I’m sure anger isn’t the only trigger,” he continued, “but it was the only one that I knew worked. But, with your permission, I’d like to take a look at what your bio-screen picked up on, and compare it to mine.”


    I held out my arm in invitation, and he picked up his tablet to hold over my screen. They linked, and Leo downloaded the information that he wanted.


    “You don’t have to do it that way to get my data, right?” I asked, curious.


    “No. But it’s the easiest. Plus, this way it’s not being uploaded to the internet. These screens are just a monitoring device, and not used for any formal diagnosis yet. So that means that the data is uploaded to the company server just once a month. And...” He paused for a moment, bringing the tablet close to my arm again. “Not that I want to keep this from my father’s own company, but I think it would be best for right now if you and I are the only ones who know about this little secret.”


    “Probably,” I agreed warily. I started considering what that could mean, if this information was relayed to people who would consider making me live in a lab. I shuddered with a chill.


    “I fudged your stats, and put normal ones in place of what happened last night. Since you had an incident right before you ended up in the hospital last week, I’m leaving that one alone. I can guarantee they already have that information from the doctor. Though what they’ll do with it, if anything, I’m not sure. My mods are better for this sort of thing, and they can’t see them.” He seemed pretty smug about that. It made me wonder again what the falling out between him and his father had been years ago. Leo had alluded to it plenty, but I hadn’t pried. It wasn’t my business, and seemed like a touchy subject. If Leo wanted to tell me, then he would..


    “Well, science man, let me know if you find anything interesting.”


    Leo just nodded, completely absorbed in his work.


    I made breakfast for both of us, as a sort of acceptance of his earlier apology. He could be a bit abrasive or rude at times in his single-minded pursuit for information, though I vowed for it not to become a habit with me. I’d hold him accountable and call his ass out each and every time.


    An hour later, and half his breakfast mindlessly picked at, Leo dropped his head to the countertop and groaned.


    My heart sank. What did he find out? It clearly wasn’t good news. Unless it was right in front of his face the entire time, and he was just mad at himself?


    “Leo?” I asked cautiously from my place on the couch. “You okay over there?”


    “Fuck, I’m just too stupid.”


    “Okay, that’s not true. Like, at all. Bring it over here.” I patted the cushion next to me. “Explain it.”


    Leo muttered to himself under his breath as he came over, though I couldn’t make out what he said. He handed me the tablet, which I took gingerly in both hands—it was expensive tech, based on the brand name, and I didn’t want to mess up what Leo had been doing by accidentally touching the wrong buttons—and looked down at the numbers.


    My bio-screen’s stats were pulled up alongside his, thankfully labelled with our names. I compared the two, noting individual differences like heart rate, oxygen, and a number of other stats. The ones in red, Leo’s mods, were the most interesting.


    His gamma radiation levels were significantly lower than mine. Where mine spiked high very quickly before dropping, his lasted just a couple or a few seconds longer.


    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    “Huh.” What else could I say? That I totally didn’t see the significance of this information? Because I didn’t. Nothing else was…


    Carefully, I scrolled back up to the top, comparing my stats to themselves both before and after the gamma spike. Some things, like my heart rate, stayed elevated for a few moments, but others, like my blood pressure, dropped. It didn’t go low in a dangerous way, but it looked…healthier? That was the best way I could describe it. I was used to hearing my blood pressure was a bit on the high side from all my appointments leading up to my diagnosis, but that one looked…good.


    I searched through the others, seeing if I noticed a similar, or opposite trend. My blood oxygen level increased from 99% to a whopping 100%, too small a change to be significant, but some others improved slightly. Not a lot, to be sure, but…there was the slightest difference.


    Looking at Leo’s stats, I didn’t notice any changes.


    I handed the tablet back to him, considering it all. When he finally spoke, it startled me a little bit.


    “You see it?” he asked.


    “I saw a few things. Our gamma spikes were different, which means something. And some of my stats got better afterwards. Yours didn’t,” I summarized.


    “That’s what I found. But there’s nothing that I’ve found that tells me where the gamma spike came from, or why it helped you but not me.”


    “Well, there’s a reason for it. We just haven’t found it yet.” I was aiming for reassuring, but Leo just looked more troubled.


    “I think this is going to take longer than I hoped to figure out.”


    “Why do you think that?”


    He sighed, leaning back against the couch and letting his head fall back. “Because I think more of those weird instances need to happen first.”


    “You mean breaking the glass?” I asked hesitantly. I wanted him to say no, though his response wasn’t exactly what I hoped for.


    “Not necessarily. I think there’s probably other things that can happen besides glass breaking. We just haven’t seen it yet. And I have no idea how to get it to happen again, either. I’m not going to just try to get you mad all the time. I also wonder if it’s a you thing. Or is it a LaShoul’s thing? Is it something else?” He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I just don’t know Callie. It’s killing me.”


    “Oh, is it, now?” I teased. Morbid jokes about our impending deaths were usually more creative than that, but it’s all I had at the moment.


    I watched his eyes roll. “Yes. This might kill me first.”


    “So what do we do?”


    He shrugged. “We wait. Either you''ll have another weird phenomenon, or maybe next time it will be me, or it won’t happen again at all and we’ll be back at the beginning.”


    “Because we have all the time in the world to wait,” I said dryly.


    <hr>


    I thought that I would have a nice, relaxing day at home with my books and my cat to take full advantage of what little PTO I had left to use. I’d hoarded it just for this purpose, and I was immensely glad I did. I felt well-rested and was confident I’d have no problem going back to work next week.


    Leo was working on our stats again, running some program he came up with to see if there was anything that we had missed. I’d opted to stay in my room, out of his way, in part for his own sanity, and in part to save me from the tirades he occasionally went on.


    But then I got an email.


    I didn’t usually notice my email. A few years ago I had finally gotten fed up enough with all the marketing and spam emails that I set up my inbox to automatically sort through things. I’d set up a folder and a filter for each store or company so that when I wanted, or more accurately needed, to go shopping, it was easy for me to find a coupon or five. But that was for my primary account, the one I gave out to stores, free trials of things, social media accounts, and the like.


    However, I had a separate email that I considered my “professional” one, even though I didn’t really consider myself a professional. This one was reserved for job applications, work communications, and anything relating to government or banking accounts. And it was that one that pinged with a message.


    It took opening the email and reading the first several lines for me to remember that I had signed up for the LaShoul’s study with the company Alex worked for. I scanned through the email, noting their acceptance of my application, some brief explanations and summaries of what I could expect, and a separate link at the bottom to sign up for an orientation slot.


    Before just going for it, I gave Alex a call. I couldn’t remember if he was working or not, but figured he wouldn’t answer if he was busy.


    “Hey, Callie,” he greeted me after the third ring. “How are you?”


    “Oh, you know,” I answered, waving a nonchalant hand in the air that he could absolutely not see. “The usual. How’re you? Up to anything exciting today?”


    “Just work. So, no.”


    “Sorry, I didn’t remember you worked today,” I apologized, preparing to hang up.


    “It’s not a problem. I have a bit of down time right now while I wait for this diagnostic program to run. It can take a while, depending where the issue is. So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call? Were you planning on asking me out on our next date?” He sounded hopeful, and I laughed.


    “I wasn’t, but that’s actually not a bad idea. But hold onto that thought. I got the email from your company about the study. I was curious if you got an answer, too.”


    “Let me check.” He took less than a minute to get back to me. “Yeah, they accepted me. Nice. That’ll be a good little bonus. You get accepted, too?”


    “Mhmm. They have different orientation times. So, Alex, would you like to sign up for the same time as me?” I asked in a flirty tone, amused with myself. “We can make it a date.”


    He laughed, the sound washing over me and sending a chill down my spine. He had a nice laugh. Warm, slightly rumbly.


    Get your head out of the clouds, I chided myself.


    “Sure, let’s take a look,” he suggested. I put him on speaker and switched back to the email, tapping on the link to pull up the sign-up sheet. The orientations were oddly soon, starting later today and going all week to accommodate everyone’s days off.


    “Where is this place located?” I wondered aloud, noting the address but having no idea where exactly in the city it was.


    “It’s actually the same building I work in.”


    “There’s more than one?”


    “Yeah, it’s a small campus of buildings,” he answered idly. “I can actually make the one tonight at seven, if you’re free.”


    “Can’t wait to see me, huh?” I teased.


    “Well, if I disagreed, I’d be lying,” he answered. I felt a flush creep up my cheeks and I was grateful he didn’t see. I was really starting to like Alex, definitely more than just a friend. Sure, he was easy to talk to and we had things in common like any good friendship, but it was more than that. And I was happy to have someone who I knew returned those same feelings and made a point to make me feel seen.


    “Let’s do it. Seven. And then an actual date afterwards?” I suggested.


    “Yes. Maybe I’ll show you around where I spend my days. Maybe then I can convince you to join me.”


    I grinned, recalling his offer to get me a job there. “Perfect.”


    “Wear layers,” he added. “It gets cold there to keep the machines from overheating.”


    “Got it.”


    “I’ll wait for you outside the building. Call me if you get lost; it can be tricky. Oh, and take the three train to twenty-fourth street. It’s actually closer than the four train on twentieth.”


    That meant I’d have to transfer, since the three train didn’t stop nearby. But I’d figure it out. That’s what the internet was for.


    “Any other helpful tips?”


    “Wear comfy shoes.”


    I laughed again. “Yes, mom.”


    “You’ll thank me later,” he answered. I could hear the grin in his voice. “Ah, shit. I hoped it was literally any other problem.”


    “Have fun at work.”


    “Uh-huh,” he answered blandly. “At least I have something tonight to look forward to.”


    “Me, too.”