Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

No sooner had she said it than she was out the door in a rush.

Roseanne felt numb all over.

Oh well, as long as they're happy...

In the lab-

Owen was poring over two sets of data from last week, spotting a discrepancy in the fourth column of the second set, just about to call Sammy over when his phone rang.

He answered it without looking-

"Hello?"

"Mr. Reynolds, it's Roseanne."

Owen paused, his gaze slowly drifting away from the screen, his voice softening, "What's up? Everything okay?"

"My dad, he... he wants to invite you over for dinner. He's cooking himself... If you're too busy, it's okay, I'll just let him know..."

"I'm free."

Roseanne stopped dead for a few seconds: "...Isn't the lab swamped?"

"It's manageable."

"So..."

your dad for me, for going through

no trouble

up, Roseanne was slightly

Wait a minute...

was texting her complaints about how swamped they all were with work, struggling to keep up with their

was that? Little Roseanne, right? I could hear her voice." Owen shot

workload. Only you, Mr. Reynolds, can speak of

was pushing himself

Vel

he made it

and cheerful.

just pretending to

preliminary data yesterday. How much have you verified? Is the accuracy up

The deadly quadruple inquiry.

disturbed you, I'll see

to his workstation with a grimace, facing the

these, Stoddard found himself missing

up a program in minutes, making sense of the data chaos

luxury is easy, but the reverse is

only little Roseanne could permanently join

...