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..."

you tonight. And thank your dad for me, for going

no

hanging up, Roseanne was

Wait a minute...

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

Stoddard, having overheard Owen conclude his call, nudged him teasingly, "Who was that? Little Roseanne, right? I could hear her voice." Owen shot

both Jen and Sammy have been moaning about the workload. Only you, Mr. Reynolds, can speak of it so lightly. Truly, a

was pushing himself harder

Vel

he made it

and cheerful.

else just pretending to do experiments, fabricating reports, writing

his watch, "If I'm not mistaken, it's been over nine hours since you received the preliminary data yesterday. How much have you verified? Is the accuracy up to standard? Have the discrepancies been corrected? When do you plan to submit the

The deadly quadruple inquiry.

to have disturbed

a grimace, facing the mountain of data yet to

these, Stoddard found himself missing

she could whip up a program in

from simplicity to luxury is easy,

Roseanne could permanently join their

...