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

hanging up, Roseanne was slightly

Wait a minute...

yesterday, Jen was texting her complaints about how swamped they all were with work, struggling to keep up with their schedule. And

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

Sammy have been moaning about the workload. Only you, Mr. Reynolds, can speak of

Owen was pushing himself harder than

Vel

he made it

and cheerful.

to do experiments,

some distance between them, then glanced at 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

The deadly quadruple inquiry.

"...Sorry to have disturbed you, I'll see

a grimace, facing the mountain

times like these, Stoddard found himself missing Roseanne

a program in minutes, making sense

luxury is easy, but the reverse is a

little Roseanne could

...