Laura freezes in the doorway. For a moment, she just stares, eyes wide, breath not even held so much as forgotten. Twenty-six years, and he doesn’t look the same, but she still knows him at a glance, even before he lifts his gaze to hers. The assessment there resonates, familiar, in her bones. She has wondered about this moment, but only distantly, not as something to expect. Certainly, not here. Lately, it hasn’t even crossed her mind. Time starts again, and Laura breathes in, swallows. Her eyes don’t leave his as her mind begins to rearrange what she knows to accommodate this new information. Another crack forms in the dam of her composure. “Why are you here?”
He wonders if she’ll recognize him. His pride led him to believe that he’d left an unerasible mark on her life and memory. But so much time had passed and she’d grown so much. Had it not been for her distinct physical appearance he may not have been able to identify her so easily. Then again, he’d monitored her run with the Exemplars closely. He puts the cap back on his pen and sets it down on his desk, perfectly in it’s it’s place, as all things should be. “I work here,” he said, simply, “You didn’t think I’d let something so simple as a government raid get in the way of the bigger picture. No, no, my duty to discover and create always comes first. You would not be in this world if not for that fact. The better questions is: Why are you here?”
