**
The program had indeed found a frequency that worked. Hugo ran his finger along the notes he'd made to try and modify his cell phone to produce the right resonance. He’d really written everything down for Crysta’s benefit, it was easier to get her input that way. She was sitting at the workbench as well, leaning towards him to examine the plans.
“Hey, can you look up something for me?” He asked, rattling off a list of information he needed to make sure some of their design choices were sound. Engineering wasn’t exactly the doctor’s strong suit and he’d only read a few books on the subject, so she’d helped out a lot with the necessary supplemental research. She nodded, pulling the laptop to her, and started clicking away on the keys. He pushed away from the workbench, standing up, “Coffee?”
She didn’t look up, but shook her head slightly, “No, I’m fine for now, thanks.”
“Alright.” He grabbed his empty mug, stared at it, and then decided he wanted something more interesting than just coffee and sugar. He made sure he shut the door to the lab before quickly closing the distance between him and the nearest Starbucks.
She hadn’t said anything yet. CJ and Clem had been gone for hours. Maybe she hadn’t realized what he’d been about to do because she wasn’t acting all weird or nervous or anything. Yeah….maybe that was it. She'd been oblivious, so he didn’t have to bring it up. Ever. It had been a terrible idea anyway. He obviously hadn’t been thinking. Who was he kidding? She wasn’t nearly as oblivious as he was suddenly and unrealistically hoping she was, and she was just as distracted as he was with the research. But hopefully she just hadn’t noticed at all.
Patrick. Oh crap, maybe he shouldn’t have left her alone in the office. What if Patrick showed up while he was gone? He slipped out of the rather slow-moving line and out of the Starbucks, and was two steps later right outside of the lab he’d left her in. Hugo sucked in a deep breath, and then opened the door as quietly as possible.
Her back was to him, but she turned around immediately, smiling. The smile dropped a little, “Is something wrong?”
Hugo shook his head and closed the door to the workshop, heading over to her., “The line at Starbucks was way too long.”
Crysta raised her eyebrows at him, “We have a coffeemaker two doors down and you went all the way to the Starbucks?”
He shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets and laughed a little, “Uh, I wanted something different. But it…took too long. Did you find what I was looking for?”
The doctor nodded and pushed the laptop towards him, pointing to the screen. She stood up as he sat down and in his peripheral vision he saw her pick up the mug he’d abandoned. He started reading. Sometime later a mug of coffee magically appeared by his left hand and he took a sip from it. Every once in a while he recognized that someone was moving around him, but the sounds never registered as anything more than background noise until he’d finished reading.
He looked up from the laptop to find Crysta moving listlessly around the workroom, touching things, rearranging them, and then putting them back the way they’d been. Was she still bothered by what CJ had said? “Hey.”
Crysta looked up, snatched out of her thoughts, “Did you need something?”
He frowned, “Are you ok?”
She smiled, but it was false, “Yes of course. Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Yeah, I-” he wasn’t going to be distracted this time, “Look, what CJ said-”
“It’s fine.” The smile faltered.
“No it’s not. Look,” Hugo sighed, scratching the back of his head. What could he say that she didn’t already know? Nothing really, but he couldn’t let her keep thinking that it was somehow her fault that he’d been dumb enough to get stabbed. “Look, it’s not your fault.”
She took a step toward him, her eyebrows drawn together, “But I could have stopped it, easily, if I’d just been paying attention.”
He stood up, walking over to her, “Yeah, and let that shape-changer tear those people apart. You can’t expect yourself to do everything.”
Crysta looked down at the ground, “CJ would have…”
Hugo sighed, “Probably not. She would have gone after the werewolf too, and I still would have not been paying attention and then you wouldn’t have been there to heal me. And I would have died, and that would have sucked.”
Crysta looked up at him, her blue eyes dark, “But…”
“Thank you.” They were both surprised when he leaned in and kissed her. He really hadn’t thought that was what was on his mind, but apparently…He leaned back a little, “Sorry, that was abrupt.”
She just smiled, grabbed the front of his shirt and gently pulled him closer so they could do it again. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while,” she said softly, looking up at him.
He smiled back, “Sorry, sometimes I can be a little dense.”
She laughed, so he kissed her again.
The Sound of Wind Page 105
