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The New Lab Assistant (JellybeanSprite & jaburo56)

JellybeanSprite

JellybeanSprite

Planetoid
Joined
Apr 7, 2016
April Pemberton made her way down the hall, passing door after door, all which opened up to separate research labs. But there was only one that she was interested in. With her dark blonde hair pinned up into a high but sleek ponytail, and her body clad in a white twill blouse and knee length skirt, she looked the part of a perfect professional. Still, there was no disguising the pep in her step. An excitement bubbled within her, the excitement of finally making progress in her fledgling research career. The board, which made most decisions in regard to research funding and placement, had contacted her earlier that week with some news.

April had been given the opportunity to work as a lab assistant to Dr. Matthew Garza. He was a legend. His research was known far and wide in her world, and the chance to work in the same lab as him was a privilege that every single one of her classmates envied. Not only that, but she would be shadowing him directly, being groomed to be just as great as him. Her high intelligence and proficiency in previous assignments had caused some of the higher ups to notice her, and at twenty-three, she'd just made her first huge career move. It was thrilling, and April had to stop and take a moment to calm herself down before entering the laboratory where she would probably spend countless hours in starting today.

After making sure that she looked calm and presentable, she made her way into the room, her eyes analyzing everything around her, from the labeled test tubes, to a large freezer that held samples, to a large desk littered with paperwork, and finally to the man standing in front of said desk. After a moment, April made her way towards him, she held her head high, despite her small stature. "Dr. Garza, I'm April Pemberton, your new lab assistant." She pulled her hand out for a handshake. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
 
Matthew had mentally prepared himself for this day. It was the day his life and his research would no longer be his own. No, from now on he had to babysit, on top of conducting his research. He had been informed by his superiors that a "promising young girl" had really shined and caught their attention. Great grades, top of her class, high ambition, yada, yada, so on and so forth. None of it mattered. All that mattered what that it wasn't Matthew's choice. Though, after he had expressed his displeasure in being assigned an assistant rather than picking one, he took the time to research his new charge.

The later 30 year old scientist had spent the night before reading over April's dissertation. Admittedly, he was mildly impressed, though not enough to praise her right out of the gate. No, she'd have to earn that. He flipped through several more pages before he had all he needed to know. The looked over the picture that was attached to her file. She was pretty. He tossed the picture down on the table with her folder and went to bed.

In the morning, after going through his morning routine, he dressed in his normal, relaxed work attire. She may be a prodigy, but she wouldn't get him to dress up. Matthew inspected himself in the mirror before heading out. His dark, full, brown head of hair was lazily combed back out of his face and his glasses rested over his chocolate brown eyes. 5 o'clock stubble at 8 in the morning adorned his chin. He stood 6'2" with relatively lighter skin for a man of his descent. Despite this, he had maintained a fit body. As a bio chem researcher, he understood the need for a healthy body as well as a healthy mind.

The time was almost upon him and, despite arriving at work earlier than normal to prepare, he was not quite ready. Meeting new people wasn't this man's strong suit. He preferred his tests and comfortable colleagues. Despite this, the door behind him opened and he turned to see the girl he recognized from the photo. In the time it took her to stride the room, he took in what he could and instantly began sizing her up. She better not be all looks. He shook her hand tursly, "So I've heard. Nice to meet you." He released her hand and turned to the desk, "We have a lot of work to get done so we're going to need to skip the formalities." He grabbed a lab coat and clipboard from his desk and handed them to her. The coat was very much like his, though much smaller. He took a wild guess on her size and picked one out from the closet. The clipboard had blank forms already printed on them. "You can ask questions as we go between report. I trust you know how to take down reports? I'll be dictating them." He stared expectantly down at her, eager to move on from awkward first encounters.
 
He was so much taller than she had expected. Granted, everybody seemed to tower over her five feet and two inches of height. April had only ever seen him in pictures, and they were usually only shots of his face, often next to an article he'd written or endorsed. He was extremely young to be in the position that he was, with the reputation that he had. Then again, so was she. Perhaps that was part of the reason that she got assigned to him. They had that bit in common, though judging by his gruff exterior, he didn't seem terribly happy to have her here. He had always worked alone, she'd heard. From the looks of it, the rumors were true. It was odd, that there were no techs running around, no lab assistants making sure that everything was accurate and sterile; this man didn't seem to have any trust for other people in regards to his work.

It was evident at that point that she had been forcefully assigned to him by those in the board. It saddened her a bit, but she pushed those thoughts to the side. Someone had seen her potential, and she was here now. Whether he wanted her here or not, she needed this, and would put everything she had into doing her job, just as she always did. April grabbed the white lab coat, briskly putting it on. Surprisingly, it fit her quite well, if only a bit long around the sleeves. She quickly rolled them back until they were appropriate, and then grabbed onto the clipboard he handed her. The forms were familiar, and she felt relieved that she would know what to do. The last thing she needed was to make this man think she was foolish.

"Of course. Let's get started." His attitude didn't surprise her; he didn't seem the type for small talk. Not that she cared; April was just as eager to get started. She was terribly curious about his research.
 
Matthew nodded and moved around the table to where the seat was already pulled out. Clearly he had been sitting her earlier. He sat back down, pulled up the chair, and began grabbing paper from different parts of his desk. To anyone else, this would have been a mess. Paper's didn't seem to be in any sort of order or placement. Things were just scattered. Matthew, however grabbed papers and didn't even give them a second glance as he put them into an empty folder on his desk. He spoke as he did this, "Alright, April, today we're going to be checking the growth of several bacterial colonies I've been studying. They're in the incubation chamber." He nodded his head at a door to his left. Their was no window, but a large bio-hazard sign plastered on it. "Then we're going to introduce a foreign liquid to several plants I've been tending to. They're healthy so any reaction should only be due to the new liquids they receive."

He droned on about another task they needed to complete before his voice started to become less audible. He had begun mumbling to himself as if he had forgotten April was there. It wasn't until he glanced over and actually jumped a little at the sight of her that he realized that his voice trailed off. He had forgotten she was there. Frustrated with himself and the situation, he closed the folder and headed for the door. "Just follow me and write down what I say. Keep up, we have a lot of specimens to get through before lunch." He reached the door and began to open it. Just as the door began to give, he stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. He then reached over and grabbed a basic hospital face mask and handed it to her. "Put this on. We can't have any unknowns in here." He notably did not grab one for himself and opened the door. He held the door open but only for a moment before moving further inside.

Matthew moved to the back of the tightly packed room, one that had a red bulbs as the only sources of light, and stopped at the back, right most shelf. He turned and pulled the tray out. With that, he began reading off information that match the form fields perfectly in order. He had memorized their order. He showed no signs of stopping and began moving down the line. Based on the length of the room, this would take some time.
 
April nodded her head at his instruction, making a note of each task in her head. At the mention of the plants, she began to wonder. Was he perhaps working on some sort of fertilizer? She knew she shouldn't be assuming anything, but the eagerness to figure out exactly what this man was doing was certainly there. The folder in his hands probably had the answer to her questions, but for now, she stayed perfectly silent, listening as he listed one task after another. Tasks that would now be just as much her responsibility as they were his. He seemed to go on and on, his voice getting lower, until she could no longer understand him. She stood silently as he mumbled, and then jumped as he realized that she was actually there. There would certainly be an adjustment period for Dr. Garza.

They made their way towards the chamber, pausing for a moment as the doctor handed a facemask to April. She certainly understood the need for it, though she didn't understand why he excluded himself from wearing one as well. It would do him no benefits if he contaminated his specimens simply because of his refusal to wear one. That being said, his results were often confirmed to be correct after he published them, so he likely had the perfect level of control in these situations. It didn't particularly bother her. Placing it over her mouth and wrapping the elastic around her head, she made her way inside after him, her eyes scanning a room full of specimens in various trays. Her eyes took only a moment to adjust to the dim red bulbs; she understood the importance of darkness with certain bacteria.

He began in the right, and April had her clipboard ready, pen in hand. He immediately started, and didn't stop. She wrote as quickly as she could, her writing hand actually quite practiced at using this sort of speed. She was grateful that he was listing off the information in the order that it was printed, as she probably wouldn't be able to scan, finding each spot and writing at this speed if he didn't. They went through the line, one after another after another. She wrote everything he said aloud, completing one page after another with the information. It took them quite a bit of time, but eventually they got through all of them. She hadn't missed anything, for which she was grateful. She wanted to leave a good impression, and incompetence certainly wouldn't have that effect.
 
It took a few hours for the two to make it down the line. Several times, particularly when he rattled off a name only scientist worth their salt would know, Matt looked over to check how she was doing. To his surprise, she was keeping up very well. He found himself becoming more and more aware of her presence as the morning moved on, thought the forefront of his mind was dominated by his work. It was a bit after lunch time when the two exited the incubation chamber. Dr. Garza held the door open for April, this time long enough for her to exit before letting it go. Once the door had closed shut, he took the clipboard from her hands and gave her a quiet, "Thank you." And began pouring over her work.

He didn't speak as he read the reports. His hand came up to his chin as he read and several ‘hmm’s and ‘oh’s came from him as his eyes traveled down the page. Without warning he tossed the clipboard onto the desk among the other papers and began walking towards the plants he had mentioned before. “You have good handwriting. That’s good. Very legible.” As he reached the green, and very healthy plants he had mentioned before, he pointed in the direction of a containment case. “Get sample tray 4.”

Within the case were 6 racks of test tubes. On them were labels with abbreviations and acronyms. Some were elements and others were nonsense to anyone but the writer.

As April made her way to the case, he spoke again, “Tell me about your background, April.” He didn’t look at her. His eyes scanned the plants so closely that he might have been looking for little people. “School, family, diet, extracurricular.” He sniffed in a dissatisfied way as he inspected on plant as if it had insulted him and moved to the next one.
 
It felt like April was holding her breath as she watched Dr. Garza scan through the pile of paperwork she'd just written up. The 'hmm' and 'oh's told her nothing, and she hoped that she hadn't messed something up without realizing it. She was usually quite good at these sort of tasks, but it was certainly possible that her nerves had caused her to miss a mistake. She jumped as he tossed the clipboard onto the wooden desk; she hadn't been expecting the sound. Following his direction, she walked to where the sample trays were, and she pulled out the one labeled 'four'. Her heart soared at his compliment. Even though it was for something as small as the neatness in her handwriting, this was the first kind words he'd given her, the first compliment. It almost embarrassed her that she was so eager to impress this man.

They began with their next task, and she noticed how Dr. Garza would scrutinize the plants, it almost looked like he was dissatisfied with them, but they looked perfectly healthy. The stems were bright green, and no leaves were wilting, despite their small size. There was quite a bit about this man that she had yet to figure out. As they worked, his question surprised her. He didn't seem the type to want to socialize, especially when they had specimens in front of them. It seemed that she had judged him to harshly. "Well..." she wasn't quite sure where to begin. The last thing she wanted to do was bore him with pointless information and for him to never speak to her of anything but work again.

"I come from a family of chefs, so I'm a bit of an oddball, in that regard." Although she believed cooking to be an art, that was never what she wanted to do with her life. "I'm the youngest of two, but my older brother is already married and with his own family." Not that they were all that close to begin with. "I graduated high school at sixteen, and was fortunate enough to receive a scholarship. That same summer, I did an unpaid internship at a research lab, and that's where I discovered that this is what I really wanted to do with my career. I'm currently working on finishing my masters in biological science." She smiled up at him, for the first time. "Despite that, I do enjoy cooking on my free time."
 
Matthew listened to her talk about herself, despite not looking like he was. He scanned his plants for any signs of trouble, taking in their features in preparation for any possible changes in the future after the tests. He nodded absently as she talked. “Chef’s, huh?” He took the tray and placed it on the table next to the left most plant. “Cooking is a science as much as it is an art. Without control and knowledge, your work turns into a failure.” He gestured to something at the end of the other room among a clutter of boxes. He took a dropper from a nearby rack and a rubber glove from a box next to it. Once fitted, he sucked a pale green liquid into the dropper and moved it, gloved hand under to catch drips, towards the left plant. “Grab the camera, it’s in the cabinet under me.” He lightly kicked a cabinet door to his immediate right.

He dropped several drops of liquid into the soil around the stem. Afterwards, he stared at it as if expecting something happen immediately. After a few quiet seconds and a brief nod, he placed the dropper in the test tube it had drawn from and moved onto the next test. “Yeah, I saw that you graduated early. Not always best. You miss out on valuable socialization development.” He said this as he continued to not look at her and drop a clear liquid into the next plant. “But good, you have previous research experience.” He moved onto the next one, “It shows. But you’re going to need to be better than your internship.” He tsked as he dropped an inky liquid into the third plant. It was the one he had sniffed at earlier. “This one’s a failure. Don’t photograph this one.” He moved on. ”I assume you’re not married. You didn’t mention anyone.” He dropped the last dropper and removed his glove. “Well what you learn here won’t help you in your degree. What I’m doing is beyond what they will test you on, but it will help you afterwards.” He tossed his glove and sat at his desk. “Take a photo of each and give me the card when you’re done.” He grabbed a seemingly random paper and scanned it for a second befor looking over at the plants with an expectant look on his face as if he expected something to be happening already. His chocolate eyes remained on the plants for a few moments before moving up to April’s. “That’s good that you enjoy cooking. Savor your hobby. It’ll keep you sane through life.” He looked at his watch, then the one on the wall. “You’re going to need to maintain a good diet while you’re here. Keeping your body, mind, and immune system in top shape is essential for working here. We’re dealing with potentially hazardous materials.” He looked at her with a grave look as he mentioned the severity of their situation.

After a moment for dramatic pause, he stood again, and inspected the plants. “You can break for lunch when you’re done here. Vending machines and lounge are down the hall. I’ll be there in a while.” He hadn’t looked at her while he spoke. He seemed to only have eyes for the plants.
 
April watched as he set up the next part of the experiment, putting on gloves and preparing a dropper with some sort of green liquid. Whatever it was, that liquid seemed to contain the substance that they were actually testing. At his command, she leaned down until she was eye level with the cabinet, her eyes scanning until she found the camera. April reached out and grabbed it, accidently grazing the doctor's leg with the side of her arm as she did so. Closing the cabinet again, she watched as he set up the plants. He used the dropper with the green liquid, and then seemed to stare at said plant as it absorbed. His comment about socialization was true, she knew, but it still hurt to hear it. She'd lost all her friends when she left school, and it had been difficult, learning to be solitary because nobody wanted to work with someone who was so much younger.

She knew she was lonely, and it sucked. While she was working, however, was not the time to dwell on it. He didn't look at her throughout the whole process, and for that, she was grateful. Her expression was one of pain, and she had a feeling that it might anger him that she looked like her thoughts were elsewhere. "While my experience with research isn't vast, I'm always eager to expand my experience. That's why I was so thrilled when they informed me that I was to shadow you. You have great achievements in this field, and there's nobody I'd rather learn from." She knew that he probably didn't care, both about her sentiments and her words. Still, she wanted him to know that she admired him.

She took pictures of each plant, save the last one that he'd mentioned. She didn't quite understand why he'd deemed it a failure. Then again, she wasn't keen on what it was that they were looking for in the first place. Once finished with that, April extracted the video card, and placed in his hand. Although she understood his concerns when it came to diet and health, she was pretty sure that he wouldn't approve of the instant noodle cup she'd brought with her to have for lunch. Nodding her head to him once she finished, the girl made her way to a lounge and break room a few doors away. It was empty, with two circular tables in the middle, both surrounded by chairs. Pulling the cup from where she'd stashed it in earlier, April filled it with drinking water, and then put in into the microwave to cook for a few minutes. Her parents would be shocked if they saw her eating these noodles, but they were cheap and quick. She wasn't exactly living in the lap of luxury.
 
Against his own will, the sudden contact had startled him. Whether it was because he was so engrossed in his work and he had forgotten she was there for a moment or for any other reason, he was not sure. All that matters was that he was able to remain his composure and did not flinch like he had earlier. Again, seeming not to be listening, Dr. Garza took in every one of her words. He had not been known, in or out of the science community, as a compassionate person. He was always portrayed as a jerk by critics and deaf by friends. In truth, if someone was talking, he listened. It was valuable information to determine someone's character. It was when they were quiet that he would lose track of their presence while working.

He couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't seem halfhearted or flat in response to her admiration, so he opted for a non-committal grunt as he looked over his paper. The admiration was always nice, though the novelty had worn off after the 10th story about his great success. It was tiresome now. At this point, only those he respected could even have a chance of causing his face to redden, even a little, with a compliment.

With April gone, the familiar silence filled the room again. The soft humming of the various machines running through the lab were pleasant. April hadn't said much, but having another body in the lab did muffle some of the noises Matthew had grown accustomed to. He sighed as he accepted that he would have to get used to a second body in the lab for a while.

After downloading the pictures on his laptop, he made for the lounge. Upon entry, his nose was assaulted by the familiar smell of instant noodles. A smell he was very familiar with. One he had given up many years ago. It didn't take long to see where the smell was coming from. His face contorted with displeasure as he watched his new assistance "poison" her body with that "garbage." He strode past her to the vending machine and began ordering an item. He mumbled loud enough to barely be heard, "Unacceptable." Matt scooped up the item as it fell from the machine and made for the fridge. From within, he pulled a lunchbag and brought both over to her table. Dropping both on the table, he opened his lunchbag and pulled a large, green pear from it. He snatched the instant noodle cup from April and replaced it with the fruit and a protein bar. "I don't want to see this in your hands while you're here." He dropped the cup into the trash as if it were roadkill and returned to the table. "No assistant of mine will be eating that swill."

Without another word, he placed his own food in the microwave and began heating it in silence. He didn't turn back around until it was done. It was a stew, homemade, and filled with an assortment of vegetables and meat. He sat at her table as if he hadn't just scolded her and began to eat. It was a few minute before he spoke up. "You'll be getting paid enough to afford yourself reasonable food. You shouldn't be struggling unless you're bad with money." He looked up as he finished his sentence, expecting a response.
 
April looked up as the man walked in. Her face had a pleasant expression, as she took off the lid to her noodle cup, and pulled out a cellophane spoon to eat her lunch with. Her light brown eyes widened as Matthew placed a pear and a nutritional bar in front of her, taking her noodle cup away in the process. "Hey..." She nearly stood up from her seat as he threw the whole thing in the trash. The action pissed her off, she hadn't thought that he would be such a bully. The fruit and the protein bar would never fill her hunger. "Why would you do that?" His answer only fueled her anger more. While she understood his stance on a healthy diet, she definitely disagreed with his approach.

Whatever he had warming in the microwave smelled good; then again, she was probably just hungry. She ignored his words, and then his expectant gaze. April had no desire to speak to this man at the moment. She took a bite out of the pear, and was pleasantly surprised when she found that it was juicy. Although she might had normally felt bad about eating part of his lunch, the fact that he threw away hers in its entirety seemed to erase that feeling altogether. The protein bar, on the other hand, was a bit bland. Not that she expected much better from a vending machine. She never would have thought he was getting it for her though.

After what felt like fifteen minutes, April finally cooled down enough to answer his question. "While I will be getting paid enough for fancy food, that first paycheck hasn't kicked in yet." Before obtaining the position of his assistant, she was much lower in the totem pole, and her paycheck reflected that. Although she wasn't particularly bad with money, she would admit that she did like to shop as well. Just not to him.
 
The fifteen silent minutes were painful. Maybe he had gone too far? Matthew, whether he wanted to admit it or not, had a bad habit of letting his emotions get the better of him. This was especially apparent when he was hungry. At other times, his level of control was a bit higher. He could barely enjoy his stew, though he did continue to eat. When she spoke up again, it was as if a small weight had been lifted. He hummed absently at her response and took another bite. He took his time chewing before responding, "I see. Well then I'm going to give you some extra work tonight." He looked her in the eye, then off to the side as he thought, "I need my pictures organized, my emails sorted, and an inventory to low supplies made to submit for restocking."

Matthew took another bite of his food, stood, took his fork with him, and walked to the sink. He spoke as he walked. "I want the pictures sorted by subject, i.e. the plants, colonies, mixtures, etc. Sort and store my emails based on what project they're related to. If they involve multiple projects, make a new folder for the combo. The supplies are straight forward." He rattled off his instructions as he washed his fork in the sink, not stopping his instructions for anything. He turned and walked back to the table. "In return, I'll write you a startup check for additional work done. Funded by the board, of course." He placed the cleaned fork next to his stew and closed up his lunch bag, leaving the half eaten stew and fork out.

"You'll get enough for enough groceries to last you until your first paycheck." He checked his watch, "If you do the work, that is." He turned and made for the door. "I'm going to run an errand. If I'm not back before lunch is over, you can start on your additional work." With that, he walked out, leaving April with almost his whole lunch, plus one protein bar.
 
It surprised her how quickly he turned the conversation back to business. Not that she minded; April wasn't particularly fond of talking about her shortcomings. He gave her a laundry list of tasks that she sincerely hoped wouldn't take her all night. He expected complete organization, and she could respect that, despite the amount of work that had just fallen on her shoulders. Her eyes widened as he walked from the sink back to the table, mentioning how she would be compensated for the extra work. It seemed that Dr. Garza wasn't all that bad after all. Maybe his cold exterior was simply a front.

Her thoughts were confirmed when he closed up his lunch bag and made his way out of the room, leaving the now cleaned fork and the remainder of the stew he'd been eating. Any anger she might have had left simply sizzled away. Had he felt guilty for his actions? She knew what this was probably as close to an apology as she was ever going to get from him. A small smile crossed her features as she pulled the container towards her, the smell just as heavenly as it had been before. She practically inhaled what was left, then washing the dish and utensils, and taking them with her when she made her way out of the break room.

It seemed that he was still running errands when lunch ended, so April began with the tasks that he'd assigned to her. Before that, however, she placed his clean lunch container on the corner of his desk. On top of it, there was a sticky note. It read 'Thank you for lunch!' It also had a happy face drawn in the end of the sentance. A silly but sweet gesture.

Inventory seemed to be a good place to start with her tasks, so with a pen and notepad in hand, April made her way to the supply closet, where she began counting.
 
Matt hadn't looked back to see if she would take his food. Either way, he would find out. She didn't seem the type to fish out food once it was in the garbage, so he didn't worry about that.

The errand Dr. Garza needed to run at the last minute was actually a trip to the park. It required a small drive of 10 miles, but it was always worth it. Though she was helpful, April added a level of stress that Matt wasn't accustomed to. This was stress he needed to work off, and as it was not the end of the day, a workout session wasn't quite in order. No, he needed to let it dissipate, and this was the place he went to do that. The man walked through the park and found his favorite park bench. One that overlooked the river. It had to have been used in a movie at least once. Here, Matt was able to relax his mind and body and forget about the world for a bit.

He sat for 30 minutes before heading back. He couldn't shirk his research just because he wanted to postpone the human interactions. It took him another 30 minutes to get back to the lab, putting him about an hour late from his break. Not that anyone was counting, of course. As long as the work was getting done.

Matt walked into his lab and saw April hard at work at his supple closet. A logical place to start. Without a word, he donned his white lab coat again and strode to his desk where he saw his lunchbox. Without removing the sticker, he placed it under his desk. He appreciated the note and took it to mean she ate the food. Without speaking, he began scrolling through the pictures of the plants April had taken before. After a moment, he closed the lid and began to write notes down on a blank page from his desk. The room was silent except for the shuffling of April working and the scritching of Matt's pen.

Matt wrote several pages of notes before leaning back in his chair and letting out a relieved sigh. As he did so, his eyes fell upon his assistant. He watched her work for a bit.
 
For about an hour, April worked in silence. She took count of absolutely everything, though they had a decent stock of most things. Despite the work ahead of her, she felt very peaceful as she did her job. Her lunch was sitting well with her. Eventually, she heard the doctor come in, and although she smiled and nodded, April continued to work. He immediately seemed to jump to work as well, either with the pictures or his emails. She wasn't at an angle to distinguish which of the two. After about half an hour more, April found that she was almost finished with the task at hand. She bent down to count boxes of beakers, most of which were still unopened. Jotting the number down, she stood straight again, a smile creeping its way in as she looked at her list and saw that she was done with that particular task.

Her eyes seemed to wander to the man sitting on the desk. He seemed to look relaxed as he watched her, much more so than before he'd left during their lunch break. She felt a bit guilty that she had eaten most of his lunch; hadn't he been hungry as well? Perhaps he had eaten something after he'd left. It was possible that he still didn't like her company, unfortunately. A sad expression crossed her features, only for a moment before she switched it to one of neutrality. One way or another, they would be working together for a while. He would get used to her eventually. Today was, after all, only the first day that they worked together. She was used to having people there with her all the time in the lab. He wasn't. She tried to take that into consideration before she judged him too harshly.

April made her way to the desk, placing the notepad in the desk in front of Matthew. She placed her hands behind her back, a pleasant expression on her face. "Alright, I completed inventory. Although we seem to have plenty of stock with most of our supplies," She leaned forward and pointed to the bottom part of the first page. "there are some which we should probably order more of."
 
Matt had gotten lost in thought as he watched April work. He wasn't even watching her anymore, but rather his eyes looked in her direction while his mind was in space. It wasn't until she returned to him that he snapped out of it and sat up. With the results of her work on the table, he looked over her list and nodded as she pointed out the items of note. He took out a pen and subtracted a few numbers from a few items on the list. "We'll be using these today and tomorrow so we should put the order in now." With that, he stood and stretched. He with the two so close again, it was immensely apparent that there was a height difference. "Go to take that to the front office. The secretary will put the order in for us." Once done stretching, he moved towards a chemistry set. "When you get back, we'll do our last few tasks for the day." Once at the assortment of beakers and burners, he began to put on his protective gear. "I'll need to focus, so come in, put on what I have on, and wait for orders. I won't be talking beyond that." He had already put on his thick rubber gloves and respirator by the time he finished his sentence. Without another word, he began unloading an assortment of sealed containers and putting them under a fume hood.

The rest of the day was mostly taken up by this task. As promised, Matt had spoken barely a word to her as he mixed up his concoctions and poured them into individual tubes. The labels placed on the test tubes were exactly the same as the ones he had used before on the plants, minus the one used on the failure plant. At one point, he, without thinking, reached across April to reach for a tool he could have asked her to get. He had remembered she was there too late to ask, but said nothing. For a brief moment, his arm had grazed across her chest, though he pretended not to nice. Though, he was sure to hand her the tool when he was done with it. After that point, he was very careful to avoid any further contact.

The end of the day finally came at 4pm. With chemicals put away, hands washed, and gear put in containment, Matt sat down in his chair in the most relaxed position he had displayed in the time April had been there. It was fare lazier looking that anything he had done. He took a deep breath and sighed out, "That's the most tedious part of the day. At least the bacterial colonies change." He pushed up his classes and wiped his eyes. A loud yawn followed as he stood. "Alright, you know what you need to do. I'll return when you've completed the work to inspect it and write you're check. Until then, I'm going to go home." He removed his lab coat and gathered his keys and wallet from the desk. "Is there anything else you need from me before I go?" His eyes seemed tired and heavy as he looked at her. The dull, yes strenuous task had certainly taken its toll.
 
April briskly walked to the front office, the inventory paperwork in her hands. The raven haired girl in the front smiled as she took it, a glint in her eye. "So, how's it going with Dr. Garza?" It seemed that he had quite a reputation with everybody in this building. Everyone here seemed to look at her like they were expecting her to struggle, to choke and quit. She would prove them all wrong. "It's going well. We've gotten quite a bit done in a small amount of time." The woman's smile faded as April walked away, heading back towards the lab. He may have a strong personality, but he wasn't a bad person.

As she entered the lab once again, she put on thick rubber gloves and a respirator that matched the one the doctor was currently wearing. They worked together in silence, mixing liquids and watching their reactions. As they set up to pour one of the mixtures, April felt his arm graze the front of her chest. She had no doubt that it was accidental, but the tips of her breasts still puckered at the small contact. She hadn't been with a partner in a while, and so any intimate contact would cause a silent, but present reaction. However, she didn't' need distraction in the middle of this assignment, so she ignored it and continued to work, pouring their results into test tubes and labeling them accordingly.

Eventually, they finished the task at hand. Matthew relax into his chair, releasing a breath, and April smiled at the sight. He seemed tired, and his words seemed to confirm it. "No, I think I have everything I need here, thank you." He made his way out, and the lab assistant immediately got to work in front of the computer. She started by going through the pictures that were partially arranged, and then completing the rest, categorizing them accordingly. His emails took a the most time. There were many of them, and April had to go one by one to see where everything fit. It took three hours to finally complete that, and then she leaned back on the chair, her head rolled back, eyes closed. She was finally done.
 
Matt, free of the lab, headed straight for the gym. Today's events, though not bad, had certainly built up quite a bit of stress he needed to work out. He usual routine involved a split of cardio and muscles each day. As he jogged, he went over the day's events in his mind, as he always did. He attempted to focus on his work, but his assistant's face appeared before his mind's eye at inopportune times. He jogged faster. His assistant's presence in his daily review would make it harder to remember small details. He would need to work harder to keep things in order. Off to muscles.

It was an hour and a half before he left the gym. He made for his house to shower and change. It wasn't until he had cleaned up and changed into his more relaxed clothing of a t-shirt and jeans that he remembered April was working late. He checked his phone for any messages. None. He thought to himself that he should check on her. It was getting late. With that, he headed to the lab. As he entered he peaked through the door and saw his assistant relaxing in his chair. He walked in, "Done already or are you slacking?" He said this as he approached the desk, his eyes momentarily leaving her to check the plants, as if something would happen so quickly.
 
April nearly jumped up from her chair at the voice. She hadn't expected the doctor to walk in the exact moment that she'd decided to take a lean back in his chair and take a breather. Lucky for her, she was indeed done already, and she told him so. "I just completed the last of my tasks." She stood up from her seat, more than ready to go home. Her back hurt from sitting still for so long, and she tried to stretch backwards, in hopes that it would feel better. It had been quite a long day, she had to admit. It wasn't very often that she stayed in a lab until the evening hours, but she didn't mind it all that much. She enjoyed being here, and the extra pay that she was gaining certainly helped the situation quite a bit.

Eventually, April collected her bag, making sure that everything was in there. Everything was calm and quiet; the others that worked in the building had already gone home for the day hours age. Nodding her head in thanks and goodbye for the day, she made her way to the tiny dark blue car that she drove, and made her way home. After a quick shower, she went straight to bed, and slept like a baby. She didn't even have time to think about the day, or the very interesting doctor that that would now be her constant companion.
 
Matt looked over her work as she pointed out what she had done and nodded in approval. It looked pretty good so far, but it would need to be reviewed. With that, he wrote her a check as promised. “Here, two hundred should be enough to get you a fair amount of healthy groceries until your first real paycheck. Good work.” He handed her the check and walked out with her, at least until the door. He watched her leave before returning to his office. He spent an hour going over the work she had done. It was all correct. He had to admit that he was impressed. He dropped the instructions on her so suddenly. He expected some kind of mistake. He slapped his laptop shut and made his way home.

The rest of the week was much like the first day. Matt had gotten to work at the same time each day and found himself making the same “errand” after lunch. These times, it wasn’t due to her improper eating. Rather, he found himself a bit more stressed out than normal and felt it best to relieve said stress before the second half of the day. Each day was the same excuse, though he did give April a bit more work during his times away. Most of the week was the same busy work: organize notes, run papers to partner labs, etc. It wasn’t until Friday that he allowed her to inspect the cultures on her own while he tended to other business. On that day, he returned from his other business in a rather sour mood. He made straight for the plants they had been monitoring, minus one, of course, and stared hard at them. With an annoyed sigh, he returned to his desk and began to write. As he did so, he called out to April. “Dispose of those.” He nodded to the plants. “They’re all failures.” He scribbled notes on his paper so hard, he probably marked the table beneath. “We’re going to have to redo all of the mixtures and regrow new specimens because SOMEONE-“ He rose his voice at someone who was not there, “-doesn’t know basic chemistry.” He wrote signed his note with an angry flourish, stood, and stormed out of the room with it. It wasn’t until 30 minutes later that he returned to the lab. He looked much more subdued and tired looking than before. He strolled distractedly to his desk and flopped into the chair with a great sigh. “Sorry, I wasn’t referring to you.” His fingers rapped on the hardwood table. “One of the other researches at our sister lab screwed up his mixture and now the tests are out of sync. We both have to redo them as of Monday.” He looked over at the containment box, one that they had nearly emptied through the week, then at April. “We’re going to need to stay late tonight and mix up several more batch so they can settle of the weekend.” He pushed up his classes and rubbed his eyes, “I’ll make sure you get paid for the extra time.” He hadn’t considered that April might have any possible plans for the evening. “The process will take us a several of hours. 3am, maybe.”
 
The rest of the week was exactly like the first day, minus the lunch break drama. April did much of the same things every day, though Matthew didn't let her to do anything overly important on her own, probably in fear that she would screw it up. It was quite boring though, not that she should be complaining. With the extra money she was making, April was able to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, along with freshly cut deli hams. Every day, she would bring something healthy, like a salad or a sandwich with wheat bread and carrots with ranch on the side. That seemed to satisfy the doctor, as he didn't throw away any of her lunch anymore, which she greatly appreciated.

Finally, on Friday, he allowed her to inspect the cultures on her own, without his eyes looking over her shoulder. She was excited that he was finally putting some trust in her; it had only taken him a full week to do so. She did so with pep, writing down that everything looked alright, the plants still green. After that, she went to lunch, enjoying her fruit salad greatly. At her return, she found that her good mood began to fade completely. Dr. Garza examined her plants, staring at them so hard that she was afraid that they would wilt simply from the venom in his gaze. His words surprised her. "All of them?" Her voice went quiet as he continued with his tirade, placing the complete blame on someone that wasn't him. Considering that they were the only two that ever stepped foot into this lab, that means her.

After he stormed out of the room, April felt like her stomach was in knots. What had she possibly done wrong? He'd only let her do something on her own today, so surely he would have noticed had she made a miscalculation earlier. She threw out all the plants, disappointment clouding her features. He'd seemed so angry. He returned half an hour later, less angry than before. His apology surprised her, but be became angry that he'd failed to mention that it was not her error before stomping off like a child. Her lips formed a thin line as he told her that she would now be spending all night at the lab, any plans for her Friday night spoiled. Not that she'd planned on going out, but she wanted to rest. It had been task after task all week, and April had been waiting for this day to come so that she could go home and rest. That wasn't going to happen, it seemed.

"Very well."
 
Matt hadn't looked at her but heard the curtness in her voice. She would have to get over it, whatever it was. She wasn't the one who was going to have to measure everything to perfection and remember the combinations on the fly. Of course, the recipes were in Dr. Garza's notes, but it would take much longer to have her continuously reference them at every turn. No, she had the easy job. Just assist. Matt sat in silence at his desk for a few minutes before standing. "Well... there's no sense in stalling. Let's get started." With that, he walked lazily to the chemistry set. He was, indeed, acting like a child that had been told to do a chore he did not wish to do. Goggles, gloves, lab coat, mask; all accounted for. He waited for April to follow suit before continuing. He spoke through the muffling mask, "Alright, just like the first day." With those simple instructions, he began to work.

He worked in silence for the first two hours, save for the rare request for this instrument or that chemical. He seemed to work much more slowly than before. By the time the two hours had passed, one batch of one of the liquids had been made. It seemed to be enough for a weeks worth of tests. Matt stepped back and removed his protective gear. His fingers came up to lift his glasses and pinch the bridge of his nose between his eyes. He was clearly still seething inside. He spoke in a restrained voice, "April, could you make us some coffee? The strong one. It's in an orange bag in the break room." He waited until she had gone before moving towards his desk and opening his laptop. Reaching under the mess of papers, he grabbed an odd cable and plugged it into his laptop. With a couple of clicks and an adjustment of the volume, music began to play in the room.

In the time he had spent in this lab, he had the board install these speakers. He stated only that it was for work purposes. Really, they were, but only as an aid. From the speakers played a soft string song. It was soft at first, but soon increased into a full orchestral piece. The music played loud enough to be prevalent but not hinder the two's communication. With his music set up, he sat back down in his chair, closed his eyes, and leaned back to enjoy his music. The music began to softly echo through the building, catching the attention of others.

From inside the break room a few others, clearly other researches, sat and enjoyed their own drinks. They stopped mid conversation as the music started to creep into the room. The older woman scoffed, "It seems the shinning star is having a bad day." The other researcher, a slightly younger man, nodded, "Probably had another budget cut. Maybe they'll make him rip out those god awful speakers if he loses enough funding." They chuckled between each other and continued their previous conversation, oblivious to April.
 
April suited up completely, her expression still not a happy one. She wasn't terribly thrilled to be working with Dr. Garza at that moment. Taking a deep breath, she pushed her displeasure to the side, and got to work. For about two hours, they worked alongside each other in silence. She was almost startled when Matthew spoke, after such a long stretch of quiet. "Sure." Taking off her protective gear, she made her way to the break room. She opened a drawer under the coffee machine, and saw that there were a few bags of coffee inside. Which color had he said? Orange, she remembered. April wasn't a big fan of coffee herself, but she made a large batch anyway. She would probably need it, whether she liked it or not.

As she waited for the coffee pour out, she heard the sound of music creeping into the room. She was confused as to where it was coming from; although they weren't the only ones in the lab, the sound wasn't coming from any of the other labs that were close to the lab room. That left...hers. The song picked up its pace; it was an instrumental peace. Walking into the hall, April saw that there was nobody else there, so apparently this was a common occurrence. Very well then, she wouldn't be bothered by it. Once the coffee was ready, she poured herself a tiny cup, and sipped it as quickly as possible. She just wanted a bit to make sure that she didn't fall asleep on the job. Once finished, she grabbed a cup, and filled it to the top with black coffee.

Making her way to the lab, she placed the cup on Dr. Garza's desk. She made no indication that the music coming from the room bothered her. "Here you go."
 
Matt didn't open his eyes as April entered the room nor when she placed the cup on his desk. "Thank you." He kept his eyes closed for a few more moments as the music played. He opened his eyes and took his cup of coffee. Taking a sip, he grimaced a bit. It certainly wasn't the way he normally made it. Too weak for his taste. He liked it strong. Despite his feelings towards the coffee, he took and other sip and mumbled over the music, "It's good." He looked to April and saw that she didn't have a cup. "None for you? We're going to be here for a while longer."

Dr. Garza's eyes scanned from April to the chemistry set. They certainly did have a lot more work to do. Only one mixture down and 4 to go. At least it was the weekend after this. The music continued through a soft finale and transitioned into a new song. Matt took a few more sips from his coffee as he worked up the will to move onto the next mixture.
 
"I already drank some earlier." Her mouth tasted bitter; she wished that she'd taken the time to add cream or sugar, but she had been in quite a rush. April waited as the doctor finished his cup, donning on her protective gear as she did so. When he finished, they got back to the experiment at hand. Despite the amount of time they'd spent on it so far, they weren't even halfway done. She was eager to get moving. Once they were both fully covered, they got back to creating the mixtures for the liquids that they'd been using on the plants. As they did the procedures, she began to understand how each mixture differed from the other. It was interesting, and she was certainly grateful not to be in the dark anymore.

Hours passed as they worked on the task at hand. Everybody in the lab had already left for the night, and by the time 2 AM came around, April began to realize how exhausted she really was. They were nearly done though, and she held out until they completed the last vial in their list. Labeling and storing them correctly, she let out a breath she felt like she'd been holding for hours. Finishing this was like a weight off her shoulders. With great gusto, April took off all her protective gear, eager to go home. "At last," she sighed, more to herself than anyone else.
 
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