[h2][color=f9ad81]Niah Bautista[/color][/h2]
[h3]Monday night to Tuesday Morning[/h3]

Relieved Niah went up to her office, well it wasn't actually an office, it was a desk in a room full of desks, but if she pretended to look at something intently the other scientists would ignore her. They would all think she couldn't hear them. It was so much that she wanted to listen in on what they had to say, but mostly she wanted to be left alone. For the most part Niah was on friendly terms with the other scientists in her lab, but they all knew her rules. Don't touch her, unless necessary to get her attention, and talk about nothing personal. They talked science, and if she was asked something personal she usually just changed the subject to science. 

It took maybe five minutes in the lab before she felt overwhelmed anyway. She needed to get out of the building, so she did. Her apartment wasn't far from Sector X, in truth she could walk if she really felt like it, sometimes she'd bike. Niah didn't walk though because most days she stayed late, and she wasn't going to walk home at night.

The apartment was small, and had nothing that showed she had had a life before Sector X. Everyone knew why, she was one of those that Sector X had 'killed' so they could live a normal life. Normal was not finding pictures of your father on the internet of speeches he was at or giving. Normal was not having almost zero proof that you actually, at one point in your life, had friends. Newspaper clippings did not count, that was actually creepy. 

Niah went to bed after making sure her terrible sound proofing was secured in her room. Eventually she'd get real soundproofing instead of egg cartons. The window was the hard part. Sometimes in her sleep she'd accidentally activate her hyper sense, and when that happened she'd wake up nearly screaming. There was a time when that hadn't been so bad, there had once been someone there for her. So much for sleeping. Niah dug out her wallet and from it carefully removed the old photo from it. The picture was taken in one of those mall photo booths and was five years old. It was of her and four other people. She smiled at it for a few minutes before returning it to her wallet. 

[hr]
The next morning Niah didn't head straight for the labs, she instead swung through the Technopath's offices. 

[color=f9ad81]"Hey Chris."[/color] Niah said smiling as she poked her head into one of the corner offices.

"Hi Niah." He looked tired, probably helping someone on the field.

[color=f9ad81]"Any luck?"[/color] His smile dropped a bit and he gave her a faint shake of his head. 

"Sorry."

[color=f9ad81]"It's okay. Just blind hope at this point right."[/color] Her own smile masked the tightness in her chest.

"Don't give up hope. I'm not. I'll find something."

[color=f9ad81]"If anyone can you can. Thanks again."[/color] She gave him a wave and then went to her desk.