"You did what Mom?!" Nathan was pacing back and forth in his lab, a homemade telephone with gears, a glowing vial and wires stick out in his hand, "I know I said that I could get more done if I had an extra set of hands, but what I was inferring was that I was going to either build a robotic pair of arms to attach to my back, or through injections I was going to grow another arm or two, I didn't mean that I needed an intern to help me! I don't want or need people to be touching my stuff, they could ruin everything in the Majestic science cave of learning through madness!" He posed in the center of his lab, his machines making noises in the background, empty chip bags and instant meal containers scattered on the floor with bits and pieces of parts from varies projects left unfinished.

"Well, she will help you get everything done that you need in life, and maybe help you clean up that lab of yours, and maybe keep your crazy theories in line, and-"

Cutting his mother off mid sentence, "I understand what you are getting at, but I am still not happy with it. I'll accept this pupil of science, but she better not set me back on my latest plan mother! This time I will make history! Maybe even change history! I would tell you more, but it is highly classified." Nodding to himself proudly as he admired the nearly complete time machine he was working on standing at nine feet tall, and really standing out in the dirty room as the only really clean object, and being pearl white helped too.

"Well, I gave her the address, and the code to get in, she should be there later today, love you lots my son!" His mother than hung up.

"Today? wait...and she is a girl?" Abel's experiences with those of the opposite sex had never been that pleasant, usually his experiments grossed them out, or tried to bite them, but then it dawned on him, the biggest issue of all, "Why does mother have the code to my lab?! I changed it last week?! That darn woman, how is she able to do such things, she might secretly be working for them! It could be that my entire lab and projects are being watched! yes that must be it...but no! If mother was with them, I'm sure she would have put a chip in me at a young age!" He rushed over to another machine, this one was a dull grey colour, and resembled a metal detector used at an airport, "Mega Scan Mach 2! Do your job and confirm that mother is not out to get me!" The scan proceeded and returned with the results that he had no foreign objects in him, aside from his lunch. Happy with the results, he went back to his time machine, pulling out varies capacitors, and replacing them with new ones, that gave of a faint blue light.

Skylar Donahue stood in front of a large chain link fence and glanced at the address she had written down. It was the right place, but this didn't look like a laboratory at all. Beyond the fence, all the college graduate could see was what looked to be an old, run-down warehouse. Still… she didn't think Mrs. Burnoise would make a mistake with something like this; if anything, Mrs. Burnoise was a very reliable woman. Shrugging her shoulders gently, Skylar walked over to the keypad beside the electronic gate and entered the code she had been given. There was a beep, but for a moment nothing happened and Skylar began to worry, yet again, that maybe she didn't have the right information.

With a creaky groan, the gate finally began to roll open and the brown-haired woman couldn't hold back a sigh of relief. Walking through the gate with curt strides, Skylar approached the only door she saw, nestled on the right side of a broad, windowless wall. Pausing at the threshold, she made sure her hair was still perfectly in its bun and adjusted her clothes, a plain button up blouse with a matching black vest and pencil skirt. Satisfied with her appearance, she entered the second code and heard the automatic click of the door being unlocked. She made sure to open the door confidently, unsure of what she would find within. As her eyes adjusted to the darker room, she saw….

Nothing. It was a plain entryway with a coat rack to her left and another door on the opposite wall. She rolled her eyes at how ridiculous she was being and advanced once more. There was absolutely nothing to be nervous about. She had wonderful grades, good lab experience, and the recommendation of the scientist’s mother. A nearly flawless resume. Plus, Skylar was quite confident in her work ethic. There was no way this could go wrong.

As the next door was opened, finally Skylar’s work space was revealed to her and what a sight it was. There was stuff everywhere. Large machines she could hardly hope to identify were lined up against all four walls and there were even more scattered about the large, open room. She could hardly see any of the original flooring, as it was covered in scraps, partially finished… things, papers, and more food wrappers than she had ever seen in her life. Wide-eyed, Skylar tried to take everything in, her mouth opened slightly in a mix of horror and amazement. There was so much stuff she didn't even notice the man bent so far into a machine that only his lower half was exposed.
Shuffling through the litter, Skylar made her way to a nearby desk and carefully cleared a space to set down her briefcase. Sighing loudly, she leaned on the desk and glanced at her watch. It was 10:00 am on a Tuesday, surely the head researcher should be here by now. Skylar was not a big fan of wasting time when there was work to be done and clearly, she was going to have plenty to do.

Nathan had to catch himself, as he almost fell into his new machine prematurely, as he started to get a better grip and pick himself out, his ears titched, he heard a noise, a noise that wasn't from an experiment in his laboratory!

Slowly he raised his body out of the open hatch in the time machine, than clutching tightly to a wrench in his left hand, and his right hand with all of its fingers close together ready o karate chop, he slowly, and stealthily moved towards the person he know saw, who had made the noise, after letting themselves into his lab no less!

"Freeze!" He shouted in his manly cracking voice, "Who are you?! How did you get in here?! Are you a spy? A rival scientist here to steal my inventions?! Or the worst of all, the dentist dropping in for a random inspection of my mouth?!" He went into the fetal position whilst on his feet for a while as he continued to speak, this time not facing Skye, "Oh I hope it isn't the dentist, they weren't to happy last time I told them I was working on a machine that would clean mouths perfectly and put them out of business." Standing up again, and trying to regain his composure, you pointed his wrench at her, "Speak!"

Sky’s head whipped to the side as someone called out to her, her eyes wide in surprise. Someone had been here the whole time? She opened her mouth to introduce herself, but was immediately cut off by a barrage of questions. Yet again, the young woman found herself both amazed and a bit horrified by what she saw. Surely this man, now curled in the fetal position, was NOT the man she was going to be working for. He was just some bumbling assistant she was going to replace, right? He had to be. Except… he had called them his inventions... And what was his deal with dentists?

Before she could try and rationalize the situation to herself further, the man stood once more and commanded her to speak. Clearing her throat, she stood up and approached the man, gently pushing the wrench to the side.

“Please don’t point things at me, I’m not here to cause trouble.” Turning her outstretched hand, she offered it for a handshake, “My name is Skylar Donahue but if you’d like, you may call me Sky. I apologize, but there seems to have been some miscommunication. Your mother, Mrs. Burnoise, told me you were looking for an assistant. She gave me the address and access codes to your lab so I had assumed she spoke to you about it. I would have called first if I had known.” She smiled warmly, but inside, Skylar was irritated. Not only was her potential boss completely unorganized and childish, but this was a less than ideal first impression. She should have known better than to show up without contacting him first. It was an amateur mistake and she silently chided herself. It would not happen again.

Nathan stared blankly at Skye for a moment, still holding the wrench up, then he lowered it and loosened up, taking the opportunity to shake her hand, after wiping his on his lab coat "Oh okay. Well Skye, I am..." He took a moment for a dramatic pause, then he swung himself around, and secretly hit a switch, which then caused every gadget that he had made to flare up, luminescent lights shining all around, "NATHAN BURNOISE!" He posed. "I know, you must be in awe of my genius. But don't worry, one day you might be as mad, and push the limits of science, and break through the third wall, the fourth wall, and even the side wall." It was obvious that Nathan wasn't all there at the moment, in actuality, he had spent the last five day in a row awake and working on his latest machine. "MY machine! yes! I can show you them!" Excited at the idea to share what he had made, he gleamed, then he thought, aloud at that, "But what if you are still just posing as an assistant, to find out what I know, then make copies of your own inventions based all on my work! No can't have that...hmmm.." Forgetting that Skye was in the room behind him now, he looked towards the ceiling, lost in thought.

In a beautiful cacophony of light and sound, all the machines seemed to flare up at Nathan’s command. It was an impressive show, to be sure, but Sky wasn't given much time to appreciate all this man had created because soon he was rambling again. She stood there, still smiling, and waited patiently for him to finish.

She took his head rocking back as a sign that he was done, for now, and took the chance before it disappeared, “Doctor, if I may? I’m quite eager to see what you've been working on but I understand your reservations. If you’d be more comfortable, I could start off doing simpler tasks. Such as getting this place cleaned up and organized, perhaps?” The young apprentice did not like the idea of being a maid when she was here to do science, but it was clear she would have to win over Nathan’s trust first. Besides, she didn't see how she could get any work done under these conditions anyway.

“I promise I won’t touch any of your inventions without explicit permission. You can count on me, sir!” Smiling yet again, Sky turned on her heel and began walking to the door, hardly giving Nathan time to react. Waving over her shoulder she called out, “Please feel free to continue your work, Doctor; I’m going to go pick up some supplies. I’ll be back in an hour with some coffee; you look like you could use it.”

Exactly an hour had gone by and Skylar returned, as promised, with coffee and a Nissan Versa hatchback filled with as much organizational equipment as she could fit in it. She set the coffees and a surprise box of half a dozen donuts on the table and then looked around, more closely this time, for Nathan.

“Hello? I’m back.”

In a low and calm voice he spoke, "A coffee would be nice..." Nathan couldn't help it as a genuine smile appeared on his face. Before he knew it, Sky was gone, which gave him time to think out this whole situation, and continue the needed work on his time machine. Jumping back into the hole that he crawled out of, he managed to squirm his entire body inside between the outer casing and the important mechanics.

And hour later, he had worked his way out of the machine, but found a new problem, he had made a new hole which he had crawled out of. "No wonder people didn't do time travel, the machines themselves constantly want to change forms." He looked at it from on top of it, framing it with his hands and staring with one eye, his thoughts would have to wait though as he heard Sky call out. Nathan raised his head from looking straight down to were she was standing, "She really did bring coffee..." With cat like reflexes, he jumped down from the machine, skillfully landing on his two feet, only to fall backwards on his butt a second afterwards.

"Welcome back," He took the coffee in both of his hands, holding it carefully and sipped it initially, then downing the whole cup. "Ahhh, that was good and needed." He changed again to an animated pose this time, changing where his arms where with almost every other word, "Miss Sky, Pursuer of Science! I the great Nathan Burnoise, will put you under a probation of time to se if it is truly learning that you are after, and, if you shall succeed, I will teach you the things thought to only be in science fiction novels!"

Sky almost screamed when Nathan seemingly dropped from the heavens in front of her, but managed to hold it in with a hand over her mouth. Does he ever make a normal appearance? She thought to herself in somewhat amused exasperation. She was about to offer cream and sugar to the unique man, but watched as he downed his entire coffee before she could open her mouth. At least things won’t be boring here…

As if to accentuate the point she had just made, Nathan suddenly sprung to life. Every pose was more bold and dramatic than the first. This time, Sky’s brain wasn't full of some snide judgment. Taking in the meaning of his words, she realized she had won him over. She was in! Coffee and donuts… works every time. Finally showing some earnest emotion, the young woman jumped a little and ran over to hug the scientist.

“Thank you so much, Doctor Burnoise! You have no idea how much this means to me!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A week had passed since Nathan had accepted Sky as an apprentice, the young woman finding herself outside the lab once more after a peaceful weekend. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door with the new code Nathan had given her. I think I might actually be more nervous than the first day I came here.

Stepping inside the building, it hardly looked like the same place. The entryway now had a chair, a side table, and a picture on the wall but it was what lie beyond the second door that was truly amazing. With much coaxing, Skylar had convinced Nathan to move a couple of his ‘masterpieces’ as she called them, opening up one wall of the room. The grad student hopeful had quickly set up three office desks in one corner, using filing cabinets as a sort of dividing wall to separate work space from thinking space. The rest of the opened up space was filled with rows of shelves, laid out like a grocery store, on which all the scraps and abandoned projects that had been on the floor were now organized. The ones that Sky had been able to identify, had even been labelled. The rest of the room, although mostly unchanged, also looked noticeably better. There was no longer any sign of trash on the floor, and some of the older machines shined with renewed vigor thanks to Miss Donahue’s dusting and polishing.

Taking in the sight of her work, Sky couldn't help but smile. Now this is a lab. Time to see what the curious Doctor has in store for me today. Laughing lightly to herself, Sky called out to make her presence known, as was common practice for her now.

“Good morning, Doctor!” Looking around the lab, the blue-eyed girl found Nathan easily enough, though she wasn't sure if it was due to her organizing or if she was just used to him now. “I hope you got some rest this weekend, we can’t have you suddenly passing out like you did last week.” She smiled, recalling what had happened when the coffee had worn off and the days with no sleep had finally caught up to the man.

“So! What are we going to do today?”

Suspended from the ceiling by a cable, Nathan spun and faced Sky, "Perfect timing! I have almost finished it! You are going to be on of the first to witness the miracle of time travel!" He pressed a buttone on his belt, and the cord moved him from on top his machine, which had grown twice its height in the past week, to the ground safely, and unhooked itself. "You see, I realized something while I was trying to sleep," He grabbed his own chin with one hand, and placed the other on his elbow, "If you go back in time, you mess up the future, which is the present, thus creating a paradox and a whole load of trouble for oneself," Dynamically changing to more of an action pose, he continued, "However! If we grab something from the future, we will no effect our timeline so to speak, do to it not effecting the conditions of creating said timeline, if anything we will just be hopping around various potential futures, pulling bits and pieces out of them, for instance, a cure to a disease! A location of hidden minerals! Newspaper telling us what happens in the future!" Truly the possibilities were endless, and if not for what happened next, odds are high, that Nathan's speech would have been as well. "We coul-" He turned, hearing something ever so slightly wrong, then smoke, and lights, and electric sparks flew, "Maybe I shouldn't have used that last part in there..."

Nathan watched, partially in horror, partially so excited he could barely contain himself as he watched a figure walk out through the machine's door. "It worked..." Beholding the figure, as the smoke faded, it looked like almost a younger version of himself, with shorter and slightly different coloured hair, but the facial structure, the stance, the children lab coat and goggles, "Did I break time and pull past me here? or clone myself? I thought that machine was on the other wall and didn't work yet..." He was puzzled, and by the looks on the young boy's face, so was he, "Child! You are in the presence of the great Scientist NATHAN BURNOISE! Who art thou!" As dynamic and dramatic as he was normally in his introductions, it seemed to not be the most efficient thing to do to a child, whose eyes opened wider and he started to tremble.

Sky let out an exasperated sigh but smiled as Nathan began another excited monologue. From what she could gather, he had not gotten much sleep, if any, over the weekend but she was impressed with what he had managed to get done in that time. The machine, which she now knew to be a time machine, was massive in size and grandeur. The young woman had to hand it to the scientist- he was quite brilliant. Well, assuming the time machine worked. Skylar wasn't sure if someone as silly as him could possibly make this giant mass of metal do anything but look like an impressive display of lights.

As if to prove her wrong, the time machine suddenly began to rumble as it went into action. Sky thought it was about to explode and from the sounds of it, so did Nathan. Before she could run for cover, the blue-eyed woman saw a figure begin to emerge from the smoke. This probably should have been further motivation to hide behind something, but her curious mind was too fascinated to be afraid anymore.

As the smoke cleared, the figure took form of a young boy. He seemed harmless, but he also seemed eerily familiar. Nathan commented on the similarity as well, but then decided to introduce himself. The scene was all too familiar for Sky. The scientist greeted the newcomer in almost the exact way he had greeted the young apprentice, and she imagined her expression had looked very similar to the one the boy now held: terrified.

Seeing the boy in such a state, Skylar sprang into action, “Doctor, I hardly think that’s necessary. I mean, look, you’re scaring him.” She gently pushed Nathan back a bit and then kneeled down to get more eye level with the boy. She smiled and held out her hand, “Please don’t mind him. As far as I can tell, he’s harmless to everyone but himself. My name is Sky, what’s yours?”

The boy still standing and trembling managed to have words escape from his little lips, "Daddy was right..." He closed his eyes and jumped, revealing that his trembles where from excitement, "GRAMPA really is a MAD Scientist!" His arms wide in the air and his face beaming with joy as he spun around taking in all the sights from the lab.

Nathan was taken back, he looked at the boy, not sure really what he was taking about, then it hit him, Young boy who resembles him coming from the future saying his grandfather is a mad scientist. "Oh no..." He took a step back and put his arms infront of himself as if in defense from the boy, "This means many things I feared..."Now, it was Nathan's turn to tremble, but his was from his own thoughts, "I must have had a kid, who then had a kid!" He quickly turned to Sky, "We need to stop this from happening! Sky! Set me on fire!" Turning to speak to the boy quickly afterwards, "No offense."

How could this day have possibly gotten weirder? Sky stared at the boy as he began looking at the room, her hand still outstretched. He can't really be... can he? They do look a lot a like... But I just assumed this boy was from the past. I suppose he still could be, if Doctor Burnoise had a mad scientist grandfather. Wait, is it better or worse that this boy is from the future? It wasn't until Nathan called her name that the young woman reanimated. She dropped her arm and turned to the man incredulously, “Set you on fire? Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme? And what’s so bad about having a k- you know what, that isn't important right now. We need to get this boy back to his own time before something goes wrong.” Redirecting her attention to the grandchild, Skylar smiled, “Hey, sweetie, don’t you want to go see your mom and dad?” She paused for a moment and added, “How did you get here anyway? Do you have a time machine too?”

The young woman was determined to get things back to normal, but it was hard not to be curious as to the circumstances that had gotten them into their current predicament. Was Nathan’s machine solely to blame? Had it malfunctioned and randomly pulled this boy from his own time? Or was this boy somehow the instigator? Did Nathan’s grandson have the same wild intelligence? Had he activated the time machine himself? Sky couldn't help but hope, for the parent’s sake, that the boy had nothing to do with this. Given his excitement, however, she rather doubted it.

Ignoring the first question addressed to him, the boy continued to spin around, but now he started to laugh, "This is amazing! The lab is so much bigger without the Victorious Mach 2 Turbo! And there is a wall over there! Maybe the lab is small actually..." He stopped spinning and rubbed his smooth little chin, then looked up, then looked down, "Only one floor? I guess the sec-" Then he clued in that he was being spoken to and answered Sky's remaining questions, "Mommy will be thrilled! Dad...well..." He looked at Trembling Nathan, "Well, lets just say he wasn't as keen on the idea of me meeting Grampa." He then ran over and jumped onto Nathan in a hug, "But I love Grandpa!" he spoke as he rubbed his face into Nathan's coat.

"Ahh! Sky! Help me! Kids! Ahhh!" Nathan was uncertain of what to do in these kinds of situations, he read about things like this, so in theory, he knew how to handle it, but for as smart as he was, socializing, and children, where both big no goes for him. "Cute little thing, get down now!" He forced the boy off of him, "Don't do that again without warning." He was still very much uncertain of the boy, and he too was wondering the same thing as Sky, "How did the boy get here?" His machine worked, but, it didn't work.

"Easy! I went through the notes you wrote and by cross referencing this project, project J6, and Project 77, I was able to come up with a theory, and using the principals I learned from your other notes, I created a time flux, linking the machine in all times which it has been existing" He was a young boy, probably around six years old, but he seemed to understand at a level that would baffle most other scientists. "Also, I can't tell you my name, or your other projects, or Dad's name, or Mommy's, or Grandma's, cause then you would change my future and I wouldn't have a home to go back to." He smiled the innocent smile of a child who was trying to keep a secret but wanted to tell it.

What the boy said though, for one reason or another, would put Nathan a bit more at ease. "That makes sense...I bet I wrote that as well...And using past projects to make a new one, why didn't I think of that? Unless I actually did, but you just looked at things from a different approach." He looked at the boy, "Your name in our time space shall be Simon." then he continued to talk to himself, linking what Simon said to ideas that he had.

Sky stood back for a moment, unsure of what to do. The boy, recently dubbed Simon, was way too excited about the whole situation to pay attention to anything logical she had to say. Nathan, somewhat similarly, only seemed interested in learning more about how and why the time machine worked. Neither of them appeared concerned with safety protocols; not that the young woman knew exactly what precautions to take in a situation like this. Simon seemed confident he knew what information to withhold to not disturb anything from his time, but Miss Donahue was ever cautious and worried there might be other factors they needed to account for.

Eventually, Skylar decided on what she believed was the most logical course of action. The boy should return to his time immediately and they should write down everything that transpired during the boy’s visit. Future visits should be planned and carefully recorded. Trips should be short with minimal information shared. If the boy could manage, he should carefully take note of his environment for any signs of changes to the future. They should be careful. Watching as the two males went about their excited business, she shook her head. Them? Be careful and organized? Looks like I’m going to have to handle this.

“Simon, why did you come here today? Was it just to visit your grandfather?” Sky glanced at Nathan as she spoke, “He had big plans to try out his machine today, but I’m not sure we can do that if you’re here… Maybe you could visit another time? When we’re more ready?” Please?

Simon looked upwards and rubbed his chin, "Well..." he started, then smiled, "That's a secret!" He jumped at Sky and hugged onto her as well, "If you need to know the reason for everything, you will never progress." He then proceeded to take in a long drag of air, "You smell nice."

After watching said display, and hearing what Sky had to say, Nathan tried to keep his mind on track, even if for a little while. "Y-yeah! Why are you here? I was going to go to your time space! It would have had less of an impact then you coming into the past!" Sure of his theories involving time travel.

"Errrrrrr! Wrong!" Making the noise of a buzzer he jumped off of Sky, and also crossed his arms, confounding Nathan as he informed him his theory was incorrect. "In my time, it was already determined that I would come to the past and spend two days here, everything that is supposed to happen will happen, and thus my time will remain the same. If you came to the future though, you would learn things you aren't supposed to, and would thus tear a hole in the time space continuem." He nodded and smiled as if he had just told some simple childish fact. "Oh and by the way, no one else can know about me." He grinned, and as he grinned, the noise of the first door opening could be heard.

"Oh dear..." sweat dripped from Nathan's brow.

She should have been annoyed at the boy’s severe lack of cooperation, but Sky found it impossible to stay mad at Simon when he wrapped his arms around her. He had the same sweet smell that every child has and it was more than enough to activate every maternal instinct the young woman had. She could hardly claim to have any involvement with the child, but she found herself proud of the intelligence Simon spoke with. When he complimented the flowery scent of Skylar’s hair, she practically saw stars. The lab assistant wasn't sure when exactly she had returned Simon’s hug, but she couldn't ignore the tug at her heart when he pulled away to talk to Nathan. She was so enthralled watching their exchange, she almost missed the topic of their conversation until

“It was already determined that I would come to the past and spend two days here.” Two days… two… two days!? Reality came crashing down on Sky as those words sunk in. She stood up and was prepared to lecture the boy on how rude it was to drop in for such a length of time with no warning had she not heard the creak of the door opening. Her face pale, Skylar immediately began to run to the door.

“Nathan, find somewhere safe for Simon to hide and make sure you look like you’re busy working on something! I’ll stall whoever it is at the door. And hurry!” Miss Donahue took a deep breath as her hand covered the handle, trying her best to appear calm. She felt the door begin to open, and stopped it with her foot. She made a startled sound like she hadn't expected the door to open before allowing it to open just a crack, her body filling most of the view beyond.

“Oh my goodness, I am so sorry! I didn't realize someone was coming in. We’re actually right in the middle of-“ Sky stopped mid-sentence as she got a look at who was on the other side of the door. Biting her lip, she glanced to see how far along Dr. Burnoise had gotten with Simon and started again, “Um… good morning. Can I help you with something?”

"Simon! Jump into the Nocturnal Void of Hiding!" As serious as he was, Nathan's machine naming skills, or lack there of, didn't aid the situation much, as it led Simon to laugh and jump in like it was a game, mission complete, but possibly got the boy a bit more rowdy. Pulling a black curtain over a gapping whole in a golden machine, then pulling down a lever, the curtain vanished from view, and showed only the hole behind it, but it was now empty in appearance.

"Oh no!" Nathan turned to see who was at the door, he knew it could only be one of two groups, Aliens here to take over his body and probe his mind for the secrets to humanity, or a threat even greater to his lab and his way of life...his mother. "Begone!" He thrust his hand outward at the door dramatically.

"Yes Darling, you can let me in to see what has become of my Son's lab since you came into his life," She tried to peek over Sky's shoulder, only to see her son up to his usual shenanigans, "Nathanael, stop it with these childish notions and act like a professional for once." She turned to Sky, "I see you couldn't even fix him after a week eh?" She gave a look, it wasn't disappointment, but more along the lines of, 'I know right?'

Glancing back to make sure the lab appeared Simon-free, Sky finally stepped back to allow the door to be fully opened. Rubbing the back of her head, she laughed lightly at Mrs. Burnoise’s question, “Not quite. Oh, will you be long? Let me go make some coffee!” The young assistant began walking over to the desk station, still speaking with the older woman over her shoulder, “I imagine the place looks a little different since you last saw it. Doctor, why don’t you show her around a bit? I’ll be just a moment.” Sky hummed softly to herself as she scooped the coffee, trying to appear nonchalant despite her nervousness. She kept peering out the corner of her eye for any signs that something was wrong. They’d had two unexpected visitors in one morning and now had to carefully dance one around the other without raising any suspicion. Where had Simon gone, anyway? Sky heard mention of some hiding machine, but wasn't able to watch where the young boy had gone.

Once the coffee machine was brewing, the brown-haired assistant walked back to Nathan and his mother, a warm smile on her lips. She carefully positioned herself between both members of the Burnoise family, sensing the obvious tension between them. Skylar didn't want to appear to take sides and she was now well positioned to break up any potential confrontation. Miss Donahue wanted this to go well to demonstrate what a good choice she was, but also to get the elderly woman out as soon as possible. Her mind was still reeling over Simon’s arrival and she had lots of questions she wanted to ask the boy. And no matter how many times Sky told herself it was none of her business, she couldn't help but wonder who was Simon's grandmother. Who in the world would possibly be interested in marrying Dr. Burnoise?

Mrs Burnoise was walking around the lab, placing her finger on odd bits and pieces to check for dust, she was busily examining the condition of the lab and spoke as she acted, "that all depends on how quick my Son is to kick me out this time," She didn't even look at Nathan, who was trying his best to place himself between her and the machines. She stopped though as Sky handed her a coffee, "Thank you darling," She started to drink it, but was always looking around, as if searching for something to be 'off'.

"Mother, I told you before, you need to call before you pop up uninvited." Nathan's voice clearly showing how irrateded he was with his mom showing up out of the blue on such a big day.

"I would of called, but last I checked your phone, you blocked incoming calls from me." She glared at Nathan, who just glared back at her.

"I wouldn't have to have done that if you would simply stay out of my business, stop touching my inventions, stop trying to set me up in your various have grandchildren schemes, and..." He started to go silent after the last words left his lips. Could it be that his mother succeeded in her mission eventually? is that what led to the birth of a child? "OH no!" He yelled in horror, ads he dropped to his knees, "I... fail?"

A bit puzzled, but still used to how her son's random outbursts, Mrs. Burnoise raised an eyebrow, then turned to Sky, "Well Miss Donahue, it would appear that you have done some work here, how do you plan on moving," She pointed at Nathan on the ground, "This forward?"

Sky couldn’t help but be a bit pleased with herself as Mrs. Burnoise inspected the lab. Miss Donahue knew the woman would not find any dust on the machines, no matter how many she checked. Still, it was a good thing Nathan was being so protective considering somewhere in the lab, Simon was hiding. They couldn’t afford to have Mrs. Burnoise looking too closely, no matter how proud Sky was of her work. The older woman paid her a slight compliment, but immediately segued into a question that sounded dangerously like a challenge. Taking a sip of her own coffee to hide a scowl, Skylar mulled over an appropriate response. Deciding to play dumb, she tilted her head slightly, “I’m not sure I understand.”

“Oh come now, as if it isn’t obvious. You’ve done a good bit of work on the lab, I’ll admit, but Nathan is still far from being an eligible bachelor.” Choking on her coffee, Sky took an incredulous step back, “Oh, I…. I thought that was a joke. I’m here to help Dr. Burnoise with his research not-”

“Don’t be foolish, Skylar, as if Nathanael needs help to spend even more time in this warehouse. That was just a cover so he’d let you in. Surely by now you’ve realized how paranoid he is.”

“But what about my reference for grad school?” Sky looked over at Nathan, her eyebrows knit with worry. She didn’t want him to lose this experience because the young scientist mistakenly believed her to be a conspirator. The lab assistant was certain she would have to prove her innocence later and hoped Nathan would listen to reason long enough to believe her.

“No need to worry about that, sweetie. I’ll take care of all that.” Mrs. Burnoise waved her hand dismissively, as if the subject was hardly an issue. Sky, still unsure, waited for Dr. Burnoise to say something as she looked at him expectantly.