𝐶𝐿𝑂𝐴𝐾 𝐴𝑁𝐷 𝐷𝐴𝐺𝐺𝐸𝑅 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒 [DISCONTINUED]

𝟏𝟒 | 𝐀 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄

"𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟: 𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝐼 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑚?"
—𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑛 𝐿. 𝐴𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟

𝒩.

𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 the lab she often found herself working in, exchanging her light jacket for a lab coat. 

She slid off a hair tie from her wrist and settled her hair into a low bun before slipping on a pair of safety goggles.

She had just finished an hour-long lecture about resonance, acidity and basicity for a large group of undergraduate students, and if there was a time she needed water, it was now. Her throat was raw and, hopefully, the water would kill a little of the headache that had started. 

As she grabbed a water bottle from a nearby counter and took a drink, her eyes roamed around the room to see who was there.

The lab only had a few people at the moment: Aaliyah and Maggie, who were drawing organic chemical structures on the chalkboard in the back of the room as they did their homework; Henry, who also seemed to be studying at one of the free desks in the write-up space; Andrew, Zenya, and Santiago, who were huddled around one of the lab benches; and, finally, Rosalyn, with a man that seemed to be around twenty, whom Natalia didn't recognize.

"Dr. Kim," Rosalyn called, then beckoning for the man to follow her as she came up to Natalia. "This is the new student joining our lab."

"Right!" Natalia nodded, then offering the man—she was pretty sure his name was Oliver—a smile and extending a hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Kim."

"Or Miss Boss Lady as I like to call her," Rosalyn added with a small wink, brushing her brown curls behind her shoulder.

"Hi," Oliver greeted with a small smile as he shook her hand, his nervous brown eyes flickering between the two women. "Oliver Irvine."

"Has Rosalyn shown you around the lab yet?" Natalia asked, raising her eyebrows as she turned to the other woman.

Rosalyn grinned. "No, I figured I'd leave that up to you."

Natalia laughed. "So generous of you."

She sent her a finger gun. "Any time."

Natalia fixed her lab coat as she looked around once more and asked, "You still working on the polymer synthesis, Rosy?"

"Mhm. Just waiting for Henry," Rosalyn told her as she gestured over to the man, who was still deeply concentrated on his work.

"Got it." Natalia nodded. "Well, Oliver and I will be around here, so if you need me, just call."

"Got it, Miss Boss Lady." Rosalyn gave her two more finger guns and a wink before sauntering over to where Henry was working.

"All right, Oliver," Natalia sighed as she turned to the man. She squinted up at the ceiling for a moment as she tried to remember his credentials, and she asked, "You're a Master's student, right?"

He nodded. "Yep."

"So," she began as she slowly walked, Oliver keeping his pace beside her, "I'm sure you've gone in plenty of labs before."

"Yeah," he confirmed, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

"So, this is the instrument room, whatever you need, just get it from here," Natalia informed him as she gestured towards a room on the right. She then gestured towards the middle of the room, where there were a couple of students working on a solution. "Dispensing stations."