Silas was waiting for me in the hallway, a winner's smile on his face.
"So Andrew's done in there?"
I glanced at him and moved to leave without a word.
He stepped into my path.
"Andrew, the professor wants you to hand off your current projects to me. When are you free?"
He couldn't even wait.
I stopped and kept my face cold. "Whenever. As long as you've got the time."
"Oh, I've got nothing but time. The professor says I joined too late and still need to learn at her side, so she hasn't assigned me any work yet."
Silas beamed.
"Honestly, I'd love to work on projects with you and the other lab folks. But what can I do? When the professor speaks, you listen."
"Isn't that right, Andrew?"
On that last line, he suddenly leaned in close.
"Take you, for instance. Professor Gilbert says the two of you can't go public with your marriage, so you don't dare. She says you're going to the frontier posting, and even if you don't want to go, you go."
My hand curled hard into a fist.
He was flaunting it.
Just then Winona's voice came from inside the office.
"Silas, there's a data set in here. Come verify it for me."
"Coming."
Silas shot me a smug look, slammed his shoulder into mine as he passed, pushed the door open, and went in.
Click.
The office door shut, and something in me shut with it.
Before, I could still lie to myself, tell myself that when Winona called Silas into her office several times a day, she was actually teaching him.
But now.
Hah.
Verify data.
Silas had been in the group less than a month. He didn't even know which experiments the lab was running. What data could he possibly verify?
Winona had decided I either hadn't caught on, or had caught on and wouldn't dare say anything, and she was getting bolder by the day. Now she didn't even bother with a decent excuse.
I drew a breath and walked off with long strides.
The moment I got back to the lab, the junior researchers crowded around me.
"Andrew, what did Professor Gilbert say?"
"There's been some mistake, right?"
I looked at them and shook my head. "No mistake. Winona already put my name in. I leave for the frontier posting tomorrow."
That set them off at once.
"What is Professor Gilbert thinking? Doesn't she know the experiments we're running right now can't do without you?"
"Of course she knows. This is all that Silas. He must have said something to her."
"..."
They vented the anger in their chests, then turned and looked at me, all of them at once.
"Andrew, what do we do? We'll follow your lead."
"That's right. Whatever you say, that's what we'll do. These projects can't die in Silas's hands."
I had trained every one of them. From the day they joined, I'd taught them hands-on, step by step.
Winona carried the title of mentor and had never taught them a thing.
They were waiting for my answer. I looked at them one by one and asked, "Come with me to the frontier posting. Will you?"
No hesitation. One after another they spoke up.
"Yes. As long as we can keep doing research under you, so what if the conditions are rough?"
"Right. Staying behind to take Silas's crap would be worse than dying. Andrew, I'm going with you."
"I joined this group for you. Wherever you go, I go."
I looked at them, and the gloom inside me began to lift, bit by bit. I turned and looked toward Winona's office.
Winona, you were wrong.
Not every grown-up thinks only about costs and benefits.
