Destruction - The Oasis Project Book 2 (Complete)

Forty-One - Linkin

Sitting in the office, I groaned as I let my face rest in my hands, rubbing my eyes as I did. "What's wrong?" Thierry asked. Worry filled his voice.

"Nothing, just a headache from staring at the computer." I sighed. For the last couple of hours while I had been working, it was the best I had felt in a long time, but now my eyes were starting to become strained.

Thierry sat on the sofa in the corner of my office, sprawled out reading a book. He never looked up from his harlequin novel, "Top desk drawer on the right," was all he said.

I frowned but opened the drawer and my heart fluttered, "My glasses..." I mumbled as I took out the familiar clear red glasses and put them on. My eyes instantly adjusted and the headache slowly faded. I pushed them down my nose to look over to Thierry, "You kept them?" It was hard to hide my shock.

He nodded, resting his book down on his chest. "Of course I did. Your closet is also all full of your clothes from France if you ever want to stop wearing my t-shirts," he said teasingly and my cheeks heated up. He didn't mean a word of it, so we both just started laughing. "Why don't you take a break? It's a beautiful day outside and I have a lovely patio set up?"

A break did sound nice. I turned back to the computer. "Just let me finish this and then we can go," I agreed. Ever since I had spoken to Stuart on the phone, the migraines from the Oasis Project programming hadn't come back. It seemed like as long as I followed orders, I was both happy and healthy.

"Good, I have to finish my chapter anyways. They're just about to-"

"I don't want to know!" We both laughed, him grinning proudly and going back to reading as I finished my report I had been working on.

Thierry was right, it was a beautiful day outside. For it being December, it was warmer than average. It was about 9°C and it felt even warmer as Thierry and I cuddled together in a lawn chair in the sun. For a long time, Thierry and I sat in silence as I marvelled at the view. I had never been to Spain before and it simply took my breath away. We were, seemingly, in the middle of nowhere.

It was more mountainous than I had anticipated. Below us was a span of tree-filled rolling hills, all seeming to contain a different shade of green. The sky was as blue as the ocean and the high noon sun was the cherry on top of it all. "Should I get a blanket for us?" Thierry offered after a while.

Shaking my head as it rested on his chest, I smiled. "No, you're the perfect heater," I said with a small laugh and glanced up at him.

Thierry was smiling as well, running a hand along my arm absentmindedly. "Can I ask you about what happened while you were in Alaska?" He seemed hesitant to ask.

My smile never faded. "Of course," I agreed.

"What did they do to you?"

"What do you mean?" I didn't understand his question.

His touch lowered to take his hand in mine, our fingers intertwined as he brought my hand up to his lips and kissed every one of my fingertips gently. "This," he mumbled after the third peck. "You should be causing me pain right now. You aren't, but you said they didn't fix you?"

I sat up a bit more, pushing on his chest. "Fix?" I echoed.

Thierry realized where he went wrong. "Not fix. You aren't even close to being broken, Tina," he was quick to backtrack. "But you're different. Different from Dell Island and even more different from Alaska."

Chewing on my lip, I frowned, my hand which rested on his chest as I drew small circles. "Is different bad?"

"No... It's just different." It seemed like a politician's answer. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." He sighed, giving up.

I shook my head and decided to choose my next words carefully, "When I first arrived in Alaska they needed to," I paused to find the right word, "Rehabilitate me. It hurt, a lot. I found when my body is tense, I can keep that connection from happening. I think Asmar was right when he said I wasn't human anymore though."

"Not human?" It was now Thierry's turn to play parrot.

I shrugged and looked at him, "After everything my body's been through, do you really think my DNA would look like yours?" At that, I paused and grinned.

Thierry watched the idea spark into my head and I squirmed to get up, "Tina, what is it?"

"Can you call Stuart and ask him to bring an electron microscope and a DNA sequencer?" I stood up straight. "And if he has my file from before Dell Island, that'd be good."

"Tina, what are you doing?" Thierry objected as I already headed into the villa.

"To see if I really am a deviation or something completely new."

Thierry was rushing after me, pulling his phone out. "What?" He objected, my sudden thought detour had him lost.

"And maybe some gel electrophoresis equipment!"

"Some what?" he protested again, following me into the basement with a sigh, "Can I get that in writing?" he grumbled as he placed the phone to his ear.