"Brett?"
"...Yeah?"
"You okay?"
"...Couldn't be better."
"So your heart held up to the.. stress?"
Brett chuckled.
"That wasn't stress Eddy. But to be honest there were moments when I thought my heart was gonna burst out of my chest or just simply stop."
Eddy got up onto his elbows.
"OMG Brett, you should've stopped me...!!"
Brett lifted his head off his pillow and exclaimed.
"Stop you ? Stop YOU Eddy? You have got to be joking!!"
"Why??"
"OMG, you should've stopped me says Mr Unstoppable-I-can't-help-going-full-throttle ?!"
Eddy blushed as he recoiled in horror.
"OMFG I knew I should've had a bucket of ice water ready in case you needed to pour it over me!! Like I said before, I really don't want to be your cause of death...!!"
Brett pretended to clutch his heart.
"OMFG Eddy, please stop... You just mentioning about pouring ice water gives me chest pains...!!"
Eddy widened his eyes.
"F*ck. Sorry. Brett. I really don't want to put too much strain on your heart, it scares me."
Brett smirked.
"Well Eddy.. your words mean nothing when your actions are the complete opposite."
Eddy lowered his head into his hand and groaned.
"I'm so sorry Brett.. I just couldn't help myself."
Brett burst out laughing.
"It's okay... honestly. And besides, I haven't felt this alive in... since... I recovered from my heart surgery when I was 22."
Eddy looked up and gazed at Brett as he sighed.
"Brett... that's beautiful.. I dunno whether I should smile or cry. It's still hella scary all the same though. Are you sure you're alright?"
"Well I bloody better be because knowing now that I have survived it, I have no intention of giving this up."
"...This?"
Brett grinned.
"Us."
Eddy ran his hand through his hair as he sighed.
"Brett, I hope you understand that I will not uproot my daughter while she's still at school. Not even for you, I'm sorry."
"Hey it's okay Eddy, I wouldn't expect you to."
"I would love it though if you would visit me if you could afford the time and money.. I'll be able to visit you too once I start working again.. when Caitlyn is at her mother's.."
"I will. Finances aren't an issue. I'll make time and visit. I promise."
Eddy raised an eyebrow.
"Finances are not an issue..? Geez I wish I could say that for once in my life..."
"Well.. Dad and I have a few patents that pay us royalties. So that takes care of that side of things."
Brett rolled over on his back and gazed up to the ceiling.
"Eddy.. I was thinking before about the sheen on Caitlyn's prosthetic.."
Eddy looked at Brett with widened eyes.
"Huh? Brett, I'm a bit shocked that you actually had the mental capacity to hold such thoughts while we were..."
Brett blushed and stammered.
"OMG not during the time we were...!!"
Eddy chuckled.
"I know, I know. Just messin' with ya. So what about the sheen?"
"What's in it?"
Eddy repositioned himself so that he was turned sideways facing Brett, his head propped up by his hand.
"Oh.. it's just a mixture of some solvents I put together.. I've got the mixing ratio written down in my logbook because the formulation took bloody forever. Funny how it only worked on ABS when it's been polished to a certain grade."
"I see. Y'know cos I was wondering why Caitlyn's prosthetic didn't have those layer lines typical of 3D printed objects."
"Yeah well, I certainly wouldn't polish all the other orders... hers took an awfully long time to finish. But I wanted to make hers look a bit different and special."
".. that's really sweet."
Eddy smiled.
"Thanks. And y'know what, the bonus was that it made it tough AF. She could probably karate chop some tiles with that thing now."
Brett sat up and turned to Eddy.
"You serious?"
"Deadset. We've played basketball together and it hasn't had bits fall off yet. She's even played goalie for her futsal (indoor soccer) team. There was also this time when she had fallen off her pushbike and landed on her prosthetic and it was fine... its resistance to impact forces is quite impressive..."
Brett lied back down again with a soft thud and held his chin with a pistol grip, with his thumb and index finger.
"Wow, no kidding, hmm...you must have managed to make a coating that also provides cushioning to counter impact forces. How interesting.. there seems to be a lot going on there, maybe it's the extent the liquid seeps into mesh of the material.. because this is adsorption isn't it..? The stuff is sticking to the surface.. including the insides... Eddy, you must have hit a sweet spot for the amount that is adsorbed onto the insides of the lattice structure to achieve maximum..."
This time Eddy sat up, turned to Brett, then lowered and hovered his upper body over Brett's as he peered into Brett's eyes.
"Brett, look, I usually don't mind geek talk, I mean I can get quite excited from it in normal circumstances but at the moment I'm finding there are more exciting things going on.."
Brett chuckled.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry.. just one more thing, please hear me out. Then I'll make it up to you."
Eddy raised an eyebrow.
"I'm all ears, Brett."
" I want to check with our legal team if we can slide it in."
Eddy's other eyebrow shot up to join its first. He widened his eyes.
"Slide what in where!?"
Brett burst out laughing.
"Eddy, please, get that mind of yours out of the gutter and focus for just a few more minutes for me. I'm wondering if we can make it in time to file a new innovation patent for your sheen concoction."
"Huh?"
"Innovation patents are these little patents you can apply for much easily. They last for 8 years instead of the standard 20. They're for protecting an innovative step rather than an inventive step. They're usually granted within a month of filing an application.. but we gotta be quick because the Australian government is phasing them out with the passing of legislative amendments.. ..so we gotta get this done within the coming month. But once approved, I think there will be a lot of commercial interest..."
Brett stopped talking when he felt Eddy leaning in further, gently tapping his forehead onto Brett's as he whispered;
"Brett, look who's the f*cking genius now?"
This story was inspired by two great Australians;
One was a cardiac surgeon from Sydney who was tragically murdered in 1991. He was later voted Australian of the Century.
Another, an engineer from Melbourne who designed and distributed free prosthetics created with a 3D printer. He has been awarded Australian of the Year.
Eddy's character was based on the engineer.
Please do note, however, that Eddy's family structure and his "orientation" in this story are entirely fictional.
The characters of Brett and his father, President Yang were inspired by the author's personal acquaintances who shared stories about having heart surgery recently (Brett) and shortly after the cardiac surgeon's death (President Yang). In fact, President Yang was a new character I had to introduce along with the need to increase the ages of Brett and Eddy by approximately 10 years so that I could fit them into the correct chronological timeline. (Since neither Twoset were born yet in 1991!!). Also, otherwise, Eddy would've become a father at age 16...!!
Caitlyn, Caitlyn's mum and her brother (Eddy's ex) are all completely fictional characters created by the author.
THE END
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A/N: This concludes the story of "Love, create and innovate – not necessarily in that order". I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
This story has received a record vote per view ratio among all my books written to date. Thank you for your overwhelming support. Your encouragement by the show of the number of views, votes and comments certainly helped motivate this author. I hope to meet you again soon in my next book...! 20210706