Next morning Christine woke up with dark circle under her eyes, whole night she keeps upon thinking the possibility for Damien to not show himself, with tiredness in her eyes she drag herself towards the bathroom, took a nice warm shower, as the water runs down her body she felt her muscles relax and somewhat it distract her mind from the ache she was feeling due to Damien absence.
With those thoughts lingering on her mind she got dressed and stepped outside her room only to see Lucy all dressed up perfectly as usual and preparing for breakfast, as soon as her eyes felt on Christine she gaps in horror "what wrong with you, are you not feeling well, did you have medicine, wait we can go get to doctor first and then......." " take a break, Lucy, I'm fine just had a bad sleep" "are you sure" "yes, Lucy why would I lie to my one and only big, caring and loving sister" Christine spoke with a wink just to hide her pain and tension and to make Lucy less worried about her, "if you say so, but if you still need something you know that I'm always here for you right?" at which Christine move forward and hugged her "of course, I know, it's just that I'm little bit nervous about my first day as research scholar" "relax dear, everything will be perfectly fine, and you know most of them from the project you worked on, so almost you are familiar to everyone, just your work will change from now on, and still if you need any help and suggestion, you know my cabin right?" at which Christine just nodded her head and then they both took their seat for breakfast.
After having breakfast they both headed towards their institute, Lucy went towards her cabin, while Christine moves towards her new lab with a small cabin, she was nervous for real but she was also tensed about Damien, she lazily kept her stuffs and bag on table and started to sanitize every glassware with distil water before she use them, after rising them with distil water she left them to dry, then take out chemical she needed for the testing, from the cupboard as she was about to start the test, there was a knock on the door of her lab, as she opened it she saw one of the guards of institute outside, "yes" "mam, there is a man asking for you, I guided him to the waiting room and asked him to wait, till I inform you" "okay, so did you asked for his name?" "He gave his name as Daniel" "well, thank you, and I will meet him, you may go now" she politely sends the guard away towards his duty.
Christine headed towards the waiting room after making sure that her lab is locked, because it consist of many important data and some dangerous chemical, as soon as she opened the door of the waiting room she was greeted with that back of Daniel whose face was facing the aquarium having brightly colourful fishes, after their last awkward conversation in Vatican it was not easy for her to start the conversation first, but somehow he knew Christine presence because while she was still debating in her mind what to say or how to react, he spoke "are you still mad at me?" she didn't response just look over him, so she turned his face towards her and look at her eyes with emotion she knew but didn't want to name them "I'm really sorry, I know that no excuse or explanation can make my behaviour logical, but I want you to know that I have faced some really heart breaking events during my visits in different places where I witnessed people suffered a lot just because of their blind faith, but, I know I was wrong and you have every right to hate me, I just came here to apologize you face to face, and now I think I should leave, sorry for wasting your time and hurting you, goodbye, Christine" and with that he moved towards the door just as he placed his on the knob " Daniel" just hearing his own name from Christine lips made his hand froze on the knob but didn't turned back, afraid of her response "I don't hate you Daniel, and don't think I will ever do that, yes I was mad over your behaviour but not to this extent, I don't know but I understand your reasons, you experience those things" as she completed her sentence he turned back with blank face "really you forgive me like this, I mean, you...... I don't know... it's just....." "Daniel, I forgive you and I totally understand you, at least I try to....." " really Christine, thanks, we can start everything fresh, I mean... can we become friends once more?" he spoke with nervous and shaky voice "we are already friends Daniel, when did we broke up as a friend" she spoke with teasing tone, which brought smile to his face also "okay Daniel, sorry but I have to go now, but I will give a tour of this place once I get my work completed, is it okay if I leave you alone for now?" "Yeah, that's totally fine with me, actually I have to meet a priest over here so just text me when you are about to finish and I will come" "sure, I will be" "bye Christine, see you soon"