School was a bit better for the rest of the week, and that picture of the cells from Dad's lab wouldn't leave my mind. Dad said that they were injected with the serum he's studying, so I'm somehow going to easily slide the idea to him that he should use radiation, to take away the radiation that's already in the cells. Hopefully that'll solve some of the problem, and he can be back home getting enough sleep and whatnot.
My Friday's always end with a happy feeling in the air, but this Friday was ruined by Levi.
"IT'S FRIDAY BITCHACHOS!" Levi screamed. Jax angrily turned to Levi.
"Would you just shut up?" He asked.
"What am I doing?" Levi asked with his hands out in defense.
"First off, you're embarrassing yourself. Second, that makes me not want to hang out with you." I say.
"Oh, I'm sorry. If only I cared." Levi says sarcastically with a hand over his heart. I gave him the glare I use to look at people I don't like.
"I loathe you." I told him.
"Awe! I love you too!" Levi said, overly gushing. "You know, Kerry, I always saw a spark between us ever since we looked — "
"Shut the hell up." I snapped.
"But do you love me?" Levi asked.
"Don't push your luck." I say.
Jax laughed. "So, how was your Dad?" Jax asked.
"Hm? Oh," I said, remembering I told them about meeting Dad at work. "He's fine, he was really excited to see me. And now I'm gonna walk to his building."
"Isn't his building like, a long way away?" Jax asked.
"Yeah, but I barely exercise so..." I said with a shrug at my shoulders. Jax shrugs and continues to walk to his car. Levi does the same, and that means I'm all alone when exiting the school grounds. I walk to the corner of Darby and Kahn when I pull out my cell phone, and search through my contacts until I find Dad's number. I didn't exactly have a lot of people in my contacts, most of them were just family. When I saw Jennifer Walters as a contact, an instant memory of her hit me like a baseball to the head.
I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, a jacket, and a big snow coat that covered my snow pants. Blue mittens were placed over my tiny hands. Pink fluffy snow boots accompanied me, and someone had just placed a purple snow hat on my head.
"Come on Bruce, let her go outside." It was Jen, and she was grabbing my hand, pulling me to the front door of my apartment. Dad had grabbed Jen's arm. I couldn't remember his facial expression, but he was surely paranoid.
"N-No! She's been okay with staying inside." He told her, keeping a hand on Jen's arm.
"Are you kidding me? She's a child, it's snowing, kids love snow. You can't keep her in your watch forever, you know." Jen had tilted her head, but I couldn't tell how she felt. It felt like she had mixed emotions in that time, but I wasn't too sure. All I knew was that they were both upset.
Dad then took his hand off her arm, sighed, and opened the door. "Bring her back inside in an hour or so." After that, I remembered being outside, having a snowball fight with Jen, then building a faceless snowman with her.
Jen was Dad's cousin, and I knew they were very close family members. They were practically best friends. Even though she's technically not, I still call her my aunt. She's my godmother, and that's the one job she actually likes. I heard she used to be a lawyer, then quit for reasons I'm not sure of. The way I hear it, she had to have gotten fired. The last I've heard of her, she was in Virginia looking for jobs, and that was a year or two ago.
A part of me wanted to call her and see how things were. I wanted to remind her about the snowball fight we had and faceless snowman we had built from God knows when how old I was. Would she remember?
I reminded myself I needed to call Dad. After a few rings it sends me straight to voicemail and I have to hear that annoying robot lady talk telling me I could leave a message. "Hey Dad! It's me, Kerry, your daughter. Just wanted to say hi — oh, and is it alright if I come down to the building? I mean, I'm already walking down to it but, when you see me you'll love me — hopefully. So bye!" I said into the phone.
Maybe Dalia was at the building now too? Why can't Dad just ask her out already? I could do it for him since I already blabbed about his crush on her... Maybe I shouldn't. Thinking about how cool she was when I actually met her yesterday made me laugh. She's so fun! I had this stupid thought that Dad's company got Dalia just to have him go out with her, but then I remembered the people who work there just wanted Dad to sleep so he could go back and work even more.
As I looked down at my phone while walking down the sidewalk, I let my thumb slide up and down in the screen, next to Jen's contact. Biting the inside of my cheek, I pressed her contact, and raised the phone to my ear. Unfortunately, the robot lady answered, asking me to leave a message.
*************
As usual, Bruce and Dalia were in the lab, trying to rule out any of the answers that can get rid of the radiation in the cells. It was Gamma radiation.
"Okay, so... We've narrowed it down to Gamma, Beta, and Alpha," Dalia explained, tapping a pen on the clipboard she held.
Bruce shook his head. "No, no, why is Gamma in there? That's what's already in the cells." There was a silence as Dalia nodded, and writing down notes on paper underneath the top page, until she started to giggle, turning it into laughs.
"What?" Bruce asked. Dalia froze, then a big smile came across her face.
"I'm sorry, I just moved in to a new apart — sorry! I moved into a new apartment, and I was putting away boxes, and you know who I ran into?" She asked while giggling.
"Who?" Bruce asked with a smile. He loved her laughter.
"Your daughter," Dalia said. Bruce looked over at her, raising an eyebrow in confusion. Dalia smiled wide and and couldn't contain her laughter.
"Wait, are you moving into the same building as Kerry and I are in?" Bruce asked smiling.
Dalia nodded. "I was having a hard time moving some boxes and Kerry helped. She also bumped into me that same day when she visited you. We both aimed for the elevator as she stepped out. And I taught her Science class for a day at the high school."
Bruce was laughing and smiling. "That's fantastic!" When was the last time he laughed and smiled so much?
With her hands shyly behind her back, Dalia stepped more towards Bruce. "And uh... After Kerry had helped me with the boxes, we were talking and... She talked about you." Dalia smiled with blushing cheeks. Bruce leaned back on a table.
"I'm scared to ask, but what did she say?"
Dalia couldn't hold in her happy giggles. "She said you talk about me a lot in, 'the best way possible'. And... She also said that you like me. Like, really really like me, and you want to get to know me better." Dalia looked at Bruce who was smiling, yet embarrassingly blushing at the floor. He looked up at her. Shyly, Dalia looked at Bruce's soft brown eyes and said, "I like you a lot too, Bruce. I like you a lot a lot."
Bruce smiled. "I like you a lot a lot too."
Dalia moved even closer to him, her crystal brown eyes seemed to shimmer as they locked on to his brown ones. She looked down at the ground, then up at him. It was a quick movement, she pulled on Bruce's lab coat with both hands and brought her lips to his. Bruce was surprised, and excited. His heart began to pound. For once, he didn't feel his alter ego push at his edge, giving him a warning. The feeling of that and the kiss was overwhelming. It was something that never happened before. As he was moving his hand to her cheek, a phone rang. Both Bruce and Dalia jumped back a little. When they looked back at each other, shyly Dalia brushed a piece of hair behind her ear and silently giggled. Bruce was smiling like a teenager as he kept looking towards the ground. "Is that yours?" He asked, Bruce didn't really get a ton of phone calls. Dalia shook her head. Finally, it went to voicemail and a familiar voice was talking.
"Hey Dad! It's me, Kerry, your daughter. Just wanted to say hi — oh, and is it alright if I come down to the building? I mean, I'm already walking down to it but, when you see me you'll love me — hopefully. So bye!"
Bruce looked at Dalia as he bit his lower lip. "Maybe I should go and get her."
"Yeah, and take her home, and stay there with her," Dalia smiled.
Bruce looked at her. "You sure? You're not gonna feel alone?"
Even after what just happened?
"No! Now go kidnap your daughter before she gets kidnapped by someone else!" Dalia joked. Bruce smiled at her, then went to grab his things. As he was about to exit the doors, he turned to Dalia. "Would you like to go out sometime?"
Dalia smiled once again as she brushed her hair back behind one ear. After looking up from the ground with the biggest smile on her face, she smiled, "I would absolutely love it."
*************
So far I've only passed one left. Ugh. Would I even make it to the building if Dad was still there? The sky behind me was full of colors, and he sky in front of me was dark and cloudy. I was outside of a run down bakery, when a car on the road starts to slow down and pull up to the curb next to me. As I continue walking, I know what to do: ditch my book bag, and run like hell — even if it kills me. I had walked passed the vehicle, and I was a few feet behind until I heard, "What are you doing walking to the building at night?"
Hey, I know that voice.
Turning around, Dad stands on his side with the driver's door open. A wave of relief washes over me.
"Oh thank God, it's you! I thought you were a bad guy or some kidnapper." I tell him.
Dad chuckles and shakes his head. "I realize that, now get in you goofball." I open the passenger car door and get in. I had asked Dad if he got my message and he said he did with a big smile.
He asked me about my day with a huge smile, and I replied with giggles saying it was fine. He was absolutely jubilant in a way I've never really seen before. It was giving me real smiles.
*************
When we had made it back home, Dad was still smiling! "Why are you so happy?" I asked with a giggle after he had shut the front door. It really makes me feel happy that he's happy. Dad chuckles. "I uh... I got to know more about Dalia today."
A small smile crosses my face. "Really? Did you ask her out? Did she ask you out?"
"I don't know if I want to tell you." Dad smirks.
"No!" I flail my arms in the air on purpose. "I must know! Daaad! Teeell meee!" He shakes his head with laughter. "Fine! Don't tell! But we need to celebrate! There are pizza pockets in the freezer!" I head to the fridge, then put two pizza pockets in the microwave.
The whole two minutes they were in there, I jokingly glared at Dad, which made him laugh some more. When they were done, I sat them on the kitchen counter.
Dad and I talked and laugh. I still couldn't pry out the question I needed an answer for, but that was alright. It was fun just how it was.
An hour or so later, Dad said that he was going to crash in his room, but I stopped him.
"Dad! Wait, wait, wait, wait!" I half sang as I stumbled my way towards him.
He smiled and stopped in his tracks. "What?"
"So... You know the picture of the cells that I saw back at the lab?" I asked as I played with my hands.
"The radioactive ones?" He asked with a raised brow.
"Yeah!" I replied. "Well, if they're full of radiation, why not try to use radiation to take it away, and reverse what's been done?" Dad's curiosity turned to confusion. "Okay, so, radiation uses radiation to take it away, if we could reverse it too, it could also get out. And maybe other radiations in there or whatever."
Dad's expression looked like he was processing everything I had said. His eyes danced like he was trying to figured out how something could work, as that happened, a smile crossed his face.
"Get your coat on," he says as he moves to the coat rack. Dad grabs his coat, then grabs mine and tosses it my way.
"What? Why?" I asked, catching my North Face. Dad grabbed the keys to his car, and looked at me as he opened the front door to our apartment.
"We're going to the lab."
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( something really cool is gonna happen next chapter 😊😂)