Hearts Under Ice - CS Patra Page 0,8

enthusiastic. She had to be confident and eager, but not sound like she had downed ten cups of sugary coffee. “Will I be working alongside Dr. Vaughn?”

That wasn’t what she had wanted to ask, but Pam didn’t seem to mind. “I doubt you’ll be working in the lab very much. That area is restricted for the supervisors and scientists. Now, Dr. Vaughn might change his mind and let you in on a few things. He’ll probably let you observe and take notes. You just aren’t going to do experimenting.”

“Sounds fair enough. I think I can take notes.” Olivia was hoping that she didn’t need to mix any chemicals. The last time she had taken a chemistry test was back when she was a freshman in college. Even still, she managed to get out of that class with a solid ‘C’. After that class, she didn’t want to deal with labs or chemicals for as long as she lived.

“Here we are!” Pam opened the door and showed her the empty desk. The only things on it were a computer and some dust. “The tech guys should be up later today to work on your computer and get you access inside the network. I’ll show you where the break room and everything else is once you’re settled down. We usually have lunch around twelve, if that’s okay with you. Some people take half an hour, and some need an hour. You just let Dr. Vaughn know how long you want to take yours.”

Olivia nodded, mentally taking notes in her head. This wasn’t something she needed to keep track of, but she was nervous. This place was intimidating, and she was scared to meet Dr. Vaughn. In her mind, he was much older than her and had one of those permanent smirks plastered across his face. He seemed to be the type who would throw out scientific terms just to screw with her head. In secret, he would probably mock her for not being as smart as him. She had to stay cool and not let this bother her. Her mother had always said never to let her insecure side show, because that would be the one thing that people would pounce on. She began to breathe more slowly and started counting in her head. The day had only begun. She would make it.

You haven’t even met him yet, O. He is your colleague. Just because he has a PhD doesn’t make him a monster. Treat him like you would treat anyone else in this world.

Pam led her to another office that had the name DONOVAN VAUGHN written on the door. It was wide open, but no one was inside. She shrugged and took her down the hall. “Looks like Dr. Vaughn is in his lab. I was hoping to introduce you to him before he went on break, but he’s not in. Let’s go to the lab, and I can show you what he does.”

Donovan Vaughn. The name rolled off her tongue and made her giggle at the same time. She had expected him to have a name that was more old-fashioned, not something that almost rhymed. There was a good chance he wasn’t such a hard-ass after all. Anyone whose parents had given him a name like that couldn’t be all that bad.

She was feeling more optimistic as they made their way around the corner and saw the lab. It was larger than she had imagined, with all kinds of test tubes, beakers, and machinery covering the flat surfaces. She wasn’t sure what the liquids in the tubes were or what was printing out of the machines, but it didn’t matter. Something about this lab was fascinating. It was a pity that she wasn’t actually working in it. Being a lab assistant would probably be pretty fascinating.

“I’m going to find Dr. Vaughn. Try not to touch anything, because he can be quite prickly if someone disturbs his work,” Pam warned her. Olivia’s optimism slowly vanished at that. The last thing she wanted was a prickly boss. “Just stay right here, look, and don’t touch. Think you can handle that?”

“Yeah.” Olivia nodded, glancing at some green liquid in a beaker. “I won’t be going anywhere.”

“Good. I’ll be back in a second.”

With Pam gone, Olivia decided to walk around the lab and look at some of the things laying on the counters and desks. While she didn’t try to decipher the printouts, she could see that there were a lot of blueprints. Dr.