A dark caption.

Evie sat on the receptionist's desk, despite the receptionist's annoyance at doing such a thing, looking at her and continuing to try to convince her.

"I'm not asking for a letter of approval or anything. Evie said to the woman. "I just want to meet with the administrator in charge. I know they're doing this project, Miss."

"And, I am telling you," the receptionist said, her annoyance growing more obvious with sentence. "I just can't put you into the schedule. That's not how this works. I can't even arrange a meeting. All I can do is have you leave your name and number and he'll get to you. There is a protocol here. I'm not breaking it for you."

"Look, please, if you will just call the admin..."

"Ma'am, please..."

"Doctor Kerrigan?" A middle-aged man said from a distance. She looked up, her gaze shifting from the receptionist to this pleasant-looking middle-aged man in a business suit. "Emily, I can take it from here, if you don't mind."

"Please." Emily said, glad to be done with this.

"Your receptionist..."

"Was doing exactly what I told her to do. Be thankful she is, keeping things discreet and contained, well I don't need to explain that."

"Ah. I see." Dr. Kerrigan said. She then smiled more warmly at the receptionist. "In that case, I do thank you, but I will be off."

At that, she got off of the desk and walked over the the man.

"You're the administrator in charge?" She asked.

"I am." He said with a smile. "I hear you have done some excellent work in neuroscience, doctor. Perhaps I have a way of having your contribute even more. If you will follow me, I can elaborate."

She followed him to a room down the hall, not his office, Emily noticed. She smiled softly but darkly. She knew what that meant.

A week later he was back at work, deciding to wear the same outfit she had worn the day she had come in. Emily smiled as she saw her boss and she handed him a coffee she was carrying.

"I see it went well." She quipped.

"It went very well. See, she was right, she was perfect for the project. Her ideas, her designs, they all were perfect... for a baseline to build on. We had, since her paper, improved significantly on her work, but that didn't mean she couldn't still contribute. Of course, we no longer needed her mind for this, but her body, well her body was just perfect for what we were planning!"