(Great. Sorry about that. Thank you for understanding!) She rolled her eyes, blushing slightly. Tucking a lock of his hair behind his ear, she kissed him again softly, her hands warm and strong.
He smiled against her lips, gently brushing back a lock of her hair. One hand was touching her jaw, and the other was lightly brushing her waist.
His hand traveled from her jaw to the side of her neck. "I love you too," he said, pausing between words to kiss her. After a moment, he spoke up. "Do you want to go to my room?"
The next morning, Poppy opened her eyes, and she paused for a moment to figure out where she was. She turned her head to look at Francis, and she was quiet, her expression difficult to discern. She watched him, her eyes scanning his face before kissing him on the cheek, careful not to wake him up.
Poppy smiled affectionately at him, but her thoughts were pulled away by a beep from her watch. She frowned, checked it, and sighed quietly, annoyance tingeing her voice. She slipped out of the bed and retrieved her clothes from the floor, slipping them on quickly. She went over to the table and wrote him a quick note. Her handwriting was small and spiky, and the ink smeared slightly on the paper. Good morning. I love you. Phos needed my help in the lab with something; apparently, there was some kind of explosion. Nothing too serious, but he needs help recovering some records. I'm sorry. Come to the lab when you wake up, okay? I love you, I love you, I love you. xx -P She folded it crisply, and put it on his bedside table, and leaned over and lightly kissed his forehead. She smoothed a lock of his hair, sighed, and then left the room, the door closing with a quiet click.
It took a bit longer to wake up, but when his eyes fluttered open, he realized he was alone. He sat up, looking around, then picked up the note, reading it. Placing it back on the table, he got up and put on clean clothes. Brushing his hair neatly back into place, he headed out to the lab to find her.
The lab was chaos. Scientists walked around with panicked gaits, and the overlapping chatter was deafening. "Get my notebooks 12-53! Please!" "Oh my God, what about the pentaerythritol tetranitrate?" "God damn it." Poppy stood at a desk, her hands flat on the table, her lab coat splattered with various chemicals and her hair back in a standard ponytail. Phos stood by her, and various scientists surrounded her. Poppy bit her lip in thought and then straightened up. "Okay, here's what we're going to do," she said clearly, addressing the rest of the scientists. She pointed to one group. "If you wouldn't mind, please go clear out cabinets A-F. You guys." She pointed to a different group. "G-O. You guys are P-S and the rest of you are T-Z. Go." The crowd dispersed, and Poppy took a deep breath, obviously weary.
Francis approached Poppy, looking around at the rushing people, his expression was concerned. "Is this because of the explosion?"
She looked up at him, and her whole expression brightened. Her eyes seemed a little less tired, and she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "Hey. God, it's good to see you. Yeah, somebody-" She glanced at Phos. "-set off this huge explosion, and it reacted with some compounds, and they burned holes in pipes and..." She sighed and threw her hands up in surrender. "It's just a big mess. But it's really good to see you. I'm so sorry I had to leave."
"It's alright, I completely understand. As much as I would have liked to wake up to see you, I think I'll live." He smiled reassuringly. "Wait a second.. We probably have the result of the leave of absence by now. Probably missed it last night, so I'll check," he said, pulling up his watch to look at it.
Francis had an alert on his watch. "Mr. Craw and Miss Abernathy's request for absence has been approved. Days of Absence: May 18th-May 19 Reason: Visiting Family" Another scientist came up next to Poppy and spoke quietly in her ear as Francis looked. Poppy paused for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah, good idea," she said as she sent off the scientist. "Make sure they're wearing gloves."
"Good news," he said, looking back up. "We got approved to visit your family tomorrow." There was a slight smile on his face as he spoke.
She looked up at him with a smile quickly spreading across her face. She raised her arms in victory. "Really?! Oh, that's lovely. They're going to be really excited to hear that."
He nodded, grinning at her. "I'm excited, too. I'm sure your family are great people, and I'm glad I'll get to meet them."
