Chapter 269: The Stabilizer
I stepped back into the apartment just past midnight.
It was quiet—not the strained quiet of tension, but the natural kind that came after a long, full day. The kind of quiet that wrapped around the bones instead of rattling against them. Camille’s jacket was folded over the arm of the couch. Sienna’s boots were lined up neatly by the door. A cup of half-finished tea sat on the windowsill, still faintly warm. Home, at least for now.
I moved slowly through the hall, careful not to wake anyone. My joints still ached—not from pain, but from the weight of inertia. The feeling of having slowed down just enough to remember how fast I’d been moving before.
Everyone else had gone to bed. Evelyn’s was fast asleep in the master bedroom. Sienna was curled on one end of the couch, blanket wrapped around her like a shield. Camille was... somewhere between artfully passed out and fashionably unconscious. But Alexis—Alexis was still up.
Light poured from beneath the office door.
I knocked gently and pushed it open.
She didn’t turn around. Just kept her eyes locked on a set of five monitors, hands flitting from one datapad to another. Her hair was tied up in a loose bun, strands sticking out in every direction. Notes surrounded her—color-coded, cross-referenced, cross-examined. A half-eaten protein bar sat abandoned beside a cold cup of coffee.
"You’re still working," I said quietly.
"Obviously." Her voice was sharp, focused. She didn’t look away. "Scan results are aligning. Cell resonance stabilized in the left oblique sample. I’m close."
"I didn’t ask for a miracle."
"You didn’t need to. Your cells are vibrating like a tuning fork. Sit still long enough and you hum."