Page 47 of Ivory Legacy

“Always,” she replied, and there was something reassuring about the steadfastness in her voice. Ellie was my rock in this fluid world of variables and hypotheses.

“Thanks for giving me space,” I said, a little more quietly this time. “After…you know, everything with Dante.” My heart thudded just saying his name, even if it was only in passing.

“Of course,” Ellie responded, her gaze softening as she looked up from her work. “You needed time to sort through...whatever that is. But I’m glad you’re back, Jade. This place isn’t the same without you.”

“Nor is the research,” I said, feeling grounded once more amidst beakers and data sheets. Ellie and I were a team, our bond forged in countless hours of shared discoveries and setbacks. “Let’s get back to it, shall we?”

“Let’s,” Ellie agreed with a nod, her ponytail bobbing in solidarity.

I moved toward my workstation, the familiar hum of machines and the sterile scent of the lab wrapping around me like a comforting embrace. This was where I belonged, among pipettes and petri dishes, the thrill of possibility always at our fingertips.

“Hey, Jade?” Ellie called out, pausing her work for a moment.

“Yeah?” I glanced up, meeting her brown eyes, which held a glint of something like mischief.

“Remember that time we stayed up all night analyzing the gene expression profiles? You were so caffeinated you started explaining statistical significance to the janitor.”

I laughed, the sound echoing slightly in the spacious lab of BioHQ. “How could I forget? He seemed genuinely interested...or maybe he was just too polite to walk away.”

“Probably the latter.” Ellie chuckled, shaking her head. “But that’s what I love about working with you. No matter how intense it gets, you find a way to make it fun.”

“Likewise.” My heart swelled with affection for my friend. “We’ve had some crazy times in this lab, haven’t we?”

“Definitely,” she agreed, her smile infectious. “And there’s more to come. Let’s make some breakthroughs today, okay?”

“Absolutely.” I nodded, my determination reigniting. We settled into the rhythm of a workday, and I knew we still needed to talk, but for now, this felt good.

It felt right and familiar all at once.

The hum of centrifuges blended with the low murmur of data analysis software running in the background. I snapped on a fresh pair of gloves and joined Ellie at the cell culture hood. “Ready to see if our axonal projections have embraced the tripling model?” I asked.

“More than ready,” Ellie replied, her fingers deftly preparing the slides. “If we’ve managed to replicate the triple helix without compromising the integrity of the neurite outgrowth, we’ll be on the brink of a breakthrough.”

“Imagine the implications for regenerative medicine,” I mused, peering into the microscope. The delicate dance of genetic modification always left me in awe. “Repairing spinal cord injuries, reversing neural degeneration...”

“Exactly,” she said, eyes intent on the screen displaying our latest gene sequencing results. “But it’s this damn vector integration efficiency that’s been giving us grief. If we can’t stabilize it...”

“Then we’ll keep pushing until we do,” I asserted. “We’re not the type to back down from a challenge.”

Ellie glanced at me, a smirk playing at her lips. “Remember when Dr. Kline said we were too ambitious trying to tackle the axonal tripling? Said it was like reaching for the stars.”

“I’m glad Dr. White replaced him,” I said.

“Yeah, same. Jade, we’ve gone through more iterations of this project than I’ve had hot dinners,” Ellie said, flipping through pages of dense data. “But here we are, still tweaking, still testing...”

“Because that’s what it takes,” I finished for her. “And one of these days, we’re going to nail it. All those nights poring over genomic databases and protein folding simulations will pay off.”

“Until then, it’s back to the drawing board.”

But we didn’t talk about anything other than the work, and while there was a lot to discuss, we obviously had to sort…what had happened between us out. I felt terrible that I’d just left in the middle of the night when she had offered to help me, and she had been the one to warn me about Dante from the beginning.

“Ellie,” I began, my voice slicing through the chill, “I’m sorry. Can we talk–”

She paused, her fingers hovering mid-air before they resumed their dance across the keys. “No, Jade. Just...preoccupied, I guess.”

“Because if it’s about when I left—“

“Let’s not,” she cut in, her gaze fixed on the monitor. A frown creased her forehead, as impenetrable as the data she scrutinized.

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