The Things We Bury - Part 1: In Anticipation of the End of the World [Completed]

Chapter 6: Digging in the Dirt (Part 5 of 5)

The silence stretched across the minutes creating a void that consumed the entire bunker.  In the darkest hours of the night, it was easy to get lost in the stillness of words unspoken.  The glass between them was never entirely forgotten and formed a symbol of their united solitude.

"Why don't you want to talk about this?"  His voice snapped both of them back to the present and left a taste of rancid vinegar in Jamie's mouth. 

As soon as the words were out, he heard them as an echo.  They were not his own.  They were the same ones used by the Doctor earlier, and he felt betrayed by his tongue for using them.

She had confronted him in his lab, while he was monitoring the progress of the HiSeq 2000 DNA Sequencer.  The massive piece of machinery was churning through Amy's sample.  Soon he would have a map of her genome.  And the first step to developing her genetic profile would be completed.

Eight days to achieve what used to take months or even years.  Having the DTAA's state of the art resources was one small perk of working here.

Jamie tried to stay focused on the stats scrolling across the large LCD display and block out Barbara Gracie.  But it was proving impossible.  Her presence was filling the room like a drizzle filled fog drifting from the mountain valleys in the depths of winter.

"Why don't you want to talk about this?"

"There's nothing to talk about."  Jamie cycled through the options of the self-diagnosis menu.

"You got into a fight with him."

"It wasn't a fight."  He selected a scan of primary system functions.  There was no real need to run it, but it gave him an excuse to keep facing the monitor.  "What does it matter anyway?"

The answer was it didn't.  But that didn't stop his nerves from twisting his insides and turning his voice into an untuned instrument that left him sounding evasive.

"If it wasn't a fight, what was it?"  For some reason, she wouldn't let it drop.  She was like a Rottweiler with its teeth in raw meat. 

Jamie left the diagnostic to run and made to leave the lab, but Dr. Gracie blocked his path.  Even with heels, she was shorter than him.  And she was easily eighty pounds lighter, but her malice gave her formability.  And the rumors about her past swirled around her like a demonic aura.  The look she gave him made it clear that there would be no ignoring her.

Without any hope of escape, he said, "A misunderstanding."

"Explain."

"Tray..."  How should he explain Tray's insecurities and bitchy attitude?  "Tray had a thing for Emily.  And he thought I did too.  So he got in my face about it.  It was just stupid.  He was completely wrong and was just making an ass out of himself.  She didn't want anything to do with him."

"How would you know that?  Was it because she had a thing for you?"

"No, because it was obvious to anyone with eyes.  Except Tray."  And maybe you, Jamie thought.

Gracie seemed to move in closer but her feet never budged.   Jamie stepped backward and bumped into the machine.

"So she wasn't into either of you?  But Tray was right: you had a thing for her?" 

"No."  Jamie was shocked by the suggestion.  How could she be so wrong?

 He examined her face as if for the first time.  She exuded a coolness that mimicked calm.  But she wasn't as composed as he had first thought.  She was agitated.  Her skin of carved alabaster was broken by the red of her lips.  The color came from them being pressed tightly together, not from lipstick.  Her eyes were as cold as an arctic sky, but the corners were crinkled with a squint, as she peered at him trying to read his every facial expression.