Page 44 of Hollow State

"Wouldn't that make you jealous?"

He laughed. "You have to know that I wouldn't kick Coulter or Gideon, for that matter, out of bed."

"Are you trying to tell me something?"

"Just that I'm a lot of things. Guarded. With walls built up a mile high. But one thing I'm not is insecure about my manhood."

She glanced up at him and swallowed. "I'm hoping that should make me proud."

"You'll find out in two days."

The left front wheel squeaked as they made their way out of the medical bay and down the corridor with Wynn's heart hammering in her throat.

He turned the corner and rolled to a stop in the center of the kitchen.

Gideon and Zadie sat at the table, a sandwich between them, and neither of them looked up.

"—and I'm telling you the problem isn't the language," Gideon said.

"The problem is always the language."

"The problem is that you learned on something that holds your hand, and now you can't work without a hand to hold."

"Oh." Zadie set the sandwich down. "Oh, we're doing this."

"We are doing this." Gideon lifted a pickle and waved it.

"You have a function in the relay module that's four hundred lines long." Zadie shook her head. "That would make me crazy."

"It works."

Gideon and Zadie could go on like this for hours. They weren't really arguing. This was their love language. But sometimes, they got intense.

Darwin pulled the fridge open and started stacking things on Wynn's lap. Two orange sodas. A bag of dill chips. Leftover casserole. Cake. God, she loved cake.

"You know what the problem is," Darwin said into the fridge.

"Excuse me?" Zadie glared.

"You're both only seeing it from your own perspective," Darwin said. "Prewit used to tell me that if I wanted to be a good medical researcher, I always needed to wear my doctor hat. I needed to think about the patient, not just the scientific breakthrough."

"Huh?" Gideon put both hands flat on the table. "What are you talking about?"

"I think he's trying to make small talk," Zadie said.

"I'm just saying that you're both trying to get to the same end." Darwin shrugged. "But you struggle to see how the other works through the process."

"I think we get it." Zadie turned in her chair. "And where are we headed?"

"My room," Darwin said before Wynn could even open her mouth.

"Okay," Zadie said.

"Good." Gideon leaned back and folded his arms. "Have fun."

"We'll be resting." Darwin pushed the wheelchair forward.

She glanced over her shoulder and stared at him. "You do realize that's not what they're thinking."