(Author's POV)
When Phineas came downstairs, everyone in the room looked up at once.
Aurora felt the awkwardness settle over her like a second skin. She was the last one to have figured it out, yet somehow that made her the most informed person in the room. She was already starting to worry, quietly and with some discomfort, about what it meant to know something this private about her employer.
Professor Walsh's expression carried a faint, suppressed sadness. A man like that, he was thinking. All that capability and presence, and then something like this.
Eleanor's eyes were a different thing entirely. She looked at Daniel the moment he cleared the last step, and she said his name - quietly, almost carefully, the way you'd address someone holding a verdict.
Daniel gave a small cough.
