(Author's POV)
Aurora had been in the lab since six-thirty.
The missed sessions from her leave had piled up, and she'd been working through them in chunks - early mornings, late evenings, whatever gaps she could find between her regular schedule. She didn't mind. The work was straightforward, and the quiet of the lab before the rest of the team arrived suited her.
She knew Phineas was having dinner at the Everett estate tonight. Eleanor had mentioned it in passing during their last phone call, and Aurora had felt something she wasn't entirely proud of - relief. A clean, uncomplicated relief that she wouldn't have to navigate an evening of careful conversation and the low-grade awareness that Eleanor had asked her to keep an eye on him.
It wasn't that she found him difficult to be aroun
