Stop the World

Part II

With my freeze ray I will stop the pain.
It's not a death ray or an ice-beam that's all Johnny Snow,
I just think you need time to know…

"Oh good your home!"

Franny Framagucci stood on the stoop of the Robinsons front door, backpack in hand, beaming up at the famous inventor as sweetly as one might imagine.

Cornelius didn't reply…he had temporarily forgotten how to breathe.

If Franny noticed anything she made little enough of it, spinning about in one smooth dance-like motion to wave back at the road and the yellow truck parked there. The vehicle now idling at the end of the drive would have been hard to miss, even speeding by on a packed highway. An outdated, decrepit Toyota from the look of it, the car had been equipped with a rather gaudy looking pop-culture space ship welded to the roof; the logo 'Pizza Planet' emblazoned upon it in proud red letters.

"It's alright Art!" Franny called with a wave at the waiting truck. "He's here! I'll give you a call when I need to be picked up!" Somewhere, far in the back of his consciousness, Cornelius was aware of the truck, aware of the wiry, acne spackled occupant, and even aware of his rather acidic look he threw the nineteen year old 'doctor' before throwing the tricked-out vehicle into gear and pulling back onto the unoccupied street. Yes, Cornelius was aware, but only barely…

"Oh don't mind him…" Fran had spun back in another graceful turn to face the still dumbfounded inventor. "And I'm really sorry I'm late, I hope it's alright…you see, I had to wait till Art was off work to catch a ride and of coarse he just had to be difficult and…"

Cornelius didn't hear a word…in fact he was sure he was going to pass out. She was here, Franny was here…what was he going to do, what was he going to say; and why the hell had he opened his mouth in the first place?!

It was a long awkward moment before he realized that those unbearably rich brown eyes were fixed on him, a worried curiosity creasing her brow. Suddenly aware that it was in fact his turn to speak he tried to open his mouth but to his dismay only a befuddled mumbling spilled past his lips. He was doomed.

"You're forehead…" the girl repeated, pointing to her own head as though to demonstrate. "Did you hurt yourself?"

His brain finally caught up with her words as he remembered his bruised temple. "y-yha" he bit out with a embarrassed laugh, his voice quite a few decibels above where it ought to be. Quickly he cleared his throat and tried again. "I ah, I just had a little accident in the lab this morning, nothing big." Again he tried a nervous laugh as she smiled sympathetically.

There followed a very long, very uncomfortable pause.

"So…" She began, clasping her hands together, clearly trying to fill the silence.

"So…" he repeated, feeling as though he was drowning in the quiet.

"May…I come in…" she ventured, gesturing to him, the door, and the house that lay beyond.

'NO'. His brain screamed, and his nerves whole heartedly backed it up on this. 'Tell her your sick, tell her your mom is sick, tell her your goldfish is sick, anything! But don't let her…'

"Oh….um, yes" he managed in a meek, apologetic manner.

'you're doomed…'

Franny smiled her perfect pretty smile as he stepped aside, holding the door as much to keep himself upright as out of any real gesture of courtesy. Fearing the silence would descend upon them once more he wracked his brain for a conversation started.

"Y-you're, um, your brother I presume?" He asked pointing to the door as he made to close it. Of course, he had 'presumed' nothing he didn't already know, but that was neither here nor there he decided. Knowing the future sometimes meant having to take a step back or two, to keep up appearances if nothing else.

"Yha," Fran replied, her lips twisting into an apologetic grin of her own as she shrugged. "Art is the oldest. Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy, but ever since he got that stupid delivery job with Pizza Planet, he's gotten even more overbearing and protective then he used to be. I swear, he's such a raging dork sometimes." She shook her head with a stilted chuckle. "You know, some times I worry he takes those comic books of his way to seriously."

Despite his nerves, Cornelius couldn't help his own tepid grin as the image of his future brother-in-law danced before his minds eye.

"You have no idea…"

"Beg your pardon?"

"O-oh, um nothing…" Cornelius stammered as he gestured for her to follow him. They walked in silence down the main foyer and into the left wing corridor that lead to the lab. Again Cornelius was feeling the full weight of those perfect brown eyes and was finding it difficult to keep his balance. 'Keep her talking!' his mind screamed, 'when she talking she's not just staring at you like the idiot you are…'

Quickly, Cornelius searched his fogged over brain for any semblance of an idea.

"This, um…this project of yours" he began, not daring to look at her as they began the long climb up to his laboratory in the back of the house. "I'm assuming it's the earth science project Mr. Birmingham assigned just before he left?" He could think of no other…

"Well…not exactly…"

Cornelius could feel his nerves begin to twitch. "I wasn't aware he assigned any other projects…" he risked a quick look over at the petite teen. She was staring at the floor, her face slightly flushed as she fidgeted with the strap of her bag.

"He didn't…"

He felt his heart sink sickeningly into his stomach. So he had been right, she really hadn't needed help and was just here because of his pitiful little display in the classroom. And now she had come all this way just to try and spare him the embarrassment. Quickly he tried to console himself with the thought that at least his second suspicion had not held merit, but the idea provided little comfort. "Oh…" he stammered, trying desperately to keep his disappointment from his face. He needed to be casual; he didn't want to look like this had really meant anything. It didn't… right? Even if she did need help, it wasn't like a date or anything just a study session…a silly little study session.

Inadvertently he had stopped walking, and she had done the same, the toe of her show twisting timidly into the step as she chewed her lower lip. "Yha…I'm sorry Dr. Robinson, it's just, I really, really need help and I didn't think you would listen to me if I had explained it to you at school…so I kind of, you know…lied."

Immediately the inventers' attitude perked up, as did his curiosity. "Oh...?" he exclaimed once more, this time the sound a question rather then a stammered façade for his embarrassment. Franny's face began to turn yet another shade of pink, a color he found rather flattering on her soft white features. Without another word she began fumbling through her bag in search of something and when her hands reemerged she clutched in them a squat, green, wriggling…

"ah…you're musical frogs." Cornelius exclaimed his curiosity resolving into a light chuckle of delight and relief. The girls' eyes widened in surprise at his recognition and then almost instantly darkened at his reaction. "It's not a joke" she snapped, shaking the frog in front of his face as though for emphasis. "They really are musically incline, every one of them!" Cornelius through up his arms in defense, taking a few steps backwards. "I don't doubt you," he said quickly, still smiling his own surprise and delight. "It's just…I thought you had given up on your musical amphibian based dreams, that's all."

Fran looked horrified at the very thought. "Of coarse not!" She snapped, pulling the rather bewildered looking frog back to her chest and clutching it affectionately. "It's just…no one ever believes me, and I was so tied of being laughed at and…well, and ridiculed…I just don't talk about it any more." Cornelius nodded, his smile fading slightly. "I see…" he managed, though in all honesty he couldn't. No matter which way he examined it, Cornelius was finding it very hard to imagine anyone ever laughing or ridiculing this perfect little creature. Franny was smart, ambitious, unmistakably beautiful…and here she stood, normally bright mirthful eyes cast down in shame or embarrassment, he could not tell which.

He did not like this look on her, this expression that overtook the young girls face. It wasn't so much her sad, forlorn air that truly bothered him, though that alone would have been enough. She looked suddenly tired, defeated, even broken in some sense. When she spoke again she was oh so quiet, her voice low and week as though the words were becoming hard for ever her to believe. "I'm sorry Dr. Robinson…I know this doesn't seem all that important, or even productive…but, it's just, I've always felt that music, in many ways, is like a universal constant. Not just consciously and culturally, but naturally…even ethereally. You know, string theory and all." She paused as she tried an unsuccessful smile "I just know that if I am successful in this, it would not only be a break through in genetics, but it would prove in some small way that music as a transcendent means of communication is a plausible hypothesis, that there is a universal form of communication more potent then language or even symbols and iconography. But I don't know…"

They stood silently for a moment, he regarding her, she with her face cast down, looking somehow even smaller then her normally petit stature should allow.

"Fran…" he paused, not quite sure where it was he was going with this, but knowing he had to say something. She looked so lost, so hopeless…it was heart-wrenching. Clearing his throat he tried again. "Franny, let me tell you something. It's very easy to push forward with a project, a theory, an idea…what have you; that people readily understand and believe in. That kind of scientific advancement happens everyday. But things found easily rarely ever hold the merit of those things found against all odds. Galileo, Newton, Einstein, hell even Max Planck; there all names we remember not because they discovered, pursued, and contemplated something easy, but because they pushed beyond what was perceived as the limits of scientific understanding into realms at first only they could see. You'll get there, just give it time, and don't be afraid to keep moving forward."

She was staring at him…oh god she was staring at him now! Cornelius felt something akin to a bolt of electricity rip through his body. Swallowing hard he found himself leaning hard against the wall of the stairwell, no longer trusting his own legs. Trying desperately to shrug the effect off he averted his eyes as he forced the words out as casually as he could.

"So…um, how can I help…"

To his great relief she looked down, averting her own eyes to stare at the small green amphibian in her arms, stroking its head with one thumb as its half lidded eyes stared almost blankly up at the blond inventor. "you know… you're the only person who had ever said anything encouraging about my ideas…" she stifled a rather shy giggle, the mere hint of her usually bright enchanting smile returning to her lips. "anyway, Dr. Robinson, I just thought…you know, I've hit a bit of an impasse with the research and seeing how you know all this stuff about…well seemingly everything, I thought maybe you might be able to…you know, point me in the right direction." With that she looked up at him, a hopeful almost pleading expression etched on her fair features.

For the love of Einstein's ghost, why was it that simply everything about this creature seemed contrived just to bring him to the brink of sanity! He tried a nervous laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck "you…um, you don't need to keep calling me Dr. Robinson…" he ventured "this isn't a class, Cornelius will do just fine here…" Still trying to play it cool he very casually hid his sweating palms deep in the pockets of his lab coat as he clear his throat and shrugged "And what can I say, I live for the scientifically inexplicable...how could I say no."

Her face lit up in an instant and with it Cornelius could feel his heart and his face do the same. Before he could do anything however he felt a long pair of slender arms wrap about his chest in an energetic and impromptu hug. He nearly lost it…

"oh, Cornelius! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…" Franny chanted, ignoring the somewhat irate croaking of the little amphibian she still clutched in one hand. Cornelius, of course, was to busy once again coxing himself through the simple act of breathing to ever venture a reply. In another instant she released him, but not before grabbing the inventor by one clammy, shaking hand and dragging him excitedly up the remainder of the stairway to the lab door.

She was talking again, excitedly and at great rambling length, but Cornelius was no longer listening. He was too busy staring down at her perfect hand as it fit into his own large, callused digits. Through the fog and the haze of his train of thought he could not help but marvel at this little perfect hand, its little perfect fingers twined in there little perfect way…fitting ever so perfectly with his. He didn't know if it was a sign or simply his cluttered mind jumping at straws but, it seemed a rather encouraging image to the overwhelmed inventor. The first real encouraging thought on the topic he had had to date. Straws or no, it was a thought he rather enjoyed.

Cornelius didn't really notice when the great doors to the lab were thrown open and the pair of them dashed inside, Franny leading the front. He didn't really notice when they stopped, or even when exactly it was that the girl had stopped talking. It wasn't until her thin, nimble fingers released his hand that any semblance of reality overtook him at all. Blinking his surprise Cornelius turned sheepishly back to his guest, his hand rubbing at his neck once more as a means to fill the nervous, awkward silence. "Yes…well, here we are…" he announced meekly "and um…so"

The girl wasn't even listening. She simply stood, slack jawed, as she gazed up and about at the entirety of the room…

"Wow!" The finally managed, craning her neck as she spun around and around trying to get a look at just about everything she could. It took the inventor a moment to realize what it was that had so captivated his guest, but once he did Cornelius smile his own nervous shy smile as he examined the tow of his rather scuffed up work shoes. Sometimes he forgot how impressive the lab could be. After all, he had worn just about an identical look of wonder the first time he had set eyes on it, filled as it had been countless inventions he had yet to even conceive. For now the space was only half full, and still lacked the clean crisp line its future form would take. Where one day smooth polished versions of his inventions yet to come might stand now loomed large, rather clumsy looking mechanical monsters, there innards all open and strewn about the floor. Papers were scattered hither and yon with countless diagrams taped to countless surfaces. To the far side of the room, just visible between the fragmented parts of what he hoped would be a particle isolation chamber was his desk, the large drafting table looking rather unimpressive next to the numerous mechanical behemoths that flanked it.

"You made all this…" Franny finally ventured breathlessly, wide eyes coming back to fix on Cornelius. The lanky teen could feel his face flush as he tried to shrug off her clear admiration. "In my spare time, yha…I tend to tinker."

"These are incredible!" She continued gesturing about her as though for emphasis before her gaze lighted on a strange, lopsided device that was currently humming away to itself. It stood no more then three feet tall and displayed a multitude of different colored lights on its face- each one flickering on and off and on again in a wide assortment of patterns. "Mind if I ask what this is?" She asked, risking a hesitant glance back at the older boy before continuing her study of the strange little machine. "Not at all…though I fear its not all that exciting" he admitted, tucking his hands in his lab pocket as he rocked nervously on the balls of his feet beside her. "It's kind of a homemade miniature particle detector if you will." Franny nodded her amazement before her eyes settled on another device a few paces behind the first. "And this…" She pointed to a foot long cylinder hooked up to a gas tank of some kind. He barely had time to identify it as his attempt to study carbon nano-tubing construction and application when she was off again hovering over another invention.

For the next five minuets Cornelius was kept quite busy chasing behind the emphatic girl as she pointed and questioned each device she came to. Finally she stopped in front of what looked like a comically large ray gun, the barrel spanning almost ten feet in length as it sat atop a softly humming power converter the size of a mini-van. "How about this one?" she asked tipping her head as she examined the control panel at its side. "Well …" Cornelius mumbled, feeling a bit winded after the rapid-fire tour. "it's nothing yet, but its supposed to be a freeze-ray, if I ever get the ion beam to stabilize long enough."

"No way!" Franny gawked, looking over the device with a new found admiration. "That's so cool! No pun intended of course, oh, but you have to tell me how it works"

"Well…" Cornelius rubbed the back of his neck nervously, unsure how much he should explain, and how much she really did care to hear. Was she just being polite…was she actually interested? "It's not all that straight forward…I mean it is, but there is an additional element when dealing with living matter." He glanced down to her nervously, in an attempt to try and gage her interest. To his surprise he found that rather then the absent minded nodding most people were prone to favor him with, she was staring at him with furrowed brow, weight shifted fully to her left hip. "How do you mean?"

He bit the inside of his lip, flustered despite himself. "I…ah…" Brown eyes were fixed on him intently and he suddenly felt quite small under that inquisitive gave. Get a hold of yourself his mind screamed; if you could explain it to the board of trustees at Inventa co. you can most certainly explain it to one individual. Swallowing hard Cornelius tried a timid smile. Might as well jump in full force and hope he didn't brand himself a 'raging dork' as she had so eloquently described it. "the…uh…the thing is in order to effectively 'freeze' something in a state of preservation you need to bring the molecular activity of the object to a complete stop. You see, temperature is gauged by the amount of motion attributed to a molecule, so if you were to stop all motion of the atom you would effectively bring the subject to absolute zero, you know? Of coarse you know, your in the honors science program, so you know what absolute zero is and you don't really need it explained by me…"

He cut himself off with a nervous laugh as the color began to build in his face. Trying to cover up his embarrassment he pushed forward. "b-but the thing is when bring any living subject to a state of absolute zero, you almost always risk disrupting vital metabolic systems in the process, so now I just need to find a way to bring a given body to a state of absolute zero without compromising function and structural integrity of the organism on a cellular level…you know?" He trailed off, looking to the raven haired girl sheepishly for some sign that she had not just labeled him an irrefutable and inexcusable geek.

"Wow…" Franny murmured, biting her lip as she took all that in. "I'm not sure I caught all of that..." she confessed with a sheepish grin of her own "but it sounds like quite a dilemma. Have you been able to pin point at which stage of the freezing process the damage occurs. You know, is it in the process of freezing or is it in bringing the thing out of the state of absolute zero?"

Cornelius felt his jaw go slack as he simply stared at her dumbstruck. Not only has she followed his rambling line of logic…she had understood it. Franny on the other hand had started to turn colors herself, her face becoming lightly flushed as she began fidgeting with her hands. "I'm sorry, I know it's a stupid question…"

"No, no, not at all" Cornelius stammered out, realizing how she had misinterpreted his silence. "Its just…most people seem to get a little lost when I start rambling and…" Fran's face, which had only moments ago been merely touched with pink now began to redden quite substantially. "well…as you said I am in the honors program."

They both shared a nervous laugh before they fell into an awkward silence; both teens suddenly finding anything but the other to look at.

"So…"Fran ventured,

"so…" Cornelius repeated, pressing her to continue.

"So have you tried firing it up since you reworked whatever it was you were 'fidgeting with'" as she spoke the last words she lifted her own hands, emphasizing the last words with a visual parenthesis. Again he offered her a timid smile "well, no…I mean I have finished recalibrating the energy impute to the beam, that should make the timing of the ion output a bit less erratic but…"

"well lets try it out!" Fran interrupted in an eager tone, pulling playful at the sleeve of his white lab coat. He felt an electric shock run through his body at the place where her hand met his wrist, but the pleasant tingling was almost instantly set aside as his brain caught up with her words. "I don't know…" He murmured pulling his hand back. What if it didn't work…how foolish would he look then? What if it malfunctions…or spat back parts like it had that morning…

"Come on…" She all but cooed, evidently not willing to be so easily swayed. "I'm sure it will work just fine…besides I want to be the first to say I saw the great Cornelius Robinsons freeze ray in action."
Cornelius felt the flush returning to his face as she once again dragged him forward towards his own would be invention. "I-I'm not really sure it will work…" To his surprise she stopped pulling at him, spinning around to give him her best imitation of a pleading puppy she could muster, eyes going wide as her lower lip jetted out slightly. "Please…" she added in an almost song like quality. "pretty please with sugar, sprinkles, and one of the expensive cherries on top…"

Shaking his head Cornelius rolled his eyes in a dramatic fashion, more to hide his own flustered feelings then any really sense of exasperation. At least now he knew from whom Wilber had mastered such a look from. "Alright, alright…but first…" he took a few quick steps back to his desk, grabbing and tossing his lab goggles in her direction. "Put these on, just incase."

Despite his somewhat ill aimed through Franny managed to catch the protective goggles, smiling from ear to ear like a child. Cornelius knew that look, he loved that look. It was the same look she had given him all those years ago in the future when Bud had first thrown open the music room doors and she had tipped her head back to offer them an enthusiastic, welcoming grin.

He waited till she had the goggles on and adjusted before turning to his freeze ray, thumbing on the correct sequence of switched and listening for the duel turbines to begin there pitiful moan. Selecting another apple from the little basket he had brought up for just such a purpose, he placed the unsuspecting fruit dead center in the predetermined bulls eye on the table before scampering back to stand next to the control panel on the right hand side of the device. He smiled despite himself as he began to punch in a few more commands. He couldn't help it really; he always felt such a wonderful rush of adrenalin whenever he took his inventions out for a test drive. Besides, he had a really good feeling about this time.

"Ready!" he called over the roar of the turbines. Holding her hands over her ears Franny pulled one hand away to give him a quick thumbs-up. Smiling his own crocked grin Cornelius pressed the final initiation button.

That I'm the guy to make it real,
The feelings you don't dare to feel.
I'll bend the world to my will,
And we'll make time stand still.

The first thing he was truly aware off was the low steady wurr of the large safety fans he had installed years ago to vent the dome clean of smoke should any of his inventions go up in flames. Flames…oh no! The Freeze ray! Instantly he felt a wash of guilt and embarrassment flood over him. Stupid, stupid, stupid! He knew he should have tested the turbines once more! Now he had made a complete ass out of himself and Franny would never talk to him again. He might as well just curl up in a corner somewhere and die... or at the very least dissipate into nothing where he now lay.

Actually, the prospect of just lying there was a rather appealing one now that he was aware of it. He was warm, quite comfortably so; and there was something sweet and soft at his lips.
Had he died?

The thought rolled through his mind in an almost leisurely means and to his surprise the prospect did not really bother him all that much. If this was what lied beyond the world of the living…well, that was just fine with him.

Again came the sweet soft breath on his lips and he thrilled silently, allowing it to fill his being before… "OUCH!"

Coughing and spluttering Cornelius sat bolt upright. Franny, who had been leaning over him, both hands folded one over the other on the inventors' chest leapt back with a cry of her own, Heimlich maneuver abruptly forgotten. "Geez Fran…" he moaned between coughing spurts, rubbing at his bruised chest. Unable to see a thing he quickly removing his glasses to wiped dust from the lenses with the inner clean corner of his lab coat. "I think you just broke a rib." No sooner had they returned to his nose then he felt a set of long slender arms wrapping firmly about his neck, inciting another cry of surprise from the startled boy. "Oh Cornelius, Thank Goodness your all right." Frannys' voice was rushed, tinged with panic and fear. To say that he was taken aback by her sudden display of affection would be a poor understatement indeed.

"I-I…ah…" He felt his face burn a new as he tried to compose his thoughts. What was she…what had he…Gingerly he made a feeble attempts to untangle himself from her grip, with little successes. "I'm sorry," she sobbed repeatedly, still clinging fervently to his neck. "I'm so so so so so so sorry…"

"It's alright Fran…really." He had finally managed to loosen her grip on his neck holding her out at arms lengths in order to get a good look at her. He felt his breath hitch in his throat…

Her usually flawless pail features were blacked by smoke, a perfectly even coating over both her skin and cloths. The only section seemingly spared were the perfect soot free circles about her eyes that denoted where the goggles had been. Black well kept hair now stuck out at all directions with large chunks falling free to wrap about her face. It might have been quite the comical sight at any other time, save fore one important note…She had been crying. Cornelius felt his heart sink almost on impulse. "Fran…" bright brown eyes rimed in red blinked back at him before disappearing into his shirt collar once more. "Fran, are you alright? Are you hurt or…"

"please, I'm so sorry…" she was rambling over him again, her sobs drowning out his own string of questions. "its just…I shouldn't have pestered you like that and now your lab… and when it exploded,"

"Fran"

"and you…I didn't know what to do, you weren't breathing,"

"Franny"

"so I panicked and…and I'm so, so sorry I…"

"Fran!" it took him quite a bit of effort to pull her out of her long-winded incoherent monologue and get her to focus on him once more. Still gripping her shoulders he held her still, staring at her the way one might when trying to calm and sooth an irrational child. "Fran, are you hurt?" He asked point blank.

She shook her head no.

Almost instantly Cornelius' face softened, his lips tipping into a lopsided smile and his grip loosened. "Then it's alright."

"B-but your lab…"

Cornelius snorted as he released her to gesture out at the rest of the lab. "Please, do you know how many times I've blown out a window or two in this place? It's why I installed the vent system in the first place. In fact…" he took a moment to scan his eyes over the lab itself. "By my standards, that hardly ranks a three on the demolition scale…"

Fran seemed less the convinced. "And you're freeze ray…"

Cornelius glanced back at where the device sat smoldering, did a quick assessment and shrugged. "Looks like we just blew out the main power converter and the ion grid. I can probably have that fixed in a day or so." He turned back to the teary eyed teen and rubbed the back of his neck feeling a bit abashed. "I probably should have triple checked the calibration on the ion beam's auxiliary power feed, I bet that's what did it." He grimaced slightly before adding "for that much feed back I bet the neighbors will be here any minuet with pitchforks complaining I blew out the power for the whole block …again."

"S-so you're not mad?"

The young inventor blinked his confusion. "Of coarse not"

Franny shook her head with a sob. Sitting back she whipped her soot stained face with the back of her hands, succeeding only in smearing much of the dust more unevenly across her features. Cornelius snickered, fumbling a bit dizzily in his own back pocket for a fairly clean work rag and handing it over to the girl. "I'm just glad you're alright." Even under her mask of dust he could not help but note how her face seemed to flush, ever so slightly.

Murmuring her 'thank you' she accepted the little strip of work cloth, proceeding to wipe away what she could of the dark soot. Taking advantage of her temporary distraction he glanced back over to the freeze ray, scrutinizing the damage more closely. Well at least the thing was getting the power it needed, that was something. Maybe all he needed was to reverse the ion polarity and the impute power converter and the problem would simply solve itself.

That's the plan, rule the world
You and me, anyday…

The smoke was beginning to clear, leaving behind a rather bitter smell of burned electronics in its wake. Finally with a low clunk the large industrial safety fan overhead switched off and to the inventors complete astonishment the sound was replaced with a very soft, very muffled…giggle.

"What…?" More surprised then anything else Cornelius turned back to Franny to find that the girl had all but berried her face in the rag, peeking out from behind it as she tried desperately to hide her snickering. "I'm really sorry…" she all but squeaked as she pulled the rag away from her face. "But your hair…with all the smoke…its…it…" her sentence was swallowed by another bout of giggles, leaving the teen genius completely baffled.

Love your hair
"What?"

"What about my hair…"

Hesitantly Cornelius reached up and was relived to find it all intact (for he had had more then his fair share of close calls on that front) and just as unruly as ever. It wasn't until he pulled his hand back that he realized what it was she meant. His palm looked as though he had just stuck it straight into a pile of pure artist charcoal, and based on the shear concentration of it…

"Oh!" He favored the giggling girl with a timid smile. "So what's so funny about black hair…?" she bit her lip, failing to force back her laughter "I'm sorry…but you look like a really young Tom Selleck without the mustache!" She blurted out finally, erupting once more into peals of laughter. Cornelius was now laughing too as he shook his head vigorously, showing the lab floor and everything within a two foot ratios, including the giggling high school student with a farther sprinkling of suet. Franny squealed and laughed as she through up her hands, trying half heartedly to avoid the fresh misting.

"No, I love the AIR"
Anyway

There laughter slowly faded, the suet slowly settled, and the two teens were left, sitting together on the laboratory floor in silence, each simply staring at the other in this new found silence. It was not an awkward silence, not as it had been before, but rather a contented mutual kind of quiet, each teen smiling warmly back at the other.

Still it was a silence that was meant to be broken.

"Ah…listen." Cornelius finally ventured, trying to pick his words carefully. "Its getting rather late and…"

"Oh…" Franny blinked, her expression first one of surprise and then…disappointment? He most certainly hadn't expected that. "I suppose you're right…it's just…well…"

A thought suddenly occurred to the young inventor and with it came a small lopsided smile. He had already made this much of a fool of himself, what more could one stupid suggestion do. "Actually, I was thinking, and this might just be the head injury talking" he added quickly, pointing nervously to his previously bandaged forehead. "But there's this great little diner a few miles from here. If you want we could go grab a bite there and I can look over your work while we eat, you know…sort of like a ...I mean we don't have to or anything but…"

Cornelius found himself cut off quite abruptly and quite effectively as the girl leaned forward, pressing one dainty, soot cover finger to his lips. His heart raced and it took him a good few seconds before he could breathe again. When she spoke she spoke in a very quiet almost mischievous manner, a playful smile pulling at her lips. "You help me with my project…I'll pay for dinner, deal?"

With my freeze ray…

As she removed her finger from his lips he managed to smile his own little lopsided smile. It was the kind of smile that years later he would always wonder where his son might have picked it up from.

I will stop…

"Deal"

FIN

Authors note: there you have it, I hope you enjoyed this 'little' Disney diddle of a story. I've been thinking about some kind of a sequel, perhaps even from Frannys point of view, but have yet to truly develop anything I like. Any thoughts?