Disclaimer: Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney Animation. The characters in this story that are not BH6 are owned by Marvel.

Also note that this chapter takes place after "Alone" and before the events of "Highway to Hell".

Chapter 1 - Speak Your Mind

"Everything is so nice and clean. I wonder how they do it?"

"It's easy to do that when there's no students running around campus."

It was a very weird thing to be visiting your college institute when it was between semesters.

"Oooh, is that a new building?"

It was something else entirely to be visiting your college campus with your aunt.

"Aunt Cass, that's the Periodic Cafe. It's nowhere near new."

"That's where you eat, right? I wonder if they're open."

Hiro sighed. This was already starting off splendidly.

Of course, he could only blame himself...because the reason why the two Hamadas were even on campus to begin with was him.

Three days prior, Hiro had run away from home. In a fit of rage and depression, he sought to distance himself from everyone and everything in his life. He had spent the night in the park trying to get away from his problems, but through a concentrated effort of his friends and family, he was found and returned to his home.

Since then, the gang had been walking on eggshells around him. In retrospect, it wasn't a bold realization to make; they had thought Hiro had done something terrible to himself. He hadn't, of course, but he couldn't blame them.

After a day of emotional support from his friends (near and far), as well as a very touching and sentimental conversation with Karmi the following night, Hiro had woken up the next morning for breakfast. He had slept in a little bit, so the breakfast crowd (including the gang) had already cleared out by the time he got downstairs. Aunt Cass had her laptop out and was poking around on her keyboard as he walked up.

"Good morning, Hiro! How'd you sleep?"

"Fine." He was still a little groggy from waking up, but what else was new when his nights were all the same. "What are you up to?"

"Well, besides keeping your breakfast warm..." She shifted a full plate of food over the counter to her nephew. "I'm just wrapping up an appointment for you for tomorrow."

"For what?" Hiro asked, munching on his toast. "Dentist? Doctor?"

"No. Psychologist. Specifically, the one that your teacher suggested to me."

"Huh?" He had almost forgotten the conversation that Granville had with him about getting professional help. "But, Aunt Cass-"

"Hiro."

She had her hand up, but he also saw a twinge of sadness in her eyes. She smiled slightly to offset it, then spoke up again.

"We're not arguing about this." She pointed at her laptop screen. "In the e-mail that Grace sent me, she made it quite clear that you would not be able to go back to campus without her approval. I know you don't like to talk about your feelings, Hiro. But you need to talk to someone. And since your previous psychologist moved away, this is the next best thing." She took a sip out of her mug as she closed her computer. "Now, Wasabi and Aspen are going to cover the Cafe while I take you to school-"

"Wait, you're letting Aspen work here?"

Aunt Cass shrugged. "She was still in town, and Honey Lemon said she was busy working on some overdue stuff with her store. Beside, Aspen volunteered. She wanted me to teach her how to make the boba tea..."

The last thing that Hiro wanted was to see Aspen on a tapioca high while working in the cafe, but he kept his mouth shut. She must have seen the look of anxiety on his face, because she put a hand out to ruffle his hair. "She'll be fine. Beside...I have Doreen stopping by in case things go bad."

Hiro didn't know which person to feel bad for the most: Wasabi, Aunt Cass, or the customers that would inevitably have a front row seat to the craziness.

"Oh, stop. Doreen was great when she was here during the semester. Everyone loved her! Besides, it's only for a couple of hours. Now, finish your breakfast and get ready. They'll be here soon."

After the two arrived (and also after a quick explanation of the tapioca pearls to Aspen, who only squealed in response), an hour later Hiro and Aunt Cass were walking toward the door of Professor Granville's office. Hiro noted that it was closed. Maybe she forgot that he was coming?

"I wonder why she had us meet here?"

"I'm not sure why, Hiro. I'm sure she has a good reason." Her fist came up and knocked on the door three times.

"Come in."

She pushed open the door, and there was Granville in all of her glory, a large amount of paperwork sitting off to her right. She was rotating her wrist and wincing as the two walked inside, giving Aunt Cass a rare smile. "Hello there, Ms. Hamada. How are you doing today?"

"I'm doing fine, Grace." She glanced at the tower on the desk. "Probably better than you."

"Yes, what I wouldn't give to be a member of the student population and not the faculty population now. But alas, that time has come and gone." Granville looked at Hiro. "And how are you today, Hiro?"

"I'm...fine."

"That's good to hear." She set her pen off to the side and refocused on them. "Now, I'm going to give you a very particular set of instructions for your visit. They may seem a little unorthodox, but I assure you it is all for your benefit. When you get to the building, you are going to-"

"Is Aunt Cass not coming with me?"

Granville nodded at him. "She will not. Your aunt will be sitting here and having a delightful conversation with me about a myriad of things."

"But mostly about me, right?"

"...Yes, Mr. Hamada. It will mostly be about you."

Great. Just what he needed. His aunt and his professor having a perfectly normal conversation while he goes off and gets his mind read.

Hiro sighed and looked down at the campus map on his phone. He had left Granville's office and started off towards his destination: the building sitting right behind Student Services. But he had one lingering thought in his mind.

"...I don't remember there being a building there before."

Now granted, he never really visited this part of the campus. The only time he had to go to the SS Building was to get his ID picture taken.

Oh, and the whole incident with Fred and his conquest for a statue of the school mascot riding a goat. But he'd leave that story for another time.

Hiro turned left down the short path off the sidewalk. There was a pathway there, but it looked brand new and undisturbed. Strange, the map said he was right near it.

And then Hiro looked up.

There certainly was a building there, but it wasn't like any of the other buildings on campus. Instead of it looking updated and clean, the double story building was made of stone, ivy crawling up the walls. The roof was tinted a dark green, the circular window on it like a beacon over his head. The symbol inside looked like a tic-tac-toe board, only all of the lines were curved in random directions.

"Well. Here goes."

Hiro hopped up the short staircase and creaked open the wooden door. The lobby looked like the same as any of the other buildings: small, a few chairs along the side, a numerous amount of bookshelves on the walls...

Hold up.

His eyes took in his surroundings. Yeah, the walls were lined to the brim with books. This was definitely different. The receptionist desk even had a few books on it too. One was open to about the halfway point.

But there wasn't anyone there. Hiro took a couple steps forward, looking for any signs of human life. "Um...hello?" he called out.

"I'm here!"

"Gah!"

The latter exclamation was aimed at the person suddenly appearing from beneath the desk. The former came from said suddenly appearing person.

After Hiro got his heart back down his throat, he took a moment to take her in. It was a girl, probably a little younger than his friends. Her black hair was cascading down from underneath a black beanie, a few strands tangled up in her glasses. She ruffled the sleeves of her pink jacket and adjusted her hat. "Sorry! Didn't hear you come in."

If he squinted a little bit, the girl looked like she could be Fred and Honey Lemon's future kid.

"I lost track of time reading about ancient Shakespeare and unicorns."

...OK, definitely their kid.

"What's up?"

Hiro remembered why he had come and spoke up. "I'm here for my one o'clock appointment."

"Oh, right. The dean did say someone would be showing up today."

He looked across the desk at the cluttered mess. "Should I sign in or...?"

"Nope! No need. I think you're the only appointment for today." She stepped out from behind the desk and started walking toward a door he hadn't noticed before. "I'll let him know you're here. Go ahead and have a seat."

Hiro took a seat in one of the plastic chairs and continued to take stock of the shelves around him. A lot of the books on the walls didn't have any sort of writing on the spines. The ones that did were in languages he didn't have any hope of understanding.

A large, thick book to his right caught his eye. He got up from the chair and cautiously pulled it off of the shelf. It felt light despite the monstrous amount of pages. He opened it up to a random passage and looked at the lettering.

Hm. This was a language he understood. It was the one that Karmi had been teaching him. Some of the letters looked familiar too...

"I didn't know you can read Urdu."

The second "Gah!" was much more pronounced than the first, mainly because he didn't know the girl had come back into the room. He whirled around to see her standing right in front of him.

"The doctor..."

She simply held out her hand to the side, ready to catch the book out of the air.

"...will see you now."

And the book missed her hand entirely, falling to the ground below.

Both she and Hiro stared at the book, now sitting silently on the wooden floor.

"You have to admit." She pointed to her still-open hand. "It would have been totally cool if that had landed in my hand."

"You will have to forgive Zelma, Mr. Hamada..."

Now they turned to see the new arrival. It was a man, dressed impeccably from head to toe in a fancy three-piece suit. The man's hair was jet-black, but a patch of white was above both of his ears. Around his shoulders was a red trench coat with specks of gold around the collar. He adjusted one of the gloves on his hand as he looked down at the two of them.

"She doesn't get out that much."

"That's not true! I went to the grocery store last week."

"Oh? And what did you buy there?" he asked.

"Meatloaf mix. I'm gonna make some for my mom. Show her what a real meatloaf is suppose to look like. Food, and not like a tire fire..."

"If there is anyone that can do it, it's you. In the meantime, do not practice your cooking skills within these walls. The last time you tried something, it smelled like fish for weeks." The man motioned for Hiro to follow him. "With me, Mr. Hamada."

Zelma waved at him as Hiro walked through the door with the doctor. The room they entered was very similar to the previous one: shelves all on the walls with books, dim lighting coming from the chandelier above, and even an empty fireplace at the far wall. The window to his right was the same circular, tic-tac-toe one from the roof, looking to the lawn outside. There were two tall chairs and a large sofa in the middle of the room, accompanied by side tables for all of them on an ornate oval rug.

"Go ahead and have a seat anywhere you like."

Hiro bent down to sit in one of the chairs.

"No, not that one!"

He sprang back up and jumped away.

"Sorry." The doctor let out a laugh. "A little psychologist humor. Please, anywhere is fine."

Hiro slowly sat himself back down.

"Can I get you anything to drink? Water? Soda? Tea? I don't think you're old enough to be a coffee drinker, right?"

"No," Hiro mumbled. "Water's fine."

"Ice?"

"Sure."

A few moments later, he came back over with a glass and a mug. He set the glass down next to Hiro on the side table. He dipped his tea bad into his hot water a few times before placing himself down in the other large chair. "Now, before we officially get started, I have a few things that I want to tell you about what's going to happen."

He took a small sip and put his cup aside. "One, I take the privacy of the students that I talk to very, very seriously. You can rest assured that the things you say within these walls is treated with confidentiality. I will not divulge anything you mention to me during your session unless I believe it pertains to a risk of physical or mental health, and even then I will only tell Professor Granville."

"Two, I am not here to talk to you. I am here to listen to you. There is no progress made when I drive a conversation for an hour. Even though I am a adult and you are a student, Hiro, I want our interaction to be natural."

Hiro blinked. "You know who I am?"

"Of course I know who you are. I read your mind."

"Huh?"

The man laughed. "I'm joking. Grace gave me your student file this morning. Now, let me see..."

He pulled out a manila folder, and Hiro could see his name on the tab. The doctor opened it up and looked inside. "Hiro Hamada. Fourteen years of age, almost fifteen. Just completed your first year of school here. The youngest student ever to attend this institute. You've managed to accomplish quite a lot in your short time here, Hiro."

"Yeah." He didn't really have a response to that.

"You must be feeling a lot of pressure."

Now, Hiro had done this whole song and dance before. When Tadashi passed, Aunt Cass had taken him to a psychologist to help with the coping process. It was a very uncomfortable experience, but he had gone along with it, mostly because she had been sitting in the room with him. But now, it was just him.

And he wasn't having it.

"Look, sir...I know that you're just trying to help me. But I've already learned my lesson. The only reason I'm here is because Professor Granville is making me come here. Everything that you're probably going to tell me I've already heard before."

He didn't really know why he was being so standoffish about the situation. But he guessed that being told what to feel and how to feel it would do that to a person.

"Yes, I can see from your record that you went to another psychologist last year. That was shortly after your brother passed, correct?"

Tadashi being brought up wasn't what he needed right now. With a heavy sigh, he got up from his chair and slowly walked over to the window to collect himself. He looked outside, hoping to see the trees and maybe a woodland creature or two...

But all he saw was the tops of the other buildings, including the roof of the Student Services structure right next door.

"Hold on. I don't remember going up any stairs."

"You didn't?"

He found that the man had appeared right next to him, almost out of the blue. But his gaze was through the glass and not at the boy at his side.

"It's a matter of perspective, Hiro." He raised his hand palm up and gestured to the outside. "You may see it as me delving into your personal life, but I see it as a way to help you with your problems. In a way, we are both right."

Hiro stared at the air conditioning unit on the roof next door, silent.

"I know that it is difficult for you to do. But it is like what you said earlier, Hiro...I am here to help. I just ask that you give me this meeting of the minds a chance."

"I just don't feel like anyone can relate to what I've gone through in the past year."

"Well, you are both right and wrong in that regard."

Hiro looked up at the man, who beckoned him to follow. The two walked back over to the chair and repositioned themselves on their chairs. The doctor picked up his teacup before starting again.

"You are correct in the sense that the specific events that have happened to you are unique to yourself. You are incorrect because you are not the only person who has dealt with loss at a young age." He took a small sip. "I don't say that to diminish the loss you've had, but rather to highlight it. Dealing with loss is unfortunately a very real event that affects a very large amount of people."

He sat his cup down gingerly.

"Including myself."

Hiro sat a bit farther into his seat.

"I had a sister named Donna. We were very close to each other. We were practically joined at the hip. I remember stealing one of her medical books from her room and engrossing myself in the material so much that I didn't see her coming up behind me."

"What happened?"

The doctor winced. "Atomic wedgie. The worst you could imagine."

"I've had a few of those," Hiro chuckled.

"Yes, the curse of being the younger sibling. Anyway, after I was able to place all of my clothing back in its proper place, she gave me a few more books to read. She started the journey of what I had hoped to be my medical career."

He very slowly clasped his hands together, and not even his gloves could hide the trembling.

"And then she passed away."

Hiro gasped. "I'm sorry."

"It was a very long time ago, but I appreciate your condolences nonetheless. It was a freak accident; we had gone to the river nearby to swim with our friends, and she overexerted herself so much she cramped and got swept in the current. I spent a long time searching for her, but my efforts were fruitless. That was the worst day of my life, but it also taught me that life is fleeting. You have no idea when your life will come to an end, so you must live to the fullest every chance you get. I decided that becoming a doctor was the best way for me to honor her memory."

He peered at Hiro over his hands.

"But my hubris got the better of me. I graduated from medical school and got a residency, and I spent the better part of five years climbing the ranks. I thought I could do no wrong. The lesson that I thought I had learned in my teenage years was becoming lost on me."

"What happened?"

The man didn't move immediately. After a moment, he started pulling the fingers on his left glove. The boy genius saw a watch on his wrist, the face broken and the time stopped on it.

And then he noticed the scars.

His entire hand was littered with bruises and discoloring, turning his pale skin almost purple in nature. The hand itself seemed fine, because he still moved it like normal, but the pain on his face made it clear it gave him discomfort.

"I was involved in an accident. I had made a very poor decision when it came to my sobriety, and I drove my car off of the road. I survived, clearly, but the combination of the windshield and the air bad sent many shards of glass into my hands. My nerves were shot. Even with the latest in medical technology, my hands were never the same. My career was over in a blink of an eye."

He put his glove back on, wringing his wrist. "I spent a long time in and out of therapy and surgery after that. I became depressed. I secluded myself from the few remaining friends I had left. I thought I would never get out of the hold I had made myself. But I eventually dove headlong into a new field of study."

"Psychology."

"Correct. I went back to school, got a degree, and was fortunate enough to accept a job offering from Professor Callaghan here at SFIT. And I have been here ever since."

The silence went through the room as Hiro took all of this information in.

"I realize the irony of me saying earlier that I would listen to you and I have done almost the entirety of the talking. I am not doing a very good job in this session."

"No, you're fine, sir." He felt like he had to contribute to this conversation somehow. "I didn't want to interrupt. I just don't really know what to say."

"Just whatever is on your mind."

Hiro drank some of his water, now realizing how dry his mouth had been. He hadn't even been talking and it was parched. Content with his thirst, he set it back down.

"I feel like I have so much to live up to when it comes to Tadashi. He was so well-liked here. He was smart and funny and popular. I don't even know where to begin with doing any of that."

"Going back on your own words?"

Hiro shot a confused look at him.

"Even though I was not present for it, I did happen to catch your graduation speech the next day, Hiro," the doctor said. "It was very eloquent, and it touched on everything that makes the both of you special."

Hiro looked down again. "I just miss him so much."

"I completely understand. It is natural to have those feelings. But I want to remind you that you are not the only person who was affected by his passing."

"My aunt?"

"Well...yes. Her too. But I was alluding more toward the faculty."

The man spread his arms out wide. "Every teacher that I spoke to had only the kindest words for Tadashi. There was a reason why his name adorns one of the buildings on campus. He was that memorable."

That did make Hiro feel a little better. His mind drifted back to the day that he had taken him to school on the back of his scooter. At that time, he was still a brat who only enjoy bot-fighting. He didn't have any aspirations about his future. All he wanted was to be a kid. But now...he had grown up so much in the past year. He had met so many new people, made many new friends, and that was even taking into account everything with Big Hero 6.

Yeah, it had been pretty eventful. Heck, even this was something new. Something that not even Tadashi-

Wait.

"Sir?"

"Yes?"

"...Did Tadashi ever come here?"

Hiro immediately knew he had asked the wrong question; the doctor's eyebrow climbed up his forehead, and his posture became rigid. He uncrossed his legs and stared right at him.

"Remember, Hiro, when I told you at the onset that I take privacy issues very seriously? That is still the case."

He looked down at his knees, feeling bad for asking.

"However."

Hiro's eyes sprang back up.

"In this...unique circumstance...I believe that I can bend the rules a little bit."

The doctor ran his finger around the edge of his cup, thinking hard about something. Hiro waited with bated breath, his body moving to the edge of his chair.

"Tadashi did visit me. Actually, he visited me on a number of occasions."

"Really?"

"Absolutely." He looked up at the ceiling as the details came back to him. "He initially came to me about a month into his first semester. He was very stressed about the workload of the institute, and needed to blow off some steam. We spent a long time talking about life and school and almost everything in between. I could tell by the end of the session that a considerable weight had been lifted off of his shoulders."

"He...never told me that," Hiro said.

"Tadashi wanted everything to be confidential. He did not want his new friends to be scared off...and I don't believe he wanted his family to worry either. In fact, I don't think he even wanted Professor Callaghan to know. It was merely me and him."

He couldn't believe it. Tadashi had always been the calm, stable one in the family. This was blowing his mind.

"After that, he made it a point to meet with me once a semester. Sometimes, we would meet more often when a particularly troublesome event occurred. But he was always open, always eager to share. He didn't want these thoughts to drag him down."

The doctor finished off the rest of his tea. "The last time I spoke to him was about a week before the end of the semester. It wasn't an official visit; he merely stopped by to extend his congratulations; I had accepted a second job over on the other side of the country offering the same services I do here. We spoke very briefly...but one of the topics was about you."

Hiro's ears perked up.

"He was worried about your future and what would happen to you now that you were coming of age. He spoke of your supremely high intelligence. He also spoke of your incredible ability to get into trouble. I told him that perhaps he should bring you around the campus to have your brain get a little kickstart. Tadashi liked the idea, but I had a plane to catch, so I left the conversation there. As such, I was not around when the accident happened."

Great. Now he was thinking about that again. Hiro wiped his eye as the doctor pressed on.

"Hiro, I can speak for a lot of staff when I say we were very emotional when it came to Tadashi. Professor Granville put it quite eloquently during the ceremony. He had so much still to bring into this world, which makes his passing all the more tragic. But we are very happy knowing that there will still be a Hamada here for us to teach for the foreseeable future."

A new thought were bubbling up in his mind, and they spilled out of his mouth before he could collect himself.

"It just hurts."

He didn't look up, but he could still tell that the doctor was staring at him.

"I thought that I had finally moved on. I thought it had ended at the graduation. But it never ends, does it?"

"...No. It does not."

The man's hand came down on the armrest, the watch slightly visible again. "Hiro, I do not have a magic potion or spell that can take the pain away. It is something that stays with you for the rest of your life. It is hard for anyone to deal with, much less someone of your age. I would hazard a guess that you have probably dealt with more things than the average adult has, and you've faced them admirably. That is why having a support group is so critical. You should not have to face these things on your own. Whether it be your friends, your family, or someone else in your life, you need to have someone that you can be able to talk to."

He was right, of course. Hiro even remembered giving that advice to someone a while ago. His room came back into his thoughts as he opened his mouth again.

"I told Karmi that. That it doesn't go away. The pain. I wish I had took my own advice."

"Karmi?"

"Yeah. She's a friend…"

No. That didn't feel right.

"A girl."

Not that, either.

"A...a friend who is a girl…"

You'll get it right eventually, Hiro.

"She-she's a-"

"I know what you mean, Hiro," the man cut in, smiling. "I am aware of who Karmi is. Quite the bright student, she is."

He raised his finger at him.

"I will not tell you whether she has come here or not."

And he lowered it back down.

"But I am glad that you have found someone to confide in. She is a very special person. Try to remember that."

He took the manila folder and pushed it to the table, getting up from his chair. "Well, it appears that our hour has finished. Let us go back outside."

"Wait, really?" Hiro took his phone out. Yup, an hour had indeed passed, but it felt like only half of that had gone by. "I didn't realize."

"Yes, time does tend to fly by when you least expect it."

"But I didn't even get to ask about-"

The man turned back to him, his hand on the doorknob. He looked curiously down at Hiro, slightly smirking. "About what, Mr. Hamada?"

"Oh." His cheeks were on fire now as he stumbled out a few more words. "A-about Karmi. Maybe?"

He tilted his head toward Hiro, the smile growing even wider.

"Mr. Hamada...I am a trained psychologist. I am also a seasoned surgeon. But I am woefully underprepared when it comes to the subject of women. I would suggest that you seek someone else's help when it comes to that subject. Now…"

He gestured towards the closed door. "You will be happy to know that I believe our session went rather well. So, I will be telling Professor Granville that she should rescind the restrictions that she has on you when it comes to this campus. However, I will warn you that she will not hesitate to put those back on if she deems it appropriate. Everyone is in your proverbial corner, Mr. Hamada. Do not hesitate to come by again if you need to, OK?"

"I will," Hiro said. "Thank you, sir."

The man chuckled. "You don't really need to call me sir, although I enjoy the grandeur of the title. Please…"

He extended his hand out.

"Call me Stephen."

Hiro took his hand and shook it. "OK...Mr. Stephen."

"Good enough." He pushed open the door for Hiro to walk through. "May you have a pleasant rest of your day."

The boy genius shortly found himself back out into the lobby of literature with the girl named Zelma back at her desk. She was deep into another book when Hiro stepped up to her.

"Hello."

"I'm here!" She threw the book over her shoulder to a growing pile on the ground. She clasped her hands together and made a comically-large, toothy smile at him. "So, how did you find your experience?"

"It was…"

He paused, not really knowing the right way to describe it. Luckily, Zelma came in, holding up her fingers. "I'm going to count off some adjectives and you can stop me whenever one of them is the best, OK?"

"Um…"

She started counting down, ignoring Hiro's confused look. "Weird? Off-the-cuff? Convoluted? Strange? I'm running out of fingers on this hand, so you may want to pick one."

"It was...good."

Zelma looked down at her thumb, her other hand hovering over it. "Huh. I didn't have that one on my list of adjectives. But I guess that's fine. Did you want to make another appointment?"

Hiro thought about it for a second. Yeah, things had gone well, but his brain was still swimming from the past hour. He needed some time to cool down. "Not yet. No offense."

"None taken. Here, let me give you his card in case you want to call." She handed him a business card, the same symbol from the house adorned on the left side. "Never know when you need to sit down and have a chat, right?"

"I guess." As he put the card in his pocket, he looked over at her. "So...do you go to school here?"

"Me? No! No no no no no!" She waved her hands enthusiastically. "I'm not smart enough to go here. I got to SFAT! I study linguistics over there."

"That's cool. It must be nice to work here and get to read all this stuff."

"Eh. It's fine for the most part, and then he goes on and on about shields and talismans and shrinking down to the size of ants and-"

Oh crap. He forgot about Granville and Aunt Cass.

"Sorry, I gotta go!" Hiro sped over to the front door and threw it open. "Later!"

Zelma suddenly found herself in an empty room, only the books to keep her company again. She sighed as she stared at the closing door, her hands on her cheeks.

"Ms. Stanton, are you flirting with the students again?"

"You didn't see anything and you can't prove anything!" she shouted at the doctor.

"...A simple 'no' would have sufficed, but I guess that is fine too." He looked around the room, squinting his eyes. "Have you seen the book I was reading before Mr. Hamada arrived?"

"Right here." Zelma pulled out a large red tome out from the shelf behind her and pushed it over to him.

"Good, good. I want to make sure everything is still good after our appointment."

"He noticed something was up, didn't he?"

Stephen turned a page in the book, thinking hard. "I'm not sure. He did seem more attuned to his surroundings, which is more than what I can say for the other students."

"Maybe you need to wave your fingers around a little harder."

"The craft is a bit more than just waving fingers. And you would know this if you didn't spend most of your time reading and flirting."

"I wasn't flirting with him." Her eyes went back to the door. "Mostly because you didn't give me a chance to…"

Stephen closed the book, not bothering to continue to go down that tangent. "Do I have any other appointments today, Ms. Stanton?"

"Not here…" Zelma peered down at a notebook on the desk. "But you do have an appointment at your other location soon. Wong should be getting off his lunch break now."

"Very well. Do let Grace know to alert me if anything changes."

"Will do."

Stephen put his hand back onto the doorknob to the back room.

"And try not to fall asleep while working on your studies again."

He walked through the door, closing the door behind him.

Zelma stuck her tongue at the frame, pulling out her book from before. "I wouldn't fall asleep if you gave me more interesting things to look at…"

"I heard that, Ms. Stanton!"

"She is being difficult again, Stephen?"

The doctor patted his coat down and looked around. Instead of being in his study, he was now in a completely different lobby. This one still had walls of books, but instead of the wooden shelving of Zelma's room, they were white and clean. The walls were bright as well, the lighting even more so. Behind the marble desk was an Asian man, his bald head shining under the light. He pulled his green coat off and threw it onto a rack behind his chair.

"She's getting there, Mr. Wong. Granted, it's taken a little longer than what I was expecting, but she'll come around eventually."

"Hmm." He had his own book in front of him, a dusty old tome with red jewels on the cover. "Rome was not built in a day, Stephen."

"And neither were you, Mr. Wong, so I appreciate a little bit of patience on your part." He glanced up at the clock wall in the corner, noting the time. "Is she here yet?"

His assistant wordlessly pointed to the now opening glass doors, and a young girl stepped through. She shifted her backpack as she walked up to the desk.

"Hello."

"Ahh, good to see you again. How have things been for you?" Stephen asked.

"They are moving along steadily." She brushed a tuft of black hair behind her ear. "I am still getting used to everything around me. But I suppose that is natural when you have a life such as mine."

"Of course. I'm glad that you have been able to see that. A mind like yours would be a terrible thing to waste."

The girl didn't respond, absentmindedly tapping on her eight-legged hairclip.

"But enough out here. Let us go start our session."

Stephen beckoned the young genius forward.

"With me, Ms. Parker."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Of course, there's no such thing as magic. Why would you ever think that? There's a perfectly logical explanation as to how the good doctor was able to go across the country in about two seconds.

He...stole...the portal tech?

Was that believable?

Oh well.

Ever since I saw the promotional material that showed R. Richards's letter to T. Dugan about Fred, I knew that there was more to this universe than met the eye. And the doctor seemed like a natural fit, with just a little bit of shuffling to make him fit a little better in this story.

After all, we need to keep things a little Strange, right?

Also...what kind of name is Zelma? Seriously? The things you come across when doing research.

Chapter 2 will have another member of that "family" so to speak, but we'll be focusing more on the personal life of Hiro Hamada and not the academic like. Which, in plain terms, means more Hiro/Karmi. And this person will be better equipped to handle those questions.

Read and review, if you like. Until next time, everyone.