If Claire had learned anything about Myrnin it was you can't expect anything from him. He was brilliant, quirky, passionate and unstable. The best way that Claire had thought to describe him was he was like parts of a bee hive: some days he was the honey and other days he was an angry bee. There was never really any way of knowing who she would be encountering at any given moment.

So, when she saw the brain in the jar, and heard Frank Collins speak to her, she shouldn't have been surprised… and yet she was.

Claire gapes at Myrnin "Myrnin… what have you done?"

His tone is cold and informative, "I did what I had to do, as you will do what you have to do."

"And what you have to do is not let Shane know." Frank said. "It's better for him if doesn't know."

"How can you believe that? Don't you think that he *wants* to be able to have a relationship with his father that isn't based on hate ?"

Suddenly the volume is amplified, "Don't you think I've thought about this? Do you know how hard this is for me, to know that my son is out there hurting but to not be able to talk to him? This is better for him, Claire. The boy needs closure. And it's better for him to think I've gone out as a hero than for him to know I've ended up as a psycho-vamp's pet."

Myrnin clears his throat, "I prefer the term mad scientist, as I'm mostly sane now."

Claire's attention is now focused on Myrnin "And YOU, Myrnin! Why would you put me in a position where I have to keep something from the boy that I love?"

He rolls his eyes, "That's hardly thinking like a scientist, Claire."

"I'm *not* a scientist. I'm a person. I'm a person who can't hide this from Shane. Even if I wanted to. Have you ever seen me lie? No, because I'm terrible at it. I can just call him over and we can all hash this out."

Myrnin sympathetically places his hand on Claire's shoulder, "Claire. I understand that this is going to be difficult for you. I had to inform you of this, you know I did. I hate seeing you like this, stressed and emotionally torn. It would have been simpler to keep you out of it, but it simply wasn't possible." Thinking about whether or not she believes him, she reminisces of when she was sentenced to work non-stop for Myrnin. How kind and sincere he was.

"Hey!" Frank interrupts. "Hands off of my boy's girlfriend."

Ignoring Frank, Myrnin keeps his eyes locked with Claire's. "I won't say anything about this to him. Frank made valid points. I still don't feel comfortable with this… but I'll do what I have to do."

Myrnin smiles, "You made the right choice, my dear." He kisses Claire's cheek. Claire could never tell what his intentions were with these random, brief displays of affection. To prevent herself from over-thinking she either thought: This is just the honey; or he just is from a different time period where it was considered custom to greet each other with pecks on the cheek. She wasn't sure if that was true, but she believed it anyway. It was easier than thinking about Myrnin having any sort of feelings for her.

"I hope so." Claire mutters, feeling even more unsure about her decision.

"Hands. Off. The. Girl." Frank reiterates.

Myrnin is suddenly several feet away from Claire, "Am I not allowed to touch my colleagues anymore?" He challenges.

While Frank and Myrnin are arguing, Claire sits down, trying to regain control over her head, which feels like it's going to float away. She coughs, "This is a lot to take in. May I go home?"

"No." Both Frank and Myrnin say. "Not yet," Myrnin adds glaring at Frank's pixilated image.

Claire's eyes flicker towards both of them in anger, "I'm not going to play referee."

After much thought, he replies, "No, of course not. I've forgotten my manners. You heard her Frank, you're dismissed for now. We will not make Claire suffer through any more of our arguments."

Reluctantly Frank's image disappears. "I'm terribly sorry about not listening to you about the last machine, Claire. I'll never forgive myself, even if my intentions were pure."

This thought amuses Claire: Myrnin having pure intentions? "What were your intentions?" She prods.

He blushes, "You heard what Amelie said, if you failed to build a functional machine you would be killed. I didn't want to believe that the machine wasn't functional, because I didn't want you to die for a mistake that I probably made."

Claire chuckles, "Well, that was both incredibly dumb, and incredibly sweet. I appreciate what you've done for me, Myrnin, even if I don't understand it."

"I hate that you had to see me like that."

"Like what? Blushing?" She teases.

The blush burns deeper. This wasn't a Myrnin that Claire was used to. "Do be serious Claire. I'm trying to apologize and you're teasing me."

"I'm sorry, please continue."

Myrnin sits next to Claire, "I hate that you experienced one of the more terrifying forms of who I can be."

Claire pauses before correctiing, "You mean, who you were."

Smiling, Myrnin replies, "That may be giving me too much credit."

"No, it's not. You may get into moods, but you don't behave in a dangerous way."

Myrnin shakes his head, "I do try to be on my best behavior around you, but that does not mean that I am not dangerous, Claire."

Claire nods, "I am very aware of that." Avoiding eye contact with Myrnin, she scans the lab. "What do we do now?"

Myrnin raises an eyebrow, "I'm not sure I understand what you are asking about, Little Claire."

"Well, I started working for you to help you with the cure to Bishop's Disease. Then afterwards, we needed to build the machine. And now the machine is built. So, what's our next project?"

Myrnin ponders this for second, "Quite right. Well, I suppose that we'll just keep doing experiments. I am assuming that you enjoy working here and learning, and you still have much to learn. You haven't even really began to grasp how the portals work."

"Not that I mind, in fact, I really enjoy all of this, but why?" Myrnin gives Claire a blank stare.

"Why what, my dear?" Myrnin is watching Claire very intently as though she's a puzzle that he can't quite figure out.

Her eyes finally meet with his again. "Erm, well, I don't fully understand why you're teaching me. Suppose that I manage to live a long life and die at the age of one hundred - which is difficult to imagine in Morganville, I still will have learned very little in comparison to you, and it's unlikely that I will be able to be very useful as I age."

Myrnin tucks a strand of hair behind Claire's ear. "For starters, you have the best potential I've seen since… Well, a while. Additionally, just because I'm a vampire does not mean that I can't die. It would be very difficult for me to do so, but it's possible. We'll need someone around who can at least grasp the basics of the lab. And finally, we both enjoy this. I appreciate the company and you appreciate the learning."

"Thank you. I appreciate the company too."

Myrnin smiles, "You do?"

"Yes, I do." Claire reciprocates the smile.

Myrnin jumps up enthusiastically, "Oh, well then there will be no reason to keep you on the payroll. I shall not be paying you for hanging out with me."

"I still need a job." Claire quickly adds.

"Oh, Claire, I was just teasing. But you had a point earlier, this is a lot for you to take in. Maybe you could take a vacation since at the moment we don't have a pressing projects."

For some reason, this idea wasn't appealing to Claire. Claire didn't want to go on vacation from the lab, maybe from Morganville, but not from the lab. "No thanks, but I should get home and sleep."

Myrnin looks quizzically at Claire, his dark eyes look away thoughtfully. "That was not the answer I was expecting. I actually thought you would be quite pleased to receive some time off. Interesting. May I inquire as to why you refused my offer?" Of course Myrnin was looking at this from a scientific point of view.

"I don't want to go on vacation."

"I gathered that, which is why I asked why."

Claire shrugs. "I'm under a lot of stress already."

Nodding, Myrnin adds, "Which is why I offered."

"The lab is a good way for me to relieve stress. Most of the time, anyway…. Well, some of the time. I'll consider it. But I really should go. Can you open a portal?"

"Of course." Suddenly Claire is pulled into Myrnin's arms for a hug. While it surprises Claire, she also doesn't question it at all like she had previously done. Which is dangerous for her to do. "Sleep well, Claire."

"Thank you, Myrnin." Claire kisses Myrnin's cheek and takes a giant step back. "You too," she says quickly before leaving through the portal.

Once the portal closes and the Glass House is completely gone, Frank's voice erupts, "You need to stay away from her. That's my son's boy. He loves her. And she loves him."

Myrnin sighs, "I know all this, Frank. I'm too dangerous for her anyway, if I did anything to her… well, it doesn't matter anyway."

"Damn right. Just stay away from her."

"Didn't you hear me? I tried. I wanted her to go on vacation. She refused." Myrnin's voice grows angry. "I would fire her but as you heard earlier, she has the best potential of anyone I've met since Ada. And I have no grounds to fire her on."

"I understand. But I don't like this. Not one bit." Frank states.

"Neither do I." Myrnin adds solemnly.

"Claire-bear! Breakfast is ready!" Eve yells from downstairs. Sleepily Claire rolls out of bed and grabs jeans off the floor and puts them on and goes downstairs.

"Good morning, Sleepy-head." Eve kisses Claire's cheek, where Myrnin had the previous day.

"Merg." Claire grumbled back.

Eve's eyebrows shot up, "Yikes, girl. You need coffee fast." Touching some of Claire's hair, "And a shower too, unless you were going for a grunge look."

"Food first." Claire grunts. "Where's Shane?"

"He's at work, dork."

"He doesn't work this early."

"Claire," Eve pauses, studying Claire carefully. "It's almost noon."

This woke Claire up, "What?"

"Yeah, you didn't know?" Eve touches Claire's forehead "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I need to take a shower and head to the lab."

"Myrnin called and told me to insist that you take the vacation that he offered you."

Claire rolls her eyes, "He and I already discussed it. He can be so stubborn."

"Come on, Claire, you deserve time off. Especially from the lab." Eve sets the food down in front of Claire. "Eat." She commands.

"I already told you, I need to shower and go to the lab." Arguing, Claire stands up and heads for the stairs.

"Oh. Well, alright then." Eve's eyebrows furrow. "Is everything alright?"

Claire nods unconvincingly, "Yeah, I'm just a little stressed about sleeping in so late."

"Yeah, well, go shower, I wasn't kidding about the grunge look!" Eve shouts after Claire.

Claire quickly showers and gets dressed in clothes she isn't particularly found of since she has discovered a correlation: the greater like of the clothes she's wearing at the lab - the greater chance of it getting stained, burned or otherwise ruined. Claire went through these on autopilot thinking more about why Myrnin didn't want her to come around and about how she was going to hide Frank from Shane.

Claire sent Myrnin a quick text "Portal?" And almost immediately a portal opened up. Claire walked through and expected things to be relatively calm and orderly, but it wasn't at all. Frank was pixilated talking to Myrnin, Myrnin was more focused on putting out the small fire on the lab table, there seemed to be a spill of some sort on the floor, and Myrnin's long hair was giant and poofy.

Rushing over to the small fire, she slipped in the spill and landed hard on her ass. Managing to extinguish the fire, Myrnin extends a hand to help Claire up.

"Never in my day have I had such an unruly pet." He mutters pulling Claire.

Claire gasped, "Bob did this?" Chuckling Myrnin responds "Don't be silly, Claire, Bob is a spider. I was referring to Frank." Myrnin carefully studies Claire's hand in his.

"I ain't your pet."

"Ada was much more unruly, she tried to kill both of us!" Claire exclaims.

Myrnin shrugs, "She never set fires in lab."

"She exploded Bob's friend."

Frank's creepy non-voice spoke up again, louder "I am not your pet."

"We can argue about that later. You're dismissed." Myrnin says coldly, finally releasing Claire's hand.

Frank's image disappears. "What happened?"

"I was using a Bunsen Burner trying to boil a vial of something and Frank some how manipulated the fire to catch on to my sleeve, which caught some papers on fire. The vial went flying and smashed somewhere and that's when you walked in."

"How do you know it was Frank? Maybe it was just your sleeve getting to close to the flame."

Myrnin looked into Claire's eyes, "Because Frank said 'Take that, vamp! I ain't your pet.' It was quite irritating."

Claire looks away examining what she slipped it. "I think I slipped in the content of the vial."

Myrnin focuses at the spill as well, "Do you have any open wounds on the contaminated area?"

Claire shrugs "I don't think so."

Rolling his eyes, "It would be best to examine you to make sure, however since I'm a gentleman…" He points Claire into the room with the cot she had slept in twice and hands her a hand mirror. "I'll allow you to make sure you are clean of any wounds. It's very important that you don't have any open wounds." Myrnin closes the door, Claire turns the knob just to make sure she isn't locked in, just to make sure. Claire removes her pants and examines her legs. For the first time in a long time, her body was perfectly unharmed.

Pulling her pants back on and readjusting her belt, she opened the door and walked back out to the lab where Myrnin was mopping up the spill. "Are you well, m'dear?"

Claire blushed, "Yep, I'm well."

Myrnin smiled, "I'm glad. Now, why are you here?"

Her eyebrows twitched in confusion, "It's a work day. I'm always here on Sundays."

"Not when you're on vacation."

"I'm not on vacation, I opted not to take it, remember?"

"Don't treat me like I'm five, Claire, of course I remember the events that happened less than 24 hours ago. I asked Eve to convince you, but I suppose that didn't work."

There was a long uncomfortable silence. "Why don't you want me here?" Claire finally asked in a quiet, hurt voice.

Something changes in Myrnin's demeanor, "Don't ever think that I don't want you here."

Claire knows that there's more to what he's saying. "I don't understand why you are so insistent on my absence."

Myrnin refocuses on mopping again. "The youth can be so…self-involved these days. It has nothing to do with you, Little Claire."

Claire takes the mop and throws it on the ground, "You told me that you'd tell me if you were in trouble, and you're not."

Myrnin's dark eyes glare at Claire, "There is no reason to throw temper tantrum."

"Yes. Yes there is. Something's wrong and you're not telling me. Well, I'm not leaving until you tell me."

"I could very easily make you leave, and you should be very aware of that Claire. No more of your childish pouting, if you are going to reject the vacation then you are to keep busy. You can start by picking up the mop and finishing this for me."

Claire sullenly does what she was told. She doesn't know what is making her behave like this but the lab is deathly quiet and conditions remain this way for several days. Claire, angry about Myrnin keeping something from her and ashamed of how she reacted, didn't feel much like talking. And Myrnin silently stewed at the lab table only speaking to give Claire orders. Frank's flat and pixilated image occasionally appeared looking very smug and content with the way things were going in the lab.

Claire found an easy way to not bring up Frank to Shane - making out with him instead of talking. And when they had to talk like at meals or in public places the conversation was kept light. Claire talked about schoolwork and classes and didn't mention the lab at all. Shane mostly talked about work.

Although Claire wasn't having much difficulty with deceiving Shane, she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep doing this. Every few nights she had terrible nightmares about Shane finding out about Frank and the fact that Claire had kept it from him. His actions always varied in the dreams: once he had kicked her out of the house after breaking up with her, and she had to stay with Hannah until she found a place; he ran away without telling anyone where he went; he tried killing Myrnin, in one, which resulted in Claire and Amelie stopping the fight; but the worst one was when Shane killed himself. Claire was pretty sure that Shane wouldn't react that strongly, but she wasn't completely sure. After all, all his family was dead and the woman whom he loved and trusted had now just betrayed his trust...