For two weeks nobody saw Sneha. She crept in like a ghost early morning and stayed late. She worked dedicating her entire time on the project but her attempts were not showing positive results. She still tried. Repeating protocols, maintaining standards, retracing her steps to figure out any fault at any step but all in vain.

'Late again?' Mukesh asked, concerned by the late hours Sneha was leaving the facility.
'Hmmm..Yes sir.' Sneha replied coming out of her thoughts.
'Sorry, you had to wait for me.'
'Not a problem kid.' He shook his head and grinned.
They started to walk towards the parking. Taking a sincere tone Mukesh asked.
'How is the project going on, I have heard that you are working very hard. So hard that you are not taking care of yourself.'
'But not smart enough I guess.' Sneha said, adjusting her scarf.
December's cold began to turn her cheeks red. 'And who is working for you inside? Secret informers giving you my updates huh!'
Mukesh laughed.
'Who else? There is only one reporter here.'
'Trisha.' They said it out together.
'She is one hell of a gossiper, but she is super in everything she does.' Sneha exhaled.
'Yes, but she is not the only one who cares for you.' Mukeshgave her a grin.
'There is another person who is not a big time gossip monger but is deeply concerned and has requested that I stay personally as late as I can, to escort you to your car.'
'Rajeev sir?'
'No!' His smile broadened.
'Jai!' Sneha said unbelievably. She knew Jai meant well but never would have guessed that he cared so much, after all expressing affection was not his pursuit.
Mukesh nodded, 'He cares for you and is a good guy, that's all I am saying.'
'He is a very good friend Mukesh sir, don't get any ideas!' Sneha said.
'You know, sometimes you are very hard on yourself.' Mukesh said solemnly. 'Why do you scientists keep on setting procedures and rules on everything.'
He shrugged. 'Take a chance, trust your gut. Trust someone.'
He opened the car door for her and allowed her to sit comfortably before closing it. 'Let your heart fall for someone.'
'If you talking about the project, the answer is that we can't risk it by breaking rules and taking chances. And about Jai.' Sneha could hear her own amusement in her voice.
'He is the type who will go for the girl his mother will bring home for him and would still take one week before he could open his mouth in front of her.'
'Ok, ok! Leave Jai but' Mukesh clinched his nose. 'Now you sound like Rajeev sir. Everything has to be too clean, too punctual, too precise and too perfect.'
He continued sincerely, 'Even god would fear to enter your labs without getting sanitized and authorized by you guys.'

He lent out a short breath. 'Leave some room for miracles, will you?' 
Sneha chuckled then said. 'I will try.'
'Drive safe kid.'

***

Sneha opened the door of her one bhk flat tired and glad to be home. She preferred comfort over tasteful décor. Her flat had a small hall which had kitchen on the right and washroom on the left. She was too tired to eat so she drew a bottle of juice and poured it in her coffee mug to go straight to her bed. Her room consisted of her long desk and her super comfy bed with four crème colored pillows and a blanket on her floral bed sheet. There were shelves full of books and magazines. But that was not all. There were boxes of books beneath the bed and rest were eBooks saved in her laptop. She liked to read, not only stuff related to science but fictional novels and comics too. Other than that she loved music and was a well famed bathroom slash kitchen slash bedroom singer.

Even though she was dead tired, she couldn't sleep. She plugged her earphones and started to shuffle the radio stations. She got up, paced up and down in the limited space offered by her bedroom. She had to find a way, she had to make this work. She snickered as she recalled what Mukesh said about Jai. Jai was the sweetest guy she knew with his tightly combed hair and air of aloofness, actually now that she was thinking about it, she was certain that it was his neat school boy hair that gave him his geeky image. In spite of that he had a handsome face behind those glasses and a height of a giraffe and that too a muscular giraffe! She knew that he never had many friends and she was the only one who knew so much about him for reasons even he didn't know.
He had told her about how badly he was bullied and beaten several times in school. It got really serious when one day he got multiple fractures in his left hand and a sprain in his leg. That made his father very angry and he was forced to take karate for self-protection and he had to change school. He quit the classes after a month. He was never an action fan. What he lacked in other areas, he made it up in determination. And that very thing made him different from anyone else Sneha knew.

Sneha scolded herself and focused on her work. She knew that she won't be able to sleep if she didn't figure out any solution. She opened her laptop and sat on her chair skimming research articles. With a sudden strike of thought, she raked the heading of each article and dead stopped on one. With her eyes glittering victory, she read her eureka, 'The Third Technique!'

***

Jai fiddled with his marker while staring at the door waiting for it to open and hoping to see Sneha bounce in like she always does. She had been busy before and he had been fine with it until recently he had started to feel a little worried and impatient. He understood her passion for work, it was one of the things they shared and brought them close but he expected her to show her face once in a day at least. They had discussed various new discoveries, research works and current events with passion and a lot of fights that it became their routine to pick up a topic and drive each other crazy. He heaved a deep sigh when her smiling face flashed in front of him. She was a spoil sport. Every time she was about to lose in facts she would look him in the eye and ask with enormous sincerity. 
'You really think its ethical?'
And that would be her escape every time! Actually it wasn't the question that bothered him but the big, beautiful black eyes which drowned him in another world. By the time he snaps out, she would wink and disappear.
She was a distraction for sure. Not only for him but for everyone. She would call out your name from the other end of a corridor. Bump into you making you fall or at least the things you are holding. Slip somewhere, drop her things, talk nonstop in nervousness, run and jump here and there to help someone; even a stranger and finally sleep like a baby in the study room. Nobody could stop her, honestly nobody would want to stop her. Her radiant smile that made a dimple on her right cheek could unarm an entire army.

Jai was still in his day dreams when Rajeev Sir entered. 
'Hey!' He knocked on the door to grab his attention. 
'Yes sir.'
'I checked the samples with the test solutions, the results are not exactly what the requirement is.' He waddled towards the table Jai was sitting on and placed his palm on the edge.
'But I ascertained the conditions and quantities beforehand.' Jai said.
'I know son, I know. Let's do it again but this time follow the instructions I am writing down.' He signaled for a notepad and pen. Jai passed him a sheet and Rajeev Sir started to scribble some points while Jai tried to re run all steps in his mind, boggling with what went wrong.
'Here.' Rajeev Sir said handling over the sheet.
'Try it, I think it would definitely remove our last hitch.' 
'Ok sir, I will examine and implement tomorrow.' Jai said.

'Luck son! And Jai, learn to be patient.' Sir nodded assuring him.

Sneha strutted out of the culture room beamingly. As she marched down the corridor she saw Jai through the glass window of the study room going through his pile of endless notes. She opened the door proudly. Jai caught her delighted eyes.
'You look happy.' He stated getting absorbed in his papers again.
Sneha took the chair next to him, stretched her arms wide taking a yawn before speaking. 
'That I Am.' She laid her head on the table with intensions of taking a quick nap.
'I am tired too, you know.' Jai commented enviously watching her get comfortable and sleepy. 
'Yes, I heard, your solution has aberrations.' She opened her eyes forcefully.
'What's wrong?'
Jai signed in frustration. His puzzled face showed his struggle in finding the reasons for these deviations.
'I don't know, I don't understand how this happened.' He concentrated hard drawing his brows near.
'The solution I created using the mutated strain of fungi should help the plants to grow faster by symbiotic association, not make them dry and dead.'
He looked at her and then his face dropped as he continued.
'I was so sure Sneha that I used all the sample plants and now I don't even have a single plant to test what has gone wrong. I will have to wait for two weeks till I can get new samples.' He said and continued to stare the marble floor.
'By that time, the media will become stale. What did I do! Months of work down the drain.'
'Hey' Sneha poked his arm. 'I have a set of pitchers, you want them?'
He shook his head like a stubborn kid. 'Don't waste your sample on me, your commando will kill you.'
'Jaiii, daaront bury.' Sneha said faking a Russian accent coyly. Her eyes lit up with amusement and mischief. 'B bill keep dit aa theclet!'
Jai smiled softly lifting his head up. She had done it again, made him grin with a lame sentence. He scanned her face for a while, he had missed looking at her for weeks. Sneha looked up meeting his eyes and the moment paused.
'You have black eyes too.' She said in a low hush, finding it hard to believe that she never noticed that about him before.
Jai replied with a grin, quelling his urge to stroke back that one strand of her hair which was teasing her cheek. Instead he blinked and said, 'But I am not a demon like you.' They smiled on the newly discovered but intriguing awkwardness.


'Its closing time kids.'

Their moment ceased. They turned their heads abruptly to see Mukesh standing on the door with a bunch of keys. They simultaneously stood up and walked out in silence.
Realizing it was Friday Jai stopped and lamented, 'I need to finish my work today, Rajeev sir would like to see some progress on Monday.' He was disappointed to leave her.
'Ah! I am going back.' He stroked the belt of his backpack with his thumb buying the time to steal one last glance. 'You take care and see you Monday.'
Sneha nodded and gave him a smile.

***

The overhead lights in the incubation room bathed hundreds of glass stands loaded with tubes and flasks. The room was painted with white which intensified the brightness of the place. An aura of white luminance projected in the room.

Breaking the silence of the dark night, a crackling sound of glass synchronized with the flicker of lights creeped the hallway. A long green hyphal structure crept out making its way through the broken glass pieces. It slowly encircled the next tube wrapping its slimy green tail to firm its grip then tardily lifted it towards an open end of a vase shaped aperture. The tube vanished in thin air. Sucked in by an atrocious velocity which almost seemed impossible.

But the creature wasn't full filled. It slithered its arm towards a flask. Its hunger had increased. The same illusion repeated and the flask disappeared in thin air in a fraction of second. The arm slid down the rack noiselessly to feed on the others. Amputating into two, the arm's lust amplified voraciously. It plunged the nearby test tubes and flasks rapidly to advance to other racks. As it satisfied its ravenous hunger, it enlarged. The arms were now lengthy tentacles which could reach anything within two feet. The spruce stem had developed an abnormal stout pot belly which clearly consist of its recent victims. As it digested the remains, its stretched belly palpitated liberating energy for it to facilitate movement.

A viscous slimy fluid discharge leached on the floor for it to slide. It acted as a path for the plant to move upon by mellowing the surface. The plant set its course towards the corner of the room where the micro-climate controller shaped like a small music system was set nattily.

The controller was thrice the size of the plant. It could not be accommodated in the mouth, yet, the creature unraveled its tentacles to grab it.
As the tentacle lifted the controller, the creature morphed rapidly. It widened its aperture just like an anaconda would show its real strength before attacking its prey. Gradually the tentacle brought the controller above the aperture and in a flash it engulfed it. The pot belly started palpitating boisterously.