“You’re all dismissed!” Leanna rang out cheerfully as the clock at the back of the room chimed, prompting her class of third grade biologists to begin gathering their things, chattering amongst themselves as they exited.

“Remember, you’ll need to bring your botany worksheets with you on Friday!”

“Yes, Mrs. Johnson!” called out little Abby with the curly brown hair, her best pupil, before scampering out the door. She doubted the other students heard her, but Leanna would remind them again on Wednesday, and yet again on Thursday—by then, at least a third of them would probably remember to bring back their homework. It couldn’t be that hard to color in some daisies with crayons, she thought, humming to herself as she packed up her own things.

“Jane,” said a deep male voice that decidedly did not belong to Abby.

She looked up from her desk. Oh no.

“Mark.”

He smiled. She froze. A thousand different thoughts speared through her mind before she came to her senses again—he was fingering some of the students’ homework plastered on the wall by the window, drawings of insects from a class last month.

“Never thought I’d find you in a classroom again,” he said, letting go of the paper butterfly and strolling by the window. “Much less as the teacher.” He turned about to look at her.

“I’m-“

“Leanna Johnson, third grade teacher of biology in Butte, Montana.”

Leanna—or, Jane—didn’t reply.

“Why the change?”

“I find it fulfilling,” Leanna forced out, finally remembering to continue to pack her things.

“You always hated children.”

“I never hated them—“ she retorted, a bit too quickly. “I just never had the time to care for them properly, and felt—well, you know all that.”

“Plenty of scientists have families in the Compound,” he stated, settling himself on the desk closest to hers. “And I expect many of the teachers here have families too.” She hid her ring finger. Mark didn’t need to see there was—still—nothing on it.

“Well, as nice as it is to see you after so very long, I have a faculty meeting I need to get to.” She threw her messenger bag on her shoulder and started towards the door, but not before he blocked the path.

“Mark—“

“Five years. Half a decade, Leanna, and you can only talk for half a minute before disappearing again?”

“I can’t do this right now. I have to—“

He took a step closer. “Without telling anyone, without telling me where you went? We thought you were dead. We thought you finally succumbed to your research.”

“My meeting-“

“There were search parties. There were suspects, warrants. We hired private investigators.”

“I’m sorry you wasted so much time on me. Now, if you please-“

“The research you were working on—you were so close. Your disappearance set the entire team back for years. It was almost abandoned.”

That got her to glance up at him. Abandoned? He smiled, again, those green eyes looking back at her, deeply studying her own brown ones.

No. He wouldn’t be here if her research was abandoned entirely.

“I discovered the missing piece last month,” Mark continued, quietly closing the door with his hand. She glanced out the door’s window. Maybe if she could dart past him towards the doorknob…

“It involves your grandfather.”

Her eyes reoriented onto his, with full attention. “If you did anything to him, I’ll—“

“We didn’t, Jane. Still as cynical as ever. No, to get anything useful out of him, we knew we needed you.” He took a slight step forward, almost on top of her now. “You were the missing piece.”

With that, his right arm squeezed her into an embrace while his other hand tightly pressed a damp cloth against her face. Her eyes widened, unable to free herself before losing consciousness and falling helplessly into Mark’s arms.