I had been home for ten minutes when someone knocked on the door. It was Ryan.
"Hey," he said.
"Hi." I hadn't seen him since Saturday. Four days ago. I wasn't avoiding him on purpose, but maybe that's how it seemed. "What's up?"
"Uh, can I come in for a minute?"
"Sorry, yeah." I opened the door all the way.
He stepped in and sat on the couch. I sat on the chair opposite him.
"First, I want you to know I'm here because Dr. Atom asked me to talk to you. This isn't my idea."
"Okay." I didn't know Ryan took orders (if that's what this was) from Dr. Atom. "What's his idea?"
"We were just wondering how you're doing. If you've had any more...episodes."
"Oh. I haven't had anything like that happen since last weekend. Nothing strange to report."
Ryan nodded. "Okay, that's good." He rubbed his hands on his jeans as he stood up. He started pacing between the couch and the lamp.
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, um, Dr. Atom thought we should keep an eye on you, in case it happens again."
"Did you tell him it's happened to me before?"
Ryan shook his head. "No, I didn't tell him. But we all want to figure out what's going on here. I think you do too. So I volunteered to check in on you. I thought that would be better than one of the others doing it. Watching for it to happen again, I mean."
"Yeah, it is, thanks. Are we talking like full stake-out?"
Ryan nodded. "Pretty much."
"Well, if you're okay with sleeping on the couch, that's okay with me." I shrugged. What could I do? If the thing happened again, the one person I wanted to follow me was Ryan. I didn't like that the Super Seven were involved, but it seemed to be the most logical thing to do.
Ryan sat back down on the couch. "I appreciate that, but I don't want to be in your way. I could set up across the street too and watch the building."
"You won't be in the way. Anyway, if anything does happen, it'd be better if you're up here."
"That's true."
"So are we doing this tonight or..."
"Tomorrow night. I wanted to tell you about it beforehand."
I nodded. "Okay. I'll be here after work then. You can come over whenever."
"Great." Ryan stood up and smiled. "I'm sorry about this. I know it's awkward."
"But it makes sense." I walked with Ryan to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Yeah. See you." And he left.