As he held his arm around her, he felt more and more regretful. Firstly, this was awkward and embarrassing. He only did it on a whim to get her to shut up quickly. Nothing more. Secondly, Thea would probably try to tear his arm off later for doing it, even though she should be<span style="font-style: italic">grateful</span>that he didn’t get another doctor, because he would probably order another surgery to correct something that could simply adjust automatically. Lucas just prayed that no one would walk in on this and get the wrong idea.<br/><br/>Lucas watched her bury her face into his shirt and start sobbing. At least he could finally throw out the uncomfortable black shirt he was currently wearing, as it was now soaking wet and covered in snot. As soon as the intercom pinged on, Thea let out a little yelp, which took him aback for a few seconds and made his head shake a bit. He wasn’t quite sure what was causing her pain, because Lucas wasn’t the type to think in the moment. He needed some time.<br/><br/>So as he held her, he thought. Burying her face in his shirt could mean two things: she wanted to block out the noise of her crying or that she didn’t want to look at anything. She also seemed to react strongly to sound, so when he put two and two together, he remembered her bionic abilities were enhanced sight and hearing. But why would that cause her so much pain? His headache was natural; he just had brain surgery. Her ears and eyes shouldn’t be affected this greatly.<br/><br/>Sadly, he came to a final conclusion: there was a malfunction in the chip that enhanced sight and hearing so much the body could not adjust quickly. However, it wasn’t anything to warrant a removal. He figured she should adjust soon, but the malfunction in the chip really took down his victory a notch. He expected the chip to be perfect with how much time he had spent on it per day.<br/><br/>Thea then spoke, breaking his concentration. Of course, it was some unthankful remark. “Would you rather continue to cry and scream on the floor?” he replied, frowning and loosening his grip on her. Hmph. If she had the audacity to ask rudely why he was helping her, then she could help herself. He was thinking of letting go, just as payback. But he wasn’t going to be a jerk. Not this time, at least. He could save that for some later time.<br/><br/>She proceeded to tell him that he shouldn’t get any thoughts just because they were practically hugging. Friends hug. Who cares? “Ugh. Just because I came to comfort you does not mean you can freely assume my thoughts and be impolite about it. I’m just as uncomfortable as you are, minus the blindness and broken eardrums.”<br/><br/>He reached for her bag after she told him that she had sunglasses in there. Anything to make her move as far away as possible from him. He put them in her hand and scooted away, cringing when pain hit his head due to movement. “Gladly,” he muttered, loud enough so that she could hear.<br/><br/>As he stood up and turned to leave, he found himself almost face-to-face with Gerhard, who just started talking. His loud voice bounced off all the walls of the entire room. Seconds after, Dan’s head poked out from behind Gerhard. “I’m leaving. Never mention what just happened again, or I will request your bionics be removed and your memory is erased,” Lucas threatened. “I swear on it,” he emphasized, his face emotionless and blank with a hint of embarrassment. Walking back down the hallway, he saw Dan was just looking at a computer screen. He couldn’t see what was on the computer screen, so he assumed it was something that Dan particularly liked to look at, making him wince in disgust and walk along quickly.<br/><br/>Reaching his room at the opposite end of the hallway, another headache struck him. He basically had to crawl back into the room and climb onto the operating table. He subsequently laid down face-first on the table and flipped himself so that he was on his back. Right. Time to nap and try to get that situation out of his head. A leader should not be tormented by such events.