Friday Barnes Oneshots!!

A trip to the grocery store; Sibling bonding

   The grocery store is about five minutes by car, about double that if they were to walk (or triple considering it was them). Located three streets over, then they'd have to take a left turn and walk for about twenty meters until they reached the corner. Quantum had been practising biking for the past few months though, and that would be more efficient with time, although it would hinder their ability to carry the groceries in the first place. Urgh, he hated doing chemistry... right, moles. Could Friday even ride a bike? Hm, he didn't account for that. Now he'd have to reach back into his hippocampus and try to remember if he ever saw her biking. He could have sworn she did when she was younger, maybe. What was the formula to find moles again? Right, right, mass divided by molar mass. What was he thinking about again? Ah, right! Groceries. Well, they'd have to leave soon, maybe. Should he round to three significant figures or four? What was the time? Did the grocery store close sooner today? The atomic mass of chlorine was 35.453, so if he just divided...

"Doctor Barnes!"

The man jolted and spun in his seat, knocked from his thoughts. His colleagues knew to never disturb him, but this wasn't one of his colleague's voices.

This one...

"Ah," the man muttered nervously, reaching for his glasses and shaving them back onto his face. "Marika. What... what brings you here," he continued, his hand slipping from resting on a stray post-it note.

Ms Dekker narrowed her eyes, scrutinising him. "I was just finishing up in a meeting when the secretary told me her phone was going off. Your sister has been trying to reach you."

"Sister? Which one, be specific? I have three."

Ms Dekker rolled her eyes. "I know you have three, you silly boy, but which sister would be the most likely to even try and contact you?"

Hm. Which one? Well, definitely not Halley. She never contacted anyone besides that stupid boyfriend of hers. He's hardly talked to Quasar since... since... well, he didn't know. Well, which one? That's peculiar... oh! Friday! Friday, yes, right. He forgot about her.

"Friday, I'm presuming," he answered, sitting back down.

Ms Dekker's eye twitched. "So, don't you think that maybe you should go."

"Go and do what?" Quantum replied, dumbfounded. Why would he leave his work?

"To see what she wants!" Ms Dekker exclaimed. She then walked over (which made Quantum seize up and become even more nervous) and plucked one of the many sticky notes stuck onto his desk. "Go grocery shopping with Friday at 6 o'clock. Do not get stuck into work, don't want to stuff this up," she read out and then glared at him. "It is almost half past six, Doctor."

"What?" Quantum exclaimed. He quickly shoved his laptop and other essentials (his work) into his messenger bag and made a beeline for the door.

"You forgot your coat!" Ms Dekker called out.

Quantum did not go back for it.

***

He found Friday sitting outside the CERN front building, her legs swinging as she sat on the small ledge border of the front garden. Her head perked up upon hearing footsteps.

"Quantum? Is that you?" she asked.

He stopped in his tracks. "Yes, it is. How did you know it was me?"

Friday finally turned. It was still jarring to see her in her changed appearance. When he thought about it, the changes were quite mild with just a dye job and nose piercing. She wasn't even wearing the outlandish clothes she had been in when they first met, instead wearing a brown hoodie and jeans. But having not seen Friday in ages made it all the more uncanny. In Quantum's mind, his most vivid memories of her were when she was just a small child and was blubbering nonsense up at him after he'd come home from a day at primary school. She'd have her brown hair up in two pigtails and if he remembered right, she'd been very touchy as a child. Always wanting someone to hold her or always in her sibling's spaces when she was quite young. Of course, to their other relatives, she was a delight, never crying or complaining. Even then though, Quantum remembered that as she got older and actually became aware she became much more distant. Never coming up to people anymore and hiding away in her room... reading...