Three Days Later

I ris joined the pancake breakfast despite not wanting to leave the small apartment. They'd gone to this event one time before and had enjoyed socializing with some of the parents and even the kids. Not being able to have children of their own, they'd decided to try to join events where children might be to at least be around them when they could. The event was just as busy as it was the last time, which was a good thing, and Iris joined the line for pancakes. She carried her plate over to a table and sat by herself, not wanting to draw any attention. She took a few bites and stood, making her way down the hall to the bathroom, where she went by the door and continued down the main hallway.

She didn't know the layout of the school, so she had to check the doors to find some kind of science lab. The list of things she needed was tucked safely in her coat pocket. She pushed open door after door as she moved down the hall, going from the door on the left to the door on the right until she hit the end of the hall and turned right down another one. Finally, she found a room that looked like it fit the bill. Iris walked inside, closed the door behind her, and began searching. There were only four things on her list, and she found them with relative ease, thanks to Daphne's instructions. That was how she knew this was real.

Things like the ring and the money, even, she might have been able to explain away, but the hardware store and the science lab couldn't be explained at all. Iris hadn't known that Daphne had gone to that store to place an order, and she wouldn't know what these items, that were currently in her pocket, were. Opening the door, she made her way down the side hallway until she found two doors that led outside. Once free from the building, she hurried down the sidewalk back to her apartment, where she pulled the items out of her pocket and sat on the sofa. She had no idea what to do next.

"Iris."

She looked up and saw the love of her life standing there, but this time, Daphne looked different. The previous times Iris had seen her, Daphne looked as if she'd been alive. The only difference between alive Daphne and this version of her had been that she couldn't feel or touch anything. This time, though, she looked faded somehow. Iris couldn't exactly see through her, but there was something different about her.

"What's wrong?" Iris asked.

"Nothing. Why?"

"You look different," Iris replied and stood to approach her, wishing so much that she could reach out and touch her, feel Daphne's skin on her own.

"Different?"

"Like you're not all here."

"Oh. I don't know. It's taking me more and more energy to get you to see me."

Iris met her eyes and tried not to worry.

"It's okay, sweetheart," Daphne told her, seeing that worry she'd been trying to hide. "I'm here now. Did you get what I need?"

"I think so."

"Then, it's time to get to work. I'll stay as long as I can, but I can't write anything down or touch anything, so we have to do this together. I'll tell you what to do. You do it."

"Okay. You're sure this will work?"

"We won't know until we try," Daphne replied.

"You said it took a lot of energy."

"It did. And when you go to the cold storage to find my body, I'll show you what you need to connect."

"Um… Okay. I don't know what to do."

"Let's just get everything out, and I'll tell you, okay?"

"Okay," Iris said.

She pulled every item out, placed each one on the floor, and Daphne walked her through everything step by step. Iris had to connect two pieces of metal together using something called a soldering iron that she had no training in how to use, and there was a mask thing that she had to wear to do that. Then, there was a flat little metal piece that Daphne said needed to become a circuit of some kind. Iris laughed as Daphne tried to explain it to her in the simplest terms because Iris wasn't getting it. She leaned over and went to kiss Daphne, forgetting in that moment that they weren't just having a night in on the apartment floor, and she teared up when she pulled back.

"It's okay," Daphne said. "We keep going. I'll kiss you the instant I'm back in my body."

"Back in your body? Daphne, this is crazy. How do you know this is going to work? "

"Because I've seen it. The first completed version of the device worked for three minutes. The spies got their questions answered, and we went to work on the next version."

"And that one worked, too? You're sure?"

"We only tested it once before we destroyed it."

"Who did you test it on?"

"We needed a volunteer, so a member of the team said he'd do it."

"You tested it on someone who was alive?"

"We didn't have any cadavers, and we needed the body to be as close to alive as possible. Frozen or freshly dead. He volunteered because he… Iris, he was sick. He had about a year or two left, according to the doctors, and he was already in immense pain. He figured he had nothing to lose. No wife yet. No children. His parents were long dead. We used a drug that acted quickly and caused him no pain, and once he was gone, we used the device."

"And it worked?"

"Yes. His name is Jacob, and he's one of the men who stored my body for me."

"What about the illness?"

"It's gone," Daphne said. "We theorized that the energy moving through the device was enough to kill the dangerous cells and, somehow, reanimate the good ones."

"Theorized?"

"My love, this is our only chance. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and I'll just come back to you until you ask me not to."

"I'd never ask you not to!" Iris said loudly.

"Sweetheart, one day, you'll want to… try again." Daphne lowered her head and looked down at the mess of parts and pieces.

"You mean find someone else?"

"Yes, I mean fall in love again."

"I'll never fall in love again."

"But I want you to have love again. I want you to be happy, Iris. You deserve to be so happy."

"I deserve to spend my life with you. That's what I want."

Daphne looked back up at her and gave her a soft smile. And just like Daphne could see right through Iris's worry, Iris could see through that forced smile, but she chose to let it go because they had work to do.