Page 341 of Every Almost

"And yet," Katie spread her arms in the dim corridor, backpack and all. "Here we are."

"Here we are," Emma agreed with a smirk and started walking towards her lab.

Katie followed her through corridors she'd never have found alone, and thought, not for the first time, that she wouldn’t be standing in this building at all if a bored receptionist hadn't given up on her three years ago. Katie stood at that front desk for what had to be the fortieth time in three years. The woman behind it, genuinely kind, had leveled with Katie that she was completely out of road.

"I'm so sorry, Katie," she'd said. "You've talked to everyone who's allowed to talk to you. I don't know who or what else there is."

A woman neither of them had originally noticed walked past with a stack of files and an intern's lanyard. She stopped and listened a second longer than she needed to.

"I can walk her back,” the woman said, in an accent that didn't belong anywhere near Pasadena but more like Buckingham Palace. "I can show her we've turned over every stone, at least."

"Fine with me if you take the fall, Ms...?"

"Doctor," the woman had said indignantly. "Doctor Holloway."

"My apologies, Doctor," the receptionist said as she printed out Katie's visitor's badge. Katie looked between the two of them like a tennis match.

Once away from the lobby and walking out onto campus, the woman, Dr. Holloway, turned to Katie and looked her straight in the eye. "Okay, since I did you a favor and got you back in, you have to do me a favor and tell me your story."

"You want to hear my story?" Katie asked, skeptical. "That's all?"

"What do you mean, 'that's all?' From the little bit I heard, it sounds compelling. Janet works for NASA. As a receptionist. She has the patience of a saint. If you made her frustrated, that says a lot."

Katie laughed.

"So, spill."

Katie raised an eyebrow at the woman. "I don't even know your name."

Emma stuck out her hand. "Dr. Emma Holloway, planetary geologist, originally from Kent and here on a visa to hopefully work in space, 25 years old and, currently, a JPL intern."

Katie let out a sound close to a muffled guffaw before taking Emma's hand and shaking it. "It's nice to meet you, Dr. Holloway."

"Emma."

Katie lingered. "Emma."

"And you are...?" Emma asked.

"Sorry," Katie shook her head. "Katherine Wickett, cultural anthropologist graduate with UCLA, originally from Shelbyville, Indiana, 26 years old and, currently, trying to find out what the hell happened to my sister."

"It's very nice to meet you, Katherine."

"Katie."

"Okay, Katie.” Emma smiled. "Now, what's the story?"

They walked the campus for two hours that day. Katie told her everything, from the voicemail and the lab, the three years of no information or leads, and the frustrating way an entire institution had covered anything regarding her sister's disappearance and didn't budge. Emma listened to all of it.

When Katie had finished, Emma stopped in the middle of the path and turned to her.

"The truth is Katie, I don't have any real access," Emma said, her voice low. "I'm nobody here. Not yet at least. A lemming, if I'm lucky." Katie laughed and Emma smiled at her. "But I want to try and help you."

Nobody had said that to Katie in three years. Three years of JPL heads turning her away, three years of empty promises or no information at all, three years of wondering what happened to her sister and whether she was okay.

Katie lifted her arms and hugged Emma, right there on the path, before she'd thought it through. But the gratitude was so big it had to go somewhere, and Katie's arms were the only place it fit.

"Thank you," Katie said softly as she pulled away. Emma had the decency not to look shocked.