"I guess I'm more okay with it than with you torturing yourself to stop me from acting on a disagreement about it."

"I'm really really sorry."

And then he's going to hurriedly say everything he knows about the breakthroughs that led to augments.

She nods along.

It doesn't take that long.

"Sorry, um - do you have any questions?"

"...not really, no, it's not like I'm allowed to use the information anyway so it's pretty useless."

"I'm sorry - I um. Have a lot more knowledge amount medical advancements I can tell you about if you want to know useful things."

"If I express interest in them you're going to feel obliged to tell me and I don't want to do that. Have we gone over everything you need to tell me, now?"

"Yeah."

Which means she can leave which she should definitely do if she wants to but will also incidentally break his heart.

"Huh, I was sort of expecting you to - relax visibly or something."

"I um, still feel really bad about how this is unpleasant for you. The guilt for that isn't as unpleasant as the guilt about not saying things was but. It's still there."

"I mean, I wouldn't call it recreational but it's not that bad."

"That's good."

"What's... next, for you?"

"I'm going to try to convince some biologists I'm from a different world and then dump all my future medical knowledge on them, I think."

"Do you want me to show you to the bio building?"

"Yes." She's not leaving right away! His heart is whole.

She picks herself and her possessions up and leads him out of the library onto campus. It's cold.

Does she look like she needs a sweater or something? Lucien doesn't have one but he could probably figure something out.

She's got a coat. He probably does too if he kept any of the stuff he was issued for his expedition. She picks her way very carefully over the icy walkways and sometimes preferentially stomps through the snow if a patch looks particularly slidey.

Well, she'd also be welcome to his coat if she needed a second one for some reason. He trots after her through the snow.

"Here's the bio building. The faculty offices are on the third floor, but I don't know who specifically you should talk to."

"Okay I can try to ask around, I guess."

He looks at her face like she's the best most beautiful person in the world (which she is) for a moment, before remembering that that's probably weird to do and diverting his gaze to the ground.

"...and you've got my number, if you need to tell me anything else, I guess."

Nod nod. 

"Oh. I should um. Give you the reward money." He has a check. 

"I decided to keep 1% for myself for living expenses."

"I really don't need the money. I have a scholarship and stuff."