That is indeed a lot of tea. After a moment of indecision, she decides on an easily reachable one that she's actually had before, unlike most of the blends up there. 

"So... you kept up with programming, then?" She asks as the water boils. 

"Yeah. It's hard to let go of something that makes you good money, you're insanely good at, and you actually enjoy." She boils the kettle. "Plus, it means I can nose into wherever I want."

"Reasonable," she says, smiling slightly. "Sometimes I wish I'd been so good at something other than my parents' profession," she muses. "But Doctoring is honestly a little hard to beat for professions that directly help people, if you do it right. I go about it differently enough that it doesn't bother me much."

“I don’t think you are good at your parent’s profession.” Cati pours hot water into two mugs, and then hands one to Erin. “You care about people. Your parents really only cared about progress.”

Cati shivers, then shrugs. “At least, that’s what I always got from them.”

"Yeah..." 

Tea.

"I... don't want to keep you up, especially if you work tomorrow? But I did want to ask about that security work you did." 

Cati peers at her, seeming suspicious and concerned. "You wanna go poking through all that?"

"The lab, yeah. I'm not... completely sure, yet. I probably won't be until I can get the time to look at the infection more closely. But I'm getting pretty certain that it's connected to whatever they were doing in those labs." She shrugs, "And as awful as my parents are, they are my parents. If it turns out they're in on it I want to know, and if it turns out they're being forced into it I want to help."

“You always were such a noble spirit,” Cati says, smiling fondly at her friend.

She looks over to her set up. “You doing anything tomorrow? I’ll show you through everything I did.”

"Thank you. I know breaking the kind of confidentiality agreement they must have had you sign could go badly for you. I'm free tomorrow, I start at the hospital the day after, though they might call me in if they need me." 

Cati shrugs. "I'm not gonna pretend that I didn't used to go snooping through whatever I could hack through. Pretty sure a couple of the soccer boys tried to pay me to 'fix' their grades last year of school."

"Really?" She rolls her eyes, "I don't know why I'm surprised, they were all counting on sports scholarships to pull them through, weren't they."

"Just like any athletically gifted student." 

Cati finishes her tea, and drops her mug in the sink. "I'm beat. See you in the morning?"

"Mm," Erin glances down at her mug, drinks the last dregs, and then drops it in, too. "Right, bedtime. Guest room was over here?" 

"Just there." Cati gestures to a room, before she shoots Erin a rueful smile. "Night."

"Good night!" In she goes, and thence to bed. 

Cati stays up a while longer, and then eventually goes to bed. 

Erin lies awake for a while, going over the events of the day in her head until she gets drowsy enough to fall asleep. 

She's not an early riser. Cati will probably have been up for a while when she lurches out of bed and into the kitchen. 

Cati is at her computer, one foot on her chair so she can rest her chin on her knee while something on screen does...something. A steaming mug and a plate with half-eaten toast sit precariously on the edge of her desk. 

She huffs a laugh when she looks over her shoulder to see Erin. "That is a remarkable bedhead."

"Mnnn-what?" She blinks at Cati owlishly. Her eyes catch on the mug.

"...Coffee?" 

"Machine in the kitchen. Open the top, put a pod in, push the middle button. There's a milk frother next to it."

She spends a moment staring at her blankly, processing, and then nods. That doesn't sound too hard. 

She shuffles into the kitchen and follows the instructions. 

...she just barely remembers to grab a cup to put the coffee in, as well, feeling mildly betrayed. The feeling vanishes once she has the coffee in hand and takes a few sips. 

She goes back into the living room and curls up around her cup on the couch, staring blearily at what Cati's up to and waiting for her brain to wake up.

“Are we awake yet? Or is a second cup in order?”

"Mmm..." the smell of the coffee and the shot of caffeine has perked her up enough by this point that she manages a sleepy nod, "I'm... probably awake now. I wouldn't say no to a second cup, though." 

“Have at. Nearly done compiling.”

Compiling. Tech words. Okay. 

Erin returns to the kitchen for more coffee. Hopefully after the second cup she will be prepared to do more than stare dumbly at the tiny tiny words on the screen, once they're ready. Why are mornings?