"If not for you, I would have let two people die on the autopsy table, and we would've never known why or how they died at all," Larissa said as she and Ning walked back into the station.
"I just happened to have a fresh set of eyes, while you were clogged with preconceived notions of what the case was about. It's natural that you would have needed some time to come out of that thought process," Ning told her.
As they arrived back at her desk, Ning reached into his jacket and set one of the vials before her.
Larissa looked at it. Then at him. "What is this?"
"An Awakening serum," he said.
Larissa gave a justifiably confused look. "A what?"
Ning quickly explained what it was that he had placed before her. "The world doesn't know it exists just yet, so don't tell anyone just yet. It will be revealed to the public in a few months' time."
The silence that followed had a particular quality to it. Larissa picked up the vial slowly, the same way she handled evidence.
