Induced Charge

A/N: Sort of a chemistry term, but chemistry is just applied physics. =]



Thank you for the reviews! Makes me happy happy.



If you\'re ever in the mood for a deeply weird movie, try American Psycho. It\'s not the gore. It\'s just weird.



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I awoke in complete darkness.



"Dr. Starkwether!" No answer. "Dr. Starkwether, where are you?" I stood bolt upright, panicked, hunting for a light. It seemed like there was very little in the room but for the soft patch of pillows and blankets where I had been sleeping. I fumbled with the walls; they were painfully close.



How the hell did I get in a closet?



Hesitant to pound on the door, in case I had somehow been kidnapped out of Dr. Starkwether\'s office and moved into hostile territory, I peered out of the crack of the door. Beyond it, I saw the edge of what looked like a refrigerator and coffee table. It didn\'t look occupied, so I found the doorknob and carefully started to turn it. To my surprise, the door was unlocked.



To my greater surprise, when I pushed it open, I saw Dr. Starkwether sitting on the floor sipping on a twenty-ounce coffee, looking somewhat better than when I had found him.



"What the hell--"



"Oh! You\'re awake. I\'m glad I didn\'t disturb your beauty sleep, how are you feeling?"



"Did you put me in there?"



"Well, yes. You just looked so uncomfortable on the workbench. I really wanted to make sure you had a quiet, dark place to nap." Starkwether gave me a wide-eyed, innocent look I had never seen before.



Oh, he was definitely pissed.



I could deal with that in a minute. "Where are we?"



"It\'s sort of an auxiliary break room for me. No one knows it\'s here. No one bothers me. It\'s very relaxing."



I looked around. Besides the fridge and table, there was another comfortable looking couch, a group of shelves full of books, a television, and an easel for designing; the prototype for something new had already appeared on it, perhaps even while I slept. An open laptop sat on the table, tethered to the wall by a power cord.



"It looks nice. How did I get--"



"I just carried you." He shrugged. "You\'ve been sleeping for hours. It\'s nine at night."



I froze. "Wh-what?"



"Like I said, I didn\'t want to wake you."



I sighed. "I guess I\'ll finish the papers tomorrow."



He took a swig of coffee and laughed. "Oh, that\'s rich. You\'ll finish it tonight, as per our agreement, and then you can go home."



"Dr. Starkwether." I scowled at him, and then went to sit by his side. "I can\'t do that, it\'ll be three in the morning by the time I finish."



Starkwether looked down at me and shrugged. "Then stay here, and I\'ll take you to school in the morning. I\'m not going to let you out of it."



"Please, I can\'t, don\'t be ridiculous, my parents are going to kill me."



He dug in his back pocket and tossed me his cell phone, a touch-screen affair made by a company I had never even heard of. "I assume you have one of these?"



"Uh, not this exact--"



"Of course not that exact one, it\'s a prototype." Seeing my puzzled look, Starkwether explained: "I\'m expanding out of aerospace. A more appropriate name for the company would be Starkwether Global." He shook his head. "In any case, give your father a call. Tell him you\'re not coming home tonight. I know it\'s not the first time you\'ve been out all night."



I bit my lip. It certainly wasn\'t, but the prospect of working through the night as opposed to drinking till three in the morning was not appealing.



"Come on. Call him." In a sweet voice laden with the irresistible sound of bribery, Starkwether crooned: "I\'ll give you a bonus if you stay."



I thought for a minute, and then dug my phone out of my back pocket and started dialing home. Starkwether listened, utterly still, until I snapped the phone shut and looked up at him. "How much of a bonus are we talking here?"



"Hmmmm." For just a moment, he faked a pensive air. "Why don\'t we see how well you do tonight, and then we\'ll talk bonuses?"



I sighed. When Starkwether decided he was going to be stubborn about something, he was damn near intractable. "Fine." I made to stand up, but before I could, he took my head in his hand and pulled me close, then laid a gentle kiss on my cheek; I flushed as I savored the warmth of his lips and the pleasant tickle of his close-cropped beard against my cheek.



"Thank you for staying."



For an instant, I was embarrassed beyond breathing. But before he could make a smart-ass comment about the blush on my face, I slid my hand up along his cheek, turned his face towards me, and finally kissed him, right on his gorgeous lips. Unfazed by my advance, he wrapped an arm around me and pressed me close, working his tongue into my mouth. I happily crawled on top of him, feeling delight in the release of the sexual tension that had plagued me since I laid eyes on him.



But before I could do what I had wanted to do for weeks, he pushed my hand away from his belt and sat up, kissed me one last time, and said with a smile: "I think we ought to get to work. It\'s late."



He bounded up and opened the door in the breakroom, calling over his shoulder: "What\'s the equation for work?"



Still paralyzed, I stammered: "Force distance cosine theta?"



"Force what distance what cosine theta?"



"T--times."



"Very good. Let\'s go."