His lab assistant, Emily, comes in

"Hey there, Doc!" came a bright voice, breaking through the dreary silence. In walked his lab assistant, Emily, her blonde hair bouncing with each step. She flashed him a beaming smile, oblivious to his troubled expression. Her presence was usually enough to cheer him up, but today, he just couldn't even pretend to reciprocate it.

He could only sit there, totally consumed by his self-pity and despair, but this obviously does not go unnoticed by his ever inquisitive assistant.

She must have gone on about her latest findings or something for a good minute or two – genuine passion being one of her positive qualities he had to admit – but he was simply in no mood for it today. He could hardly even muster up an acknowledging grunt.

"Doc... Is everything alright? You seem... off today."

"Forget about it, I'm fine" he spits out, but that only seemed to goad her on.

"Yeah right. You used to rave about that 'secret experiment' all the time - now look at you!"

She takes the seat next to him and looks him in the eyes.

“Doc, we may all wear fancy lab coats and have corporate objectives to meet, but we’re all human at the end of the day. What’s on your mind, really?”