I nodded slowly. “It’s possible, and it fits better with the picture we have. It’s also pretty worrying, if true.”

“We’ll look,” Ashley said. “It’s easier, because we see staff more often than we see other prisoners.”

“Let me know if you need anything,” Kenzie said. “I’m at your disposal.”

“I need you to not do too much,” Ashley said.

“I’m not. School is handled, I’m ahead in most of my classes, which is easy since it’s only half days, and I’m more or less getting enough sleep.”

“Take it easy. Step away from the tinkering, be a kid. Run in circles in a field or whatever it is kids do,” Ashley said.

“Running in circles in a field? How long was it since you were a kid, Ashley?” I asked.

“A long time,” she said. “I didn’t get to enjoy my childhood as much as I wanted, and I can’t remember those days very easily. I don’t want one of my favorite people to make the same mistake I did.”

“You’re one of my favorite people too,” Kenzie said.

“Powers have a way of taking over, and tinker powers like yours, Kenzie, they’re especially bad for it.”

Rain’s voice was a touch testy as he said, “I like how you’re saying that while I’m on hour… holy, it’s been two and a half hours that I’ve been working on your hands here.”

“Shh,” Ashley said.

“Rubbing that salt into the wound. I’m kidding. It’s nice to do something practical.”

He sounded so easygoing, considering his incarceration. Ashley, meanwhile, seemed a bit subdued.

“And familiar faces,” Ashley said. She looked at the phone’s camera, locking eyes with us. “I’m glad you called, Kenzie.”

“Just so you know, I am going to take a break from the tinkering tonight. Victoria’s coming over for dinner. We’re having pasta, we’ll talk with my parents, who seem to really like her, my mom especially, and I can show her my workshop with everything I’ve been doing.”

I didn’t miss the pause after, or the looks exchanged between Rain and Ashley on the tiny phone screen.

Bells chimed in the distance as the gates closed in anticipation of the train coming in.

“Keep your expectations low,” Ashley said.

Kenzie heaved out a sigh. “Okay.”

“It’s good if Victoria is visiting,” Ashley said. “More of us should have been doing that. I would have come over before, if it was doable.”

“You intimidate my parents and they don’t want you over, so yeah, not doable. Really really, it doesn’t need to be a ‘should’ thing,” Kenzie said. “And you all have your own expectations and ideas going in that makes it awkward.”