On the fourth day of the holidays, Eleanor went right back to work. Mrs. Vaughn's condition couldn't wait.

The lab was completely silent save for the hum of the machines. Callie, Diaz, and Gwenda had all cut their vacations short to come back and help.

Xavier sat by his mother in the observation ward.

"Eleanor, prep is complete," Callie announced, stepping out of the equipment room with a checklist. "The brain-computer interface is tuned, and the neural signal acquisition equipment is fully calibrated."

Eleanor nodded, scanning the checklist meticulously.

"Alright, let's begin."

She walked over to Mrs. Vaughn and crouched down to meet her gaze.

Mrs. Vaughn looked slightly more lucid than a few weeks prior. Her eyes were still a

bit foggy, but she wasn't putting up a fight.

"Let's go do a quick test, alright?"

Mrs. Vaughn looked at Xavier, who gently helped her to her feet.

Attaching the brain-computer interface was a delicate process. Eleanor handled it personally, her movements gentle yet highly precise.

She placed the electrode patches across Mrs. Vaughn's scalp one by one, connecting them to the towering array of equipment behind the chair.

Standing off to the side, Xavier was visibly tense, his fists unconsciously clenching.

Catching his anxiety, Eleanor shot him a reassuring look. Xavier nodded, took a slow, deep breath, and forced his muscles to relax.

Everything was set.

Eleanor returned to the control console, slipping on her headphones. Her eyes locked onto the fluctuating neural waveforms dancing across the monitors.

"Start acquisition," she ordered.

Callie hit the activation switch.

On the screen, the previously flat lines began to ripple. It was faint at first, but as the signal strength increased, the waves grew sharper.

"Signal strengthening in the hippocampus," Diaz reported, his eyes glued to the data. "Temporal lobe is showing activity too."

Eleanor didn't say a word. Her absolute focus remained on the monitors as her fingers flew across the keyboard, rapidly adjusting the interface parameters.

Under the gentle influence of the sedatives, Mrs. Vaughn drifted into a peaceful sleep.

Time ticked by agonizingly slowly. Finally, thirty minutes later, a very distinct, familiar waveform spiked on the screen.

Eleanor's hands froze. It was the memory extraction signal.

Her eyes burned with sudden emotion, but she kept her gaze locked on the screen. Using controlled electrical stimulation, she was actively jumpstarting the

dormant memory cells in Mrs

Vaughn's brain, watching the signa

grow stronger by the second.

An hour later, Eleanor finally powered down the interface and removed the patches,

waiting quietly for Mrs. Vaughn to wake up.

Ten minutes passed before Mrs. Vaughn's eyelids fluttered open. She blinked, looking momentarily disoriented.

Her gaze wandered until it landed on Eleanor. Her pupils dilated slightly in recognition before she turned and saw Xavier.

Finally, the fog in her eyes began to lift, replaced by a profound, shifting clarity.

"Xa—Xavier..." she whispered, her voice fragile and testing.

Xavier grabbed her hand, practically weeping with joy. "Mom, it's me. It's Xavier. Do you know who I am?"

Mrs. Vaughn looked at him. The confusion entirely melted away, leaving only the familiar warmth of a mother's love. She glanced around the room, bewildered. "Where am I?"

Xavier dropped to one knee beside her chair, choking back a sob. "You're in Eleanor's lab."

Mrs. Vaughn's attention snapped

back to Eleanor. At first glance, she had only thought she looked familiars. Now, her memories fully clicked into place. She offered a warm smile. "Eleanor! It's been a long time."

Suddenly, she bolted upright and grabbed Xavier's arm. "Where's Vivian? Where is she?"

Watching the scene unfold, Eleanor felt a lump form in her throat.

Xavier squeezed her hand gently. "Vivian is at school, Mom. She's in the first grade now."

"What? Wasn't she just in kindergarten? When did she start first grade?" Mrs. Vaughn stared at her son in shock.

Xavier let out a tearful laugh. "Mom, I'll explain everything in a bit. Does anything hurt right now?"

Mrs. Vaughn thought about it, gently rubbing her temples. "No, I feel fine." Eleanor stepped forward with a smile. "You should get some rest first."

She turned to Xavier. "Take this chance to talk to her as much as you can." With that, Eleanor motioned for her team to leave the room. Out in the hallway, lan was leaning casually against the wall, having arrived at some point to wait for her.

Seeing her step out, he walked over and naturally wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "A success?" he asked.

Exhausted, Eleanor leaned into his solid chest and nodded. "Yeah. It worked."

lan lowered his head and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"I knew you could do it."