Listen (Muted Trilogy Book 2) by Nikita Spoke

impossible to be in a bad mood when he was happy. Seeing him, though, seeing that spark in his eye and not reaching for their connection to ask what was causing it, it was difficult.
    When Dr. Harris finally typed, Jemma jumped and faced the sound.
    “Joshua is not allowed to interact with subjects without direct supervision for the foreseeable future. If he should try to approach you alone before I’ve informed you that this order has been revoked,” he continued typing, looking straight at Jemma, “you are not to respond, and you are to alert a guard immediately. Do you understand?”
    Jemma nodded. Josh must have been telling the truth, then, during the session with Katherine. She’d wondered, alone in her room, whether he had been. She’d been pretty sure Josh thought he was telling the truth, at least, and she didn’t think they would restrict him like this if he’d been making things up.
    Or would they? They’d increased his supervision immediately, but he must have tried something else, something new, for Dr. Harris to be making the new rules explicit now rather than a week ago.
    “I’m not sure I understand.” The electronic voice came from Jack’s phone. “Why the rules? What’d he do?”
    Dr. Harris frowned. “That’s none of your concern as long as you understand the new rules. You don’t need to understand why they were changed.”
    Jemma looked at Jack. With the monitor attached, she couldn’t risk sending anything via their connection, couldn’t explain she’d told him some of what happened, but she could make the sign for “okay.” Jack nodded, looking decidedly less happy than he had when he’d entered the room. Jemma wanted to reach for him but decided not to chance it; likely, the rules about contact were the same here as in the cafeteria, at least until they were instructed otherwise. And they shouldn’t have to wait long; why else would he be here?
    “We will begin with the standard script, with contact, when I indicate you may touch. If contact is sustained beyond the allowed time frames,” Dr. Harris confirmed, “the session will end, and neither of you will receive lunch today. Further, you will be denied visitation for the rest of the week. The same applies to if we have reason to believe you are deviating from the script intentionally.”
    He really didn’t want them Talking when they weren’t supposed to. What was going to happen if he found out they could Talk without contact? He was clearly trying to get her to Talk to somebody, hence the weeks of testing, and yet, it obviously made him nervous, or he’d have tested her with Jack right away; he had to know the best chance at having Jemma succeed in Talking to someone at a distance was by having her Talk to Jack. Maybe he was afraid of exactly how successful they might be.
    When Dr. Harris looked at her, waiting, Jemma nodded. Jack did the same, presumably, beside her, and then Dr. Harris gestured for them to begin.
    Rather than simply putting his hand on her arm as Jemma had gotten used to, Jack took advantage of the lack of clarification as to type of contact and laced his fingers through Jemma’s. She watched Dr. Harris a moment to see whether he would object, and she could feel Jack’s wariness, too, but after a brief narrowing of his eyes, Dr. Harris seemed to decide he would allow it, and they both relaxed.
    “Hi,” sent Jack, running his thumb along hers. “I’m Jack.” His mouth twitched. “It’s nice to see you.” He sent emotion along with his words: humor, frustration and annoyance, affection, exasperation.
    In her peripheral vision, Jemma saw Josh stop pouting for the first time that morning, straightening to watch whatever was happening on the monitors. She nodded to show she’d heard him while he typed for the benefit of the others, and she glanced at the monitor.
    She’d never seen the activity so high, and it was usually considerably lower on incoming messages than on outgoing ones. Dr.