Permission

"Jen..." 

"Who is he?" he asked, nipping in the bud the words of Beth, who was about to start consoling her again.

"He who? Who are you talking about?" 

"The janitor who explained these things to you... the boy who saved my life..." 

"Layton, his name is Layton." 

"Let me meet this Layton. I need to talk to him." 

...

A cheerful whistle was travelling through the corridors of sector B, coming from the mouth of one of the ship's workers, probably a mechanical engineer. 

"Good morning, Dr Tyler!" the man exclaimed, interrupting for a few seconds to whistle to greet the doctor who had helped him weeks earlier to solve a problem resulting from a bad ankle sprain.

"Good morning!" Tyler replied coolly, continuing to walk towards his goal, with his back straight and a very different posture from the one that usually characterized him.