Simon smiled back automatically, if tentatively, as Jessica entered the med bay and crossed towards him. His smile dropped the second hers did though, as if the expression had merely been an echo of hers, an automatic response with no real power of its own. He lowered the necklace back down onto the tray next to the microscope and turned slightly away from her as he stripped off the gloves he was wearing and threw them into the nearby trashcan.
“Sam dropped it off this morning,” he answered carefully, a little wary of the idea that Jess would think he was meddling in her personal life, taking liberties where they hadn’t been invited. “I was testing it,” he continued, “for poisons mostly. There are a number of things you could swab on jewelry that could burn when they come into contact with the skin or do neurological damage when inhaled. I tested for the second variety first, obviously,” he finished, motioning upwards to indicate his lack of a surgical mask. And there was nothing wrong with it that I could see, he almost added, but busied himself filing away the slides he’d used instead, turning his back to her as he opened one of their storage units used for medical samples and placed the swabs from her necklace on the top shelf, where they could be analyzed again if there was anything that he’d happened to miss.
“So,” he asked, back still turned as he focused on arranging everything, “do you have any idea who’s been sending you these gifts? I know that Sam seems to be worried at least, so I imagine there isn’t an obvious person to be doing that sort of thing.”