Wash was waiting for her when she exited the facility, arms folded. The sim troopers were lounging in the courtyard below, well out of earshot.

Carolina frowned, then turned to the AI floating above her shoulder. "Church, log off."

"I don't know if-"

"Church."

"Fine." Epsilon huffed, blinking sulkily out of existence.

"So. Is he dead, then?" Wash asked as Carolina approached.

"I don't know," she answered truthfully. Wash shifted in surprise, then noticed the pistol missing from her hip. His posture hardened again.

"You left my gun with him." The silence was enough of an answer, even though it hadn't really been a question. "I wonder if that was mercy or not."

"He was a sad, broken old man who spent his life chasing a shadow. He'd already lost everything. The least I could do was let him choose his own way out."

"And what about you? What's your way out?" He hesitated, choosing his words carefully. "I know it'll be hard for you, but I think you should join the squads with me. They may be idiots, and make you want to bash their heads on a rock sometimes, but they're a close-knit bunch. They're probably the closest thing to a family we're ever going to have again."

She managed a small chuckle - considering whose mind Church was based off, Wash was actually far closer to the mark than he'd intended. "Would they even want me around, after what I did?"

Wash gazed at her levelly. "I've done worse than you."

"I threatened to kill one of them, Wash," she reminded him. Like he could have somehow forgotten.

"Well, I actually tried to." This shocked Carolina into a few seconds of silence. "...But this isn't about me." He swallowed, hard, his head turned to the side. "You need to figure out what you're going to do."

She slowly shook her head. "I can't stay with the sim troopers. I can't not have something to work towards. I'm sorry, Wash. Epsilon knows somewhere that you can all go, a new place to live. I'll help you get there and settle down, but after that, I'm leaving."

He nodded brusquely. He'd hoped that Carolina would be able to let go a little, but she obviously wasn't ready. "Do what you have to do, Carolina. If you ever find that you've had enough, you can come back to us. We'll have a place for you."

"Thanks, Wash." She glanced down at the two squads in the quad below, then strode forward, her voice ringing out. "All right, people, we've got a little bit further to go so that the authorities don't catch us loitering around. We've got about a days' worth of travel left, and then we can finish this road trip.

Let's move."