To most people, sullen seemed to be Conner's default state. But Mal could see the new tension in his shoulders as he strode past the small group in the library, and followed.

"Kon..."

"Hmm?"

"You okay, man?"

"Yeah. No. Out?"

"Let's go."

They went to a little coffee shop in Happy Harbour that they'd occasionally taken their girls to. Mal wasn't much of a drinker and nobody was really sure whether Conner counted as old enough to drink or not, so they'd mostly avoided bars. They ordered their usuals – small latte for Conner, iced coffee for Mal – and found a table.

The silence lasted about four seconds.

"M'Gann and I broke up," Conner said all at once.

"What? No! But... but you two were made for each other!" Mal didn't mean to trot out the world's most unhelpful cliché, it just came out.

"That's what I thought too. But..." he shrugged. Sipped his coffee.

"She's prob'ly just tense right now. I'm sure she'll – "

"I ended it." When it was clear that Mal wasn't going to respond, Conner continued. "She's... I just don't think she's the person I fell in love with any more. I'm starting to wonder if she ever was. If she ever loved me, I mean."

"Conner, I have seen the way that girl looks at you."

"Yeah, the way she looks at me with her... fake eyes. She learned that 'look' off a sitcom! Did you know that?" Conner glared at the small glass in his hand. He seemed to be concentrating on not crushing it. "Sometimes I... sometimes I wonder if anything we know about her is real at all. Maybe the whole relationship was an act."

Mal had seen Conner growl and roar and sulk, but he'd never seen him quite so intensely angry. He tried to imagine what it would be like if his relationship with Karen ended. Would he be that angry? Would he hate her like that, blame her for outrageous things? No, he could never do that to her. But the day before he would've said the same thing about Conner and M'Gann.

"Have you seen what she does to her enemies?"

"... her enemies?"

"She's not exactly... gentle... with her psychic powers. She just pulls information from her their minds and doesn't care how much damage she does. You know the very first mission M'Gann and I were on together?"

"The Mister Twister thing? You've told me the story."

"Yeah, that. Well, right at the end of that fight this guy crawls out of the robot, and she just picks up this giant rock and crushes his head. And we're all just standing there, shocked, while this sweet girl kills a guy right in front of us like it's nothing."

"But she knew that was a robot."

"Yeah, she did. That turned out to be okay."

Mal had met Red Tornado, and wasn't sure that made it okay at all. But he didn't say anything.

"That turned out to be okay, but that moment, watching... watching her do that, that's how I feel right now. I'm thinking, in that moment, maybe we weren't so wrong about her."

"You've worked together for five years, man, you know her better than that."

"Five years, yeah. My whole life. Maybe that's the problem. M'Gann was the first girl I ever met. I was... too naïve." He took a sip of coffee. "I talked to her about it. I wanted to tell her why it was wrong, what she was doing. I got angry." The empty cup was set down firmly. "She tried to make me forget."

"Man."

"I hate people trying to control my mind. First Dr Desmond, then Luthor... even though I knew there was a chance she wouldn't listen to me, I... I never thought she'd stoop to that." He looked up. "Mal, what if..."

"... She doesn't care about anybody and she's playing friends to suit her purpose?"

"Yeah."

"I don't believe that, Conner, and neither do you, not really. You're still mad. M'Gann is a friend and hero who panicked and made a stupid mistake. By tomorrow she'll see how stupid she's been and you'll forgive her and next week the four of us will be sittin' at this table and M'Gann and Karen will be plannin' their next shopping trip."

"Mal, I really wish it were that easy."