Cap'n's Log: Avast! This be the second bit o' me yarn, and if ye scour its pages ye'll spy a message in a bottle (rum's gone), offerin' a yo-ho-ho to some o' me shipmates. If ye be enjoyin' the tale, remember ye can toss a dubloon in yonder chest marked 'Review'! Drink up, hearties, and keep singin' out yer shanties for Talk Like a Pirate Day!

"This can't be real." The girl with no name stood up and stalked across the living room, then turned around and went back to the table to pick up the documents again. "It's insane. Impossible."

"Can you think of any other way to explain what you just went through?" Hayden was sitting on the loveseat, looking much different now that he had dropped the guise he had worn inside the Dollhouse: less relaxed, no less confident, infinitely more exhausted.

She shook her head impatiently, uninterested in actually finding a way for it to be real and possible. "I just…how can you have all this information about the Dollhouse and still not know anything about who I was?"

"I worked for them. The records of the Actives' original selves are completely classified, though. Nobody sees them except for whoever it was you spoke to when you volunteered."

"I didn't--!" Her automatic denial started in fury, but ending it was pointless. She had no idea of what she had done, or why. "How do you know I volunteered?" she said instead.

"It's policy."

"Bullshit."

He sighed and removed his already loosened tie. "Can't actually prove you wrong there," he said as he unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, "so this round goes to you."

It hurt to see him so agitated, and she wasn't sure why. Well, if she couldn't find out anything about herself, she was going to have to start with finding out about him. "Why would you work for a place like that?"

He met her eyes and said shortly, "I'm not proud of it."

"Oh, God." Maybe finding out more about him, or about any of this, was a bad idea. She tossed the papers back onto the table and let herself sink down until she was sitting on the floor. "This is happening. This is really happening. Why can't I remember? Just one thing. Anything. Anything!" Her voice broke and turned into a shriek, and she laid her hands on her face to try to seal in the tears.

Hayden was immediately at her side, crouching down to her level with non-threatening body language. "Quebec…" She glanced at his face just in time to see him wince. "Sorry. Do you want to pick a name I can call you by?"

She sniffed and took a deep breath to steady herself. A few of her favorite names drifted through her mind—Leah, Michela, Katie. Were any of them hers? Were they even her favorites, or did they only come to mind because they had belonged to people she loved? Her mouth twisted. "Can we get back to that question later?"

He nodded and sat down next to her on the floor. "We're safe here for now, but we'll have to get on the road in a couple days. I have some friends who agreed to hide us for a while. It's a long drive, but right now farther is better."

When they had entered this place, he explained that it was his 'real' apartment and that the Dollhouse had another address for him in their records. She didn't doubt that he was right about it being only a temporary shelter, though, considering the resources of the organization they were trying to evade. The magnitude of the steps he had taken struck her all at once, and she tried to imagine what either of them was left with when all was said and done. "Why did you get me out?" she asked him quietly. "And why just me?"

He twined his fingers together, a curiously childlike motion. "They were going to sell you," he said. "It's gone to a level more corrupt than any of us had ever expected. The Rossum Corporation is in the process of writing away the five-year rule, like your contract didn't even exist. Some old bitch forks over enough cash, she can take her pick of the Actives and move into the body, and yours was first in line."

She wrestled with the urge to vomit. Could there really be people in the world evil enough to justify that to themselves? "So…" she began, then looked away. The shame in Hayden's eyes was too much to handle at the moment. "So you just decided it was time to give up the gig?"

"There wasn't any other way. It took every connection I had just to shut down surveillance in the right spots, and even that only bought us a few minutes. You were scheduled for your closure exercise and I jumped on the chance."

"The hell is a closure exercise?"

"They temporarily return your mind to your body, but without the memories. The idea is that you can resolve any personal issues that have carried over to your Active state." He was trying to speak tonelessly, she could tell, probably in an effort to distance himself. Even as it was, the guilt had to be killing him.

Well, good. Let him squirm. Obviously he wasn't Mr. Innocence, and she was angry. "Temporarily? Did you just say temporarily?"

"Yes, but for you it's different. Generally there's a trigger that shuts you down as soon as your goal is achieved, but I managed to get that left out of your treatment. Nothing can alter what you are now unless they get their hands on you."

Every word he said seemed to carry more questions, and every question made her doubt herself a little more. How was she supposed to know if anything was interfering with her mental faculties? How could Hayden even know for sure if he had been successful? For all they knew, Rossum Corporation was about to kick down the door and turn her back into a doll and…do something bad to Hayden. He had sacrificed so much, risked even more.

"What now?" she said weakly.

He crossed his arms over his knees and looked at her with his head on his arm. "Do you want to stick with me?"

"I don't really have a choice."

"Yes you do."

She brushed her hair back with a hand, noting with dull interest that it was thick and brown, and that she hadn't yet looked in a mirror. "I don't know who I am or where to go or anything that can help me in any way. You're my only chance."

"I'm your best chance," he corrected, but he left the matter at that. "So if we're going with my plan it's mostly going to be running and hiding, but I'm better at it than you might expect. We'll be alright." He touched her shoulder, very lightly, with his fingertips. "And I swear, Qu—I, I mean, uh, I mean I swear I'll do everything I can to get your memories back."

A laugh bubbled out of her throat, letting her feel a small release even with such minimal humor in it. "You know what? Just call me Quebec."