Hal stared at the ceiling for a long time. The window across from him in Mei Ling's spare bedroom produced a stream of sunlight that ran up the wall and splashed across the spot of ceiling right above him. It was moving slowly to the right and that's the only way Hal remembered he was still existing on some level, still…alive to some effect. He was still included in someone's idea of time and it was actively, excruciatingly passing. Without Sunny.

He hadn't slept at all regardless of his body's pleas to turn off. Sunny's sobbing face joined the collection of lasting impressions left by the people who had left his life. It existed somewhere between the way Wolf's hand landed on his as she retrieved her sniper rifle from his care and the last blink of Naomi's eyes that burned into his through the computer monitor as he watched her life fade from her.

Hal broke his gaze to look at Mei Ling enter the room and it landed on her smile. As little as a week ago, that smile had made his heart secretly flutter. She wasn't cute anymore. Not like she had been when he had met her after Shadow Moses all those years ago. Long gone was that round-faced, thin, plank-framed teenager. She was easily beautiful, now. Sexy even. The years had sanded over and nicely shaped her in all the places women prayed for that kind of customization to take place in and without losing it's ever present sweet and soft nature, her facial features lulled in a certain carnality and could easily toss its remaining purity with a half-oblivious curl of her mouth.

"You slept much?"

"A little," he lied.

"Good. You have any idea what you want for breakfast? I'm not much of a cook but I've been feeding myself all these years so I suppose it's edible."

Hal gave a courtesy chuckle. "Please, don't go out of your way for me."

"You know, Hal…you're really not as much of a bother as you want to believe you are."

"Honestly, Mei, I'm just not hungry right now."

"And you probably won't be hungry later or the next day either." She sat down on the bed next to him. "I see where you're going and I'm begging you, don't enter that place."

Hal moved his eyes to the window in order to change the subject. "Do you remember the day Jack brought Sunny to Dave and me?"

"I do. It almost seemed as if you were scared of her the first few months. But after a while, you became really sensitive with her. I remember that time she fell and got that bruise on her face. She barely cried but you felt like the worst person in the world."

"It's a really good thing Dave's been around for a majority of her life. Do you know what she'd be without him?"

"What?"

"Me." He laughed but only the motion came through, none of the feeling. "But, she's so much stronger than I ever have been or ever will be. The worst part of this all is knowing that even if I would have been in the safe room with her, I still wouldn't have been able to protect her."

"You don't know that. People have moved whole vehicles in emergency situations."

"I haven't been able to protect anyone I've cared about, Mei. Everyone I've ever loved has died right in front of me. When we first got Sunny, I was scared," he admitted, "I was scared to love her and risk giving her the same fate as everyone else in my life."

"Come on, Hal. You can't actually believe that. Dave is still around and I'm not going anywhere soon."

"Dave is living on borrowed time and you…" He paused. "I wouldn't suggest you get too close to me."

"So you think that my and Dave's chosen fate was predetermined by the fact that we were going to meet and become friends with you? Do you know how completely unrealistic this all sounds? Look at me, Hal."

He did so but only when he felt like the building pressure behind his eyes wouldn't actually produce any tears.

"Sunny is going to grow up to be an incredible woman and Dave, even in his condition, will probably outlive the both of us. You're not cursed so stop thinking like that. It's poisonous."

Being around him was poisonous.

That was what he wanted to say.

But he didn't.

He chose to accept the invitation to bury himself in Mei Ling's embrace instead.

Four weeks later…

***

"It's good to see you, Roy."

Roy immediately thought that Dave looked as if he had been in the trenches for the last few weeks, neglecting sleep or any other forms of physical and mental restoration that isn't allowed during a battle.

Dave gestured him into the living room and closed the door. "Hal's upstairs," he said when he noticed Roy's eyes daring to ask about him.

"Will he be coming down?"

"Probably not. He hasn't been extremely social lately."

Roy nodded. "Understandable."

"Mei's been a big help but there's only so much she can do. He needs to see Sunny again." It almost sounded like it had started in his mind as a plea but ended as a demand. Roy nearly winced. "We could really use some good news, Roy. We haven't heard from your friend Adams since the night everything happened."

"I know. There's a reason for that," he admitted. "Adams and I both sensed that Hal just wasn't ready mentally to deal with whatever could possibly come up while looking for Sunny."

"So you decided to keep us in the dark about it?"

"No, not at all. Unfortunately, there's just hasn't been a break in the case. But we thought it would be better just to give you any information that comes up so that you convey it to Hal as appropriately as possible."

Dave's expression relaxed and actually became favorable of the proposal.

"That's fine," he said, "but make sure Adams has some sort of contact with me even if there's been no breaks. There's nothing worse than waiting without anything to go by."

"Agreed. I'll make sure he does that."

Roy caught Dave's attention rest achingly on a picture of Sunny over the fireplace. Hal had stalked around a corner with a camera and taken it when she hadn't been looking. She had a sketchpad draped across her lap and legs like a starched blanket with her attention concentrated in the careful movements of her hand with the drawing pencil. Hal joked regularly that one day the photo would be worth a ton once her work was being shown in exhibits all over the world.

Perhaps when he realized what he was doing, Dave quickly diverted his eyes from it, like looking at it any longer would set his retinas ablaze. The glance had been intentional…but the emotion in it had most likely slipped out in spite of his best efforts to remain neutral.

"You care about Sunny a great deal yourself, don't you Dave?"

"I've seen a lot of things in my lifetime, Roy—we both have. I've seen things done to children…things that have shaken even someone like me to my core. I don't want anything like that to happen to her."

Roy sat in a chair across from Dave. "Sunny reminds me a lot of my own daughter, you know. Her feistiness and big heart. That's exactly how Meryl was."

"Yeah, she's still pretty feisty," Dave confirmed.

"She still has her big heart as well." His brow puckered. "I just feel horrible she'll never get to know what having her own child in it is like."

"Hal considers adopting Sunny the best thing he ever did. It made him complete despite not being biologically connected to her. I think Meryl could find happiness in doing the same thing."

Roy looked at him almost as if it was his own personal secret that had been told.

"She told me about her, uh, condition when she visited me in the hospital a few weeks back."

He nodded, satisfied. "It takes a lot for her to cry the way she did when she told me the news and there wasn't a damn thing I could do. I was completely and totally helpless. As a father, what do you do when you find out your daughter will never have a child of her own? Anything in the world, that's what," he answered himself.

Dave nearly said something after a cutting chill successfully passed through him. Before he could, the sound of Mei Ling coming down the stairs stole the moment. She had a tray in her hand with food arranged on it the same way it had been on her way up.

"He won't touch it," She said to no one in particular, "and I know he's lying every time he says he ate right before I got here."

Dave stood to accept the tray from her.

"I'll see what I can do," he said before he went past Mei Ling back up the stairs.

"It's no use, Dave. He's beyond stubborn right now."

He didn't so much as blink at the warning. He continued to his friend anyway.

***

"I love you, Uncle Hal."

"I love you too, Sunny. I missed you so much. I'm so happy you're with me again."

The little girl smiled and reached her hand out to touch his face with her fingertips. Hal quickly dropped to his knees in front of her to make it easier for her to do so.

"I'm happy we're together again, too."

"Can I hug you?"

She nodded. "Of course you can."

Hal took the little girl in his arms and buried his face into her shoulder for several still seconds.

"Would you like me to adjust my emotions settings so that I cry too?"

Hal looked back up at the face of the little girl and dried his eyes. "No. You don't have to do that."

"Should we resume the hug then?"

Hal nodded and rewrapped his arms around her. He began to hug her even tighter as he said, "I'll never let you go again, Sunny. I promise."

He suddenly sensed a few wrinkles of disturbance in the world he had created. When he looked up, he was back in the familiar walls of the simulation chamber with his arms encircling air. Hal got the same drop in his chest he felt all those weeks ago when Sunny had been mercilessly taken from him the first time. When the door opened, he whipped around.

"Hal—"

"What's wrong with you? Why did you do that, Dave?" He snapped.

The tone took Dave aback. Hal hardly ever raised his voice or let it come out with such a razor edge. Someone else had invaded and emerged out of his body and it made him uneasy.

"You can't live like this. In some virtual reality."

"I can live however the hell I want until Sunny comes back to me."

"Hal, I need to ask you something."

He stood up. "I'm not taking anymore of that medication Rose wrote for me," he declared. "It makes me sleep too much."

"That's fine. This isn't about the medication, though. Besides Sunny, you, and me who else knows that pass phrase to the safe room?"

"I really don't want to talk about this, Dave."

Hal walked past him out of the chamber and back into the lab. Dave followed and finally gave the tray in his hand to a passing table.

"I know it's still hard to deal with but—"

"No! You have no idea what it's like," he hissed. "You don't care about her like I do."

"Don't make it sound like I didn't care about her at all, Hal."

"'Like you didn't care," he repeated. "You're already talking like she's gone. Like you're perfectly okay with her being dead!"

"What? Hal, stop being ridiculous!"

"Yeah, I guess the idea of you caring about someone other than yourself is pretty ridiculous. How's that life of total emotional isolation working out for you?"

"Maybe I don't have as close a relationship with Sunny as you do…but this isn't fun for me either. But at the same time, my life hasn't stopped. It can't."

Hal went over to one of the computers and punched in a few commands to get his simulation back.

To get Sunny back.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd leave me alone now. I have a lot of work to do," he said soullessly.

"If that's what you want, Hal, fine. I'll leave you to wallow in your misery by yourself. I'm done doing that, anyhow. I still need you to try and remember who else knows that phrase, though. It's important."

Hal looked reluctant to even consider the thought.

"Mei Ling," he said after a few moments, eyes still on the screen.

"That's all?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure Dave," he said with an exasperation that suggested it was his tenth time saying it.

Both of them heard Mei Ling's tearful entrance toward the lab before they looked up to see her enter it. Dave was the only one who could move from his spot to go over to her though. Hal nearly stopped breathing.

"Mei…what's wrong?" Dave asked.

"Roy just got a call from Adams. They found a body. They don't know anything for sure but she's got the freckles on her left shoulder just like Hal said."

***

As soon as Roy, Mei Ling, and Dave walked into the morgue, Adams was there to meet them as solemn-faced as ever. Hal followed in behind them, a few seconds further from the truth than the others. And if it wouldn't have been for Mei Ling's persistence for him to come in, he would have been in the car still, a few feet away from it.

Adams didn't speak until they were all in the lobby.

"This is not a call I wanted to make," he began. "I'll spare you all the details of its condition but the girl's body that we found this morning just looks too much like the description of Sunny. I couldn't just shrug it off."

Hal had to consciously take a few breaths to keep the oxygen to his brain constant. Mei Ling noticed him wavering and put an arm around his waist to steady him.

"You said it might not be her," she reminded Adams for the sake of Hal.

"You're exactly right and I really hope that it's not. Someone's got to identify the body to rule out the possibility, though. Preferably Hal."

Hal immediately shook his head. "No. I can't go in there," he said. "There's no way I can look at her like that."

"You're the closest to her, Mr. Emmerich. You have the best chance of identifying the body accurately. It might not even be her."

"Do not put him through that, Adams," Mei Ling shot at him.

His glance went to Dave. "You're the next best choice."

Dave stared down at the floor for a long time though he knew long before ever doing that what his answer would be. Finally, he shook his head.

"I can't do it."

"Dave," Roy said with something in his voice that almost sounded like disappointment, "what do you mean you can't do it?"

"I mean that I don't need to see a dead 7-year-old girl, whether it's Sunny or not."

"Someone has to go in there." Adams felt as if he was trying to bait small kids into going into a dentist office. He turned his eyes to Mei Ling. "You're the last option."

Hal's arm hugged considerable tighter around her waist, anchoring her to her spot. Without even looking at him, she could tell he didn't want her to go as much as she didn't want to.

"I'm sorry. I don't think I can handle it either, Adams."

"I'll go," Roy finally said.

Adams sighed and massaged the back of his neck as if it was aiding the idea to register with him. "Come on, Roy. You know I can't do that. It isn't standard procedure. I could get into a lot of trouble letting you back there since you're a friend of mine."

"Nothing about this case has been standard procedure," he reminded him. "Besides, we really don't have much of a choice."

Adams scanned the faces of Dave, Mei Ling, and Hal once more for confirmation of the group consensus before he looked back at Roy.

"Fine. We have to make this quick though. Follow me," he said before they both disappeared around a corner.

"I need to sit down," Mei Ling quickly said at the sign of her knees buckling under her.

Hal, like an organic extension, followed her to a backless bench sitting against a wall.

"I'm going outside," Dave announced when he was nearly already out the door. Before Mei Ling could respond, the door was closing behind him.

She shook her head as she looked after him through a nearby window. "He's so hurt. His exterior is well-guarded but definitely not impenetrable."

"I know. Earlier, I said some things to him that I shouldn't have, though," Hal admitted as if she had just scolded him about it.

"I'm sure he understands that you're very upset."

She turned to him and brushed a few pieces of hair back behind his ears before putting her forehead to his. Hal closed his eyes and sensed her doing the same.

"That can't be Sunny in there," he said loud enough for only them to hear. "It just can't be. That can't happen to her. Sunny's fine and Dave's going to outlive both of us. That's what you said."

He opened his eyes when she didn't respond immediately and realized that she was crying.

"I know that's what I said, Hal."

"You meant it, didn't you?"

"Of course I did," she found his hands squeezed them in hers. "Listen to me. Whatever happens, we're going to get through it together, okay?"

"What do you mean whatever happens?"

"I don't know, Hal." But she did because she began to sob harder after she said it.

When Roy reentered the lobby, his face was completely flushed and his eyes were peaked and glassy. He had been crying.

Adams entered a few seconds after Roy and got Hal's attention before he sighed.

"Hal, I don't even know what to say," he said.

"Tell me that it's not Sunny."

Adams shut his eyes and lowered his head. "I'm sorry."

"Don't tell me sorry. Tell me that's not Sunny!"

Hal quickly shrugged off Mei Ling's offered comfort and placed his hands over his face and let the news hit him a few seconds afterwards with all the force of a tornado and every bit of the devastation. Mei Ling laid her hand on his back and prompted a sudden swell of emotion in him that wrestled him off the bench and onto his knees. After a moment, as if he realized he needed physical contact with her to continue breathing, he found her lap and fastened himself onto it like he was sinking into a black hole.

When Dave walked in, he took one look at his friend, crumbled in Mei's care, and inadvertently reached back to support himself on a nearby wall with his left hand. As slight as the movement was, it was the only thing that was keeping him standing.

Adams quickly made his way past Dave and exited out of the door and out of the heavy atmosphere that had formed. A few seconds later, a hand landed on his shoulder.

"We're going to get the bastards who did this to Sunny," Roy said, venom and tears mixing and pouring out from every word.

When he had exited, another cutting chill passed through Dave.