After the doctor had checked on Skipper and Ma had changed his clothes for the day, Layla entered the room with Kowalski, already done with clean up. The girl made herself comfortable on the bed, just stroking the sleeping boy's head lightly, while Kowalski stood by.

"I didn't want to alarm him." Layla didn't stop stroking Skipper's head, and she didn't look up at Kowalski either. "I knew what was happening." She paused, but still didn't look up.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw the machine, the heart rate monitor. Her pulse, it was getting weak. I-I," she finally looked up, seeing her flustered friend struggling to say something, "I wanted to say something, but she distracted me." He sniffed unexpectedly and looked at Skipper. "I think she was trying to keep me from telling anyone. She's smart."

Layla gave him a gentle smile. "She never would have been made Lieutenant Commander of the US Navy if she wasn't like that."

"Ex." Kowalski corrected softly with his head down. "Ex-Lieutenant Commander." She merely nodded blindly and rested her head on the wall. "At least we made her last moments the best, right?" He looked at her hopefully, and she gave him the same gentle smile.

She closed her eyes, and only opened them when she felt the bed dip before her.

"How did you handle losing your brother?"

She smiled briefly and placed her head back on the wall. "I didn't."

"I don't get it." She shook her head.

"You can't understand death, Kowalski. I couldn't handle losing him. I was barely legal enough to understand the word."

"Then how did you get over him?"

The girl closed her eyes again and giggled.

"Layla? Have you finally lost it?"

Without opening her eyes, she spoke. "You should have seen the faces of those officers when they told me what happened to him. Someone told me, in complete awe, that I just took it in stride and said, 'so, what you're saying is that he's dead?'." She opened her eyes with a grin. "I think I watched too many movies back then."

"Wow. You are heartless." She rolled her eyes at his joking tone and punched his arm.

"Dude, no. I had a brother. He likes, no loves, action movies and watched them whenever he could. Technically, anything he loved, so did I. I love food, playing sports...now that I think about it, he made me do his Math homework. That sneak."

"I know. And sometimes you couldn't just buy stuff, so you two decided to search up how to make them...and there you have our private baker, carpenter, engineer and mathematician here. Free of charge too."

Layla giggled and punched his arm as she replied in the same joking tone. "I do get paid around here, ya know? Anyways." She took in a deep breath. "So me, being the inquisitive little worm I am, decided to be curious and asked what happened to those people that went down and didn't wake up." She leaned closer to him. "Do you know what he told me?"

"What?"

Layla cleared her throat as she attempted to lower her voice to make it manlier. "'They're dead, G'." She threw her arms in the air. "Cue explosion in the background! Boom!"

Kowalski stared at her for a while before shaking his head.

"I think I know where you get your straightforwardness."

She grinned widely. "Nothing better than being straight to the point. Of course," she continued as her eyes glazed over by the memory she was reliving, "I was still curious, and I asked what that meant. And he said 'it's when they have to go, and can't come back'. And I said,"

"Why not?"

"Because they can't, G. But don't worry, they'll be fine. They're not in pain anymore and they'll be able to finally sleep without having to worry about anything happening to them, or their loved ones."

"They're not going to wake up? Like, ever? Never ever?"

"Nope. Unless they're ghosts or zombies."

Kowalski raised an incredulous brow at her. "He seriously told you that?"

She nodded slowly and patted the palm of her hand. "Yup. And then he showed me what they looked like when I asked what those were. Can I say curiosity killed the cat?"

"That is not normal. That is definitely not what you should show a little kid. What was he thinking?"

"Yeah," she drawled and wiggled her nose, "I got scarred for weeks and refused to leave his side during that time, not even when he had to go to the men's washroom. You got me there though. Yeah, it's not his fault that caffeine and stress decided to get to him. He's not exactly the best brother. Sometimes I wonder if we're even related at all. I mean, he hates Math, but keeps teaching me how to do it. It's insane, right?" She peeked at the curious boy before her and smiled. "But it was enough for me. He was enough for me. And with everything he did for me? I think I was enough for him."

"Still...that was not what he should have done. He should have just said that they were creatures you never want to meet, or something like that."

Layla rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever. But that got me thinking, while he was preparing the movies featuring zombies and or ghosts, that maybe he's right."

"With showing you scary pictures and scarring you for life?"

"No, silly." Layla reached over and punched him again. "I just thought that they were in a better place. And when those officers came to tell me about the accident, I just thought, 'hey, he's in a better place now. He deserves it. He works so hard for me, he needs a break.'"

"You really thought that?"

"Yeah," she stuck out her tongue at him, "I was that mature."

"That's hard to believe."

She stuck out her tongue at him again. "I'm serious though. Then they brought me here, I met Skipper, and-"

"Practically forced him into being your friend by threatening to cry to Ma about him hurting you when he absolutely did no such thing?"

"I was lonely." She crossed her arms with a huff. "I wanted to talk to a breathing person who wasn't an adult or an inanimate object."

"I thought you told me that you first had an actual conversation with him when you ran into his room and hid in his bed because you thought there was a monster in your closet?"

"I heard voices in the closet, not a monster, okay? And," she rolled her eyes exasperatedly, arms still crossed, "when we investigated the mysterious voices, it was just Manfredi and Johnson hiding out in my closet."

"You never told me why they were there."

"I had a stash in there..." Layla murmured under her breath.

"Stash of what?"

"Chocolates and candies...those thieves ate out my entire stash! I had like, five bags of the good stuff and they just finished it all! Marshmallow heads!" She burst out angrily, before slapping her hands over her mouth and looking over at Skipper. She let out a sigh when she realized that he was still asleep, until an eye lazily opened and looked up at her. "Skipper? You're awake? For how long?"

"I can't exactly sleep peacefully with you two talking like I was never here."

"Oh. Sorry." She got up, along with Kowalski. "We'll leave."

Skipper shifted on the bed with his back to them, tucking himself in. "For your information, you owe me for 'saving' your life from those scary closet monsters."

"Give me a break! I was eight with an overactive imagination!"

"You still owe me."

"I gave you my slice of a cake during dinner." She frowned. "It was triple chocolate. Chocolate cake, chocolate filing and chocolate icing."

"And it was yummy."

"I hate you."

"I love you too, sis."

"You even had the nerve to enjoy it in front of me too! Chocolate stealer! The lot of you!"

Skipper turned his head to her and stuck out his tongue. "That's what you get for blackmailing me. And you still owe me." He repeated before burying himself deeper into the covers. "Now go away. I want to sleep."

"Fine." She pulled Kowalski out of the room, but before she could close the door behind her, she called out. "But I am not giving you my slice of cake again! Especially if it's chocolate!" She slammed the door shut, but it opened a second later before he could say anything. "And don't you dare pull out the sick card on me, mister! I took care of you and fed you like a big baby!"

Skipper rolled his eyes under the covers once the door was closed. "Weirdo!"

"I HEARD THAT!" Cue another eye roll.

"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO."

"LAYLA!" Ma's sharp voice made them jump. "Leave the poor boy alone! He's sick and trying to sleep!"

"But-"

"No. The boy needs to be well enough for the service. It's for his mother and her platoon, so he needs his rest now if he wants to attend too."

"I know, but I was just-"

"Go to your room."

"But-"

"Go to your room. NOW. No excuses. It's late, and you're going to wake up the rest of the building if you keep this up."

Skipper chuckled once the girl walked away mumbling, but it soon turned into a fit of sneezes.

"Bless you." Skipper looked up to see Kowalski leaning against the wall with a grin on his face.

"I thought you were with her?" The sick boy asked, though it was muffled because of his condition.

"I was." He chuckled. "She didn't notice that I slipped back in."

"She's going to be so mad when she finds out that you've got better ninja skills." The two snickered, though Skipper's was more of distorted sniffles.

Kowalski nodded and walked over to his bed, slipping under the covers. "Get your rest. You'll need it, Captain." The boy winked and saluted him. They both snuggled into their beds and turned off their lights. "I'll be right here if you need anything."

One minute later...

"Uh, Kowalski?"

Kowalski groaned, turned on the light and looked over at the form on the other bed. "What is it, Skipper?"

"Can I get water?"

"Couldn't you wait for tomorrow?"

"Now, Kowalski."

Kowalski dropped back on the bed and turned off the light. "Tomorrow."

"I need water. And you said-"

"Ugh...Fine." The covers flew off the other bed as Kowalski trudged out of it. "You give a helping hand and they abuse it." The boy shook his head as Skipper hid his grin. "I am not doing this again."