Mikey sat cross-legged on top of the desk that he had practically claimed as his own. He was getting pretty impatient to see Amelia safe and sound. He just needed to be sure she was okay.

Trent and Sophie had decided to sit with Grant on the floor to help distract him from his worrying. Patty came over to Mikey and leaned against the desk.

"How are you doing?" she asked him.

Mikey shrugged. "I'm fine," he said. "Just bored."

"You don't look bored," Patty said. "You look pretty anxious to me."

"I am. Our leader is still in danger until she gets here."

"Oh, is that what this is about?" she asked, giving him a knowing look. "It's not because you have a crush on her?"

Mikey hopped down from the desk and shushed her. "Come on, I don't want her to know."

"I think she's oblivious to it, hon," she said. "And I won't say anything to her. I wouldn't dare."

The door finally opened again, and Amelia walked through with Doug in tow. Nate, Carla, and Alex weren't far behind, shutting the door behind them. Grant scrambled up to greet her.

"Amelia! You're alright!" he exclaimed. "And you have Doug Rattmann with you! What is that that you're holding, Rattmann?"

There was a strange device that Doug was holding in both of his hands. It was sleek with a white chassis and a strange orange glow at the end of it. Nate, Carla, and Alex were wearing odd orange jumpsuits and springy-looking leg braces.

"It's an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device," Nate answered for Doug.

Grant looked down at Nate's arm and that's when Mikey noticed it, too. There was a bandage wrapped around his forearm. "What happened?" Grant asked.

"I just got cut on my arm is all," Nate said. "I'll be alright. Doug did a great job of sewin' me up."

Grant looked to Doug again who was looking around at all of the strangers. He briefly met eyes with Mikey who felt just a little bit uncomfortable. Doug didn't look to be at all mentally healthy. His hair and beard were so scruffy, and his lab coat was a colorful mess.

"Well, thank you, Doug," Grant said, reaching out and shaking Doug's hand. "It's an honor to meet you. My name is Grant Muller."

Doug gave Grant a blank, almost confused expression. "Uh, nice to meet you, too," he said quietly.

Grant turned to address Nate again. "How did you get cut anyway, Nate?" he asked.

"Well, GLaDOS got ahold of us and put us through tests," Nate explained. "I know we were supposed to be checkin' the examination rooms, but Alex thought that we might find Amelia and Doug if we crawled through the air vents to get from one room to the other. The idiot got us lost, though, and we ended up in a room where we were knocked out with some sort of sleepin' gas. Next thing we knew, we were in stasis pods and had these jumpsuits. We were also given these portal devices."

"You can't say that nothing good came out of this," Alex grumbled.

Now Grant turned to Amelia. "Just out of curiosity," Grant said, "where did you find Doug, Chief Oates?"

"Well, I was trying to get away from GLaDOS by crawling through the air vents when I ran into Doug," Amelia said. She seemed kind of awkward talking about it.

"I made sure she was safe," Doug said quietly. "My hideouts are completely out of GLaDOS' reach."

"It's a good thing she happened to run into you," Grant said.

The door suddenly opened again and Arin stepped through. He stopped when he saw Amelia, though. "Amelia!" he exclaimed, and ran forward to trap her in a hug. Doug awkwardly stepped away and looked around the room. He met eyes with Mikey again who felt just as awkward about Arin showing this much affection toward Amelia.

"I was so worried about you!" Arin continued to gush.

"I don't mean to alarm you but you might break my ribs with this hug," Amelia said.

Arin let go of her and she turned to Jon and Natalie. She started talking with them, but Mikey was a little distracted by how uncomfortable Doug seemed. He wanted to go over and say something. He wanted to express to Amelia how worried he'd been. He wanted to say anything, but he just stood around quietly like he wasn't even there. As per usual.

Grant suddenly asked Doug how long it had been since he was outside.

"Over a decade, I think," Doug answered quietly.

"Let's go out to the grass, Doug," Amelia said. "You're going to be surprised how much you missed it."

Doug smiled. "Oh, you have no idea."

Everyone made sure that they had everything while Mikey awkwardly opened the drawers of the desk he'd gotten so familiar with. He opened one of the bottom drawers and was intrigued by a strange metal headband. He considered taking it for a moment, but then he decided against it. What use could it be? It was probably scrap metal.

They all headed back for the train tunnel, taking their time but keeping alert of any possible Combine soldiers around. It only took them thirty minutes to get back. Doug set down a bedsheet that he'd been carrying something heavy and boxy in. Then he lied down in the grass and seemed to just take in everything around him. Nate asked if he was okay and Doug just nodded.

"I'm going to go back to that stream," Patty said. "If anyone wants to join me they can."

Mikey followed everyone else but didn't realize that Amelia hadn't followed until they got to the stream. He looked back and could see Amelia sitting in the grass next to Doug. Being careful not to be noticed, Mikey crept closer to them, hiding behind trees and straining to hear what they were saying. It seemed that all of his years being unnoticeable were working to his advantage now.

He got close enough to just barely hear what was being said. He heard Doug give an apology for kissing her earlier and his heart sank. Doug had kissed Amelia? Why? Why would he do something like that? His heart sank even lower when he heard Amelia mention that it had been her first kiss.

Mikey hadn't known that she'd never kissed anyone before.

He felt a sickening jealousy overcome him as he slid down the tree trunk he hid behind to sit in the grass. He stared down and ripped up individual blades of grass as he tried to take this in. What did this mean? Was she dating Doug now or something? She'd just met him!

"Yo, Mikey," Arin said as he walked up to him. "You okay? You don't look so good."

"I don't feel so good, either," Mikey mumbled.

Arin sat down cross-legged in front of him. "Anything you wanna talk about?"

Mikey shook his head. "Thanks, though."

"Well, hey, that android project is pretty close to being done," Arin said optimistically. "Stevie is probably working on it as we speak. I bet Toby's itching to get into one of the droids."

Mikey sighed a little and finally looked up at Arin, but he noticed that Arin was looking past him at Amelia talking with Doug.

"What do you suppose they're talking about?" Arin asked quietly.

Mikey shrugged. "Could be anything."