"Good morning Birkhoff." Stacy's vice softly greeted the young man as he came out of anesthesia. "How do you feel?"

"A little sore." he replied after taking a quick inventory.

"The surgery went well, we reversed your colostomy with no problems." Stacy reported to him.

"Great." Birkhoff groaned.

"Hey, you're doing well!" Stacy tried to cheer Birkhoff up, knowing the young man had been through so much.

It would still be at least a month before his hands and feet would heal enough for them to start therapy but most of Birkhoff's internal injuries had started to heal. It had been a rough couple weeks for Birkhoff. Sonya, one of the only woman he had gotten close to, had died. He was also in a tremendous amount of pain from all of his injuries and surgeries. The worst injury was his mental state by far. Everything had built him up to a horrible depression. Stacy tried to help as much as possible, but Birkhoff was in a bad place.

Stacy turned Birkhoff's head gently to check his stitches from the stab wound to his head. It was really strange to see Birkhoff with buzzed short hair- kept that way for his stitches and because of them having to cut his hair quickly to initially treat his injuries. A buzz had been the only way to straighten it out. "Your head wound looks great." she tried to cheer Birkhoff up.

Looking away, Birkhoff was obviously still very depressed. Stacy stood up and walked around the stretcher, cupping Birkhoff's chin gently so he could not look away. "Birkhoff, talk to me!" she looked him in the eyes, "You can't keep doing this to yourself."

Finally Birkhoff looked up to lock eyes with Stacy. "Sonya, the one person in my life I've loved, is dead. My hands are crushed, my feet are crushed, I can't do anything for myself- I am useless."

Stacy moved her hand to gently cup Birkhoff's cheek. "You are a very, very smart young man. You know that is not true. You are brilliant- the smartest person any of us know. Your body will heal. We'll help you with Sonya- but that will be hard to get over, we know. But we are all here for you Birkhoff and as your physician, I guarantee that I will not rest until you are back to normal function."

Birkhoff embarrassed looked away from Stacy's gaze. "I know." he quietly mumbled, "I'm trying."

Stacy just smiled. "Birkhoff, we love you and we will wait for you. Don't feel like you've got to bottle it up inside. I am always here to talk to, and I'm sure all of the others feel the same."

Leaning in, Stacy gave Birkhoff a huge hug. She could just tell it was exactly what he needed. "You'll be okay Birkhoff, we'll make sure of it." Stacy whispered in his ear as she hugged him tightly.

Michael stood outside the door to medical, watching Stacy try to comfort their friend. He was glad Birkhoff had come out of surgery okay and glad to see that Stacy was desperately trying to heal him completely. The nerd had been through a lot and he needed all the friends he could get. When she hugged him, Michael locked eyes with Birkhoff, giving him a friendly smile. "Hey Birkhoff, how are you doing?" Michael walked into medical after Birkhoff had spotted him.

"Tired and sore." he replied.

"Let me know if there is anything we can do for you." Michael told him as Stacy checked his other wounds.

"Stacy is doing a pretty good job, but I'll let you know." Birkhoff replied.

Inside Michael was grinning. After the hug from Stacy, Birkhoff had seemingly perked up. "Why don't we let him rest?" Stacy suggested to Michael, "He needs his rest, he just had major surgery."

With a nod, Michael patted Birkhoff on the shoulder, then he and Stacy walked out into the main medical office. "How is he doing?" Michael asked her.

Sighing, Stacy replied, "He's pretty depressed. Not that we can blame him after what he's been through. Have you gotten anywhere with the fake Kaylin?"

Michael shook his head. "We still can't figure out who she is. She's a ghost- just like most of us."

"What about Birkhoff's real sister?"

By the roll of Michael's eyes, Stacy knew the answer would not be good. "We have not been able to find anything about her. She doesn't show up anywhere. We are coming up empty, especially without Birkhoff."

Stacy nervously chewed on her lip. The only way to ensure Birkhoff's safety was to get leverage on the girl who pretended to be his sister. If they could not do that, they would risk her attacking Birkhoff again if she got lose. Of course, that was not very likely but it was better to be safe than sorry. "So the best guess is that Amanda has her?"

With a frown, Michael answered, "That's a good guess and without Sonya or Birkhoff, we are not getting anywhere fast on trying to find her either."

Looking back at the tech, his eyes closed as he tried to rest, Stacy was not sure what to do. Birkhoff was clearly the only person who would be able to find Amanda, but he was in no condition to help them. "Maybe I can get Birkhoff to teach me a little. Since he could not navigate the computer himself." she suggested.

Both of them instinctually peaked at Birkhoff, his hands and feet still heavily casted. "If he could help, maybe it would cheer him up too." Michael argued.

Stacy nodded. It could certainly frustrate him more since he would be incapable of using the computer himself, but the ability to help the group, especially if he could find Amanda and his sister would definitely improve his mood. It was a complete Catch-22. "Let him rest for now and I'll see what he says when he is a little stronger."

"Sounds good." Michael agreed, again glancing sadly in Birkhoff's direction. "I'm going to go back to Operations and see how the others are doing."

Going back to work, Stacy pulled up some research as Michael left. He was glad so far Stacy had been able to improve his mood but he knew it would still be a long road. Birkhoff had been through quite a lot in such a short period of time- two weeks- physical injuries and surgery and the horrible emotional lose of his significant other. Sonya had been the one person who had been allowed to crack Birkhoff's shell in the past fifteen years and now she was gone and his shell was tougher than ever. He was a tough guy to be sure, but anyone would have cracked under that pressure.

When Michael returned to Operations, he was slightly distressed that it still was in complete shambles. Since Birkhoff had been hurt, the organization went completely out the door and the place was a horrible, horrible mess. Nikita and Alex were standing in the middle working at a computer together. Walking over to them, Nikita greeted Michael with a smile, albeit a small one. "This is a mess." Alex sighed as she greeted him.

"I know. Birkhoff's a long way from recovery too." Michael acknowledged. "But Stacy is going to try to help us out by having Birkhoff tell her what to do."

Nikita thought for a minute. "That could just make it worse."

"Or better, since he'd be helping." Alex added.

"It could go either way." Michael said, "But we have to try something and we really need the help."

An hour later Stacy walked into the recovery room where Birkhoff was starting to fiddle around after waking up from his nap. Stacy had his laptop bag on her shoulder with the bag pulled around her back, trying to see if he could help them. She was nervous how he might react, but knew it was a chance they had to take- both for his sake and theirs. "Hey Birkhoff," she greeted him as she walked up to his bed.

Birkhoff looked up at her. "Hi Stacy." His greeting was less than enthusiastic.

"How are you feeling?"

Shrugging, he replied, "Okay."

"So, I have a question for you," Stacy said, sitting down while slowly pulling his laptop bag onto her lap. "We are having a really difficult time trying to find Amanda and the real Kaylin and trying to figure out who the girl pretending to be Kaylin really is. We would like you to help guide me to see what we can find out. They really need your help."

The look on Birkhoff's face was confusion. Obviously he was conflicted, but it also reminded him that they had lost Sonya. It was quiet, but Birkhoff replied, "I'll help."

Stacy pulled the table over so Birkhoff would be able to see the screen. Giving her his password, Birkhoff cringed when a huge picture of Sonya popped up as his background. "I'm sorry Birkhoff." Stacy rubbed his shoulder in support.

"It's okay." his voice wavered in distress.

Pulling up an Internet window, Stacy covered the picture for him. "There." She rubbed his shoulders again.

Working for 15 minutes, Stacy could tell that her and Birkhoff had gotten further than the others had in about two weeks while Birkhoff was initially recovering. They had some strong clues to where Amanda was. They had not yet pinpointed her yet, but they had created a trail using surveillance video. Apparently no one had been able to use the program beside Birkhoff and Sonya, making the video hidden until then. Stacy had quickly come to understand that this was the issue the whole time. After a few more minutes, Stacy decided to stop for now. Amanda was important, but Birkhoff was starting to get visually upset that he couldn't do anything for himself. "Why don't we take a break?" Stacy suggested, closing the computer. "I'll work on it more later." she promised him.

Birkhoff nodded briefly. "I think I'm gonna get some rest."

With a smile, Stacy replied, "Good night Birkhoff."

"Call me Seymour." he replied as she left the room, happy to see his mood was improving.