On the third morning after Elsa's surgery and the world's most explosive temper tantrum, Anna approached Heins. Her eyes were downcast, and she kept tucking her hair behind her ear, fidgeting with her blue ribbon. "Heins? Can I talk to you, please? In private?"

"Huh? Oh, sure, Anna."

Anna gestured for him to follow, then turned and walked out of the camp. Heins glanced over at Elsa, who was being attended to by Elsie. She gave him an encouraging smile, and nodded for him to follow Anna. She reached up and squeezed Heins's hand as he passed.

Anna led the way out of earshot of the rest of the camp, then turned around to face Heins, though she still did not meet his eyes. She was looking at the ground, her shoulders slumped and nibbling on her bottom lip. She looked very much like a child caught sneaking sweets before dinner.

"Um… I wanted- Uh..." Anna didn't seem to know what to say. Heins stood there, feeling more uncomfortable with every second of silence and every false start Anna took. He thought he knew what she wanted to say, but he was afraid to speak for her. While he waited for her to speak, he was struck by how terrible she looked.

She had changed her hair, and while Anna had always had a preference for understated clothing, the loose rags she wore now were a far cry from even the plainest clothing back in the castle. That was all normal. Everyone had changed their look rather drastically to help them stay incognito within the Empire. In fact, Heins rather thought the shorter hair suited her well. The thing that struck him was her eyes. Before, when he would look into Anna's eyes, they would be full of life and love, humor and good cheer, optimism and hope. Behind her eyes now was… nothing. No happiness, no hope, no love, no life. It was like she was nothing but a shell, mechanically going through the motions without really living. None of them had had a very good time since the Fall. But now, looking into her eyes, he had no doubt that Anna had gotten the worst of it.

"How's your back?" she asked at last.

"It's fine."

"Good… that's good." She fell silent again, eyes downcast, and then, without warning, she burst into tears. Heins stood frozen as Anna stumbled forward. He took her into his arms as she collapsed against him, sobbing hard. "I'm- sorry-" she choked. "I'm- so- so- sorry…" To Heins's great relief, Anna stayed aware of herself enough to not embrace Heins back, but left her arms curled up between them so she didn't irritate his burns.

"It's okay, Anna," he said, patting her back with clumsy motions. He figured she was going to apologize, but this was not at all how he pictured it going. Unfortunately, this did nothing but intensify her sobs.

"I don't know what's wrong with me!" she cried.

"Anna, what-"

"I'm so sorry!" she wailed, and Heins gave up trying to get coherent thoughts out of her just now. He settled for just holding her as she cried, at a loss for what to do next. He liked Anna, a lot. He'd do anything in the world for her, as he would for Elsa or Kristoff. But he had never been that close to Anna herself. Most of the obligation he felt towards her was Elsa's by proxy. It wasn't by design, they had just never spent that much time together with just the two of them. Almost every conversation he had ever had with her was spent in the company of Elsa, or Kristoff, or both. In a situation like this, he was very far out of his depth.

After a minute or two, Anna began to catch her breath. Heins broke away from the embrace, but still held onto Anna's shoulders as she wiped her eyes with her sleeves. "I'm sorry," she muttered, her eyes cast downwards. "I didn't mean to cry."

"You don't need to apologize for that, Anna." He hesitated, then continued. "Anna, I'm just going to level with you." She looked up at him. Her eyes weren't as empty as before, but they were now full of anguish and confusion. "I know you didn't mean to hurt me, any more than Elsa meant to cause the Great Freeze. So if you insist on apologizing for that, there's truly no need, but if you insist, then apology accepted." She did not respond, but continued looking at him. "I just want you to know that I'm here for you… you know, if you need it. I know I'm not Elsa, or Kristoff, but… if you need anything- anything, I'm here."

Anna was silent for a few moments, and then she smiled sadly. None of it reached her eyes. "I appreciate that Heins. I really do. But… what I need, you can't help me with."

"What do you need?"

"... someone to fix me."

"Wha-"

"I'm really sorry I hurt you, Heins." With that, Anna walked away, leaving a confused and upset Heins in her wake.