A/N: Here's the next bit! Because Dana kept prodding me oh-so-subtly ^.^; Anyhow, this next part focuses on the phone calls a bit more, because I'll likely forget the ideas if I don't write it now. I promise – there will be more character interaction later. We all want a little peek into how our beloved characters are spending their time ^.^ (Although we know in certain cases. Hehe.)

Anyhow, also at Dana's urging, this fic will turn into a sort of call-per-post thing. With each addition to the story, you focus on a different event. This one belongs to Mouse.

I want to thank all of you SO much for reviewing. It has made me giddily happy ^.^ I'm so glad people like the idea.

Part 2

            Mouse rather liked his cubicle. It was messy, the way he had never been able to leave things on the Neb. Everyone else had been ridiculously neat. After a while, they had stopped scolding him about messes, and merely followed the Trinity routine… merely looking at him for an extended period of time until he finally got guilty enough to go and clean.

            But all that was over now. And wherever they were, they got to have things the way they wanted them. His trademark "woman in red" poster was hung reverently on the wall in front of him, and countless other photographs and designs for her were strewn over one half of the desk. The other half held what looked like a chart, and every once in a while during phone calls he would lean over and write something on it. This was his "Taste Chart". After he had gotten more comfortable talking to the callers, he would begin to interrogate them about what they were eating, what they had eaten, and what those things tasted like. Then he would try and connect those descriptions to reports given by other callers. He figured eventually he would figure out any machine-made mistakes and be the expert on what food really tasted like.

            He was beginning to wonder at the unusual prolonged silence when the phone rang. About time.

            "Hello?"

            "….Mouse?"  The voice was a girl's, so heightened with disbelief so it made her sound slightly unbalanced.

            "What did you want to talk about?" He was calmer about this now, the girls didn't unnerve him so much anymore.

            "Well.. I guess I just wanted to hear you guys, you know, any of you… I can't believe I'm actually doing this…. but… I've just been so down since the end, and…"

            "You certainly aren't alone on that count," Mouse broke in.

            "It feels like I am."

            "Believe it or not, you're not alone in that either. What have you been doing? Not sleeping, not eating, snapping at people for no apparent reason?"

"Well… mainly, not eating." She sounded slightly put out. She probably hadn't expected him to speak so candidly. What, did she not pay any attention to how he acted before?

"Why do that?" That would have been the last thing he would do. Well, not that he understood exactly where these people were coming from, but he figured if he did, it would still be the last thing.

"I…. have no appetite. After seeing it, everything has no taste… it's like eating is the last thing I should be thinking about."

"Oh? Then what should you be doing? And how is not eating going to help you do it?"

"I don't know."

            "Let me tell you something," Mouse smiled slightly. They had gotten dozens of cases like hers over the few days, and each time, it was easier and easier to help. "What happened isn't an easy thing to see, or remember. For any of us, and especially for Trinity and Neo, and it's them you seem disturbed about. But it's over now, and they're happy. You making yourself sick by not eating will do nothing towards keeping them happy. They both blame themselves for more than they should, and no doubt they'd do it in this case too."

            That usually snapped them out of it. The thought of bringing unhappiness to any of them was almost blasphemy for the fans.

            "You mean that? That they're happy?"

            "Yeah. Yeah, they really are."

            "Well, it would make sense… they are together…"

            Mouse coughed. A little too much sentimentality. "So… you gonna be okay now?"

            "I think so, yeah. Thank you… I've missed you too, you know."

            "Hah, I haven't gone anywhere. Oh, before you go, could you tell me what you ate last? When you could last taste food, I mean."

            "Erm… that would be an apple I had before going to the movies.."

            "And what did it taste like?" He took out his pen and poised it over the 'apple' section on his chart.

            "Well, crisp, I guess… cold… and sweet."

            That matched the other descriptions. No machine-made mistake there.

            "Great, thanks!"

            "Um, sure."

            Another job well done.