It had been one hell of a third of a year.

First of all, thanks to a unanimous vote by the whole company, Sully had been successfully elected as the new CEO of Monsters Inc. It was certainly fitting that the guy who'd been poised to break a long-standing record for scare numbers was now leading the "charge to change", as the laugh campaign was called. Nobody else as of yet knew how Sully had thought of this idea, since the whole "Boo incident" was kept under wraps. The CDA still existed, but as a shell of its former self. Their only purpose now was to, if a child entered, to make sure he/she didn't get lost in the city. They didn't even wear anticontamination suits anymore; a uniform similar to that of police sufficed. Plus, it also made them less intimidating.

Even now, several changes were being made.The canisters, much too small and therefore inefficient, were replaced by much larger ones in preparation. Sully had worked up a plan to fix the floors. He had divided the floor areas into north, south, east and west. The north floors were fixed first, while the others were still collecting screams. It was a gradual approach, as opposed to shutting the whole place down. Then, as the north became ready, it was put into production immediately. Sully reassigned known jokers to this floor, so he could get the others retrained on their spare time. Then the south would follow, then the west, and then the east.

Naturally, this was quite stressful on Sully, being new to management, but as a result of natural leadership skills he got on well enough. He could have given Mike an executive position too, but Mike declined. "Too much desk time. My grandfather was prone to hemorrhoids, and I have no desire to carry on that particular tradition." Sully suspected it was really because Mike was a go-getter, not a paper-pusher, evidenced by his poor paperwork skills.

Then the stress really kicked in. Sully had been overseeing construction on the north floors. He had been arguing about the size of a door lock with the contractor. Mike had been intently listening; after all, he was going to have to work on the floor and he wanted to know what was going on. Suddenly, Sully turned pale. He walked away, murmuring something about the bathroom. Then, about five feet from the exit door, he fainted, which made everyone look up, because they all felt the vibrations despite the others that occurred as an effect of the construction.

Pandemonium ensued. Mike ran over and kneeled down beside him to ask him what was wrong. Sully whispered, "Dizzy," and went unconcious. The workers didn't know what was going on and all ran over to make a crowd around him. Somebody grabbed a cell phone and called for an "extra-large ambulance."

The construction was halted for the day. Everybody was sure that the new CEO was going to die.

Mike paced the floor for 2 hours, waiting in the hospital. Finally, a doctor came out and ushered Mike into an empty room.

"He said he hadn't eaten this morning. His blood pressure is higher than normal. It's probably mostly stress."

"Yeah, I know. Every morning, I'm like, 'Sully, eat already. I think they can live without you for 20 minutes,' and what does he do? Puts headphones in the alarm clock and leaves an hour earlier." Mike was trying to be funny, but it wasn't working; you could tell by the tear hanging on the corner of his eye like a mystical pendant that he was worried. "Can I go see him?"

"In about an hour." That hour was the longest of Mike's life, even longer than the one in which he waited for Celia on their first date in her apartment living room. When the time was up, he walked into the room and saw his friend, weakened and lying in bed.

"Hey there, big guy."

"Hey, Mike." And they had talked.

A month later, Sully came back to work, and was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone missed him. A dump truck full of "get well" letters awaited him, as well as a "Welcome Back Sully" cake and party. The best surprise of all was from Mike, who had gone through a neighbour's door to tell Boo the news. She had promptly drawn him a picture that said "get well kitty" on it, written with a stencil and Mike's help. Sully had cried a little when he saw it.He missed her like crazy, but it helped, the card did.

There was a company trip at hand.

Sully, going back to his bad habits, had declined to go on it, saying he was "too busy". Mike didn't know, or he would have done something sooner. 2 weeks at a place called Mt. Fume Lodge would relax anybody. The cool, clear air, the beautiful scenery, and plenty of powder. That's right. Snow. Sully was rather devious when he put his mind to it, going along on shopping trips with Mike, looking at snowboards and other stuff he wouldn't buy, and pretending he was really excited about going. He even reserved a seat on the bus for himself, but as soon as Mike got off his back, he gave it up.

Celia wasn't going either, but she had her own reasons. Her best friend Katie had won a 3 week trip to Yuckwaii for two and naturally thought of her high school chum. Mike didn't mind in the least, but he occasionally teased her about it.

"I'm gonna be real lonely in the snow without you, Baby Kitten. Besides, I thought I was your best friend."

"Don't forget, Bitty Pea, absence makes the heart grow fonder."

"I don't think you need to worry about that. My fondness for you will never peter out."

Somehow or other, Mike found out about Sully's lie. And he was none too happy about it when he barged in his office one Wednesday morning.

"Hey, Sully. I hear, with my little ear, that YOU'RE NOT GOING ON THE SKI TRIP!"

"Mike, I can't. I've got to supervise the retooling of the south floors." Sully moved his chair closer to Mike's face.

"You've seen one retooling, you've seen 'em all. I care about you, buddy. I don't want any more fainting spells. And you lied to me about signing up besides."

"That's not true. I did sign up for a seat, but then I gave it to that new guy, Rosenblatt."

"Who? You mean that thermometer on floor 8A?" Mike sat down in the chair in front of the desk. He lounged back and stared nonchalantly at his fingers. "Well, for your information, I have it on good authority that he just came down with a very nasty cold."

Sully leaned forward and put the palms of his hands on the desk. He stared at Mike. "Whose good authority?"

Mike stared a little longer, then blinked. "Okay, okay, the guy's perfectly healthy. But just say the word, and I'll go down there and sneeze on him a coupla thousand times, real subtle-like."

Sully smiled. " I don't think there's any need for that. Besides, I doubt you could do anything subtly. I'm still not-"

A knock at the door interrupted him. Both turned around. A skinny guy stood there, leaning on crutches and nursing a broken leg. "Mr. Sullivan, I'm afraid, that, well, I can't go on the trip. Wouldn't be much fun, anyway," he said, motioning to his leg. "You can have your seat back." And before anyone could say anything, he hopped away down the hall.

Sully just stared at the door. Then he opened his mouth. "Mike, did you-"

"No, I swear. I haven't a thing to do with it." Mike pleaded. "Hey, this is perfect. You can't say no, now. Call it karma, pal. You are going."

Sully looked down at Mike. "Yeah." Pause. "Yeah, well, I guess I am."