1648 hrs.Undisclosed Date +2

NERV Hospital, NERV Headquarters

The NERV ER was flooded with patients from the destruction of NERV-20, all off-duty medical personnel were being recalled to try to cope with the mass of casualties.

"Ringer's!" Smith yelled, holding up a hand.

Someone threw an IV bag of volume expander to him as the newest batch of wounded were rushed in.

"Christ! Are they ever gonna stop coming!" he asked the NERV nurse next to him.

"Yo!" Lampright yelled at him as he was wheeled in.

"The fuck are you doin' here!" Smith asked as he reached over and checked his documentation.

"That's what I said. But they said something about a concussion, and laceration. This doesn't look bad to you, does it?" Lampright asked, showing him his leg.

"Nah, but the blood on your pillow does. Your head is fucked-up. Lay back down." Smith said.

"But I don't wanna-"

"Too bad." Smith said, stabbing a syringe into his leg and injecting him.

"Heeeey thash nooottt farrrr..." Lampright slurred as the anesthetic melted his consciousness.

1856 hrs.Undisclosed Date +2

Room 103A, NERV Hospital, NERV Headquarters

Lampright lay unconscious in his hospital bed, his mouth open and drool pooling on his pillow.

"Heh heh. Lampy look's funny when he's sedated." Maloy said, poking him.

"Ahhhh!" Lampright yelled, sitting up.

"Ahhhh!" Maloy yelled, jumping back and falling over.

"Maloy! Who let you in here unsupervised! Somebody get me a mirror!"

"I didn't draw anything yet! I didn't have time, damn it!"

Having heard yelling, the nurse rushed in.

"What's going on in here!"

"Nothing nurse. I was just going." Lampright said, getting up.

"Ha! You wish!" came Smith's voice from behind her.

The nurse turned to Maloy.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave if you continue to agitate the patient."

"Yeah Maloy, stop agitating me."

"But it's fun."

"Hey Smith, how's the maj?"

"She's fine. Broken arm and a mild concussion. As a matter of fact, she already left."

"How come SHE gets to leave?"

"Because we don't suspect that SHE cracked her skull." he said, crossing his arms.

Lampright was about to continue, when Smith was called outside. He returned several minutes later.

"How long 'til I can get out of here?" Eric asked.

"Yeah, about that. You were just released."

"What's the catch?"

Smith chewed on his lip for several seconds.

"You've been released into the 'protective custody' of the major until your 72-hour restriction to quarters is over."

"You did what!"

"Three days. And you better not try to show up and work, or I'll make it longer. After that you're on light duty for a week."

"Fine." Lampright said, getting up.

"And use this. You need to keep off your leg so it can heal." Smith said, handing him a crutch.

"I will not gimp through NERV HQ."

"You will, or we will deliver you by gurney."

Lampright took the crutch, muttering and walked to the exit, pausing only long enough to bash Smith in the kneecap with the crutch.

2012 hrs. Undisclosed Date +2

Major Katsuragi's Quarters, NERV Headquarters

Lampright carried a few minor items in a cardboard box under his arm. Asuka lay on the floor in front of the TV, chowing down on a bag of potato chips as Lampright gimped in.

"You know if you keep eating those things you're gonna get fat."

Asuka stuck her tongue out at him. Lampright responded by swiping at her with his crutch, missing purposefully by about a foot.

"Where's your 'mom'?"

"Misato's not back yet. You buy her a gift or something?" Asuka said sarcastically.

"No. I'm movin' in for the next few days." he said, dropping his box and lying down on the couch.

"WHAT! How can-!"

"Don't care." Lampright said, cutting her off and closing his eyes.

2101 hrs.Undisclosed Date +2

"Eric, can you com'ere and help me with the dishes?" Misato asked from the kitchen.

"I don't wanna. I have a headache." Lampright said.

"Hey, that only works when I say it." Misato replied.

"I have a friggin' concussion! I have a headache and I don't want to do it! Lemme alone!"

"Oh, you poor baby." Asuka said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, you want your own concussion?" Lampright snarled, waving his crutch around threateningly.

"What was that?" Misato asked from the kitchen.

"Asuka volunteered to help you, maj!" Lampright yelled.

"Oh, thank you Asuka!"

Lampright stuck his tongue out at Asuka as she sulked to the kitchen. Less than a minute later, Misato came out.

"That was fast."

"Not really. I just ditched Asuka with the dishes." she said.

"That was responsible."

Misato giggled.

"I read the incident brief. So how's Shinji taking it?"

Misato sighed.

"Not well. He's emotionally fragile enough, without this to deal with. He hasn't come out of his room since medical released him."

"Kids are amazingly resilient. He'll bounce back."

"How can you say that! He thinks he killed one of his only friends!"

"You don't know nearly as much about me as you think." he growled.

"There are a lot of things that aren't included in my service record. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you are the only person who has experienced emotional pain because your parents died."

Lampright stood up.

"I'm gonna talk to 'im. Need back-up first."

"What are you-" she started as Lampright walked out, returning several minutes later with Cooper in tow.

"Hey major, hey bride of Satan." Cooper said, waving to Asuka.

Asuka stuck her tongue out at him, Cooper responded with the bird.

"Stay on task, Boomer." Lampright said, making the hand signal for rally on me, before walking to Shinji's room, knocking on the door.

"Shinji, it's Eric. Open the door man, I wanna talk to you."

No response.

"Come on man, everyone's worried. Open up."

Still no response. Lampright tried the door. Locked.

"Shinji, you got fifteen seconds to open this door, before I take it out." Lampright said.

"Before you what!" the major yelled.

Lampright made a shooing motion with his left hand as he began counting.

"...13...14..." Lampright said, rearing back as well as he could, preparing to kick in the flimsy door, Misato running up to stop him.

The doorknob clicked. Lampright grabbed it and turned, letting himself in. Cooper followed, as did the major. Shinji sat in the corner, curled in the fetal position, his cheeks stained with tears.

"Sorry maj, boys only." Eric said, pushing her back outside and locking the door again.

Cooper leaned against the wall as Eric sat on the futon, crossing his arms behind his head and lying back.

"Alright man, what's on your mind?"

Silence.

"You might as well tell us. We're not gonna leave until you talk."

They sat in silence for several minutes.

"Why? Why did they make me kill him?" Shinji whispered.

"You didn't kill him. The Eva wasn't under your control when it attacked Toji. And he's not dead yet." Lampright said.

"I-I saw him. He won't survive."

"That's not for you to say."

The room was silent again.

"Shinji, I don't know why they crushed the plug, but I'm sure they had a damn good reason."

"I did this to him."

"No, you didn't. Things happen that are outside of our control."

Lampright sighed.

"Shinji, did I ever tell you about how I lost my brothers?"

"You've never mentioned brothers."

"Lampy doesn't like to talk about'em." Cooper said, speaking for the first time since he came in.

"I'm sure you've read in class about the second impact and all the crazy shit that happened afterwards, right? Like when the U.S. was invaded?"

"Yeah. It took years to throw them back."

"Yeah. I was a partisan. So was Boomer-I mean, Cooper here. And so were my brothers. We were assaulting an objective near Selma. I told my brothers to move on the objective. Me and Boomer were providing cover fire. We had the troops suppressed. My brothers left cover, and about a second later a BMP rolled around the corner. It fired on both of them. One of them was killed instantly, literally cut in half by 7.62 rounds. The other was disemboweled, bleeding out, screaming from the unimaginable pain. There was nothing we could have done to save him. So I shot my own brother in the head."

The room was silent again.

"Shinji, you need a drink." Cooper said.

"Cooper. Outside. Now."

The pair left the room.

"Wuzzup?" Cooper said.

"Cooper! We are NOT providing alcohol to a minor!"

"Why not!"

"It's irresponsible for one. Illegal-"

"Besides those."

"No."

"The Maj does it."

"Why do you have to make everything difficult?"

Cooper shrugged.

"It's what I do."

"No, it's what Maloy does. You wanna be like him? Do ya?"

1234 hrs.Undisclosed Date +3

Asuka was now at school, although it had been mutually agreed that Shinji would not be forced to go. Lampright was sprawled out on the couch, wearing nothing but PT shorts and his dog tags, channel surfing while drinking one of Misato's beers. Shinji silently left his room and headed for the kitchen.

"There's nothing in there to eat. The only thing in the 'fridge is beer and Misato's leftovers from last night. And even I couldn't eat those."

Lampright sat up and started putting on a pair of pants.

"Come on. I'll take ya to get some pizza or something. Maybe hit up an arcade."

Shinji started to walk back to his room.

"You don't have a choice. Come on." he said, putting on a black t-shirt with a large yellow Ranger tab on the front.

"Did Misato say it was okay for you to drink her beers?"

"Meh. We'll just say it was Asuka, alright?"

1621 hrs.Undisclosed Date +3

Fun-Time Arcade, Tokyo-3

Shinji and Eric stood in front of one of the light-gun games.

"No no, hold it with both hands, keep a good grip, but don't strangle it. Yeah, like that. Now try."

Lampright popped a few coins into the machine and stepped back.

"Go for it."

"Oops, I shot a civilian." Shinji said.

"Meh, don't worry about it. I do it all the time. In the game I mean."

Eric continued to watch for about another half hour until Shinji completed the game and input his initials, right below Lampright's and Cooper's.

"Sweet. Hey man, we gotta start headin' back to Major's."

1528 hrs.Undisclosed Date +3

Parking Garage, NERV Headquarters

Lampright sighed.

"We're parked Shinji. You can open your eyes now."

Shinji slowly opened one eye then the other.

"How is it you can drive with the Major, but driving with me scares you silly?"

Lampright asked as he and Shinji got out of the car.

"Thanks." Shinji said after they had walked for several minutes in silence.

"No prob. Have fun skipping school?"

Shinji smiled slightly.

"Yeah."

"Good. Misato's cooking again tonight, so it's a good thing we stopped and grabbed some dinner, huh?" Eric said, as he opened the door.

And was ambushed by Misato.

"Laaaampriiiight-!" Misato started.

"What?"

She waved his crutch at him.

"I think ONE of us forgot something this morning!"

"I don't need it."

"Smith said you do, and he's a medic."

"He's also loony. I don't need a friggin' crutch. My legs are fine. See!"

Lampright starts jumping up and down.

"STOP THAT!"

"Why?"

"I'll call Smith."

Lampright started muttering and sat down on the couch.

"Where were you anyway?"

"Me and Shinji were just chillin'."

"Well you got back just in time for dinner. Asuka helped me with it a little."

Lampright acted as though he had just remembered something.

"Oh, were you cooking tonight? I am SO sorry! Me and Shinji JUST ate. I apologize."

Misato glared at him and muttered, walking to the fridge.

"Eric! Did you have some of my beer?"

"No, must've been Asuka."

2223 hrs.Undisclosed Date +3

MAJ Katsuragi's Quarters, NERV Headquarters

The major turned off the lights in the living room on her way to her room.

"You alright, Eric? You need a blanket or anything?"

Lampright lay on the couch, wrapped in a poncho liner.

"Nah, I'm good."

"Why did you do that?" Misato asked.

"Do what?"

"The things you do Shinji. Why?"

"Somebody should. I mean, his dad's a douche bag and all, so..."

Misato smiled a little.

"He really looks up to you."

"Great. When did I become a father figure?"

"I happen to think you'd make a fine father."

"Well, that's one of us."

Misato smiled.

"I see a lot of myself in Shinji. He has potential for great things. Someone just has to show him the path." Eric added.

"Shinji's a good kid. He's just got a few problems."

Eric snorted.

'A few? Shinji's got more issues than National Geographic.'

"Anyway, I gotta get to sleep."

"Yeah, I'm sure you have a BIG day of channel-surfing tomorrow."

"Hey, I do...stuff."

"Like?"

"Well...Maloy's supposed to be bringin' his PS5 by tomorrow morning after PT."

Misato rolled her eyes.