The next day, Elena sat in the employee room during her break and looked at the quarter Anton had given her last night, the year 1949 imprinted underneath Washington's head. Turning it over in her hand, Elena was lost in her own little world, unaware that Dr. Benedict was standing in the doorway.

"Miss Olmsted."

Elena gasped in fright and stood up from the chair she was sitting in, turning around to face him.

"Sorry", said Dr. Benedict. "I didn't mean to frighten you or anything."

"No, no", Elena reassured him, sticking the quarter back into her pocket. She tucked a loose hair behind her ear and asked him, "Is there an emergency?"

"No", said Dr. Benedict. "Actually, there's a gentleman here to see you. He says he's an acquaintance of yours."

"Acquaintance?" Elena questioned, a suspicious look on her face. "What does he look like?"

"Tall, dark, speaks with kind of a Dallas accent, and-" Dr. Benedict looked over his shoulder and then looked back at Elena, whispering, "In all honesty, he has the most ugliest haircut I've ever seen on a man."

Elena walked out into the main lobby and was surprised to find that a familiar brown-eyed man with a pageboy haircut was leaning against the wall, his right arm across his left.

"Anton?"

Anton turned his head left and looked at her, lowering his right arm and walking over to her, giving her a rare smile. "Hello, Elena."

Elena smiled back and asked him, "What are you doing here?"

"I came here to see you", Anton told her.

"No, I mean how did you get here?"

"I called Norm and asked him to give me a ride."

"Elena", called a woman's voice.

Anton turned his head right and saw a petite blond woman walk up to them.

"Elena, Mr. Blake is here again. He says he's-" Dr. Hartman stopped herself when she looked up from her clipboard and caught sight of Anton. By the expression on her face, the hitman could not tell whether she was afraid of him or sexually aroused.

"Mary, this is Anton", said Elena. "Anton, this is Dr. Mary Hartman."

Dr. Hartman grinned from ear to ear and shook his hand and said, "It's a pleasure."

Anton Chigurh was neither amused nor interested in whatever this bubble-headed woman was thinking. Already he was annoyed with her and did not resist in letting it show on his face, though she hardly seemed to notice.

Elena looked at Mary and asked her, "You were saying?"

"What?" Mary asked her, not taking her eyes off of Anton. "Oh, um-" She fixed her glasses and looked at Elena. "I need you to look over those charts and get in touch with Peter Blake for me. I'd do it myself, but I've got four other people pulling me in all sorts of directions."

"Okay", said Elena, "but let me check on Sophia first and see how she's doing."

"Yah, you bet", said Mary. She looked at Anton one more time and said, "Bye."

As he watched the blond woman walk away from him, Anton Chigurh thought about seven different ways of how he wished to do away with her. The way he saw it, his thoughts on Mary Hartman were far worse than what his thoughts were on Marge Gunderson when he first met her. Although he continued to question the lady cop's cheerful nature, he still gave Marge credit for being an honest woman and always remaining faithful to her husband. With Mary, however, judging by her lack of professionalism and seeing how there was no wedding ring on her finger, the hitman knew that she was only after one thing from him, and that one thing was lust. Unlike his burning desire for Elena, who saved his life and gave subtle hints that she was interested in him, the only thing Anton was willing to do with Dr. Hartman was to put a bullet in her mouth.

"Come on", said Elena, tugging at his sleeve. "There's somebody I want you to meet."

Anton followed Elena over to the elevator. Once they stepped inside, Elena pressed the button to take them up to the third floor.

Once they reached their destination, Anton and Elena stepped out of the elevator, as he followed her down to room 17. Elena opened the door and walked into the room, but Anton remained standing in the doorway, as his eyes fell upon a familiar figure sleeping in a hospital bed. A beautiful, pale-looking little girl with brown hair that looked almost identical to the one he saw in his nightmare last night. A pure coincidence, he was sure.

The hitman watched as Elena brushed back the little girl's bangs with her fingers and leaned over to place a kiss onto her forehead, whispering something to her that Anton could not hear. It was quite clear to him that this was the child Elena had been given the task to take care of after the passing of her friend, Natalia Burrows, the beloved wife of Craig Burrows.

Elena walked over to Anton, who took a step back and allowed her to exit out of the room. She then turned to him and asked, "Can I ask you a favor?"

"That depends", Anton answered.

"Would you mind watching her for a few minutes?" Elena asked him. "Just until she wakes up, at least."

Anton looked back at the little girl and asked, "What's wrong with her?"

"She's got acute lymphoblastic leukemia", said Elena. "I'd rather if she just had the flu."

"Doctors can't do anything for her?" Anton asked, looking back at Elena.

"Dr. Benedict's doing everything he can", Elena answered. "Sophia seems to be recovering all right, but we're still looking into it. Can you keep her company until I get back?"

Anton gave her a slight nod of his head. "All right."

Elena placed her hands on his shoulders and said to him, "Thank you, Anton. You are a life saver", before heading off to tend to other patients.

Anton turned his attention back to Sophia and walked into the room and stood by the bedside of the sleeping child, looking down on her peaceful form. Thanks to the short sleeves on her hospital gown, Anton was able to see the dark red bruises on her arms. And if the light beading of sweat on her forehead was any indication, there was no mistaking that the child was suffering from more than just a fever.

Anton looked to his right and saw a clipboard lying on the tray table. He picked up the board and saw it had Sophia's health information on it.

At that moment, Sophia moaned in her sleep, to which Anton looked at her and saw her stir. He set the clipboard aside and took a seat in the chair next to her bed. Sophia slowly opened her eyes, dark brown in color, and turned her head left, only to see a man drenched in black clothing sitting by her bedside looking at her. His left arm was in a sling.

"Hello."

"Hello, Sophia."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Anton Chigurh."

"Sugar?"

Normally, Anton would have become annoyed if it were an adult talking to him this way, but seeing how she was only a child and didn't know any better, Anton kept his patience intact and spelled his last name out for her.

"Oh, Chigurh!" Sophia acknowledged.

"Yes", said Anton, nodding his head.

"I like your name", Sophia told him. "It that French?"

"I do not think so", said Anton.

"Nurse Olmsted told me a lot about you", Sophia told him.

"She said the same thing about you", Anton informed her.

Sophia paused for a minute, studying him with her eyes, and asked him, "Are you her boyfriend?"

Anton laughed lightly and gave her an amused smile. "What gave you that impression?"

"She talks about you all the time", said Sophia. "She told me you were from Texas. They got tornadoes down there, don't they?"

"Not all the time", said Anton.

"But they got cowboys, right?" Sophia asked him.

Anton's smile flatten and he no longer looked amused. He tilted his head right and said to her, "You ask a lot of questions for one your age."

Sophia sat up slowly and leaned her back against her pillow. "I don't know if the sickness will kill me or not, but if I die, I want to learn as much as I can about the world before I go", Sophia explained to him. "I'm not afraid to die, Mr. Anton. It's just a natural part of life."

"You must be very brave", said Anton, staring at her with admirable eyes. It amazed him how this little girl, sick as she was, somehow managed to carry a wisdom beyond her years.

Sophia picked up the plush shark lying next to her and set it down into her lap and said to it, "I told you he was gonna visit us today. And you didn't think he'd show up."

"You take comfort in talking to a stuffed animal?" Anton asked her.

Sophia looked at him and nodded her head. "Mm-hmm."

"Does it have a name?" Anton asked her.

"Quincy." Sophia looked down at the plush shark again and stroked his dorsal fin and explained to Anton, "He keeps me company."

"He does."

"My mommy gave him to me before she died. He's the only thing I have to remember her by."

Anton paused and looked at her for a minute. He had almost forgotten that Sophia was not a blood relation to Elena, but rather a young child who was barely starting out in life. In a strange sense, she reminded him of himself when he was a boy. Innocent and filled with a love for life. Not a single drop of hatred or violence anywhere in her veins. If only she would remain that way.

Sophia looked at Anton again and tilted her head downward a bit. "What happened to your arm?"

Anton looked at his left arm and said, "I was hurt in a car accident."

Sophia looked away from him, a sad expression on her face. She stroked Quincy's dorsal fin and said, "You've had a terrible life, Anton. You've been lonely your whole life."

"How do you know what my life has been like?" Anton asked her, looking suspicious.

Sophia shook her head and said, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Tell me", Anton demanded.

Sophia blinked and brought her eyes back to meet with his. "I see these pictures in my head", she explained. "When I look at somebody or touch their hands, I can see their life play inside my mind. Who they are, where they've been to, what their future is. I can even look into their past."

Anton looked offended and questioned her, "You're an agent of fate?"

"Not like you think", Sophia answered.

Thinking her sickness was causing her delusions of grandeur, Anton placed his right hand down onto her bed and challenged her. "Tell me what you see."

Sophia gave him a look that read, "You're not going to like what you hear", but the hitman did not seem to care. He was certain that she was playing a trick on him and would soon be able to tell whether she was lying to him or not. She knew nothing of who he was or what he had done. She was only a child to his eyes. Nothing more.

Sophia looked down and placed the tips of her tiny cold fingers against his knuckles, running her hand against the back of his before grabbing hold of his wrist.

Sophia closed her eyes, and with a flash of light, allowed visions of Anton's memories to run through her mind. The first was a series of moments from his childhood, leading up to the night his parents were murdered. A middle-aged sheriff comforted a five year old Anton, as he said to him, "I'm sorry about your folks, son. There was nothing we could do." The vision changed and jumped ahead a few years, in which a teenage Anton was shown being harassed by a group of bullies, to which he responded by engaging them into a fight. The vision transported to the last few years of the Vietnam War, as a now adult Anton in uniform was tending to a badly-burned Cambodian boy. The vision soon went to a police station, where Anton was shown strangling a young police deputy with a pair of handcuffs. The next event showed at a gas station, where Anton had forced the man behind the counter to call heads or tails on a coin toss. The next image showed Anton walking into an office with a silenced shotgun, where he shot a man sitting behind a desk. The young accountant behind him asked if he was going to kill him, to which Anton answered with, "That depends. Do you see me?" The accountant shook his head and answered, "No." "Then I was never here", Anton told him, leaving the scene of the crime. The sound of a woman's voice echoed, "The coin don't have no say", as the vision transported to a nineteen year old girl walking into her bedroom, only to find Anton was there waiting for her. "It's just you", she said. "Call it", Anton demanded from her, but she refused. "I ain't gonna call it." Following that was the car accident, to which Anton had suffered an open fracture, blood flowing down his arm from where the bone had broken through his skin. A flash of light appeared and showed a vision of Elena helping Anton lie down onto a bed in a motel room, blood dripping down from his head. "Where...where am I?" He heard himself asking. Elena shushed him, as she placed the tips of her fingers over his lips and told him, "You're all right. You're gonna be just fine." A screen of smoke clouded everything, until a fourteen year old boy with yellow hair and soulless black eyes appeared.

At that moment, Sophia gasped and opened her eyes, looking away from Anton and breathing heavily.

"What did you see?" Anton asked her.

Sophia stayed silent for a minute, swallowing deeply. Still avoiding his gaze, she shook her head and told him, "Nothing."

"You didn't see nothing", said Anton, a sly smile on his face and a hint of mockery in his deep, monotone voice.

Sophia looked at Anton with hurt in her eyes and said to him, "You weren't like this on the night your parents were killed."

Anton's smile faded at the mention of that, as he looked at the child with malice in his eyes and asked her, "What do you know about my parents?"

"What do you think they would say if they could see you now?" Sophia asked him. "Your father used to heal people. And yet you took the opposite route by hurting them. You didn't have to kill those people, Mr. Anton." She shook her head and said, "I don't understand you. And I don't think anyone ever will."

Not wanting to hear any more of this, an irritated Anton Chigurh stood up and began to walk over to the door, but just when he was about to reach for the door handle, the brunette child spoke to him again.

"You can't run away from it, Anton", Sophia told him, picking up Quincy and holding him in her arms. "You tried that once and it didn't work. Why do you think I visited you in your dream last night? I sent that wolf after you as a warning. You continue that criminal lifestyle, you got nothing but trouble."

Anton stood where he was for a minute, balling his right hand into a fist, digging his nails into his palm almost enough to make it bleed. He sighed in contempt and said to her, "You don't know anything about me."

"You're wrong", said Sophia. "I know everything about you. I just saw it."

Anton remained where he was and said nothing. Normally, it was not in his nature to pull a coin toss on a child, as he was strongly tempted to do with this particular one, but seeing how she knew everything, according to her logic, it seemed pointless for him to force Sophia to call heads or tails. Hell, she would probably tell him the exact year on the coin instead.

"You're in love with my nurse, aren't you?" Sophia asked him.

Slowly, the hitman turned around and looked back at her. His expression did not change, but he did have a funny look in his eyes. One that seemed less menacing and more concerning in regards to the fact that the nurse who took him in remained fully unaware of his murderous actions, and yet this sickly little girl was capable changing the course of those events, for she was of a much higher power than he ever thought himself to be.

"I know you are", Sophia informed him. "You're in love with her, but you just don't want to admit it. It's not part of your code, as you call it. You think if you submit to her, you'll become weak, just like everybody else." Sophia shook her head and reassured him, "Love isn't a weakness. It's an emotion. Something you've been avoiding yourself for a long time."

Thinking it over carefully, Anton walked back over to Sophia and sat down on her bed. "I'm listening", he said begrudgingly through clenched teeth.

"You don't have to shower her with gifts or write her a poem or anything", Sophia told him. "Elena's not that kind of person. Just tell her how you feel and maybe she'll open up to you more."

"I don't know how", said Anton.

"Yes, you do", said Sophia. "Just talk to her. When she comes home after work, ask her about her day. Compliment her clothes. Tell her how pretty her eyes look. You do love her eyes, don't you?"

Anton paused for a minute, his face relaxing somewhat. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the photograph of Elena he had stolen from the Gunderson residence, looking at it. "They were the first thing I noticed about her", said Anton in a gentle tone, studying the characteristics of her angelic face. "After I left the scene of the car accident, I wondered around for three hours before finally collapsing just outside of Odessa. I thought I was dying, but then I remember hearing a voice telling me I was going to be all right. I was slipping in and out of consciousness due to blood loss, I don't remember half of what happened. When I finally opened my eyes and saw her standing before me, I had found something else far beyond codes or logic. Elena awakened something inside of me that day that I had been missing for so long. I didn't want to admit it at first, but now I can't deny it."

"You can still be a free man, you know", Sophia reassured him, placing her hand onto his knee. "But she needs to know someday."

"I know she does", said Anton, his voice no more than a whisper. The last thing he wanted was to loose Elena, but if this Sophia girl had a gift for predicaments and could easily tell everything about anyone, than she could easily remove him from her life.

Anton stuck the picture of Elena back into his pocket and sighed to himself and looked at Sophia and placed his hand on top of hers. "Look, if you promise me you won't tell anyone else about what I've done, then I promise I won't kill you."

"You're not going to kill me", said Sophia. "You've never killed a child before. And I know you don't want to start now."

For a young girl suffering from leukemia and having just talked to a complete stranger, a sociopath, Anton admired Sophia for her bravery and fearlessness, and gave her a faint smile.

Sophia tilted her head down to the right and reached her hand up to Anton and brought it to his forehead, playing with his hair as she studied the chiseled features of his face. "You have a nice face, Anton. You should smile more often."