Sasha was just about to call him when the helo came into view. Finally. She'd already had to shoot four skags, and that was a quiet day for the exterior of Hollow Point.

To her surprise, Rhys hopped out. She'd been expecting him to just send a helo to pick her up. Less to her surprise, he hopped out before the helicopter even landed, which indicated he had not, in fact, been the pilot.

"Hey! I'm sorry we're late, there were some delays-"

Loader Bot got out of the cockpit and interrupted flatly, "He tried to fly and we almost died."

Rhys flinched. "Yyyeah, turns out I'm not as good at picking stuff up as I thought."

Sasha found this all very interesting, but it seemed to her that after not seeing him for two weeks she was owed her due. Clamping a hand on the back of his neck, she pulled him down for a kiss. He didn't argue.

After a bit, Loader Bot said, "Ahem."

Sasha released her boyfriend and slung her duffel bag onto her shoulder. "Nice ride, hotshot." It was quite an upgrade from the tiny one they used to borrow from Vaughn. This one actually had a cabin for passengers to sit in. Pretty big improvement from hanging off the landing struts.

"Thank you," both man and bot said, before looking at each other. Sasha just laughed and got aboard. Such better company than the folks in Hollow Point.


"...aand here's my office," Rhys said, gesturing to a nondescript office positioned near the center of the floor. Whatever had been written on the door before was painted over, replaced with two words in a sloppy print: Rhys, CEO .

" This is your office?" she asked, gesturing at the door. Hardly a CEO kind of office.

"Yeah, it's, uh, not much, but that's kinda the point," he said, rubbing his arm.

She stared at him staring at the door. "Jack's office," she hazarded eventually. Rhys looked at her mournfully.

"Yeah."

"Good. I'd hate to have to kill you," she said with a smile, stepping into his office. Rhys followed with an understandably nervous laugh.

The office was small and undecorated, aside from a sad little cactus on a table in one corner, and a couple of frames on his desk. As she headed for the Chair of Atlas, Rhys went on about his plans for adding a totally normal, completely unremarkable shelf against one wall.

"I don't know what the thing is down here, but on Helios particleboard would be my go-to choice… for…" He trailed off when he realized she was staring at the photos on his desk. Rhys stepped over to her side and joined her in admiring the pictures.

One was of him and Vaughn after their, as Fiona had described it, Brotastic moment atop Loader Bot. In the corner, in a really garish font, was printed 'Bro Selfie'. These two scruffy pieces of corporate garbage looked genuinely happy just to be friends.

One was of the whole gang, crowded around Fiona in the driver's seat during their big drive to the Dome. Rhys was holding up Vaughn, Sasha and Fiona were giving each other bunny ears, and the robots were mostly confused. She'd forgotten that she'd given him bunny ears too, and she hadn't realized he'd returned the favor.

One was of her cleaning her SMG on the couch in the caravan. She remembered him asking if she'd mind if he took a photo. It'd been weird, at the time, and she'd wondered if it was part of a betrayal he was planning. But even then she trusted him, so she'd said yes. He must have called out to her, because in the photo her expression was one of mild annoyance as she looked up from the barrel in her hands.

One was a photo of the two of them, taken up on the ridge at Helios. She'd just kissed him, and his cheeks were still rosy. He wasn't looking at the camera like she was. He was looking at her, lo- affection in his gaze. She'd caught him with that expression before, but to see it like this… it hit her in the chest.

"Oh! Yeah, look, when I was in Hollow Point looking for you one time, I found this!" he said suddenly, jogging over to the wall on the side of the desk. It was a wanted poster for her, encased in plastic.

Chuckling in awe that he'd found it, she moved closer to inspect it. "Wow, that's really old."

"Oh, r-really?" His shoulders sunk and his voice twinged. "I, uh, when I was looking for you… I thought it was maybe new. I was hoping it meant you were still alive."

Wow. She hadn't thought about how he'd looked for them. How hard it must have been for him, especially since he was all alone. He must have been really desperate, to actually come to Hollow Point. God, they'd probably been in town at the same time, and she hadn't even known.

Drawing in a breath, Rhys reassured (himself), "Doesn't matter now though, does it?" A forced laugh as he slipped an arm around her.

"I… didn't realize you were looking for us in Hollow Point," she murmured.

Rhys shrugged and guided her back to his desk. "Eh, it's ok, you didn't know I was alive. Anyway it was nice to have another picture of you. I… well, this was what I had." He gestured at the framed photos.

Sighing, she sat in his chair and looked at the photos. "I didn't have anything from you," she commented heavily. She didn't have a fancy camera in her arm, and a normal camera had not been high on the shopping list during all their hijinks. The only thing she had to remind herself of him was that suit, but it also reminded her of the place that, at the time, she thought had killed him. All that was left was a fading memory of his face.

The weight of his hand on her shoulder made her look up at him. His eyes were full of concern, his brows furrowed.

There were a few moments of silence - almost a mourning. Then he piped up nervously, "Hey, uh, I have one more thing to show you." He offered his hand.

It felt so right to walk hand-in-hand with him.


The lab space held a bunch of the old Atlas folding crates, wedged between random desks he must have scavenged from elsewhere in the building. Tools and materials were haphazardly stored everywhere, piled high on table tops and stuffed in crooked shelves.

"I, uh, found schematics for one of Atlas's SMGs-"

"What? Which one?" Sasha perked up immediately, scanning the desks for a gun.

"Uhhh the Centaur, I think."

Her shoulders dropped a little. "Oh." With a shrug, she resumed studying the room. "Still a nice weapon."

"Ah, well," he said, brandishing a finger as he reached to sweep crap off of one of the chests, "you maaaay be surprised." He hesitated before hitting the button. "...hopefully," he muttered.

He watched her face as the gun raised up on the dusty platform. Her eyes widened, her mouth curving up into an open smile.

"No-recoil stock, what is that, fire upgrade? Stability boost…" She carried on muttering about its specs as she carefully picked it up.

Rhys watched her turn the gun over and over, her eyes twinkling as she excitedly talked away about it. Eventually she remembered he was there, and she looked up at him.

"This is pretty cool," she said, grinning a lot for something that was just 'pretty cool'.

Rhys had been thinking of an awesome speech for weeks. He'd even practiced it on the way there. He knew it wasn't the best gun out there, but he'd added every upgrade he could find. He'd read every piece of research in the Atlas servers. He'd hand-made every piece… and then hunted down the best metalsmith he could find and had all the pieces made properly.

He had all this to say. And all he managed was a quiet, "I made it for you."

Sasha lowered the gun, the excitement melting away into solemnity. She studied his face as he carefully avoided her gaze.

"Rhys… thank you," she breathed.

That drew his eyes to hers. Gently resting his fingertips on the gun, he said, "The S-Sasha Special. I, uh, I thought they'd-..." His voice had broken. He scrubbed away the tears and sniffed, rather piteously.

Sasha put down the SMG and grabbed his arms. "Rhys…"

"I thought-..." he tried again, choking back a sob, "I thought they'd killed you. This was… I-..."

Stretching up onto her tiptoes, Sasha wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Crying against her mouth, he enveloped her in a hug and squeezed her close.