Thanks to the miracle of black market drugs and spells, Barry took far less time recovering than he would have on his own or in a proper hospital. He spent most of his time in and out of consciousness, unable to remember his slurred words or the people passing through, coming to check up on him. The first two weeks were like a dreamless sleep from all the drugs in his system, until he could finally be eased off the medication and come back fully into consciousness to begin physical therapy.

Soon after he'd gain consciousness, Barry found himself swarmed by people, hugging and, in some cases, crying. Some were simply work acquaintances who'd happened to hear about the accident through word of mouth, stopping by to drop off a card the other workers had made for him. The robot cat with googly eyes on the front was cute, but he prefered to keep it in the bedside table than have it stare at him at all hours of the day. Avi was keeping watch on the bots downstairs, switching off with Julia or his neighbors, two ladies/girlfriends named Carey and Killian. Based on reports, the bots would scurry away from them when they first started checking on them, refusing to speak— though Julia assured him he heard them whispering to each other in Elvish, thinking she couldn't understand them, but it was too low for her to actually understand them. By the end of the first month, the bots no longer ran away from them, but refused to interact with them when not forced, unless the male bot wished to give them food he had made, since there was no one else around to eat it.

"That boy is a talented one, let me tell you that. I had to get my entire wardrobe tailored to keep up with what he's giving me!" said Julia during one visit, patting her swollen stomach. "Of course, there's the possibility I'm eating for two," she added with a wink.

"That's wonderful, but," Barry managed to slur and drawl out, his jaw still sore from speech therapy, "I thought Magnus was infertile?"

"He is, but we decided to go to a sperm bank. No results yet, but here's hoping!"

For the most part, though, his days were unremarkable, left only with Merle and his unsettlingly large amount of plants in his guest room. He busied himself with sleep, for the most part, but, on the dawn of his third month being bedridden, decided to turn on the TV Merle had provided him with.

The first thing that came on that wasn't static was a cooking channel, so Barry decided that was good enough and threw the remote on the bedside table. There was some fidgety tiefling chef being interviewed by a generic blonde woman, a montage of a high elf playing on a green screened TV just behind them.

"So, Sazed, you worked tirelessly to get Sizzle It Up on the air, is that correct?"

"Well, yes, but it wasn't just me. Taako— Taako's entire life revolved around Sizzle It Up, when it was just a roadside attraction in the outskirts. When his sister was declared MIA during the war, he threw himself completely into it. It was more than just, um, some hobby, or a way to make some money. He once, uh, he once told me it was the only way he could, um, tell that his sister was still a-alive."

"Taako's sister isn't very well known, isn't that right?"

"Yeah, that's right. She, uh, got erased, sorta. By one of the relics. For a bit. When it was destroyed a year ago, she, uh, she reappeared, along with everyone declared MIA and a lot more declared dead."

"And yet she was never invited onto the show?"

"Well, when she, uh, came back, Taako gave up the show. Said he, um, wanted to be with his sister. Start his own restaurant."

"How did you feel about that, at the time?"

"I was, well, I was mad! We worked so hard to get the show on the air, and he was so willing to just… give it up! Ten years of work!" The tiefling, Sazed, was beginning to lose his nervous stutter the more he spoke about his feelings, becoming more confident in the interview. Barry didn't really care too much about what the guy was talking about, but there was something itching at the back of his brain, something he was forgetting in his drug induced hazed that he couldn't quite get his hands on.

"Of course, now, I see why he wanted to give it up," Sazed sighed, rubbing one of his horns. "When you discover the long lost sister you had wasn't just some kind of hallucination, you tend to want to catch up on lost time. I just wish he had more time to spend with her."

"That's right— they both went missing week after she returned."

Sazed visibly deflated, playing with the tip of his tail. "That's right. They, um, just recently discovered and identified their bodies. The militia thinks they were being trafficked."

The interview veered off from there, discussing the late chef's life, work, and so on. Barry fell asleep at some point, waking up as an episode of Sizzle It Up was beginning— apparently they were doing a memorial marathon.

As the elf on screen talked cheerfully about the recipe he was doing, there was a knock at the door, and a downtrodden looking Angus stepped through.

"H- hello sir. Sorry I haven't been here to greet you; things have been busy at the station," Angus muttered, scuffing his shoe against the floorboards. "How are you?"

"I'm okay, Angus. Why are you so blue?"

"Um…" the boy sniffled. "They— we… we found Taako and his sister."

Taako.

Taako from TV.

Taako from TV, currently playing on TV just on the other end of the room.

The TV Angus was pointedly ignoring.

Barry cursed under his breath, scrambling for the remote to shut it off, but the damage was done. He could hear the boy detective sniffling and heaving, wiping away the tears that threatened to pour down his cheeks. "I'm sorry, sir. I- I shouldn't have bothered you."

"No, Angus, come here."

Almost immediately, Angus jumped into Barry's arms, sobbing into his chest. Barry wasn't the best at calming people down, but he tried his best, rubbing circles on his back and handing the child a tissue whenever he needed it.

"I- It's all my fault…! If I hadn't—" he hiccuped. "If I had just gone with him to the studio when he wa- was cancelling the show for good, this wouldn't have happened! He'd still be here!"

"It's not your fault, kiddo. It's nobody's fault. We can't change the past."

Angus sobbed unintelligibly into his shoulder, clutching at his t-shirt. When he finally calmed down and cleaned his face, he asked Barry to turn on the TV again, his voice barely a croak. He still cried at the sight of his mentor's face, but he managed to tell Barry stories about the elf, things that felt almost familiar, despite the fact he'd never met the man. They stayed there for a few hours, until Merle finally came and ushered the boy home before it got dark.