When Grif returned to the apartment later that evening, I asked why he had needed to leave just to talk on the phone. He replied a little uneasily that he had to talk to a coworker and didn't want to disturb me.

I wasn't entirely sure I believed him, but I had already caused him to question my sanity enough today. I didn't want to make things worse. I knew it didn't matter what Grif thought—he wasn't even real, for God's sake—but Gamma was right. The AI could make my life hell, so I needed to play this game until…

My thoughts trailed off. Until what? Until I could form a plan? Every thought was open to Gamma like a book. I needed to play along, then, until the Reds, Blues and Wash rescued me.

I felt a pang of worry at that. For all I knew, they could have been captured… or dead. The Meta and Tex could have killed them easily.

Early the next morning, I rolled over onto my back, stretching and yawning widely. I looked over to the other side of the bed and Grif was sitting up, his head in his hands and his back to me.

"G—Dexter?" I asked drearily, confused.

He looked at me with a forced smile and cleared his throat. "Morning, Ellen. How are you feeling?"

"Um, I'm fine. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said quickly. "I just didn't sleep too well. That's all."

He stood up and headed to the bathroom to shower, not looking at me.

I frowned and walked over to the kitchen in my pajamas, deciding to obey whatever nonsense Gamma was stirring up for now.

I decided I would try making breakfast for Grif. He had been kind enough to prepare us meals since I had "returned," and while he was quite good at it, I felt obligated to return the favor. I didn't think we had enough ingredients for breakfast tacos, but there was no reason I couldn't check the refrigerator first.

I opened up the door and right in front of me conveniently lay eggs, salsa, tortillas, and every ingredient I needed to make breakfast. The salsa definitely hadn't been there before I had thought of the meal. That had been Gamma's doing.

You're welcome, his voice smirked in my head.

Whatever. Next time breakfast better be prepared when I wake up and served to me on a silver platter.

One benefit from being in this fake world, I discovered, was that Gamma had granted me the ability to cook. If I had been in reality, I would have cracked the eggs all over the kitchen, but they actually landed in the pan successfully as I started to scramble them. For some reason, I thought that someone in reality might be proud of me for that, but I couldn't remember any friends of mine who were good at cooking. I shrugged and returned to my work.

"Smells good," Grif said, walking into the kitchen after his shower wearing nothing but a towel.

"I—Dexter!" I spluttered, almost dropping the jar of salsa. "Please! Go put on some clothing!"

Grif frowned and looked down, obviously not seeing a problem with this. "What's wrong, Ellen? It's not like you haven't seen this before."

Oh dear God. This was more of Grif than I ever wanted to see in my entire life. I glared at him and he put up his hands in defeat, surprised by my reaction. "Okay, okay. I'm going. Sheesh."

He turned and left the kitchen again; I sighed in relief while I heard Gamma chuckle again.

I hope you're enjoying yourself, I growled to the AI, dicing ham and adding it to the eggs.

As I slowly finished making breakfast, I realized I had made too much food. Maybe I could go and give the extra to Dick, who I imagined would still be upset this morning. Through the wall, I heard him yelling angrily at his printer for not working and chuckled. The poor guy had always been so horrible with technology.

Finally, Grif walked through the kitchen fully clothed.

"Thanks for making this, Ellen," he said. I watched him closely, and, though he was polite, he didn't smile. "This is great."

"Well, after last night's awesome tofu salad, I had to take over," I joked.

Grif only smiled sadly and turned away to grab two glasses and orange juice. I frowned but didn't say anything else or try to joke again. Maybe "Ellen" didn't do that.

As a final touch to the breakfast tacos, I grabbed some chives from the fridge and extracted a sharp knife from one of the drawers. After showering them with water, I began cutting them finely to add some extra flavor.

Grif was just retrieving some plates from the cupboard when the doorbell rang.

Not looking up, I continued cutting the chives. "Can you get that?"

"S—sure." Grif disappeared from the kitchen for a moment. I heard a few hushed voices by the door and then Grif reappeared near me at the entrance of the kitchen, not five feet away from where I stood.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Um… Ellen, listen. W—we need to talk."

I looked at him, stopping mid-chop. "What's going on?"

"I… I talked to a few people last night. One was your brother and—and we both decided that it's time for you to go for a little while."

I frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Grif looked at me sadly. "We just think that you've been having a hard time adjusting and you need help. Rehab will only last a few months and you can come home."

"R—Rehab?" I spluttered. "You're sending me to a mental institution?"

A man appeared next to Grif wearing a fine suit and a positively evil smile.

I didn't hesitate.

I gripped the knife and shoved it into the man's stomach.

Staggering back, I watched as Gamma's eyes widened. Grif froze and the entire kitchen scene fell silent.

"Wh—you—" he choked, a red stain forming at his stomach.

I gazed at the AI, my mind finally processing what I had done. I had… I had attacked Gamma without thinking about it. Without formulating a plan beforehand.

The kitchen scene grew fuzzy. I blinked my eyes rapidly, but nothing was clear. Gamma moaned and clutched at his stomach, sinking to his knees. I tried to stay standing, but I stumbled to the ground as well. The kitchen was dissolving as well as the now statuesque Grif. Gamma roared in pain and anger, reaching out to attack me. He wrapped his hands around my neck but they shattered into a million little pieces as he touched me.

The rest of his body began disintegrating as well, and he yelled in fury before disappearing completely, split into a thousand shards.