The guards threw them into the cell so hard Lars lost his balance and hit the floor, dragging Amy with him. He tried to roll and take the worst of it on his side, but she still gave a yelp that didn't sound like it was all surprise.

Lars rushed to help her up.

"Sorry! Sorry! Did I hurt you?"

Amy pulled herself to her knees, leaning on his shoulder.

"No, it's okay."

She still sounded a little out of breath.

"It was my fault," Lars told her. "It's my stupid leg. It's even stupider than the rest of me." He hit his thigh with a balled-up fist, to punctuate the point. "I think I know how to work around it, and then I forget and stand on it differently. And it goes out from under me. Like I blew a flat."

"A . . . flat?"

"Tire. You know." Lars tried a smile. "If I was a car the cops would pull me over."

Amy gave him a funny look. She looked like the last week had caught up to her all at once and now she was teetering on the edge, unsure if the next swing of her emotions would carry her over into laughter or hysteria.

It made Lars uneasy.

"What?"

Amy shook her head. Her gaze travelled from the concrete walls to the concrete ceiling to the steel door, and back to her wrist, cuffed to his in a ring of biting steel. At last she settled on his face, and a giggle burst out of her.

Lars waited, bracing himself, but that seemed to be it. A single burst of laughter, like a pressure valve expelling air. The laugh broke free, pinging off the walls, and then Amy seemed to wind down a little.

"Tires," she said. "Wow."

"Yeah, tires - oh."

"You are so prehistoric. I can't believe you fooled Leela for two whole years."

Lars shrugged.

"I talked a lot. I think she just tuned me out, a lot of the time. In a nice way. Until she didn't."

Amy snorted.

"You make her ignoring you sound romantic."

"It was. I guess you had to be there."

Lars shrugged again.

"I spent a lot of time alone," he explained. "Before . . . you know." He mimed the explosion with his free hand. "Before. A lot of time talking to my narwhal, and my dog, and they didn't talk back, so I got used to carrying the conversation. It was . . ." He frowned, searching for the word. "Peaceful. And Leela . . . she spent a lot of time alone too. I don't think she cared what I was saying sometimes. She just liked that I was talking."

Amy was staring at him. She wasn't saying anything.

Lars coughed.

"Maybe it's not romantic."

Amy blinked suddenly, her eyes swimming.

"I don't know about that," she said thickly. "But it sounds like love."

Lars didn't know what to say to that. Amy looked like she might be about to cry, and Lars didn't know if there was anything he could say to her that wouldn't make it worse.

"Hey, you were incredible back there," he said instead, trying to take her mind off it. "I thought that cop would crap his pants, when you started talking about your dad and his lawyers. I thought I'd crap my pants. You were scary. It was incredible."

"Thanks." Amy smiled faintly. "I learned it from Bender. I know you thought I was crazy ever dating him, but he was what I needed back then. He makes you see the world a different way, you know?"

"Yeah." Lars nodded wistfully. "Every time I see a lady with a purse on a long string, or a really in-your-face busker, I think of Bender."

"Me too. But that's not what I meant. I meant . . . I let people push me around before I dated him, and I couldn't even see it. Like my parents. They didn't take me seriously. They didn't think I was living my own life. They thought me getting my doctorate was just a phase, and one day I'd come home to the ranch and settle down with some trust fund slimeball. And give them grandchildren, and start wearing pearls to dinner -"

"Pearls and a cowboy hat," Lars said automatically. He'd been to dinner at the Wongs before.

Amy mock-gagged.

"Spew, yeah. And rhinestones. My parents are so tacky."

"They do own a casino," Lars pointed out.

Amy grinned.

"Yeah. I guess tacky is their brand. But my point was, they didn't respect me. No-one in my life respected me. The Professor was the same. He treated me like I was still some twenty year old intern. He didn't take me seriously either. He didn't think I was a real scientist, and I am. Or, I could be. I know I could."

Lars frowned.

"You are a real scientist. Sure, the Professor is better than you, but he's a genius, and he has a hundred and fifty year head start. You'll get there."

That got him a real smile from Amy.

"Thanks," she said. "But it's not just him and my parents. It was Kif too. He loved me, but when people started dying and the DOOP made him be part of the cover-up, he didn't tell me. He pulled away. He didn't trust me. When he looked at me all he saw was a selfish ditz who wouldn't care. He didn't think I could help him, or understand what he was going through. He didn't think I could take it."

She flattened down the sleeve of her sweatshirt, smoothing the velor to a shine.

"When I found out the truth," she said quietly, "I thought, he would've told me if I was more like Leela."

She blinked away tears, and waved Lars off when he reached for her.

"No! Don't feel sorry for me. I felt sorry for me! That's the point. I felt sorry for me. I was jealous of Leela and I was sorry for myself and I wanted people to treat me differently, but I never did anything about it. I let people make me feel like that. I never tried to be the person I wanted to be. Someone like Leela, she walks into a room and she commands it, you know? She commands everyone, and I used to hate that. I hated how she was always in charge. Always the boss of everyone. But I never said anything to her. I never tried to change the way she saw me. I'd just make all these stupid bitchy comments, like if I could make her feel bad about something, I could finally respect myself. And all it did was make me feel petty."

Lars opened his mouth to argue this, then shut it again. She couldn't pretend he hadn't noticed.

"But with Bender it was different," Amy said. "He made me feel like I was . . . good. Better than good. Bender never feels bad about himself, he's like, ego on steroids. He saw me feeling that way and he taught me to see the world the way he sees it. To say, I'm not just a hot piece of ass. I'm the hottest piece of ass this galaxy has ever seen. And I don't need to be good enough for anyone else. They need to be good enough for me. I can get whatever I want, I deserve whatever I want, and no-one's gonna stop me."

She laughed.

"It's not like it lasted forever. It's not like we were really in love. But living like that, acting like that, it made me realize . . . I have the power. You know? I can be who I want. I can change what I want in my life. If I want to be more like Leela, I can. If I want to grow up, I can. And if someone tries to stand in my way, they don't have the right. I don't have to let them. Maybe I can't kick their ass the way Leela can, maybe I can't blow it off the way Bender can, but I don't have to take it. I can do something."

Lars nudged her.

"You did do something. Today, for me. And for the mutants. You were great."

"You think?"

"Definitely."

At times like this, Lars wished he was better with words.

"I like the new you," he offered at last.

Amy smiled.

"I like the new you too." She patted his cheek, where flecks of gray were starting to pepper his beard. "The new old you."

Lars grimaced.

"At least I won't get any older," he joked. "I'm checking out in my prime. Nearly in my prime."

Amy froze.

"That's not funny."

"No. I guess not. Sorry. I'm still getting used to this whole doomed thing."

"No spluh! That doesn't mean you get to joke about it. It's too soon."

"Sorry."

Lars couldn't honestly say he felt all that sorry. Joking felt easier than looking the truth in the face. The universe was waiting to murder him in some horrible way. Joking about it made it feel less real. If he let it be real . . .

He'd never see the gray get thicker in his beard. He'd never see the gray start to show up in Leela's hair. And all the life in between . . . the baby being born, her first Xmas, her first birthday . . . her first tooth and first smile and . . . every other milestone in her life. He'd miss them all. He'd miss everything.

"You didn't tell her," Amy said quietly. "Leela. You didn't tell her, did you? I could tell by the way she was looking at you."

Lars said nothing.

"She deserves to know the truth."

Lars sighed. He couldn't blame Amy for trying.

The worst thing was, he agreed with her. His mouth just didn't agree with him. He'd tried saying the words, mouthing them at a blank wall in practice. Staring into the mirror as he brushed his teeth. It hadn't worked. His jaw had locked up every time.

Something rooted deep inside him just couldn't do it.

"I know," he admitted. "I know, Amy. But I tried to tell her, down in the sewer. And . . . I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"I don't know."

Amy flicked his cheek with her finger.

"You do know," she said. "So c'mon. Spill it."

Lars sighed.

"It's Leela," he tried. "You saw her when she had to hand us over." He rattled the cuffs holding them together. "She was worried enough about me. And I'm a time bomb. A walking death time bomb. If Leela knew that, she'd try and save me. You know she would." He swallowed. "But she can't. And she can't afford to be distracted by me. The mutants need all her focus right now."

"So you'll tell her when the mutants are free?"

Lars shifted uncomfortably.

"Maybe."

"Maybe? Hey, Philip, I don't know if you realize this but" - Amy knocked on his forehead - "lying to Leela is what turned your whole marriage into an episode of Robot Maury. Maybe there's a lesson you should learn from that. Just saying."

Lars frowned.

"It's not the same," he argued. "If I told Leela the truth now, it wouldn't be fair."

"Why not?"

"Because. I told you. She'd try and save me. You know she would. And it wouldn't make any difference. I'd die anyway. I'm doomed, Amy. But Leela wouldn't see it that way. If she couldn't save me, she'd blame herself. I won't let that happen. I won't let her do that to herself. It's not fair. And -"

He stopped.

"What?"

"And." Lars swallowed. There was a bitter taste in his mouth. "If Leela knew I was dying, she'd choose me."

The silence went on just a little too long.

"You don't know that," Amy said at last. "And even if you're right, it should still be her decision. It should be up to her, to do what she wants -" Amy stopped. "What she thinks is right," she tried again. "What she –" She groaned. "Ugh. You're right. Leela would torpedo her thing with Fry if she thought you were dying. And he'd be noble and step aside, because you're dying . . . and you'd never know if she would've chosen you anyway. They'd both be miserable, and you'd feel like week-old shrimp about it."

Amy shifted position suddenly, twisting to sit beside him with her back against the wall. After a moment she sighed, and Lars felt her head drop onto his shoulder.

"I hate this. I hate that you're right about this. But I understand."

"You do?"

"Yeah. If you don't want me to tell her, I won't tell her. But, for the record, I still think you're being an idiot."

She squeezed his hand, to take the sting out of it, and Lars smiled faintly.

"Old news, Ames."