Wil's stomach churned with anxiety as Baxer weakly continued his story, stealing a brief glance at his father every few minutes as the tense moments wore on.

"There was a...a a patron, at the ca-can-c-cantina, another regular... H-he he...he demanded Effiri's attention whenever he c-could. All the time. But...she never told Kaz. Us. We...we d-did-didn't know. S-she didn't want Kaz to worry. This regular, he wanted to...court her. Claim her. Sh-sh-she she was able to rebuff him for a long time, long time, until he...he snapped."

Baxer's shaking only intensified as he managed to continue. "When Effiri didn't come h-ho-home home one night, Kaz went over to the cantina to find her. The oth-other waitstaff told him that she had left hours ago with...with another man, th-the the regular who had been harassing her. And then Kaz, he..." Baxer paused, visibly struggling to recount the details about his friend's demise. "He...he was the one who...who found her. In the alley. Behind t-th-the cantina. Strangled. And...long gone. Long gone. He couldn't help h-her. Couldn't save her."

Though he had begun to cry again, Baxer looked up and met Wil's gaze squarely, seeming to earnestly plead for his understanding through his broken voice.

"Kaz...you couldn't save her."

Acutely aware of his own emotions being drawn into Baxer's deep, painful sorrow, Wil released a slow breath to center himself and steady his own words with the Force. "Baxer... What happened wasn't your fault. Nor was it Kasimir's."

A sudden, odd twitch made Baxer blink repeatedly while still looking at Wil, and as realization strangely rolled over his face a moment later, Baxer nodded, swallowing hard as though he'd just been brought back to the present. "What happened after...was my fault."

"Baxer..."

But he again ignored Wil's sympathy, finishing what he needed to share. "Kaz was...n-ne-never never the same. Without her. I thought the t-twi-twin twins would help, help keep him...g-gro-grounded, focused, but he...he broke down every ti-time he saw their...eyes. Their eyes. Her eyes. I kept them in my-m-my shop with me most days, while Kaz, he...well, he drank. So much. In his shop. At home. So much, so much...

"I tried to tell him to s-stop, so many times, so many, but he wouldn't listen. The last t-tim-t-time I saw him alive, I had br-brought the twins to him as I was leaving for the ni-night. He hadn't left his shop in...weeks, weeks, living there. He could barely stand, I could s-s-smell smell the ale on him, but he demanded I l-le-leave the twins and go home. I...I should have said no. I know, I know I should have. I should have st-sta-stay stayed with him. I should have helped him. Because the next morning, I f-f-found the shop broken into, and Kaz was dead, and the twins were...gone.

"I looked, for them, for so long, so long, and I even f-f-fix fixed up the shop, made it s-so nice, in case the twins came back and...and recognized it. I asked e-ev-everyone I could find to help me search, but... You were gone."

A long, heavy silence settled in the Shadow Nova's main hold as both Wil and Baxer again looked to the elder Sheridan for his reaction. Horatio remained motionless, though, hardly even seeming to breathe, and even his blank expression didn't give away his feelings on the matter until he finally spoke.

"Sounds to me like my father sold my sister and me for one last bottle of ale."

"Dad."

"No, Horatio, I promise," Baxer countered over Wil somberly. "He loved y-you you two so much, so much - "

"You just said he couldn't even look at us."

Agonizing over a helpful answer, Baxer fumbled for words. "It was, it was...complicated... And it was m-my fault. I left him, him and you, when I should have stayed. Don't bl-bl-blame him, blame me."

"Sounds fair enough."

Wil intensely glared at Horatio, unwilling to tolerate his foul mood any longer. "Dad." With a quick, subtle lift of his chin, Wil wordlessly sent his father away from the table, much to Horatio's chagrin. Only after Horatio had so reluctantly stepped out of earshot did Wil return to the Arkanian to soothe his anxiety.

"I'm sorry you had to go through all of that, Baxer. That must have been horrible, finding your friend the way you did."

"I wanted to help him, I did - "

"I know you did - "

" - and I looked for th-the-the twins for months, Kaz, months! I swear! I tried! I looked everywhere in our sector, everywhere! I tried, Kaz!"

Being addressed as his grandfather for a second time in such a short span gave Wil pause. Was Baxer confusing the two of them in his head? Was his mind really so fractured that they were the same person to him?

"Baxer," Wil began carefully, "I'm Wil, remember? Horatio's son? I'm Kasimir's grandson. I'm not him."

Again a strange twitch of his head seemed to snap Baxer out of his previous state as he nodded. "Yes, yes, of course. Wil, Wil! You know, you r-re-m-remind me so much of Kaz, so much. You look just like him."

"Yes, you've told me before." Looking him over for a long moment, Wil stressed the gentle care in his tone. "Baxer, are you okay?"

A confused expression took over his face. "Yes, I'm f-fi-fine, fine. Why?" As his gaze tracked about the hold, seeming to suddenly remember where he was and why he was there, he noticed the elder Sheridan's absence at the table and searched for him. "Oh... I upset Horatio, didn't I?"

"No," Wil lied without thinking. "No, that wasn't your fault. He just needed some time to...think." Growing wary of the Arkanian's abnormal mental state, Wil glanced at his father briefly before looking back to him. "I'm going to go talk to him for a little bit, but only if you're okay."

Baxer nodded enthusiastically, even brightening his expression. "Yes, I'm okay. Go, go. And t-e-tell tell Horatio I'm sorry, so sorry, please."

Wil agreed with a soft smile of his own, though he dropped it the instant he had turned from Baxer to step toward his father. If the Arkanian's mind really was split between realities, it would confirm his father's assertion that their entire conversation was a waste of their time, that nothing Baxer had told them was true. Until he could make a better informed decision with more input from their friend, Wil elected to keep his suspicions to himself.

Unsure what his father's state of mind would be as he stepped up to him beside the rear loading ramp, Wil mentally prepared himself for a scathing reprimand, though thankfully, it never came.

"Look," Wil opened with gentle concern, "I know this was...a lot, and I'm sorry. Can I...help, somehow?"

Horatio's gaze hadn't left Baxer behind them, even as he crossed his arms tightly over his chest to respond to his son. "...I don't know how I'm supposed to feel."

Wil furrowed his brows. "You...feel however you feel. There's no right or wrong way to react to - "

"Am I supposed to be happy that now I finally know that my mother was murdered and my father drank himself to death because of it?"

Wil's shoulders sagged. "Dad..."

"Or am I supposed to be filled with rage that I should have had a safe, happy life, if not with my parents, then with their best friend who would've taken care of my sister and me, where we wouldn't have had to become bounty hunters and mercenaries just to survive?"

"Dad, that's - "

Interrupting Wil, Horatio lifted his hand up to quiet him. "You know what, I just... I need to take a walk." He turned and pressed the control panel to lower the ramp, waiting for it to fully extend before he began to step down it. "Never out of sight," he called back to Wil, reminding him of their earlier agreement to monitor their friend.

As Horatio disappeared into the starport, Wil rubbed his temple with anxiety. Had he just done irreparable damage to his father's psyche, as Cordira had warned? Would Horatio come to resent Wil for essentially forcing him to learn about his family's fate against his will? Wil still believed they were all better off knowing than not, but how receptive to that would his father be after the fact? Would Horatio ever speak to him again?

Determined to not lose himself to despair and worry, Wil pressed the control panel to raise the ramp, taking the last few moments of noise distraction to settle his mind before the ramp sealed. He let go of a slow breath and began to turn toward the main hold, hoping to talk more with Baxer.

"Tell me more about my gra-"

Before he could react, something solid and heavy contacted the side of his head, instantly knocking him out and sending him limply to the cold durasteel floor.