Ratigan and Basil both hunched over the table, pens moving ceaselessly across their respective notebooks. The rest of the surface was covered in more papers, books, crumpled-up notes, and discarded dishes. The temporal-locator had been hooked up to an automatic printer, and its readings came out on an endless scroll of narrow paper. The clock on the wall ticked past 5:00 AM.

With a hiss around the stem of his cigarette holder, Ratigan tore out the notebook page he'd been working on and tossed it aside.

Hayley stepped into the dim lamplight, rubbing her eye and wearing green button-up pajamas. With her hair down, she looked very much like how Kiara did when Ratigan and Basil first met her. "You two really haven't stopped working since dinner, have you?" she asked, half-yawning through her words.

"We're sorry if we disturbed you," Basil said, and tapped out the ashes of his pipe into the nearby tray.

"I'm alright, I wasn't sleeping very well anyways." She leaned against the doorframe. "Maybe it's about time you guys took a break, though? I can't imagine it's easy to do calculations when you're running on zero sleep."

"No, thank you." Basil turned back to his work. "We've wasted enough time as it is."

"But it'll end up taking even longer if you exhaust yourselves," she murmured.

"She's right, Basil." Ratigan checked the transcript from the temporal-locator. "We could at least take it in shifts. Go rest your featherhead, I'll continue from here."

Basil packed fresh tobacco into his pipe with more force than necessary. "Actually, I think you could use the sleep more, despite rattus norvegicus being creatures of the night."

There was a small tearing sound as Ratigan dragged his pen across the paper. Hayley's eyes widened, flickering between the two. He was smiling as he faced Basil. "You're so thoughtful, but really, let's be honest with ourselves. We both know your mind isn't as tireless as my own, what with how often I've left you in the dust, still trying to put the puzzle pieces together. Your brain simply can't keep up, it needs rest."

"Picking up the debris, you mean, not puzzle pieces." His fingers struggled to get a match lit, the stick scraping fruitlessly against the side of the box. "As I recall, your misplaced pride is what caused more than a handful of your schemes to blow up in your face."

"Blow up in my face, did they?" Ratigan snarled. "It was your obsessive tendencies which caused you to constantly lose the only things that mattered to you!"

"I will not lose another child!" Basil's fist came down on the table.

"Hey!" Hayley shouted, coming to the edge of the table between both of them. Her arms hovered, and she turned her head back and forth. The two men scowled at each other, nostrils flaring.

Ratigan smoothed back his hair. "I suppose it was always too much to ask. Too much to ask that two men from opposing sides of society be civil toward each other. To forgive each other, after a lifetime of rivalry and doing the other wrong."

"No," Basil said quietly. "It would never be too late. Kiara taught me that." He straightened up. "Forgiveness… is a continuous process. Not a single conversation or redeeming act. I expect we'll spend the rest of our lives forgiving each other, as well as matching wits and competing, even when we're both working towards the same goal."

They held each other's gaze, both considering. Finally Ratigan gave a small nod. "Perhaps… we had better both take a short rest after all. Then some coffee when we're ready to return to work."

Hayley exhaled. "I can set a timer on my phone, I'll wake you up when it goes off."

The two shared another nod, then moved away from the table, both rolling their shoulders and putting away their smokes.