Randall entered the apartment like he was entering into a dream. The living room was neat and clean with a small kitchen on the right and a counter. He was inside a proper home. He slowly turned to Sully, the one he had once despised the most in his life, in utter confusion. "Why?" He pointed a finger at his face. "I tried to kill you! After everything I have done, you welcome me in your home? Why?"

"I already told you. You went through enough. I'll show you to your room." Sully went left into a short hall, opened the only door on the left side, and turned on the light, revealing a small room with a twin bed and nightstand. The bed was neatly made with a crimson quilt and single pillow. "The bathroom is at the end of the hall. There are spare toothbrushes in the top drawer."

Randall looked up at him. "Do you have a lot of company?"

"Not really." He returned to the living room. "Help yourself to any food or drink, too. I'm sure you're hungry."

Randall slowly turned off the light, closed the door, and followed the host, but stopped at the living room while Sully took a seat on an arm chair. He was hungry. Very hungry. Since his escape, he was eating out trash cans or stealing from gardens if he came across one. He swallowed at the thought of proper food. "Do you, uh, have fish?"

"I do actually." He looked at him over his shoulder. "I can make some now."

"I'm in no rush," Randall lied.

"I'll make it now." Sully stood up and headed to the kitchen.

"Sullivan, wait." He approached him. "I'm sorry. For everything. I didn't apologize properly before, but I am…sorry. I regret everything that I did. Everything." He swallowed, glancing away. "I do not deserve this kindness. I don't understand why you're trusting me." Anger flashed through him, glaring at him. "You should've thrown me back! Arrested me! Anything! The last thing I need is your pity– your sympathy!"

Sully patiently inhaled. "When I was banished, I came back for Boo. You came back to survive."

Randall's face fell like he was punched the gut.

"You told me that you were an experiment and judging by the scar, they were pretty ruthless. Tell me you have not gone through enough." He looked him dead in the eye. "Because from where I am, pal, you have."

"How do you know I won't stab you in your sleep?" He humorlessly asked.

"You didn't come through that door stealthily. You came through that door as if you were being chased and you laid on the floor as if it was a bed. If you really wanted to kill me," he smiled, "I think you took the wrong approach."

Randall chuckled, shrugging. "Fair enough."

Sully crossed his arms. "So what changed? I thought you'd still hate me. Especially for banishing you."

"Oh, in the beginning I did, but then two years in a cell gave me plenty of time to think." He dropped his gaze. "I want to apologize to Wazowski, too. I was in idiot in college. I wanted to be liked and popular, but he genuinely wanted to be my friend and I threw it away. I haven't even talk to any of my friends from college since graduation." He inhaled. "While I'm at it, I guess, I am…sorry about killing Boo's uncle."

"He was going to kill you, wasn't he?"

"He was going to dissect me alive," he murmured.

Sully's eyes grew and his arms dropped to his sides. "Randall…."

Randall couldn't look at him.

"What did they do to you in there?"

"Starvation. Almost drowned me a couple of times. Electricity. So many fun memories…."

"How did you escape?"

"There was a breakout. I don't know how or by who or what, but there was a breakout and all the cell doors opened. I discovered there was a fire coming from one of the lower floors. I was able to go into camouflage and found a gas pipe. I grabbed a, uh, a wretch and busted it until it began to leak. Test subjects and humans were killing each other the entire time. It was practically a massacre on both sides. I don't need to go into it." He tried not to remember the gory images. "I managed to find an exit, but I really didn't think I was gonna make it. I mean, I didn't know when it was gonna blow. I just didn't want anything or anyone else to suffer again. I didn't want any trace of that place's existence. I don't know if anyone else got out or if I even did the right thing. Maybe I made a terrible mistake. I dunno. Well, I didn't make it outside and the whole thing blew up. I woke up in debris– It was a mess, but unscathed except for a couple of minor cuts. I fled until I found a neighborhood. I looked for houses with kids, then I waited in a kid's room for two full nights while the kid slept– hoping that a monster was gonna come through. I slept in the day outside."

"…Yeah," Sully softly murmured, "you went through enough. I'll start dinner." He went to the kitchen.

"Sullivan."

He turned to him.

"Thank you."

He smiled. "You're welcome."

The fish was cooked to perfection and was practically inhaled. For the first time in two years, Randall had finally tasted something that wasn't unknown slop or discarded food. For the first time in two years, he wasn't in cell. For the first time in two years, he was able to talk to someone who wasn't trying to cause him harm. He was fr–

"…Randall?"

He shook his head, returning to reality after staring at a spot in the counter. "Hm? What?" He looked at his temporary roommate, who was holding two empty plates. He blinked. "I've could've–"

"No, it's fine." Sully placed the dishes in the sink. "You zoned out. I asked if Boo remembered us and if her uncle knew about us."

Randall shook his head again. "No. I told him that the drawing of you and Wizowski weren't real. The only one that was real besides his niece was me. I told him I never heard of a Mike Wizowski before because she obviously remembered the name. I don't think he bought it, but no, he didn't know a thing about our world or you or Wizowski. That's why he wanted to kill me. He knew I scared his niece and that I was keeping secrets. He hated that I never broke and this was the final straw."

Sully stared at him, puzzled. "You didn't tell him anything?"

"Nope. I just said I entered the trailer. I never told him where I came from or how I got there. You threw me in a trailer by the swamp, by the way."

"Oh…."

"A boy and his mom were home, too."

His eyes grew. "Oh, no."

"She hit me in the head with a shovel thinking I was mutated alligator. I ran out. Two days later, I was being hunted by guys in black with guns, then woke up in a cell. So, that's how this whole thing started. It ended with me bashing the kid's uncle's head on the floor repeatedly…and the whole facility blowing up." He noticed he was unapologetically morbid.

Sully held out a hand. "Wait." He dropped his arm. "You could've thrown Mike and I under the bus, but you didn't?"

"And then what? Tell them about our world?" He shook his head. "I'd rather have died."

Sully stared at him as if processing everything.

Unsure of what to say or what to even look at, the reptile just looked around the kitchen, until he placed his hands on the counter and got off the stool. "Well, this has been a fun talk and dinner was very good, but I'm going to bed." He walked to his room. "I'll do the dishes before nightfall." Before Sully could get a word in, Randall disappeared into his room, closed the door, and fell on the soft bed. He bundled himself up in the blankets and burried himself in the pillows and covers. He wasn't sleeping on a floor anymore. He was in a bed. He was safe. He softly wept.