Loid Forger came over a little before 7, after calling ahead to tell Anya not to delay their dinner for him. Loidy and toddling little Amy both rushed to the door to embrace their Papa. Rebecca came shuffling behind, but still threw herself into a bear hug from Papa that lifted her off the floor. To everyone's pleasant surprise, Yuri entered behind him. "I'm so glad you came, Papa," Anya said. She had changed into shorts, a T-shirt and a pair of sandals Amy had dubbed quack-quacks for the sound they made as she walked.

Papa examined a picture on the wall. "Is this the new painting?" he said.

"A print," Anya said. "I already sold the original to the Blackbell Museum." The picture showed a stylized figure of a woman looking down at a window in her chest, from which a wide-eyed girl gazed out. "I call it Whole Woman. I used an old picture of Rebecca as a model."

"It's beautiful," Papa said. He embraced Anya. "I'm so proud of you."

They looked over their shoulders at a whimper from Yuri. He stood before a huge picture that was half in the den and half in the hall. It showed a one-to-one print of a mural that hung in the Berlint Museum. She had created the original over three days in the Berlint General Hospital, before Papa had stopped her from destroying it. He put a hand on the most famed panel, in which an angel and a dragon fought. "This is your Grandma Yor," he said. "She was always an angel." Only then did Anya see that Amy was in his arms. He traced the damaged image. He turned with tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry," he said. He gave the child back to Anya.

They all talked and laughed in the den. Amy got to stay up all the way to 7:30 before Anya put her to bed. She smiled over her shoulder when Georgie followed her. Behind them, Yuri and Loidy started playing a Bondman episode on an old tape, which provoked Rebecca to announce that she would rather do her homework. George sidled up to Anya as she gazed down at their latecomer in the crib. "You never know what you'll get when you ride the early train," he said with a knowing smile. He began rubbing Anya's shoulders. "You know I always loved you. I was a leaf, you were my sky…"

Anya gave the reassurance she knew would placate him: "If there were a million leaves, you would be the leaf I choose… the way you chose me." His arms slipped around her waist. She pushed him back. "Don't do that. Not here," she said. "I've told you, I never liked doing that here."

He drew back of his own accord. "I know, it's my fault Becky died!" he said. "I knew about the grate; I didn't call to her. I should have died! I didn't care if I died! I had to save you!" His words were overpowered by his sobs. It was all the more painful to see that he was not even thinking of getting her in bed.

Anya sighed, and thought of a piece of advice from Aunt Chloe. She slapped him. "You cut that K-rap right now, you pseudo-selfless bastard," she said in a low voice that that let him know to be terrified. "Why do you keep laying that on me, anyway? I told you on our first sleepover, it was Becky's fault she left us! You were my hero, remember?" She pointed to a framed medal on the wall, which George barely looked at. She threw her arms around him, sobbing herself. "So how could you dare say you would save me and leave me all alone?"

They looked down at a sound from the crib. Amy had shifted, but her eyes were still closed. Anya politely drew back, still stroking her husband's forehead. She sadly considered the memories that came to her like an autopsy of a stranger. "We both know, we did this because I need you," she said. "That's on me, not you. All the rest was so we could feel like grownups in a real marriage instead of kids clinging to each other. We can't go back now. We wouldn't if we could. Not with Rebecca and Loidy and Amy."

She furrowed her brow. "Except, that was after I felt Becky die," she said. She looked at Georgie. "Things could have been different. They would have been. We would have grown up. I would have learned to sleep without you. You would have found out you could be with someone besides me. Oh, Gloomy, it is my fault."

Georgie only looked puzzled. "You mean that dream?" he said. "When you thought you hadn't touched Becky? Okay, things did get a bit different."

"It's all right, it's all right," Anya said to Amy. She could hear footsteps approach. She smiled to see Papa at the door.

"Yuri is still watching Bondman with Loidy," Papa said. "It's the four-parter. George, why don't you join them? I can stay with Anya and Amy. We can come for the second half." He stepped inside while Georgie departed, already regaining his composure.

"Thanks," Anya said. She gazed down at her sleeping child. "I wanted to talk… What were you really doing the day Eden was bombed?"

Papa nodded sadly. "Yes," he said. "I knew some day you would ask."

While they talked, Georgie cheered and laughed along with Yuri and young Loidy at Bondman's escape from a deadly and preposterous trap. A knock came at the door. Georgie started to rise. Yuri waved for him to stay with his son on the couch. "It's probably Chloe come to bust me," he said as he went to the door. He smiled. "Hello, Sylvia," he said.

"Good evening, Yuri," Sylvia said. "Is Loid still here?"

"He's actually back in the nursery with Anya," Yuri said. "Let me call-" He turned his head, still smiling. His eyes shifted to the side before he could call out. He saw the muzzle of a silenced pistol, aimed at the base of his skull.

What the suppressor did not drown out, the television did.