The hour passed by surprisingly quickly once Eric had decided to begin talking. Before he knew it, Blanche was standing up and apologizing for having to end the session there. Eric blinked, then turned to look at the clock once more. Sure enough, his hour was up.

"I apologize if this is sudden-" Blanche began, only for Eric to stop him with a quick shake of his head.

"It's no problem," Eric assured him. "I understand you've got other patients, I can't be monopolizing all your time. That and I don't think my bank account could handle more than an hour at a time. No offense."

Blanche cracked a smile, then stepped out from behind his desk and over to the door. "Come on," he said. "Let's go see how your friend is doing."

Eric didn't need any further prompting. He stood up and followed Blanche out into the hall. As he did so, the door to Doctor Harvey's room opened, and Rebecca came stepping out. Something about her looked different, though it was hard to tell at first; it took him a moment before he was able to place it.

It was subtle, as per usual, but she was just the slightest bit more… not quite happy, but she was getting there. Less monotone, perhaps, though that wasn't saying much for someone like her. In any case, she seemed to be feeling a little bit better than before, which was a good sign.

And as much as Eric hadn't wanted to admit it, he felt better, too. He paused as that thought passed through his mind. It felt strange, but not entirely unwelcome.

"Eric."

At the sound of Rebecca's voice, Eric turned to her. "Hey," he greeted. "How did your session go?"

She shifted, as if unsure what to say. Finally, she turned back to him and nodded. "...It went well."

"That's good. Here, let's clear out of the office so other patients can come in. You can tell me all about it on the way home."

Rebecca nodded, and the two of them set off for the front of the office. Rosa met them there, standing up and setting her phone aside the moment they came out.

"There you both are!" she said, rushing over to greet them. "How'd it go?"

Eric paused, taken aback at her demeanor. He'd known Rosa for over a year at this point, and this was the first time he'd seen her so… happy, for lack of a better term.

And yet, somehow, it didn't look out-of-place on her.

"Well enough, I suppose," Eric steadily admitted. "I don't feel any worse, at least. I take it that's a good sign?"

Rosa's wide grin told him all he needed to know.

***

The drive home, surprisingly, was nowhere near as quiet as the drive to the therapist's office had been. In retrospect, he probably should have expected that, but it didn't diminish his surprise at all when Rosa began to pepper him with questions.

"So," she said, "talk to me… Or don't. I mean, it's all confidential, so-"

Eric sighed from his spot behind the driver's seat. "Rosa, you've read my file. There's nothing I talked about today that wasn't also in there."

"Oh," she said. "Well, start talking, then."

"Say please first."

She pouted, and then turned to Rebecca. "Well, he's being his usual self. I don't suppose you'd like to kick things off?"

Rebecca shook her head. "I wouldn't mind."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on," Eric interrupted. "Rebecca, if any of this is confidential-"

Her expression tightened, and she shook her head again. "I don't care if it is," she admitted. "My… sisters… they deserve to be remembered by someone other than just the few of us who are still alive."

Eric exchanged a quick glance with Rosa, who just shrugged. His brow furrowed, and he turned his attention back to the road.

"Alright," he acquiesced. "In any case, it's not like we're about to go telling anyone. Right, Rosa?"

"Of course," Rosa confirmed with a nod. "So, what's on your mind, Rebecca? I noticed you just called the other Angels your sisters. That's new, isn't it?"

Rebecca shook her head. "Not really. We were always close with each other – saw each other as family, more than anything. But we never really used that word, or at least, I never did. But the more I thought about it and talked about it this session, the more appropriate it seemed."

"Is that what you talked about, mainly?" Eric asked. "The other Angels?"

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Rebecca nodded. "Yes. I… was close to all of them, but some more than others. Is that wrong of me?"

"Not at all," Rosa chimed in. "There were fifty of you, Rebecca. It's natural that you'd be closer to a few of them as opposed to all of them."

"Even if we were supposed to fight, kill, and die together?"

"Even then," Eric explained. "You remember those pictures I showed you, right?" She nodded. "There were only two people in them. Those two were the men I was closest with, out of everyone I served alongside, but obviously I served with more than just them. Nothing wrong or unusual about that."

Rebecca bit her lip, but continued on. "...Out of all of them, I was closest to Seventeen and Thirty-One – Hannah and Mai. We spent almost every waking moment outside of missions together. We ate together, trained together… everything. The only times we were ever separated were when we were deployed to separate battlefields."

She trailed off for a moment before shaking her head. "...They're both dead now, of course," Rebecca said softly.

"I'm sorry," Eric offered.

"That must have been hard on you…" Rosa muttered. "Rebecca, I'm so sorry they're gone."

Rebecca shifted in her seat, suddenly uncomfortable. "...Thanks," she said quietly. "It's just… it's still hard, knowing they're both gone. And not only that, but that I can't really see the others anymore…"

"We can't do anything about that?" Eric asked Rosa.

She shook her head. "Not at the moment, no. Certainly not with the ones that are still in the military, and for the ones that are still out… I imagine they're all trying to settle in, too. Getting several Angels in one place might draw too much attention to them. But I will certainly make a few calls once I'm back at the office, see if I can't set something up. If not now, then at some point in the future."

"Thanks." Rosa nodded, and Eric looked over to Rebecca. "Hey."

She immediately looked over to him, and the two of them locked eyes. "I don't know much about the other Angels, but I know what you're feeling right now. Don't blame yourself for what happened."

Rebecca blinked, then bit her lip, turning her gaze to the floor. "...If I'd been there-"

"You can't think like that," Eric said gently. "Look, it's sad that they're gone. And yeah, maybe you being there could've made a difference… or maybe you both would have gotten killed. It's impossible to know for sure. Don't focus on the possibilities like that, you'll drive yourself crazy if you do. Trust me, I've been there before. It doesn't help anything."

Slowly, Rebecca nodded. Eric let out a sharp exhale. "Tell me about the two of them," he said. In the rear view mirror, he saw her look at him in surprise, though he was unperturbed. "You did just say that you wanted someone aside from the other Angels to remember them, right? Hard to do that if I don't know anything about them."

Rebecca blinked again, but nodded. "...Hannah was a year older than me, and a few inches taller. She had short black hair and green eyes. Very good with a sniper rifle, too; on group missions, she was always our first choice for overwatch. Shot-for-shot, nobody else could match her when it came to sheer combat effectiveness, on either side. She was just that good with her rifle." Her expression suddenly softened. "...She ended up getting spaced when her ship was shot down while she was in cryo. They found her remains after some searching; she didn't have a chance."

Her brow furrowed. "...I made the Iprenians pay for that one. We all did. You don't want to know how."

Eric simply nodded along. "And Mai? What was she like?"

"Mai was… a force of nature," Rebecca admitted. "She was two years older than me, and tall – easily the tallest of all of us; she was nearly seven feet when she was wearing her armor. She was dark-skinned, some kind of Middle Eastern? I'm not sure… in any case, she had blue eyes like mine, and long dark hair that flowed down to her lower back. And she was very muscular, too – she took to the augmentations more than the rest of us did, for some reason."

"She sounds incredible. They both do."

Rebecca nodded. "They were. Mai went down like a true warrior – she stayed behind to help assist some civilians who were evacuating their planet. She held the line for several days, all by herself; they finally had to call in an orbital bombardment to take her out. There wasn't enough left of her body to find, but we did manage to locate her empty helmet afterwards, by sheer luck."

Rebecca trailed off. Eric exchanged another glance with Rosa, who returned it with a concerned look of her own. She went to say something, but he just shook his head as he pulled into the driveway of his home. Once he'd put the car in park and killed the engine, he stepped out and walked over to Rebecca's door, then threw it open. She looked at him in surprise, but he didn't say anything, instead he just bent down and gave her a hug.

"I'm sorry you lost your friends," he muttered. "It's always hard to go through. Believe me, I know. But at the same time… don't dwell on it. They wouldn't want you to."

Rebecca stiffened in his arms, but didn't say anything. Instead, she hesitated before bringing her arms up and returning his hug with one of her own.

The two of them stayed like that for just a few seconds before separating. When Eric looked back to where Rosa had been seated, he found her standing just outside the car, a disappointed look on her face. He rolled his eyes, then stepped over to her and hugged her, too.

"Hey!" she protested. "What are you doing?!"

"You looked like you wanted a hug," Eric told her.

"With her, not with you! Let go!"

Eric's only response was to tighten the hug, much to her dismay.

***

Eventually, Eric had enough of messing with Rosa and let her go. She let out a huff and straightened out the new wrinkles in her suit, then adjusted her ever-present sunglasses.

"Sorry to say, but I have to go now," she said. "I've got other people I need to visit, plus I've got to make those phone calls, too."

"You sure about that?" Eric asked. "Seems to me like you're overdue to make it back to your coffin."

She flipped him off, then looked over to Rebecca. "He doesn't give you grief the same way he does to me, does he?"

"She doesn't deserve it like you do," Eric replied.

"Ass," Rosa commented, though she couldn't hide the thin smirk that crossed her face. "Anyway, I'll be seeing you both."

With that, she waved them both goodbye, then got back into her own car and pulled out of the driveway. Eric and Rebecca watched her go before they turned back to each other, Eric rubbing the back of his head.

"I'm really glad things went well today," he admitted. "For both of us."

She nodded in agreement. "What happens now?"

"Same thing as always, I suppose," he said, as the two of them stepped back into his house. "We'll carry on and see what tomorrow holds."