It was nauseously early in the morning. Rafferty had coaxed herself out of bed, with the goal of getting to the Box before anyone else. The snails had sped up the process of knitting her back together, but the pain was still bad. She'd been handed a list of drills to stretch and strengthen the muscles, but she wanted to do it in private. People still had too many questions.

Someone else had the same idea.

Brianna stopped what she was doing when Rafferty walked in. They looked at each other from across the room.

"Hey," said Brianna.

Rafferty stiffened and took a step backwards, toward the door. This seemed to offend Brianna.

"I'm not Seth," she said.

"I… ok," said Rafferty.

"I have to do everything at odd hours, now. Otherwise, everybody has questions, or worse, they want to make me feel better. It's too much," Brianna said.

"I get that," Rafferty said cautiously.

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"I don't even live in this place anymore. I just haunt it," said Brianna.

"I'm sorry," said Rafferty, feeling tears coming on. Again.

No. There's been enough of those. Keep it together. I think this might be going ok.

Brianna walked over, and looked Rafferty in the eye.

"The game. Was is your idea or Katrin's?" she asked.

"Katrin's," said Rafferty.

"Of course it was. And when you jumped, you didn't think she was going to follow, did you?"

"No, of course not. I…" Rafferty had to stop.

"Then how could I be mad at you?" Brianna asked.

Rafferty didn't know what to say, so she looked at the ground and gave a weak little nod.

"I wish we'd heard if from you, though, instead of Max. I thought we were friends, and you disappeared," Brianna said.

Now the tears were here, streaming down Rafferty's face.

"I'm sorry, I just couldn't. I just couldn't…" Rafferty stammered.

"I guess I get that," said Brianna.

Brianna stepped forward, and put her hand on Rafferty's arm.

"You know I didn't know, right?" Brianna asked.

Brianna looked nervous, like this mattered to her a great deal. Rafferty didn't know what she meant at first, but then she realized.

"You mean about Seth?" she asked.

"I would never…" Brianna started, but broke off, and now it was Rafferty's turn to put her hand on Brianna's arm.

"I hate Seth for what she tried to do," Brianna went on. "I hate Connor for going along with it, and not even telling me. I even hate Katrin, a little bit, for hating the idea of losing so much it got her killed. They left me all alone. All of them. A week ago I thought my life was great, but I guess I just didn't matter to anybody."

Rafferty looked up, and spoke with as much determination as she could manage.

"You're not alone."

Brianna considered this for a moment. Then she stepped back, and put out her hand. Rafferty shook it.

Both girls exhaled deeply, and wiped their eyes.

"Thank you," Brianna said softly.

"So what now?" Rafferty asked, feeling bad that she hadn't thought much about Brianna through all of this. "Are they going to rejack you? What about B Hall?"

"Remember what I said about the questions?" Brianna asked, with a hint of a smile.

"Oh," said Rafferty. "Sorry."

Brianna indicated the large metal block she'd been working with when Rafferty came into the room.

"Wanna hit something?" she asked.

"Actually, that sounds good," said Rafferty.