Early morning, February 22nd..

He eased the door to Katt's new room closed behind him and retraced his path down the stairs, back to the kitchen. There was enough to do in there to keep him occupied while he thought. Normally, he used work to distract himself, it was a new feeling to try and use it for something else.

He brushed his hands off, then plugged the drain of the trough sink at the east end of the kitchen. When he turned the faucet on full blast, water sputtered, then roared as the sink slowly filled.

It still hit him hard, but dealing with Katt's memory loss concerning him wasn't that bad.. He had already gone through it once before with May, and the fact that it was Katt only cemented it into his head that someone else was behind everything. She wouldn't forget him on purpose. The one other time that she had, it was by someone else's hand.

He scraped old food out of the numerous pots and pans, throwing them into the sink to soak.

It was that visor on her face that was doing it. He wondered if that was the only way people knew how to do things. If someone remembers something you don't want them to, staple something onto their head and that will do it.

He sprayed the orange cleaner that Marlena kept near the sink all over every stove.

The only reasons why people had done that in the past was because they were trying to use her. He hoped that Unity wouldn't go to these kinds of lengths to get her back. If Aren and Oda were in charge, and they allowed this..they were nuts.

He wetted a rag in the hot dishwater and started scrubbing down the long table.

She had sounded like she had felt genuinely bad that she couldn't remember him. And he could only understand that..a little. From all the times they had talked about memories and everything he had said about being being inside his head..he knew that if she had the choice, despite the pain of remembering, she would have chosen not to forget.

He scrubbed at each stove next, the muscles in his shoulders pinched with the familiar feeling of exertion.

But eh could see two pictures of Katt in his mind. One of them was how she had just looked before him. Not quite happy, but..normal. She didn't seem worried about anything. She even teased him. Or joked about what Corey had done.

Then there was the other picture. She was lonely, in the dark. Her eyes were rimmed in red and puffy like they always were after she had been crying for a while. She looked at him with recognition, regret, guilt. Everything. He could see it in her face how much she blamed herself for what happened, and while he didn't disagree, and wanted her to understand..he hated that it hurt her.

He wadded up the rag and pitched it across the room to land in the sink. If Sister Nina hadn't ducked when she did, it would have hit her. Her blank orange eyes went from the sink to him and she blinked, adjusting her frameless glasses with one hand. Her other was curled around a petite bible she kept held to her lap.

"You're up early."

He had to strain to hear her. "Yeah..up early." His eye followed her as she took her place at the sink, pocketing the bible in her long wool skirt. Her small hands scrunched the sleeves of her sweater up to her elbows then dipped into the water.

"Are you going to help prepare breakfast this morning?"

"Ah..do you guys need anyone? Where's Marlena anyway.. This whole place is messed up."

Dishwater splashed as Nina began to scrub at one of the several soaking pots.

"Myself and Erica have been helping in the kitchen and with deliveries. Marlena has been sick lately, pneumonia." Nina dunked the pot into the water repeatedly. "As much as she wants to get back to work, we don't want her making herself worse, not to mention everyone else. Erica should be down any minute."

He looked back over his shoulder at the fridge. He was sure that it was stocked with some sort of food that he could turn into something. "What about everyone else? When does Sera wake up now..? 'Cause of the baby.."

"She has been confined to bedrest for over half of her days since the birth and she's not happy about that." Nina gathered a dishtowel, wiped the pot down and set it onto one of the several stove's several burners. "In other words, I'm sure that she wouldn't mind your visit."

Toby nodded softly, wiping his hands off on his jeans. "You don't mind, right..?"

"No. You've done half of my work for me anyway." She dunked and dried a second pot, setting it next to the first. Her motions were so mechanical and focused, he felt like he was interrupting her even though he'd gotten there first. "Go ahead. There will still be work to do when you return." She didn't even look up when he slipped out into the hallway.

As much as he wanted to see Sera..he didn't think that now was a good time. She was probably sleeping. And he knew that new babies never let anyone sleep..

But he was walking down the hall anyway, letting himself into the second corridor. The worst thing that would happen was that she would be asleep..and he'd just have to come back later. If she woke up, she might not even be mad.. She'd told him to come visit.

He stopped outside of the door to her room, his hand raised, poised to knock.

"Bottles are all in the fridge?"

"Yes. Just m-make sure you w-warm it up f-first."

"Right-o. I do *not* envy the job you're gonna be doin'."

Laughing. Then a squeak.

"Hey, come on, it's true! Don't start throwin' stuff at me again."

"J-just g-go get his b-bottle!!"

The door swung inward, revealing a tall man about his age, grinning wildly over his shoulder. His blond hair was shaggy and it dipped into his gold eyes. That swiveled around to Toby and widened. The man looked like he had been punched in the gut.

It must have been the new fiance that Katt was talking about. He squinted at the man with his one eye.

"P-Patrick, who i-is--oh!!" Sera's messy hair popped into view, her arms wrapped around a small bundle of white blankets. But he barely saw her there.

He was slowly starting to recognize the face before him; the way the man's hair was nearly too long, the way it fell over his face. The almost tired slant of his golden eyes.

When he grinned, Toby's heart leapt up into his throat.

"Hey, kid. Looks like a lot's happened since the last time I saw ya.."

He lunged forward, throwing his arms around Patrick's neck. The tears in his one eye spilled over when he felt the hug returned just as tightly.