[Okay, yeah, he had expected this. The numbers hadn't lied about that.

Church flickered back into being near a discarded datapad. He looked like hell, he looked tired, he looked smaller than normal but it didn't matter, either; Wash looked like shit, too. Everyone did. Carolina even looked haunted, and he wasn't sure when the last time Simmons ate...

They were a broken family, wrapped in a grief that wouldn't let up.]

I'm not asking for a pity party for either of us. I just...

[He flickered, but didn't disappear.] I want them back. Shit, you need them back because you're three seconds away from something and even I'm not sure what it is. Not good, I can tell you that.

[He sighed, not that he needed to. Little shoulders went up, little shoulders went down.] I've been working on something...