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A P-L-A-N

AJ stares at his legs, running his hands over the scars slowly. Scars fade, and that holds true as a lot of the smaller ones are barely visible. But his mind is elsewhere. Elsewhere being with the characters inhabiting his brain. Running around, doing their best to, well, uh, do their best. AJ lets out a sigh, regretting all of his decisions leading up to this moment.

"AJ?" Gwen's voice drifts into the room.

AJ looks up at his wife who's leaning in the doorway, rubbing her arm awkwardly. He forces a smile and sits up a bit, crossing his legs.

"I wanted to apologize for how I behaved upstairs. I shouldn't have blown up at you like that," Gwen says, fighting back the urge to cry.

"No, no, I understand, you've been through a lot, you've got PTSD, trauma, etcetera etcetera." AJ shakes his head.

"That doesn't make it okay," Gwen mutters, "Look, I'm really trying to do better, and the first step is apologizing."

AJ nods, "I hear what you're saying."

Gwen rubs her hands together, slightly from cold, slightly from nerves. AJ nods again, looking up at Gwen. She scrunches her face out of confusion. He's not looking at her, he's looking through her. She looks over her shoulder, perhaps something is behind her.

"Okay, You tried and that's what matters," AJ adds.

"Uh... Yeah, I'm not going to give up, I want to work at this and-"

"Yeah, no, I completely agree," AJ interrupts.

Gwen squints in confusion.

"What if I just said I was going to just leave." Gwen begins walking backwards towards the kitchen.

AJ laughs, "No, no, you're right."

Gwen blinks.

"He's completely lost it," she mumbles to herself.

"Yeah, yeah... mhm. No, I understand. I can let you go," AJ nods, "Yeah, I'll figure something out."

Gwen crosses her arms, waiting for him to finish whatever it is he's doing.

"Okay, and thank you again, Noelle," AJ says.

He blinks a couple times, his eyes scanning Gwen. Gwen stares at him, slightly annoyed, slightly disoriented.

"Gwen, when did you get here?" AJ asks, raising a brow.

"I-" Gwen starts, "Literally five minutes ago."

She points to the stairs and then the floor then the stairs again. AJ nods, his mouth agape, befuddled by what she's trying to explain.

"I came down to apologize, you were staring at your legs, and-" Gwen trails off.

"Oh, Gwen, sweetheart, I was talking to Noelle," AJ explains, "I wasn't here, I'm sorry."

Gwen shakes her head, "I'm just a mess this week, it's not your fault. What were you talking to Noelle about?"

"About Eggman and the device and," he rubs his head, "She said that Eggman was unable to help as he cannot, as Eggman put it, 'Make sense of the jumbled mess of parts and the disorderly ramblings of a madman'. And so we're alone in this boat. I removed the back panel on the device, but there's a code input required to change the frequency of the machine which I have no code for."

Gwen nods, shifting the weight between her feet.

"So, what are we going to do, then?" Gwen asks.

"Well, we have two options. We ignore that we even saw the mechanism, and continue our lives," AJ sets the option on the table.

"Or?"

"Or, we go through Nate's stuff in the storage facility. We sift through everything and see if we can find something, anything," AJ hands her the other option.

"What if we... go through the storage facility," Gwen offers, "If we don't find anything, we don't find anything. Maybe that will help me come to terms with what I've done."

AJ stands up, "Baby, you didn't do anything. But I agree, we should look for something and if we find nothing, maybe we can finally find closure."

Gwen nods slowly.

"Do you want to go now, or?" Gwen motions towards the front door.

"Ack, uh, I actually have something else-" AJ scratches his neck.

"Is this about the car? Because I thought you were getting better with that?"

"Oh, no, I am, but that reminds me of something else. No, actually, I have to wait for Mrs. Lin to show up to get The P-E-N-E-L-O-P-E," AJ spells out the name.

"Oh, she's still here," Gwen visibly tenses up.

"Oh, yeah. No, no, no, it's okay, she's not gonna hurt you," AJ says, reassuringly.

Gwen doesn't relax, but she nods in understanding.

"We can leave as soon as she gets here, which should be anytime now, uhm, while we wait... Are you up for darts?"

Gwen chuckles at the running joke, and nods in agreement.