(( I'm back! This runs long, and I hope it's okay that I pushed through to the end of the tale without allowing chances for Su to respond. I figured he'd go along with just letting her get it over with. ))

"It probably is," she agreed cautiously, and started to say that she really hadn't done that much and didn't have anything to complain about, but her own thoughts gave her the lie. And he seemed to know it. She wondered when she had become so transparent. It wasn't the first time someone had suggested unburdening herself, but it usually took longer, and never before had anyone been quite so direct with an invitation to bitch and moan. She wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

She had to say something, though, so she picked a thought out of the tumult. It came with a return smile. "It's sweet of you to try to make things easier on me. I want to finish the story for you, though, and I think I'll satisfy both of us this way."

She took a deep breath to begin with. "So, the quarantine was lifted. We were able to get most of the canons home at last, and we got Immac and Parwill to Medical. I thought I would finally be able to take care of Derik beyond just keeping him from dying, but no. See, here's what I have to bitch about," she interjected with a lopsided grimace for Suicide's benefit. "Suzine didn't even give me five minutes to look in on him before I left, and then when I checked in a bit later I found out they'd lost him. A man who'd been in a catatonic state for a month suddenly decided to get up and take a walk—later I found out he'd been provoked by Leroux!Erik, and honestly I'm grateful that he was able to achieve what we couldn't for Derik—and they were too overwhelmed to deal with it. I could have killed Mirrad and Suzine when they told me, but there wasn't time. They needed anyone with any experience in Medical. And this, when we were just starting to pick up the pieces and we were all exhausted already, this is when the Sues invaded.

"For my part, like I said, I really didn't do more than anyone else. Dr. Fitzgerald declared that the doors would stay open so people could come to us in Medical, but his staff were too busy to take it further. I got the agents who could manage it to organize a defense, which Sedri led—I stayed with them because you can't get a possessed agent past a psychic—but fortunately we didn't need it. The Sues that did come our way were annihilated by Omicron. I don't know if he was one of Honesah's Daleks or something else, but anyway, he got the job done, and we were able to get back to the business of fixing people.

"I checked in on FicPsych, and found to my great relief that Derik had turned up again, minus Sue-induced good looks but plus a purpose in life after stumbling into a Reality Room. He fought his way back to the department and, of course, collapsed from the strain. Later he got up again after I'd dosed him with enough fellis juice to put down a gold dragon and helped defend the department." She shook her head at the man's insane tenacity, then looked at Suicide again, considering. "You'd like him, I think. He's a lot like you in some ways, and he could use a proper male friend. Remind me."

This was more a note to herself than to him, though, and she pressed on to avoid getting side-tracked.

"I had to go back to Medical, since more agents were coming in hurt from fighting the Sues. There were battles all over, but the big ones were in the cafeteria and the final stand at the Tomb of the Unknown PPC Agent. The only plan the agents had was to lure as many Sues as possible into the cafeteria and let Honesah's Daleks blast the hell out of them, and it worked as far as it went. I heard about it from Ilraen, after I found him and Nume standing around in the ward, looking forsaken."

At this point, her ability to cover her feelings ended. She cared about everyone she worked with, and she was personally invested in Derik, but those two were her friends, and she'd found them alive after a month of not knowing. Tearing up at the memory was inevitable. She wiped her eyes and kept talking through it, though.

"They'd seen fighting," she continued. "After being locked up for a month, they would have faced the Balrog Sue and been happy about it." She actually laughed. "If you can imagine the two of them charging down the corridors through a sea of Sues to get to the cafeteria, like some kind of screwed up knight and warhorse . . . well, that's not how Ilraen described it, but he can't hide anything from me. It can't have been anything but awkward, and I'm sure he never wants to do anything of the sort again. Nume was a damn mess. He'd got himself thrown from Ilraen's back and concussed, and he'd been off Bleepka for ten days by Ilraen's count. Poor guys." She shook her head, but she had a smile for relief that they were alive and relatively well after the ordeal.

"I don't really know anyone who was involved in the Battle of the Tomb, except Lux, and she's too flighty to give a good account. That broke the Sues, though. They'd painted it urple and wilver, I heard"—her lip curled at the insult—"and that incited everyone to a huge effort. The rest was just mopping up, and it was finally over." A puzzled frown crossed her face. "Lux did tell me the agents can-canned to 'Man of La Mancha' afterward. Trust Lux to be in the middle of something like that."

Shaking her head, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then looked up at Suicide again with her eyes still slightly wet. All the same, she looked satisfied at coming to the end. "Any questions?"