After lunch with Sam and Laura, Rebecca went to visit Allie to see if she could lend a hand with anything. She learned Leonard was already pouring cement into a wooden form for her mother's stove. Apparently the latest three-piece design would forego the metal fifty-gallon fire barrel of the early versions entirely, and even had the smoke path snaking through the upper mass to improve heat transmission, just like Walt's.

Great. If we don't have one come winter, Sam's going to spend all her time over there in the warmer apartment. Guess that'd at least mean they're getting along. She might have to fight Sue for the warmest spot though.

Sadly, there wasn't much for her to do at Allie's, beyond opening several cans for her to appease Leonard's rampant and poorly concealed anxiety. He'd heard somewhere that pregnant women's joints could hyperextend as their connective tissues softened, and was paranoid about anything that put the least bit of strain on her body.

"He's worse than you are," Allie grumbled as she rolled her eyes at Rebecca. "He's lucky I'll need his help after the baby arrives, or I might have murdered him already."

Rebecca cringed at just about every part of Allie's statements. "It means he cares, I guess? And I bet a lot of it is his own nervousness manifesting. At least you can send me home when I get on your nerves."

"Yeah, well. It doesn't help my nerves any either. I'm well aware how much there is to worry about, having a baby with reduced medical levels. And, don't think I haven't kicked him to the couch twice while you were gone! Admittedly, some of that was because it's getting impossible for me to sleep comfortably."

"Maybe my mom can give you some ideas tonight? I think most of the grudges she's held against me are actually from before I was breathing air."

Allie laughed. "I'm not surprised, you're such a softie that I have a hard time picturing anyone resenting you for long time. But, shoo. You know how you said I can always boot you out the door? If you stay, you'll ruin some of the surprises for tonight."

"Okay, okay. I'm going." Rebecca checked the can opener to make sure it was still clean and returned it to the appropriate drawer. "What time should we come over?"

"Aim for five, if that's enough time for Sam to get cleaned up."

Rebecca snapped her fingers for Rufus to follow her as she rounded the kitchen peninsula and headed for the door. "Okay. It sounds like she has a couple of projects going in addition to helping my mom, but I told her to make sure she stops whatever she's up to early enough to get ready."

"We both had to fall in love with overachievers, tinkerers, and fixers, didn't we?"

"Apparently!"

She pulled the door closed behind her and checked the handle. Allie had plenty of windows open for air, and Rebecca wasn't about to leave her alone with the door unlocked. Sure, they had a tight perimeter, guards at the only open entrance to the building, and a roving patrol, but like Allie had said. Rebecca was being pretty damned protective too. She figured she could be allowed that the week she and the gang had.

She decided to plow through the remaining rows of the blanket so she could present it at dinner, glad her mother was there to help with the finishing touches. She set it down just over an hour later, ready for Laura to work her magic hiding the end knots deep in the bulk of the existing rows, and was looking through the closet for attire options when Sam returned. Rebecca was just glad to not get spooked again when she opened the door.

When she got out to the front room, Sam had deposited a backpack on the table and was digging out a black metallic brick with a control panel on one side. She grinned at Rebecca's quizzical expression while connecting it to a pair of car batteries they kept in a corner of the dining room.

Rebecca knew there was a chance Sam would drag the suspense out as long as possible if allowed and decided to skip ahead. "What magical contraption have you brought us this time?"

"I like the way you phrased it, because it really is a present for both of us." Sam's grin widened as she reached into the backpack and slid Rebecca's old laptop out of it. "I finally found an inverter that produces a clean enough sine wave for your fussy power brick."

Rebecca's eyebrows went up as she realized how her couch-bound entertainment options had just skyrocketed. It renewed her longing for internet access, but it was definitely a step in the right direction. She didn't even wait for Sam to finish connecting the charging rig before opening the computer and typing in her password, ignoring the red 5% battery indicator.

When that turned white and ticked up to 6%, Sam nudged her arm. "Hey, I'm impressed. That was a pretty long password."

Rebecca chuckled, deciding she didn't have anything to hide while the progress bar puttered away. "You're gonna laugh."

Sam raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued. "Oh?"

"It's 'Sudoku the big furball', with a dollar sign as the 's', the 'g' capitalized, and the 'a' replaced with a two."

Sam did laugh. "You were right. But okay, yeah. Enough entropy in there to prevent dictionary attacks, length to make brute forcing impractical, easy to remember. I'm proud of my lil' social sciences gal."

"Hey. I paid attention in the school IT orientation thing!" Rebecca couldn't help feeling a little crestfallen the wifi symbol stayed empty, even though she knew full well that's what would happen. "I suppose that while my mom's not around, you'll wanna see..."

"Oh yeah, you better believe it after the way you were upselling the description! Uh, wait... shit." Sam's initial excitement dropped away and she put a gentle hand on Rebecca's arm, looking into her eyes searchingly. "You're going to have to go past old photos to get to the vacation pics, aren't you? There's no rush."

"Uh... shoot." Rebecca paused her finger on the trackpad, but then inspiration struck. "No, it's okay, they're geotagged! I've seen all most recent stuff because they're all on my phone, and I can just drill in by location after that. But, thank you for looking out for me." She smiled at Sam warmly.

Sam relaxed with a slight smile, returning her eyes to the screen, and Rebecca scrolled and tapped to pull up the Thailand album. Even that stirred a longing nostalgia for how the world used to be as she swiped past verdant jungle, and she sighed wistfully at the images of bright sand beaches and pristine water when she reached that part of the trip.

She stepped back with a blush as she waved Sam towards the computer. "I mean, it's nothing you haven't seen already. And I bet I've gained a few inches in some spots and lost them in others since then, so..."

Sam double-clicked on the first prized picture and let out a teasing whistle. "Hey, I might have seen it all already, but there's something to be said for presentation and setting, and that is quite nice." She clicked through a couple more, then minimized the window — maybe in case Laura walked in — and turned to Rebecca. "And hey, one way or another, I think they're good inches, so stop being self conscious. Not that you weren't sexy AF back then."

Rebecca felt her cheeks flush and bit her lip with a chuckle. "Oh, pshaw."

Sam picked up Rebecca's hand and caressed it. "Thanks for letting me see. Checking you out was nice, but I love how happy you looked. Simpler days, right?"

Rebecca glanced back at the screen, memories of the hidden images conjuring even more memories in her head. "Yeah. Before we knew any better."

Sam nodded and kissed her cheek. "Yeah. But hey, the reason I put so much effort into this was to help your sanity while you're stuck sitting around."

Rebecca's thoughts and face brightened. "Oh, believe me, it will." She clicked on the icon to launch her Steam game library, and rolled her eyes at the connection error message. "Yes, offline mode, dammit."

"Sorry sugar," Sam said. "One miracle per day."

"Goals, right?" Rebecca skimmed the list of what she had available for local play. Stardew Valley would be a good time burner, as would Civilization's ruthless 'one more turn' addiction. As she passed some puzzle games and visual novels, something else caught her eye and she laughed. "Look, this could have been a simulator for our road trip."

Sam peered at the title as it launched. "Organ... Trail?"

"Yeah, like Oregon Trail. You played that at some point, right?"

"Yeah, thanks to Mike. Is this a bootleg or something? Wait..." Sam pushed lightly against Rebecca as she examined the heavily pixelated graphics of the main menu. "Is that a station wagon, and zombies? What the fuck?"

Rebecca was surprised her cheeks didn't hurt from grinning so widely at Sam's reaction. "Yup. I dunno, the idea of playing games about a different apocalypse in the midst of this one somehow appeals."

Sam shook her head and sat back. "I don't think the psych boards would approve of your unconventional approach, but yeah. I can see the therapeutic value."

Rebecca bumped their shoulders together affectionately and clicked the button to start a new playthrough.

**

When Sam and Laura came back again, the virtual version of the gang had just made it to Albuquerque. Epstein's wounded arm was fine in the game world, but Patrick's leg wasn't. Sam had just recovered from dysentery, Rebecca recently sat on a can of fuel and ruined it — how the hell does that even work — and Chrissie made them waste an hour bickering about directions. No zombie bites just yet, but she was going to need to grind some cash for another spare tire before they left.

She saved their progress and pushed the laptop a few inches away from her on the breakfast bar. Laura came over to hug her, and just as she straightened again, there was an audible click from the inverter. Rebecca glanced at the laptop and noticed the screen dimmed as it switched to the internal battery.

Laura chuckled nervously. "Oops. I hope I didn't just break it after all her effort." She looked over at Sam, who was kicking her shoes off by the door. "Sorry. Tech and I don't mix. All I need to do is walk by and something will break."

Sam sighed with weary mirth, and kissed Rebecca on the cheek as she drew closer. "Now I see where you get it from, Sparky. I guess we found another thing that runs in the family."

Rebecca huffed defensively. "Or, y'know. Maybe the car batteries just low enough it cut out."

"Oh sure." Sam winked at Rebecca on her way around the kitchen counter to put the two empty bottles into the sink. "Make it my fault for not having time to rig up a direct twelve volt to five volt step-down that would have been more efficient. 'Thank you, Sam. I appreciate the source of interactive entertainment while stuck on my ass all day.' Is that so much to hope for?"

Rebecca closed the laptop to save what power it had managed to accumulate. "Thank you, Sam. I will think fondly of you with every bushel of crops I sell, every zombie I shoot, and every civilization I crush under my heel."