That night, Frieda lit a candle in the window of the tiny cabin that was facing the lake. She left it lit for one hour, then snuffed it out. Otherwise they sat in dark silence. In the morning, Niko checked Princess Sparkles' pulse. "He's alive."

Frieda was sitting in the window, staring out over the lake. "I know," she said without looking back.

"How much longer do you think he'll stay that way?"

"He's gonna make it."

"Someone should clean his bandages."

"Yeah."

"I guess I should do that?"

Frieda took a long, melancholy breath and said, "Yeah."

And that's how it was for days. Frieda sat despondently on guard, Niko tended to Princess' wounds, and Princess slept. Every night, right after the sun went down, Frieda lit her candle in the window for one hour and snuffed it out. Nobody said a thing.

On the fourth day, when the sun poked in the window and tickled Niko's eyes open, he noticed it had done the same for Princess. "Frieda!" He shouted, excited at the progress. "Frieda, his eyes are open."

"I know."

Niko turned to look at her, there were still blood stains in her hair. "Maybe have you thought about cleaning up?"

"Why?"

"Because it's not a very big cabin and frankly you're starting to stink the place up."

Frieda lifted an arm and sniffed herself. "Oh god, you're right."

"It's just that I thought you were sad about Princess being hurt, you know, but obviously there's something else bothering you right now because I just told you he opened his damn eyes and you're still sitting in that window like the sad widow of a sailor lost at sea! Princess' eyes are open! That's basically a freaking miracle!"

Frieda just stared at Niko while he yelled. As his voice got louder he could see one of her eyebrows crawl higher up her face. He was breaking through her solemn wall of silence. Before she could respond to him, Princess moaned and both of them turned to listen to him.

"The lake house," He grumbled, his voice sounded dry, he was probably dehydrated. "Nice."

"Welcome back," Frieda said with a smile.

"How long have we been here?"

Frieda didn't say anything. Niko sat on the bed beside his patient and said, "This is day four."

"Day four?" Princess' eyes fluttered. "No..." He was out again but Niko was sure he had more to say.

"What's he so worried about?"

Frieda swallowed and smelled herself again. "I'm just gonna pop out to the lake for a swim, I think."

"Okay."

Things got a little better after that. Princess was awake for about an hour a day but he didn't say much. When he did speak, it didn't always make sense. When Niko woke up on the seventh day, Princess was awake and he had even gotten out of bed. Unfortunately, he had put on his blood stained unicorn suit. The hood was up and Niko could see the bullet hole stained brown with old blood.

"Hey, Princess. Good to see you outta bed."

He was shuffling around in a corner, picking things up and putting them back down, muttering to himself as he went. "Are you okay? Is there something I can get for you?"

"Build. I just, I need to build." Princess twitched as he sifted through a drawer of cutlery. Niko knew first hand that it only had one of each utensil but Princess seemed to need a long time to register that fact.

"Are you okay?" Niko repeated himself.

"Let him do what ever he needs to do." Niko was surprised to hear Frieda's voice coming from somewhere other than the window. "As long as he's inside he'll be safe."

"Are you cooking?"

"I mean, considering the dwindling supply I'd hardly call it cooking."

"You seem to be doing better too."

"What do you mean?"

Before Niko could answer, Princess slammed the cutlery drawer closed with a bang. "I need to build it!" He yelled and Frieda rushed to his side.

"What, baby? What do you need to build?"

"I don't know, I don't know."

Frieda pulled Princess close and rested his dirty face on her chest. "Okay, okay, just have something to eat and Niko will get some of your tools from the truck."

"Don't you think he should be wearing something a little... cleaner?" Niko asked but even just the suggestion that Princess change his clothes made the man start shaking.

"He doesn't have to change if he doesn't want to." Frieda soothed her old friend and he pressed up close to her. "He likes this, it makes him feel good. Now go get some tools."

Niko shrugged and backed out of the cabin. He didn't like this Princess, there was something different about him and why shouldn't there be? He was shot in the head, of course he wouldn't wake up the same person. Niko wondered how long it would take Frieda to see that. Or maybe she saw it and she was prepared to do what ever it took to help the person he'd become.

As Niko hauled a tool box from the back of Princess' beast of a truck, he noticed that there was something out on the lake. He squinted his eyes and realized it was a small wooden row boat and it was heading straight for the lake house. Niko cursed under his breath and tossed the tools back in the truck. He ran into the cabin and temporarily lost his train of thought as he watched Frieda feed a spoonful of oatmeal to Princess. He wasn't looking at her, the nose of his unicorn hood was hanging low over his eyes.

"Where are the tools?" Frieda asked.

"I, uh..." Niko remembered the boat and shook off the haunting scene before him. "There's a boat, it's coming right to us."

Frieda was on her feet in a fraction of a second and striding through the door. She watched the lake for a long time as the boat came slowly closer but Niko was surprised to see a smile slowly forming on her face. "He's here."

"Who's here?" Niko asked.

Frieda kicked off her shoes and started running for the lake. She dropped her fur coat to the ground and splashed into the water. Niko could see what she had seen, the man rowing the boat was his brother. Leo rowed faster and as Frieda swam out to the boat he struggled to help her up out of the water. Niko watched as Frieda hugged his brother and he was surprised to see the passion with which he hugged her back.

The sound of Princess' voice frightened Niko. "I need to build."

He turned around to see the man standing behind him, blood and oatmeal clinging to his dirty beard. "Yeah, you've been saying that."

"I saw it, I know I saw it. I need to build it."

"What is it? What do you need to build."

Princess stared at Niko and Niko saw none of the man he once knew. The Princess Sparkles who had been a genius engineer, the one who taught Niko how to fight, that man was most certainly dead and Niko could easily see that. As he continued to mumble under his breath, Princess turned away and shuffled back into the shadows of the cabin.

When Niko looked back out towards the lake he saw that Frieda and Leo were still hugging each other. From this distance it was hard to tell but it looked like Frieda was crying.