[for Tony]

I got an early start this morning. Real early. A nightmare startled me awake around 2 o'clock, and after giving tossing and turning a try for a good ten minutes, I figured I might as well abandon plans of a restful night and climbed out of bed. At least this way MJ can get her forty winks. I guess I'll just settle for, I don't know, fifteen.

And to think, today was supposed to be my day off. I tinkered around in my workshop for a couple of hours, but I wasn't making much progress, far too restless to be of any good, and when I went to go brew myself a cup of my strongest coffee, I remembered I hadn't gone up to the Compound yesterday to refill our stores, because I'd been too busy -- wait for it -- tinkering.

Which is how I end up in the Compound before noon on a Sunday. There's buzz in the air about a couple patients in the clinic when I get here, and I've got half a mind to poke my nose in where it doesn't belong when I spy Tony in the kitchen. Even though him and Pepper have been living in here for months, I'm still a little surprised to see the guy. I just don't associate him with drab concrete and communal living.

"Hey," I say, giving him a wave that quickly turns into me pointing in the general direction of the clinic. "You know what's going on in there?"