"Hiro!"

He flinched at her voice, thin shoulders hunching painfully; after a moment he turned to face her, forcing a smile as Baymax rested both hands on his shoulders.

"Um. Hey there, uh, Miss Callaghan. Didn't uh... didn't know you were out of the hospital."

Abigail hobbled up with a grin, leaning on a four-point cane as little as possible as she paused.

"Just a couple days. Figured you were busy with school so I came to look in on you. And pssh, Abigail's fine. Or Abby. I always liked Abby but I always get Abigail..."

"Uh, sure. Abby." He swallowed, looking away. "And yeah, uh... really busy since, yanno. Late registration and all. So uh... what... what are you up to?"

"Eh. Just got out of physical therapy." She wrinkled her nose, brandishing the cane. "Huge pain, but, yanno, could be worse." Abigail chuckled, and Hiro laughed stiffly with her.

"Uh, yeah. Worse." He shifted his weight, grateful for the gentle pressure of Baymax's hands. "So uh... yeah."

"Yeah."

"My scanners indicate vastly improved mobility," Baymax offered after a moment of silence. Abigail nodded, smiling up at the robot.

"Yup. I'll be good as new soon. So, Hiro." She dropped her voice, leaning close. "If you ever needed help with any kind of testing... yanno, stuff... word has it there's a pretty good test pilot out of limbo, and I know everyone'll be extra-super-careful, so-"

"Great!" Hiro said, a bit too loudly. "I'll talk to the others! Anyway nice seeing you but I gotta... there's this... bye."

He fled, Baymax trundling after him; Abigail stared a moment before replying to their retreating figures.

"Um... yeah. Bye."

"You seem unsettled in Miss Callaghan's presence."

"What, me?" Hiro looked up at Baymax. "Nah. It's not... this isn't gonna turn into another puberty thing is it?"

"Observation suggests this is not the issue," Baymax said placidly. "What is?"

"We have to talk about this now?" He returned to his worktable, nose wrinkling. "I have that assignment due next week, I've almost got my electromagnets set so I can shield without sticking to you like cling-wrap, I have-"

"Your sleep patterns have been disturbed." There was a chiding tone under the electronic warble of Baymax's voice, laced with the same concern the robot applied to Hiro's various testing injuries. "You had indicated that they had settled."

"What? Oh uh... they had. Have! I just, yanno, do a lot of thinking at night."

"About Miss Callaghan?" Baymax hummed softly. "I know you are not concerned with her knowledge of our activities..."

"Nah, she's cool. Besides, it was Gogo's job to tell Fred off for blabbing. It's just..." He leaned back in his chair, eyes half-closing wistfully. "It's a miracle. Right? That she was in range of the portal. That she came out of a long hypersleep like that with her brain all together and everything. No one thought she'd ever come out of there again... especially not okay..."

Baymax's hand settled gently atop Hiro's head.

"I understand."

"Yeah," Hiro said after a moment. "You usually do. At least you try the most."

"I am here to take care of you, Hiro."

"Yeah." He smiled a bit, leaning back to peer up at Baymax. "Look, I'll uh... work on it, okay?"

He waited for Baymax's soft approval before going back to his tools, and for the next few days he spoke to Abigail when he could.

He spoke to her, and whenever he broke and fled on awkward excuses he almost welcomed the guilty twinge her hurt expression brought on.

"No, Fred. No explosives."

"Aw, come on." Fred met Wasabi's stare with his best pleading eyes. "This would be a good thing! What if I get stuck in microbots again?"

"Um, well, you'd be trapped in the microbot shell with the explosion," Honey said apologetically. "That's... not really the best case scenario."

"Oh. Good point." Fred deflated a bit. "Well, but... there are other reasons. And we need to like... be ready for everything! Right Hiro?"

Hiro blinked at hearing his name, looking up briefly.

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

"See?" Fred beamed. "Hiro thinks it's a good idea."

Wasabi looked sharply at Hiro, frowning.

"Really? You think so? You remember what happened with the scan drone, right?"

"The scan drone. Yeah."

"Hiro... are you feeling all right?" Honey leaned closer, peering at him. "You look... tired."

"I uh... haven't slept well." Hiro tried for a smile. "Lots of um... pressure."

"Pressure?" She wrinkled her brow a bit. "Like what?"

"Just... pressure, okay?"

Silence reigned a moment, all eyes on Hiro.

"It's Abigail Callaghan," Gogo said after a moment. Hiro looked up, wide-eyed and protesting, and she silenced him with a wave of her hand. "Isn't it? You started looking jumpy ever since she got out of the hospital. You stopped visiting in the hospital. And I've seen you go weird when you talk to her."

"I'm not... going weird, I just... it's..."

"It's about Callaghan, isn't it?" Honey asked gently. "Professor Callaghan I mean."

"No! It's not... look, I..." Hiro stared at his friends a long moment before taking a long, slow breath. "It's... not... fair, is it."

"Uh, fair?" Wasabi blinked, looking to the others a moment before focusing on Hiro again. "We saved the city... or at least what was left of Krei's campus... and saved the girl, so..."

Hiro shook his head, swallowing hard, unable to look at them any longer. He could still feel their eyes on him, none of them willing to let him keep festering, and after a moment he drew another shaky breath before speaking in soft, quavery tones.

"Ever since we found her... and Callaghan was okay, he was fine after the fire he was fine... and that means e-everyone else was okay, everyone except... I keep thinking...dreaming... that Tadashi... Tadashi..."

"Hiro-" Honey began, then halted as Hiro's chair clattered to the floor. Baymax, ever vigilant, had swept the boy into his arms, and Hiro hid his face against the robot's soft chest with a choked whine as Baymax hummed to him in a soft drone more felt than heard. The other four held their silence save a soft, worried cluck from Honey; the stillness stretched into long minutes, and they had begun to think Hiro had been soothed to much-needed sleep by the time he spoke again.

"S'not fair," he mumbled. "Not fair that he's dead and they're... they're..."

An unfamiliar hand alighted on his back as he trailed off; he hunched closer against Baymax, muscles rigid.

"I'm sorry, Hiro."

Abigail's normally sprightly voice was low and subdued. Hiro squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head vigorously.

"I'm not. I-I'm not, I swear! Miss Callaghan... Abby... p-please, I'm... you're okay, I'm glad you're getting better and you're okay I just... I..."

"Shh." She withdrew slightly; Hiro heard Baymax make a low, concerned hum before carefully sitting down, Hiro still in his arms but now held at Abigail's eye level. After a moment of Baymax's gentle prodding he turned toward her, face lowered in an attempt to hide freshly welling tears.

"Look, Hiro... I know that... well... a lot happened on the way to getting me out of there..."

"Abby I don't regret it I promise I don't I-"

"Shh. Listen, okay?" She waited for his slow nod before continuing. "I know that's not what you mean. And you know I'm grateful to you and Baymax, right?" Another nod, and she nodded in return. "It's really okay, okay? It's fine. And you're... I mean, I know you're fine but it'd be weird if you were more fine than you are after everything. Wait, does that make sense?"

Hiro realized he was grinning at her rambles, skin crinkling under dried tears, and scrubbed at his cheeks with a sleeve.

"Yeah. I mean not really, but I think I get it."

"It's okay to be upset. I mean - I'm upset about stuff between going in the portal and coming out."

"That's what they tell me." Hiro nodded, then settled back against Baymax as Abigail's second statement sunk in. "Oh... oh. Yeah. I uh... I bet you are."

"Mmhm." She looked past him a moment, brooding, before looking at him again with a small smile. "But hey. We're both okay. What... what my dad... that's not you."

"It almost was, I-"

"Wasn't though." She prodded his chest with one finger. "Almost only counts in horseshoes." She wrinkled her nose. "Was it horseshoes?"

"Close," Hiro said. "I mean uh... it's 'close only counts in horseshoes', not 'almost'."

"And hand grenades," Gogo offered. Abigail giggled at that, and Hiro couldn't help laughing with her.

"Horseshoes and hand grenades!" Fred bounced out of his chair and came around the table. "You guys ever wonder why that's a thing? I mean I know why with hand grenades, heh, that's pretty obvious, but horseshoes? Hey that reminds me, listen Abby I had a great idea for an upgrade..."

"I can help test," Abigail said. "Hope no one thinks this counts me out." She held up her cane, then looked at Hiro again. "If you'd be okay with that?"

"Yeah." Hiro smiled, nodding slowly. "I'm cool with- you're cool- I mean, uh, that'd be cool." He cleared his throat and resettled in Baymax's arms. "Anyway I uh... better get some rest. But maybe later we could hit up the arcade or something?"

"Sure." Abigail pushed herself to her feet and grinned. "Just remember - I'm always Candlehead or reasonable equivalent."

"Sure you are." Hiro grinned, snuggling down in Baymax's arms as the robot moved toward the doors. "Night guys."

The others responded with a chorus of good nights, waving as the doors closed behind Baymax, and turned back to discussing upgrades.

"Are you satisfied with your care?" Baymax murmured as he walked. Hiro was silent, biting his lip as he gazed up at Baymax; the robot considered a moment before changing tactics. "I have no intention of shutting down at this time. But do you feel better?"

"Yeah," Hiro said softly. "Yeah, I do. This is okay - I think my, uh, sleep patterns will be okay tonight."

Baymax nodded slightly, and moments later Hiro was sleeping soundly in his friend's careful embrace.