"For a little while."
She studies the ceiling, the concrete walls, the rows of lights running down the hallway as if committing the entire space to memory.
"Why?"
I reach over and brush a loose strand of hair out of her face.
"Because I couldn't spend another minute without seeing you." I brush a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "So I asked Grandma and Papa if they'd bring you down here."
"Is it like a secret base?" Her eyes brighten immediately.
"Something like that."
"Are there bad guys?"
"Not here."
She nods slowly, apparently satisfied with that explanation. The triceratops returns to the battlefield, and she repositions it with intense focus.
A minute passes before she glances up again.
"Where did the pretty lady go?"
The question lands quietly between us. I don't pretend not to understand who she means.
"She has work to do." I keep my eyes on the stegosaurus in my hand, turning it slowly.
"Why did she have plastic around her wrists?" Lily studies the dinosaur in her hands, then looks back at me.
The image flashes through my mind. Stratton standing in the yard, restraints cutting into her skin, sunlight catching in her hair as she looked straight at me without stepping away.
I keep my voice steady.
"Because sometimes when people have very important work to do, they need help staying in the right place so they can concentrate."
"Is she helping you?"
"Yes."
"With what?"
"Fixing something that went wrong."
She considers that with the serious concentration of a six-year-old processing new information.
"Can I play with her?"
"No." The answer comes gently but without hesitation. "She needs quiet so she can work, and I need you to stay out of her way so she can concentrate."
"Why?"
"Because the work she's doing is the most important thing happening in this bunker right now."
Lily nods slowly, absorbing that.
"So I can't show her Theodore?"
"That's right. Theodore has to stay out here to protect the base."
