Filler by any other name is still… filler. I’m trying to make all the parts stand alone but this one definitely requires the other parts to make sense.

Neat situation and dynamic here. I like how it all is very thought out, lots of depths.

Very nice. It looks like you’re getting much better at presenting your dialog as well. If you compare this to your first entry, you can see improvement. And to echo THX (as original thoughts are foreign to me), I am impressed with how well thought out this is. Every fic you write leads very well into the next.
One, (extremely minor) note. I think that third paragraph should be one sentence. I would just replace the period with a comma. When using the word said, it should be part of the dialog sentence.

Thanks John. My dialog has improved thanks to all the input I’ve gotten from everyone here. This has been a really fun learning experience for me.

I have to tell you this is one of the most captivating series I have read on ficlets and I’ve read a lot of ficlets. Keep up the well thought out good work!