hard for al meeting his ex wife beth and at the end of this chapter meeting sam.

red.

Really nice story. :) I'm glad you posted it.

Nicely done! I especially liked your switch of tenses when Al was speaking with Beth. And this is an interesting take on how Sam and Al might have first met. I'm always surprised by just how perfectly you remain in character for ALL of your fics. Truly brilliant! Keep writing!

There was inconsistency of tenses, as in part II you suddenly switched from past to present tense then went back to past tense in part III. Not sure if that was intentional or not, and part II was still well-written just inconsistent tense-wise with the rest of it. Good, otherwise-well-written fic and an interesting look at the possible events that led up to Al's rage at the machine and how the first meeting between Al and Sam could have gone.

"He smiled broadly, like he was just given a big bone to chew."

lol, I really like that description. And I can totally hear Al thinking that.