Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes continue their long descent toward Mechanical to assess Juliette as a possible new sheriff. The stairwell is crowded after Holston’s cleaning, with most people traveling upward to see the clear outside view. As they go down, Jahns reflects on Holston’s loss, on her growing emotional closeness to Marnes, and on the unusual fact that Juliette has never used vacation time and has neither visited nor received visits from family in nearly twenty years.

Jahns tells Marnes that she wants to stop at the nursery on level twenty to speak with Juliette’s father, Dr. Peter Nichols. On the way, Jahns notices how the cleaning has energized the silo: travel has increased, trade is brisk, and old social ties are being briefly renewed. This makes the ritual seem useful to the silo’s economy and morale, even as it remains a brutal practice.

At the nursery, Jahns and Marnes are received by Nurse Margaret, put on robes, and ushered in to meet Dr. Nichols. Jahns is reminded of her own losses and the sacrifices of her career as she waits among the cribs. When Peter Nichols joins them, he immediately says he has not truly seen Juliette since she left to become a shadow in Mechanical twenty years earlier.

During the interview, Jahns learns that Juliette once had a baby brother who was born prematurely and died after an incubator failure. Juliette initially blamed a nurse, but later came to blame the failing equipment and the silo’s general decay. A week after the baby’s death, Juliette’s mother killed herself, and Dr. Nichols falsely recorded the cause on the death certificate. These losses devastated Juliette and pushed her to demand a transfer to Mechanical while still very young.

Dr. Nichols explains that Juliette left for Mechanical, returned only once for her mother’s funeral, and then went back down without rest. Since then, he has followed her life only indirectly through occasional updates. He describes Juliette as intensely focused and says that, although he once saw her as her mother’s daughter, she ultimately became more like him.

When Jahns asks whether Juliette would be suited to serve as sheriff, Dr. Nichols does not question her character so much as the post itself. He stresses that Juliette has no law experience and predicts that she will refuse the appointment. As Jahns and Marnes leave, Jahns is more intrigued by Juliette but also begins to wonder whether both Marnes’s judgment and her own may be influenced by personal feelings rather than pure prudence.