diff --git a/packages/polyfill/src/surface/subscribe.ts b/packages/polyfill/src/surface/subscribe.ts
index eb93f58..3edf5ab 100644
--- a/packages/polyfill/src/surface/subscribe.ts
+++ b/packages/polyfill/src/surface/subscribe.ts
@@ -697,11 +697,24 @@ export function subscribeDocUnguarded(
   // Joining a document somebody else already opened: hand this listener the `State` its
   // own `doc_subscribe` would have pushed it. Asynchronously, like the real push, so a
   // caller that sets itself up after this call still sees it.
+  //
+  // RE-READ inside the microtask, never captured out here, because the barrier can be forgotten
+  // in between: the establish can reject in that gap and {@link reportSetupFailure} disowns its
+  // `State` with it. One microtask hop is the whole window - measured, not reasoned - and this
+  // is the last path that could hand out a barrier after it had been forgotten. `isCurrentAttempt`
+  // does not cover it: that failure does not bump `attempt`, so the entry and the attempt are
+  // both still the current ones.
+  //
+  // Diagnostic rather than an authority leak: `getSyncState` reads the record and not the push,
+  // so it still answers `"timed-out"`. What the stale delivery broke is the bootstrap wait in
+  // `emulated-verifier/open-repo.ts`, which crossed its barrier on it and logged
+  // `BARRIER <nuri> synced` for a barrier that no longer existed - and that trace line is the one
+  // this codebase uses to tell a genuine absence from a not-yet-synced read.
   if (joined.lastState) {
-    const { resp, type } = joined.lastState;
     queueMicrotask(() => {
-      if (fanOuts.get(nuri) === joined && joined.listeners.has(listener)) {
-        deliver(nuri, listener, resp, type);
+      const standing = joined.lastState;
+      if (standing && fanOuts.get(nuri) === joined && joined.listeners.has(listener)) {
+        deliver(nuri, listener, standing.resp, standing.type);
       }
     });
   }
diff --git a/packages/polyfill/test/subscribe.test.ts b/packages/polyfill/test/subscribe.test.ts
index ec8fc5f..2167e28 100644
--- a/packages/polyfill/test/subscribe.test.ts
+++ b/packages/polyfill/test/subscribe.test.ts
@@ -819,3 +819,52 @@ test("a State that lands AFTER the call was reported failed is not a barrier", a
   expect(docChannel(A).state).toBe("none");
   unsub();
 });
+
+// A JOINER IS NEVER HANDED A BARRIER THE FAN-OUT HAS ALREADY FORGOTTEN.
+//
+// The replay reads the remembered `State` when a joiner subscribes and delivers it one microtask
+// later. Read once and CAPTURED, it was delivered even when the barrier was forgotten in
+// between - and there is exactly one hop in which that happens, measured rather than reasoned:
+// the call pushes its `State`, then rejects, and a second `subscribeDoc` on the same NURI lands
+// after the rejection is dispatched and before `reportSetupFailure`'s continuation does. At zero
+// hops the clear has not happened yet; at two or more `lastState` is already null, so no replay
+// is queued at all and the joiner simply opens a fresh attempt. One hop is the whole window.
+//
+// DIAGNOSTIC, and scoped as such: `getSyncState` reads the record and not the push, so it still
+// answers `"timed-out"` and no read gains authority. What the stale delivery breaks is
+// `emulated-verifier/open-repo.ts`'s bootstrap wait, which crosses its barrier on it and logs
+// `BARRIER <nuri> synced` for a barrier that no longer exists - and that trace line is the one
+// this codebase uses to tell a genuine absence from a not-yet-synced read.
+test("a joiner is never replayed a barrier the fan-out has already forgotten", async () => {
+  let refuse: ((e: Error) => void) | null = null;
+  const doc_subscribe = mock(async (_n: string, _s: unknown, cb: (r: unknown) => void) => {
+    cb({ V0: { State: {} } }); // the barrier is remembered...
+    return await new Promise<never>((_resolve, reject) => {
+      refuse = reject; // ...while the call itself is still unanswered
+    });
+  });
+  configure({ ng: { doc_subscribe } as any, useShape: (() => {}) as any });
+  configureStoreRegistry({ getSession: async () => SESSION });
+  const first = subscribeDoc(A, () => {});
+  await tick();
+  expect(docChannel(A).barrierCrossed).toBe(true);
+
+  // The call fails, and the joiner arrives one microtask later - inside the window.
+  refuse!(new Error("RepoNotFound: the call did not take"));
+  const handedAForgottenBarrier: boolean[] = [];
+  let joiner: Unsubscribe = () => {};
+  await new Promise<void>((resolve) => {
+    queueMicrotask(() => {
+      joiner = subscribeDoc(A, () => {
+        handedAForgottenBarrier.push(!docChannel(A).barrierCrossed);
+      });
+      resolve();
+    });
+  });
+  await tick();
+
+  expect(docChannel(A).barrierCrossed).toBe(false); // the barrier is forgotten...
+  expect(handedAForgottenBarrier).toEqual([]); // ...so nobody is handed it
+  first();
+  joiner();
+});