"She loves you she misses you she was really worried she can come home now if you need her -"

"I don't—" He scrunches his eyes shut. "I want her. More than anything. I don't know if, if it's a good idea for her to, to do anything suspicious."

"...she wants me to hug you for her if and only if I am an acceptable proxy for Isabella-hugs."

"...you are an acceptable proxy for Isabella-hugs if and only if you're comfortable being one."

"I am not going to tell her that you didn't get a hug because I had feelings, okay."

"Yes, I want a hug, then," he admits.

So Alex hugs him.

And he hugs Alex back. For a while.

"Mom, she wants you to find him a lawyer, call the ACLU or something?"

"I - yes, good idea."

Yeah, it is a good idea, but...

"Wh—what kind of power does Tobias have, legally speaking?"

"I don't know, that's what the lawyer's for."

"...right. Sorry."

Renée places a call and is promptly put on hold.

"She's got a lotta questions you might not wanna answer through me or in front of Mom."

"Okay. Um. What other medium would she, um, prefer we use?"

"You can call her and go up in our room to talk, I'll stay outta your way."

"Okay." He looks down at his empty plate and says, automatically, "May I be excused?"

"She says you may be excused and that she said good condition and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to relay all the swearing."

"—yeah, sorry, it was, um, habit. I'm—I'm alright, just, haven't talked to people in a while. Also, um, special circumstances, bit harder to, um, that. These ums and pauses are really annoying me, I'm gonna—call her. If that's okay." He stands up.

"Yeah, she's got her phone, she's waiting, borrow my cell." Alex hands it over.

Sadde takes it, thanks him, and goes to the twins' room and calls her.

"Pet, that you?"

He hadn't really forgotten what her voice sounded like, but he feels like he had, it's beautiful and gorgeous and he might want to revise his earlier statement about whether he needs her because he might.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Are you okay? Do you need me to come home?"