Kaylee will keep hugging her, as long as she needs; and petting her hair for as long as it seems to help.

"It's over now," she says softly, because it was what her father said to her once, and because it's true.  "It was horrible, but it's over."

So much leaning.

"It's - it's not going to stop, there's more - I'm a stupid little girl who doesn't know what she's doing - "

" - Nausicaa, you did so much better than I would have done even if I had all your powers.  Maybe someone literally perfect at this could've taken them all alive, but - I think you acted defensibly.  They were trying to kill you.  They were trying really hard - and really systematically - to kill you, and you couldn't have gone to the police."

"If I'd had more allies, and had been actually trying to recruit - "

"Maybe," Kaylee says.  (Hug, pet.)  "I don't think you're ever gonna be able to look back at anything you do and not be able to say, maybe, if I'd had perfect prudence and foresight, I would've been able to do better than I did.  I don't think having to kill some of the people who were trying to assassinate you is something you have to feel guilty about."

"I just - I was so arrogant - "

"I don't think you were arrogant," Kaylee says softly.

"I don't - don't even know how to do better next time - "

"We'll figure it out, okay?"

"I - I guess - "

"You just got back from a really horrible experience," Kaylee says.  "You're still - processing.  I think it's okay to not have everything figured out yet."

"Maybe. I don't know."

Shiver. More cuddles.

At some point they shifted into a side-by-side position on the couch.  Kaylee strokes her shoulder, quietly.

"It has to take work, right?  Figuring out how to do better.  It's not something that just happens."

"...Yeah."

Cuddle.

And, gradually, Nausicaa starts drifting off.

"Mr. Giles?" Kaylee murmurs, once it seems Nausicaa is well and truly asleep.

"She can have my bed," Giles says. He eases her up off the couch into a bridal carry, and makes for the stairs.

(Something in the back of Kaylee's mind feels - cheated? - that she isn't the one to carry Nausicaa to bed. That doesn't make any sense though.)

He lays her down in his bed, and pulls a blanket over her, gently, and returns to the living room.

"We're staying here tonight," Helena says firmly. "We brought an overnight bag."

Giles nods. "Right. If one of you would like the couch..."

"We have sleeping bags," says Rob, "it's fine."

"Kaylee?" he says.

Kaylee shakes her head. "I think - I'd like to sit with Nausicaa," she says. "In case she wakes up."