He throws the tree branch in the air.

Huh. She watches it.

She scoops up the baby. "There's a - I think the mindreader's talking in my head? He says to leave, she might not know how not to hurt people - "

" - okay -"

He hurries with Hagan up to where Karen is.

She watches them to see what they are going to do.

He is going to give her a hug, very firmly.

- she did not know that this was a thing that people could want either, but it might be almost as important as the fruit. She thinks it maybe helps a kind of hurting that she didn't even know was a kind of hurting in the first place. Whatever it's doing is very important.

She leans her head against him and hugs him back.

Well that beats having his arms ripped off which seemed like a likely outcome.

He picks her up and carries her off away from everyone. Holding on to her. Hug hug hug.

Snuggle snuggle hug.

And eventually he will collapse on the grass somewhere crying and hugging her.

Meanwhile they can circle back around to everyone else with the baby.

"Hi. Think we found the one who was in Hell. Mind's maybe not all there."

"I'm not sure she's a person."

"Watch it, buddy, everyone already wants to kill you."

"Cecelia doesn't."

"I really really really don't."

"Have you - thought of anything to do about the names - "

"Sorry. I was a bit distracted. Uh, I don't know for sure if the entanglement works across universes, there's a chance it'll be fine. If not, then - we'll figure something out. I'm not gonna hurt you. Or get in the way of you looking after your kids."

"I believe you mean that well but I think you're coming from a sufficiently different place from everyone else that it's hard for us to believe it wouldn't suck to be your slave."

" - okay, like, what would you say -"

"I don't have slaves! If for some reason some absurd situation presented itself where I absolutely had to have a slave I would say, uh, just so we're clear I'm chaotic good and I'm really sorry about this and I'm going to pay you a salary and I'm not a rapist and your door locks and here's the only key and if you'd like to list some people who are supposed to check in regularly and intervene if I've screwed up in any way then we can message them right now and get that set up, and if you don't know people equipped to do that my friends will do that, do you want to meet them?"

"Most of that seems pretty important. Although it seems like it might not - work, for fairies."

"Didn't say anything like that to Cecelia."

"Right but her options sucked. If you had said that I bet she'd have felt safer faster."