"There's medicine that could manage his illness... I found some, and I came back, but the people from the town were all gone. I thought... maybe they'd have gone somewhere better. But I guess that was naive of me."

“… sounds like another ‘doctor’ got there first,” she murmurs.

"Yeah. Seems like it.

"And I guess Rollo blamed me for it. I... I told him..." He closes his eyes and leans on her. "I told him if God wouldn't protect him, I would."

Well. There’s nothing that she can really say to that, is there.

She nestles against him and reaches up to pet his hair.

It's matted with dust and sweat, like most of the rest of him.

"I... kind of wish he'd died young instead. Of this."

That’s okay, the point is to comfort him.

“It would have been kinder,” she agrees, softly. “Goddamned machine guns for hands, what kind of lunatic does that?”

"I have to assume that came—after. Whatever it is Dr. Conrad did. Same way Morgan's cult came after."

“Ugh. And then after being used as someone’s weapon he eventually… Came home.” Leaaaaan, pet pet pet.

"Yeah." He sighs. "...I hope Morgan's okay."

“Yeah. Um. We might owe her an apology for being the adults and then shutting down, huh. Or at least a thank you.”

"That hasn't happened since the time with Tesla. With me. I'm not sure what was up with that. But yeah."

“I’ve ruined you, you’ve caught the city slicker bug and now you’re going to be terrible in all emergencies for the foreseeable future,” she jokes.

"I don't know, you seemed pretty competent with the 'Zash is suddenly unexpectedly out of commission' emergency."

“Debatable,” she sighs. “But yes, yes, fine, no self deprecating humor while we’re both… not okay.”

"I think I would've been fine if there had been another emergency. Wouldn't have given me enough time to think."

“Oh no, something else wasn’t going wrong and other people were handling what was happening right then? … fuck, that’s exactly what happened, isn’t it.”

"Yeah. Guess it is."

Guess he felt safe enough to allow himself to have these thoughts and feelings. Now that's novel.

What a telling state of affairs that belies how incredibly lonely he is.

She doesn’t say that, in favor of just hugging him, but, well. He is psychic, isn’t he.

He is but it's rude to comment on people's surface thoughts and feelings so he doesn't. The hugs are nice, though, even if he's feeling kind of bad about all the blood and about being a patchwork creature with constant reminders of all the times he failed spread all over his skin.

He’s stopped leaking his own emotions, so she doesn’t get the particulars of what he’s feeling. She kind of misses it and wants him back, but, well, that’s not her right to ask, is it. He can keep his own feelings to himself if he really wants to.

She’s not, though. Her heart is open to him and she’s as easy to read as a book, easier than most humans. She wants to comfort him, wants to help him, wants to have his back and defend him where she can. Wants to get out of his way when she can’t. It’s not hard to tell that she’s very irritated by being the squishy non-combatant in a world of violence, but mostly because it means that if something is going wrong she can’t help.

All of that makes it even more important that he keep his feelings to himself specifically because he wants to open up so much. Therein lies danger. He doesn't want to like her more, and definitely doesn't want her to like him more. Therein lies a lot of danger. He is still planning to figure out a way to ditch her after they take the sand steamer in Terminal and she's back at civilisation. If he doesn't, she might still stick with him, and therein lies far, far too much danger—and not just, or mainly, to him.

...he can let her know a little bit that he's thankful for her worry but he'll be fine. He fully believes he'll be fine, as fine as he ever is, because he always has to be. There's not an alternative; if nothing else, he has forever to become fine, no matter what happens.

"Kinda wish we'd found better shelter than here."

“Yeah. I think Morgan did just drag us into the most convenient shelter replacement instead of, you know. Shopping around. Couldn’t you have waited until after the sandstorm to go poking around? The first place was pretty nice. Multiple rooms and everything.”

"Sorry. In my defence, 'that place specifically got turned to rubble' was wildly unlucky." Or maybe just his fault. He had been trying to lead Rollo through the narrow roads between buildings to get some reprieve from being shot at by turning around corners and hiding, but probably he should've just gone into the central open space of the town. He'd have had more holes in him but at least Rollo would still be alive.

...no self-flagellation. Leave that for later.

She sighs, and now she feels bad for offering criticism while he’s… not okay. Sorry, her very open heart whispers.

“Yeah. It was.” Huuuuuug.

He's okay. He's gonna be okay.

...does he send this...

...yeah.

He's gonna be okay, sooner than otherwise in large part because he's being hugged by someone he likes and trusts. She's helping.