"Fuck, I don't know," was Kash's immediate response to the question she'd posed. Three months ago, he'd probably have said something crass about considering himself one lucky son of a bitch and taking her to bed to console her. But he wouldn't have meant it then and he wouldn't even say it now. "I guess make sure you weren't alone if you didn't want to be, were alone if you did want to be but still keep an eye on you, and put up with being cried on because there's not fuck-all else I could do."

Kash sighed and rubbed a hand over the stubble on his jaw that had been growing in. "This place... it brings back a lot of memories. Waking up the morning after my charming wedding ceremony to find everyone I knew in the world gone... That's not something you get over. And it doesn't heal. You just choose, in the end, to give in to the darkness or move on toward the light."