[What whiplash his heart feels, to have this woman who he felt so guarded around start to crack like glass and show true colors. So much like Roodaka in shades at the surface, but here in vulnerability, in open wants and fears and pleading requests, he sees the echoes of a friend rather than a foe.

It's like hearing Nokama, in that complicated timber of fear and need for reassurance, when they laid paralyzed on the city streets. And just as before, Vakama feels his chest tighten at not knowing the answer to provide.

Would that it be an easy one. To place a time limit on an unknown, even if it was just to keep forward motion... it felt cruel.]

I wish I knew.

[...

With a firm exhale, he lifts from the bed, the pillow still in his hands as he quietly crosses over to her, kneeling at her bedside.]

What I do know is... we take it one day at a time. We find a way to make this right, and we do it together.

[Together. Not throwing one's self into the fire meaninglessly, not lashing out on one's own.]

For those that cannot, and for those that could not see the end whose steps we now follow. We will find a way, Dorothy.

If the past falls too dark with the scars of failure, then at least be willing to look for the light that a future could bring.