Lost Creek Hollow As we roll down this unfamiliar road

Now he was extremely confused. Why do you have kids? he asked, not accusingly, just... openly wondering. If having them meant getting hurt and if their leaving was bad, then why did she think her having them was different than him? In his eyes, she and Rannoch's arrangement was no different. It did not stop them from leaving, nor did it stop Liffey from going. Friends left; they'd left him before, and yes it hurt. But that was how things were.

He wanted to argue with her and tell her she was wrong, that he wasn't stupid and she didn't need to protect him in whatever strange way she was trying. But, frustratingly, he couldn't find the words. She wasn't there when he asked. Mona wouldn't have said yes if she hadn't wanted him to help, and his time with Ashlar so far had already been well worth it. No going back now.

So he stayed silent, and waited for an answer to the only question he'd found the way to ask.