"'COURSE I'll help." He is not going any closer, and his heart is aching for her, the way it always does for those who've been hurt, not only dealing with the loss of whatever they've known before.

"But I just wanna make sure. It wasn't your brothers that hurtcha, right?"

One boy wanted to go back to his dad who'd been hurting him. He's not making promises that he'll end up preferring not to fulfil.