"So we're on the same level then, that's good," Sean scoffs. Now that he's talking, it's easier to keep going, at least physically. Just because the actual words come out with less urging (only so long as he keeps from looking at her, that would be too much) doesn't make them any easier to deal with, not when he can practically feel her right there next to him, trying to do the same. Maybe this is just what always happens when good Catholic lads lapse, that need to confess the stupid things creeps up when they least expect it and swallows them whole.

"Next would prob'ly be the bit where there was one person in the entire world who could possibly understand how I was feelin' then, an' I crippled him when he tried to reach out t'me. An' that's nae a metaphor fer anythin', I shattered his leg in three places, doctors said he'd prob'ly ne'er walk right again. An' I didnae regret it fer a moment 'til I'd been here fer months and learned that that was the reason Terry grew up without a father," he says, matter-of-fact, like he's talking about the weather.