In a way, Meredith has to work backwards to what she's done, knowing she's made a choice without knowing how to articulate why she's made it, even to herself. All she knows for sure is that she's right and that it's a relief so deep it's almost painful when he touches her. Swallowing hard, she nods, more a show of attention than agreement, though she understands. The way he sounds now, the things he's saying, make her heart ache and they're exactly why she's still here.

"I know," she says softly, though mostly what she knows is she can't begin to know. She's lost a lot in her life and she's been hurt by love, but never like that, and if sometimes it makes her wonder how there can still be enough love left in him for her with the way he so clearly feels about his wife, it also makes it just a little clearer how he could get where he was. "But you're here now. We're here. You were different then, but you're different now, too. I don't know if you would have done it, but I know you wouldn't now. I know you."