"No, it needed to be said." Rufus sighed, looking at his brother. "I just wish she could see we're only trying to help." Merlin he wished she could. But the scene that had just played out before him had only served to show him how fractured they had become.

"I just can't watch her give up. Rufus admitted, his voice raw as he dropped his gaze down to the floor, unable to look at Alvin, to admit to the words that hung between them. He couldn't go through it again, not after seeing Alvin, and Wally, and Ma all do just that. It felt like a spike in his heart and he wished so fiercely that Sloane could see it from their point of view the way he and Alvin were striving to see it from her's.