It was like being invited to another world. Taking a step into the hallway, Ben was immediately surrounded by unfamiliar faces staring out at him from photographs. He tried not to look, at first, because this wasn't his family. He didn't even know these people. The fact that they were Elliott's family didn't give him any right to know anything about them, or to see into their lives even in still shots. He couldn't entirely avoid looking, though, and then once he'd glanced at one he couldn't stop. He walked slowly, keeping pace with Elliott's mother but hardly aware of her presence at all.

They looked happy. They looked nice. This was a good place for Elliott to be.

He looked up with some surprise as she spoke. She'd already said the same thing in her letters, and he'd already dismissed it once, but he shook his head again. "You shouldn't worry about me," he said. He didn't mean to imply that he was fine, or not worth worrying about — rather that their relationship didn't, shouldn't, require her to worry about him. His tone wasn't a chastisement, but more of a gentle reminder: it wasn't her responsibility to worry about him. She didn't owe him anything, and she’d given him a lot already.

"Is this him?" he asked, gesturing at a picture of a much smaller baby in the arms of an unfamiliar man. He meant Is this Elliott, though he supposed the question might've stood for her husband, too.