Ford felt his entire body relax when his friend said she's not dead. It wasn't as though this was a guarantee, because there was no way Tycho could really know that one way or another — even if he'd had a vision yesterday and it had been Verity in the vision, he couldn't know that she was alright now — but it seemed to hold more weight than the empty platitudes he'd been offering Grace and Mama for the last twelve hours. It wasn't necessarily that he thought Dodonus knew, Ford realized. It was that he wanted so desperately for someone to know, and in the absence of that he was willing to let himself be comforted (a tiny bit, anyway) by someone stepping in and speaking with authority, whether or not that authority was warranted.

"No, I know," he agreed in response to the comment about not falling faint. He pulled back from Dodonus (less because he wanted to end the contact and more because he wanted to seem slightly more put together than he had a moment ago) and ran one hand through his hair. "I'll have breakfast and coffee before I go in. I'll be fine."

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