He hugs her back just as tentatively, partially covering for the sudden drop his heart had done into his stomach when his hand had first been pushed aside.

"It would have been," Anders says quietly. It wouldn't have been the first time that something going wrong had also included fallout that cost him someone too. "Be careful with the wound, and please call me if it gets worse?"

He pulls back from the hug and gives her a small smile. "That's the price of my friendship. I'm horribly obnoxious if my friends do things to prolong their own suffering."