Already, Derrica is shaking her head. Thumbs framing the ugly, torn gouge.

"I'm not asking you to apologize for that," Derrica tells her. "I'm not saying you were wrong to do what you did."

They all make these calculations. They all make decisions, how to protect who they can protect.

But beyond that—

"I'm saying that it matters that you're hurt. It's not nothing, just because you won't die of it."