He gives a little laugh, one that aches with the hurt of what they've been through, with the longing he feels to be back in their own world with their own friends, with the losses they've suffered.

"Maybe I do," he agrees, softly.

This feels fragile, beautiful, even though he knows it's partly that's making her hold to him like this.

He wishes that holding her against his chest were as natural and easy and right as it seems now. But nothing has ever been natural and easy when it comes to Kaylee, to how he feels, has always felt, about her.

"They have to be."

He has to tell himself that. Otherwise, he'll go mad. They've lost too much already, all of them. And there's River to consider, River who he'd given up everything to find and is now ...

Back there. With them.