The Good in Me

Nile is sombre when she says: “If that’s what you want.”Her words may seem cold, but Joe knows she is just shocked, trying to deal with the news. Her voice doesn’t falter. She’s their boss, after all.“Fuck, guys,” Booker is smiling. His eyes are full of tears, but Joe holds onto that smile. It’s been a long time since the Merrick betrayal. Booker is better, and he is trying to smile for them, for Joe, whose heart is breaking. It’s not a true smile, but it means a lot.“It’s the right thing to do.”Joe turns to look at the sofa, where Quỳnh is knitting a scarf, her mouth is a thin line. There is a tightness around her eyes which comes back every time she is thinking about Andy and gets sad. The moments of complete sadness, when Quỳnh acts like she sees the ghost of her wife in front of her, have decreased across the decades. But now everything is coming back, as if Andy died all over again.Because Nicky isn’t healing. And Joe knows they need to leave.