[If he were a little more together with it, he might've smoothed that all away beneath a noncommittal grunt, compartmentalized everything the offer accompanies with a shrug and a jerk of the head and a painless veneer of blunt neutrality.]
[But right here, right now - ragged as he is, weary and flagging and tremoring right down to his bones - the look he shoots in Joel's direction is unreservedly and painfully grateful.]
...thanks. And - [He doesn't - can't - look back. But he can jerk his head vaguely without turning around at the carnage he left behind.] Thanks for helping. Back there.
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[But right here, right now - ragged as he is, weary and flagging and tremoring right down to his bones - the look he shoots in Joel's direction is unreservedly and painfully grateful.]
...thanks. And - [He doesn't - can't - look back. But he can jerk his head vaguely without turning around at the carnage he left behind.] Thanks for helping. Back there.