[Religion is such a strange concept. Not one he'll mock, but just...the idea of there being a higher being or beings, and what seem like such arbitrary rules. So he doesn't know what to say to her about this. Maybe the best advice he can give is none at all. She, of course, knows her family better than anyone else.

It's her letting go, and her subsequent words, that get him to react.]

I can, and I will if I must. If he were to ever do something to hurt you, I would find out about it. I may not succeed in hurting him right back, but I'd damn well try.