"He drove her out, but she didn't try to take me with her. In all those years, she never tried to get me." It's a whisper, because he feels ashamed that he wanted to be rescued. But he was a kid. Being in Nolan really made him think about just how young 16 was, and his mother had left years before that. "That's why I never went to see her. I was so angry and hurt. What if I went and she'd turned me away?" But she wouldn't have. And then he'd have been angrier that he missed that time with her.

He couldn't win.

Except, somehow, he is, because David has somehow pried these secrets out of him and is still saying he loves him. Not in spite of but including these wounds. The I love you hits differently today. He doesn't know how to catch it yet, but scions he wants to.

"You're making it excruciatingly difficult not to touch you."