It’s what he’d been realizing over the last few months; even if being around him wasn’t likely to get her killed, even if he wasn’t too screwed up himself to help her, there’s no going back. After what they’ve been through, they’ve both changed. Maybe if she was better and he could convince himself that he wasn’t signing her death warrant being with her, maybe if they were together, it would just be a vain attempt at bringing back a past that wasn’t going to work anymore.

Not that that entirely helped with the guilt that sometimes gnawed at him for walking away. For ruining her life, and then leaving, even if there were other times he knew it was probably the best thing for her.

“I miss you,” he says softly, his throat starting to close. “But it’s probably for the best that I’m not around. We’ve both been through a lot.”