If the goal is to get her to stop crying, declarations of love definitely don't help. But they do a lot to soothe the raw edges of grief she never figured out how to deal with it. Funny, that she can't just be rid of it, now that he's here again-- but the loss was real, even if it wasn't permanent.

"I knew it was going to happen but I still wasn't ready for it," she admits, with another sniffle. "And today has been--"

A lot. A lot.