Maybe it's the alcohol, maybe it's the shock of seeing North. Whatever it is, it's like the plug Wash had shoved inside him to bottle up all his emotions is coming uncorked, and there's no stopping it now that it's gotten a good tug. "Carolina's not dead," he says. Looks her straight in the eye, squares his jaw. "She's not dead. And she-- fuck, York, I thought she was gone. We all did. But she survived. Back home, she survived."

He snorts, humorless. "And I led her right to him."