Al's expression tightens by the slightest amount, but in the waning light it might be easy to miss. The silence that stretches on longer than normal after her words, though...that's a little less so.

"...yeah. I know he wasn't...he didn't make the best decisions. Not back then, and not even with...with us."

With Trisha. With the sons he said he loved in his very last moments.

"But...there had to be reasons for it. I'm sure he thought he was...protecting us, somehow..."

It's hard to miss the faint note of desperate belief in his voice.