"That's what I told him," JJ said, shooting Victor an 'I told you' look he couldn't even get angry about. "You kept me safe for weeks. That's longer than I would have lasted."
Nicholas gently stepped across the room and offered a hand to Victor, who took it because what else was he supposed to do? "That bastard had me for over a month," he said quietly, but as he spoke it seemed like the room got quieter. The evidence of Nicholas' torture was still written all over his body as he struggled to put the weight back on that Joshua had forced him to lose. "I like to think of myself as strong and protective, but I can't honestly say whether or not I would have let any one of you go hungry so I could have- fuck, even a sandwich. Half a sandwich. I was starved out of my mind, and that made me desperate. Pretty sure you were in the same place. Even if they had hurt JJ, which I am going to send Michael a cookie bouquet every week for the rest of my life because his arrival meant that didn't happen, it wouldn't have been your fault. You're still coming to our house. We'll feed you up and look after you."
There wasn't much Victor could really say to that, and then Kat leaned up to kiss the corner of his mouth and Victor burst into tears.