"I wish that you guys would stop thinking of me as something that either of you need to be protected from. I mean, I don't-" Molly cut herself off, shaking her head. She got it. She got that for two years it had just been them, but it wasn't anymore, and she wasn't a bad guy. And she couldn't quite bring herself to point out that it was nice that they had the whole protecting each other at any cost thing going on, but in conversations with the two of them, she was unprotected.
Molly swallowed hard at Gert's reaction to the question, absolutely refusing to let herself show the tiny glimmer of hope that they'd found something positive. If they had, they would have said it first. They would have said "Hey, Molly, by the way your parents are okay." That was the kind of statement that you led with. Even if you didn't like them. Her hand gripped the counter as Gert said that they were all gone.
"Didn't find them how?" Molly looked up, not ready to move on from that part of the conversation just yet. Her grip on the counter had tightened a little bit too much, and she swallowed again. She knew that her parents hadn't exactly been great humanitarians, but they were her parents. She knew that Gert hadn't ever particularly cared for the Hayes', but she trusted that she wouldn't lie. Meeting Gert's eyes, she clenched her jaw and posed the question telepathically. She couldn't quite make herself say it out loud, partially because she didn't know which option would be more of a relief. "Dead? Or just gone?"