Everett couldn't do anything else but search for Caitie and Christina, regardless of whether he really knew how or if it was wise. As long as he had breath in his body, he had to keep trying to find them. The world was an awful place now, a lonely place, and he couldn't think of much worth existing for if he knew he'd spend the rest of his life completely alone. It might be a fatalistic view, but it was what he had to hang on to.
Ev was a competent guy. He'd been seen that way in school, in his family, at any job he'd ever had. He knew what to do and how to do it, and he typically gave people that impression. They didn't have to know that sometimes he felt like curling up into a ball somewhere and giving up. He especially didn't think that a girl his sister's age had to know he felt that way, so he would've been glad he'd given her a decent impression of him.
He couldn't help but feel his insides tighten up as Nick started to look at the photos he'd handed her, even though he knew it was probably going to be more of the same reaction he'd always gotten when he showed them around. Sorry, never saw them, don't know them. He nodded absently to her suggestion that he ask the leadership here, which was a good idea. Then she said she knew Caitie... that Caitie lived here. At first, Everett's brain didn't want to process the words she'd said. Could it be possible that she recognized one of his sisters? Sounded as if she might know her reasonably well? "Are you sure?" he asked desperately, reaching to pull out the bottom two photos from out of her hands. That was rude, and he ordinarily would have never done it... but he had to know right now. With shaking fingers, he separated out the picture of Caitie by herself and pleaded, "You know her?"