“They were only human,” Noa replies, unable to completely give into her own hurt feelings even though she’s let loose a little of the rope on them. “We’re only human. Much as I want to wish something else…” she trails off, her strong words from only moments before seeming to have taken a great deal of her fight with them. She runs her fingertips back over the downy hair of Jackson’s head, her mind somewhere else for a minute.
More than anything she wished she knew what might’ve rattled their former leader enough to pack up his little family and haul out without a word; what negated all the love and loyalty that more than a handful of others had for them. “It’s losing people that had me fighting the shelters to begin with,” she says more softly. “Me and JB, we lost everybody from Atlanta to here.” Maybe Bishop already knew that, but Noa’s never told anyone that in her own words.
“I would have been happy just me and Jonny, but he wouldn’t have been.” She looks up at Bishop for a minute, a quirked smile barely resting on her mouth. “And now it feels like my feet wouldn’t dare take me anywhere else.” Her heart would split into so many small shards if she did. Even with their losses, there are still too many people in the park that Noa couldn’t turn her back on.