And then, finally, his third point. "No, you're right. Faith can't." He hesitated a second here. "No one can. That's why I'm there. So that when she stumbles on the path, I can catch her and help her get her feet under her again. It's not, and will never be, easy. There are absolutely going to be times where I want to just give up and go find someone easier to hang around with. There are going to be times where I'm so plagued with worry I want to just tear out all my hair, or go wander off to some remote corner of the world and get drunk and forget all about everything. There will be times where Faith will tell me something about her past, about what she did, and I'll think 'how can she ever come back from that?' But at the end of the day, I pretty much figure it's like this: If she's willing to work at this redemption thing, if she's willing to give it the kind of attempt it deserves, then doesn't she at least deserve one person to lean on?"
And that was all true. Every last word Pike had just said was true for him. But there was also how he felt about her. "I won't lie. I have feelings for her. Pretty deep ones, if I'm being totally honest with myself. But even if I didn't, I'd still believe every single word I just told you. Even if I hated her, I would still have answered you the exact same way." He looked back down at his beer and shrugged slightly. "But it helps, that I," he paused, glanced up at Sam, and just decided what the hell, he'd been honest about everything else, "that I love her. It gives me a little extra strength to stick with her."