"Maybe so, but it's also inarguable that the best thing we could have done would have been to find a way that hurt no one, even if it was harder or we suffered a bit more for it. Now me, I think as you do, but it's hard to blame others for being wary of us, when we have such things in our past. And even then, some of the people who will be most wary of us are ones who have been hurt many times, or badly, to the point that not being hurt again IS what's most important to them.

"Pain," he said, unusually solemnly, "real pain, has a way of changing a person straight down to their core."