And after the weekend he'd had, trying to round the smaller and more energetic of them up, Jono was starting to feel as though six million wasn't completely inaccurate an estimate, either. Even so, he did his damnedest to work his way up to a smile. For the sake of Didi's daughter, for the sake of his daughter with Didi, it was the least he could do.

It fell a little short.

"Things will certainly be a fair bit quieter," he replied, though it didn't actually answer the question at all. His voice was a bit too soft, and his heart felt a bit too much like somebody was trying to twist it out of his chest for him to be completely convincing. "I honestly haven't decided if that's a good thing or if it's not."

He wasn't quite looking at the portal, yet. He was looking at Dalia, hell-bent on not taking his eyes off of her until she had left. He'd looked away, when Didi had gone. He'd closed his eyes, and when he'd opened them again, she had walked out of his life completely, and there was no looking back.

Not this time.