Neal studied Malcolm in silence. Tried to sort out the tumble of thoughts that wouldn't still themselves in his head. He felt something like the twist of lonely longing he'd gotten while he held Daisy in the Gull and she told him she'd been labeled a monster.

Two impossible people. People whose lives shouldn't have added up to make the individuals they were.

"How are you so good?" The question wasn't facetious in the slightest. "You have every reason to be... something else. Or even to just not care."

He really, really didn't get it.