I, your faithful consort

She stiffens and pulls away, enough that she can see him when she talks to him. She is pale, still, and facing him when she says doggedly, "You can do this. You're going to be a good father, Rial Pernon. That's one of the few things about this that I'm sure of. If he dies--" She glances down and shakes her head honestly. "I don't-- I don't know. There's always that risk when you care about somebody." It's a risk that Plourr is always conscious of. But, "You can't dwell on that shit. What ifs and hypotheticals. You just can't. You'll go spaced." She thinks about them sometimes, but she tries not to, too much. And usually, she does pretty well at that.