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"It's very likely," he confessed. "I would be at University. Probably studying a lot and not much else."

"Do you ever regret it?" He raised his eyebrows at Noah. It was a difficult question to answer. He knew it was. But it was the sort of things they needed to acknowledge about each other more.

"I know my da wanted me to be a lawyer or work in business so probably something to do with that." He leaned against Noah and sighed thoughtfully. It would have been nice to become some sort of big shot or something instead of small fish. That was possible here, but for completely different skills he was starting to believe he lacked.

"I miss my family too," he admitted himself. He tilted his head a little to gaze at Noah fondly. "My mum would have loved you, my da was a bit....." He made air quotes with his fingers, "old fashioned."

"At least she would have baked you cookies for anything offensive my da may blurt out. So you'd have gotten lots of treats out of the deal."

He rested a hand on Noah's stomach lazily and stared out into space.

"It sometimes makes me feel better to pretend that maybe someday we'll get to go back and let them know we're okay."

Al looked at Noah thoughtfully for a moment before nodding, "you would have nailed it. Still can honestly. No reason you can't expand the green house or build another one for separate experiments. Best to ask Melvin first though, obviously."

He smiled faintly, leaning into the hair fixing like a spoiled cat. "I thought I was doing my parents a favor in fact. They planned to send me away, because of the s**t I saw. I just thought I was doing the right thing for everyone. But I realize now what I did was really just selfish. I can't see my mum handling my death so well and my da would have blamed himself for sure. I miss them and I know they miss me. I was just a dumb kid though. Still am a lot of times. I try to change it but it like, I feel like sometimes it's too late for me. I am what I am."

He looked really sad as he gazed off at the jungle in the distance. "I wish it didn't have to be this way, but I wouldn't trade you for any of it to be changed."

"Me too," Al said while shifting over slightly to lean limply against Noah. He placed a hand on Noah's and closed his eyes.

"I'm very happy."