"Should just be happy that the joy's being spread around, right?" Nick smiled, then shifted to wrap his arm around Karen's shoulders.

"How are you doing, though?" he asked after a moment. He knew that all of these disappearances hit hard and took their toll. It was easy to make jokes and find the humor in a bad situation, but it was easy to use that to hide how damn miserable you were, too. Not that he'd know anything about that.