"I'm doing just fine," Thomas promised with another little grin. He reached over and curved his hand around Derek's shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "You've helped me a lot. You've also run me ragged and made me scare off deer but you've helped me a lot and you're important. To me. To a lot of people but to me too."

Words sometimes came slowly to Thomas, came after the fact when saying them wouldn't make sense but when he had something to say, he was trying to say it now. He knew Derek had heard some horrible stuff in the other city and Thomas wanted to make sure he knew what he'd heard wasn't true. At all.