[Lightning nods; the illusion is a comfort, until it shatters and the realization that they could disappear, leave everything behind, just as easy as the people who are here for only a few months, is one that leaves something irreversibly broken. It hurts sometimes.]

Yeah. You keep thinking that there's no way that it could have been this long, and that you'll turn around and everyone who's left will still be here.

[She leaves the "but they're not" unsaid. She doesn't need to say it.]