It's hard to listen to Wash speak. But it must be harder still for Wash to say. So Maine does what he does best: he listens. Quietly, fighting the whirlpool of his own thoughts. Fighting the urge to get up and find something to hit just to get some of these feelings out.

He cares about Wash too much to do something like that.

So he sits, and he listens, and he tries to understand. Really, he tries. But the more Wash talks, the more unbelievable it is that Maine wasn't there. Aren't they friends? What happened?

(Why did Wash pull a gun on him?)

The only conclusion Maine can come to is that he was on the other side of the universe. Maybe he was fighting a battle. Shit, maybe he'd been injured, or worse. Maybe that's why Wash couldn't rely on him.

How fucking irritating, that he apparently becomes unreliable. To Wash and to Carolina.

Well, he won't let that happen here. To hell with slowing down.

"Sorry," he says. He's sorry Wash went through that. And he's sorry for whatever he did or failed to do in that future.

It won't happen again.