Her answer makes Kate laugh. Just one sharp, dry bark.

"Men."

She finally starts to dab at her face with the kerchief. She imagines Dixie and Brisco bonding over shared beliefs. She thinks about her father and mother, both caught in the war, finding each other in that field hospital and doing the same.

(She thinks about Sam, and the first time he finished reciting a poem she started; the way she felt when she realized they both shared something.)

"The other night you an' I was talkin'  —  my Milliversary? 'Member how I was sayin' I — I also had an ex named Doc?" Her voice is subdued. "He left me. One year ago, that day. An' he  —  it happened t'be our anniversary. So, I got drunk an' I took this fella — this friend — t'my room. I jus' ... wanted t'be with someone."

She presses the little lace handkerchief to her eyes as though she's dabbing at tears, but secretly she's trying to hide her face. Admitting it makes her ashamed, and the next words out of her mouth only make it all the more awful.

"But he left. An' I dunno if he's ever comin' back."