"Empathy-sorry, not apology-sorry," Stacia says. The English language is such a pain in the ass sometimes. Though given how smart Brainy is, he may be misunderstanding her meaning deliberately as a defense mechanism.

"Even if he never completely forgets it the way someone who isn't Coluan would, one day it's going to be a relatively small portion of his life, and he's going to have had years of support and developing the tools of how to deal with its impact on him," she says reassuringly. "Also, you know, congratulations: you literally became the person you needed when you were younger."