Demon comes home late to find Dori awake on the couch in bloody pajamas, crying and confused while Jip spins in a frenzy at the smell of blood. Demon cleans Dori with wet towels, changes her clothes, and tries to figure out what she has taken and whether she has eaten, while Dori fixates on where Demon has been and why he did not answer his phone.

Demon realizes the pregnancy is likely over because of the heavy bleeding, but Dori initially seems more ashamed and disoriented than grief-stricken. When Demon names what is happening, Dori breaks down in a new wave of anguish, now fully registering that she has “lost her baby.” Demon tries to confirm whether the pregnancy was ever medically certain, but Dori will not discuss it, leaving Demon trapped between doubt and mourning.

Dori begs to shoot up a morphine patch, and Demon physically restrains her to stop her from taking more drugs because he cannot know how much she has already used. Demon recalls prior times he has come home to find Dori overdosing on the couch, sometimes nearly blue, and the desperate measures he has taken to revive her, hating himself for the violence and fear involved but believing another fix could kill her.

As Dori’s fight drains away and she falls asleep, Demon recognizes how Dori’s version of love has consumed him: he is reduced to provider and caretaker, keeping their precarious life afloat while his job and car teeter and even dog food runs out. Dori still clings to Demon’s shirt at night, convinced he will abandon her because “everybody does.”

Unable to sleep beside Dori, Demon carries her upstairs, noticing she is getting frighteningly light, “turning into air.” He returns to the living room, cleans the bloody couch and scattered drug kit, washes soiled blankets, and lies down overwhelmed by the thought that his only purpose is keeping Dori alive—something he no longer knows how to do.