[ For a long moment he stares to the other man, seeing that look. It's a frightful expression to be seen in Thomas Jopson's eyes to be sure, but it's also a reliance. A hardness, one that Edward himself is almost a complete opposite to, with his own eyes so wet and wide and soft. Every piece of his own focus is currently on the fear he feels for Kate, the worry for the girl's safety. Cornelius Hickey murdered a child, once. He has done things that humans should not be capable of doing.

He's immensely grateful for Jopson to be there, a second person to handle this situation with (although there's another horror in him to realise that Thomas is just now learning these things, and... it's so much; god, he'll need to speak with him after this). And now those things have been exposed to someone outside of the Expedition. Now Hickey will have little left to lose; he's exposed and it makes him all the more dangerous to the person he might want to remove in order to remove those truths from being exposed further.... Edward's heart is pounding so hard he feels ill, but Kate is apologising, and he immediately reaches for her free hand with his own, holding onto it tightly. ]

No— you are at fault for none of this. You made none of this happen. He has always been a monster, and all of this.. it has been building over time.

[ It's been a ticking time bomb, in all honesty. Kate's words echo in his mind, haunting. 'He's so sure it's going to all happen again here.' And Hickey would do everything he'd done all over again, Edward is sure of it. He squeezes the girl's hand, words gentle but insistent through his own barely-staved panic. She's just been terrorised, learned horrific things; it's everything he wished desperately to shield Kate from. ]

This is not your burden. Mr. Jopson and I will take care of it.