I don't care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching--they are your family.

A bolt of warmth, fierce with joy and pride and gratitude, flashed through me like sudden lightning. I don’t care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching—they are your family. And they were my heroes.

When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family.

There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy. Or more exasperated. Or more . . . secure.

Yeah well, I’ve never had much opportunity to fight with family,” I said. “I have,” she said. “Everyone cares about everyone else. So when you get mad and say something horrible, it hurts that much more. And too many things go unsaid. That’s the worst, I think. Everyone thinks they know one another better than they probably do, so you fill in the silences with things the other person never actually said. Or thought. Or thought about saying.