[ he looks back at her finally at the apology, frowning himself ]

Don't... [ he shakes his head. "apologize" and "bother", both on the tip of his tongue, but they're both more dismissive than he wants to sound. so he trails off, mulling over what to say for a second ] It's alright. There's no point in obsessing over it anyway. It's done. Best I can do is hope we find a way to bring them back this time, too.