[ she's watching his reaction closely, not even sure what she's actually expecting, if anything at all. it's understated, of course it is, because this is dave and not, say, john, and what she ends up doing is swallowing (because she's not about to cry, okay, that'd be stupid) before going on.

if by 'going on,' she means nodding kind of sharply and pausing before really answering. a lot of hits is what she thinks but doesn't say. ]

And he stopped after that, because he has enough of Bec's instincts to feel like he's really my dog and not try to hurt me. [ just. follow her around. but she's not bringing that up unless it's asked. ] So I was able to make sure you woke up on Derse with Rose okay, Karkat checked and said it worked.

[ he can probably gather what she means by 'make sure,' and there's sort of a stab at comfort there too, that at least he didn't die for good. ]