It comes up all at once, everything about Sara, everything he and Diane had to do, the way they had done something similar, the way they'd worked out schedules to make sure someone was always at the hospital with their daughter. People in Hawkins knew, not because he'd told all of them, but because he'd told one or two and Hawkins was a small town and people liked to talk. It's still not something he talks about very often. He'd barely even told Eleven about Sara and he knows that's a mistake, but it's one he can't rectify right now.

He shouldn't say it now either, but for the first time in his life, he's sitting down with someone who's saying things he's been through, things he understands deeply. The sorts of things people only understand when they've been through the same thing.

"Jane," he says, looking down at the table top, at his coffee, at the blue braided hairband around his wrist. "She's adopted. I was never with her mother, but I used to be married. We had a daughter, too, her name was Sara. When she... I mean, I know what you're saying. We worked out schedules to make sure someone was always with her when she was in the hospital and it became almost... normal. For awhile."