He does, in his own way, is the defense that goes unsaid. It's rarer now, more than ever.

"No, I don't need to," Billie says that instead, not truly able to refute it. No one needs to stick around with anyone. That's just a fact. "But I want to. You think he's bad now, just imagine how worse it gets when I'm not around to explain how real people work."

Though he knows damn well how real people function, this is her trying to keep the conversation light. There's a lot of reasons to stick near Daud. There's probably even more for her not to.