David looked ready to write.
"Where you were. What you were studying. Where everything stopped."
Ethan gave more detail than he'd given Marcus.
This conversation felt academic rather than personal.
He described the curriculum.
Strengths.
Weaknesses.
Completed courses.
What his transcript would show compared with what he'd actually retained.
David listened.
He wrote selectively.
Not recording everything.
Only details likely to matter later.
When Ethan finished, David reviewed the page.
"You're describing a messy transcript."
Ethan nodded.
"Incomplete semester. Enrollment gap. Institutional withdrawal instead of formal leave."
David looked up.
"The paperwork is going to require context."
He tapped the pad.
"But what you're describing in terms of mechanical understanding and the applied work you've done here is real."
David glanced toward Gus.
"And verifiable."
Ethan turned.
"You talked to Gus?"
"This morning," Marcus said.
No apology.
Information gathering for a relevant decision.
"Gus doesn't say much."
Marcus almost smiled.
"What he said about your work is about three paragraphs from anyone else."
Ethan looked back.
"What'd he say?"
Marcus answered.
"You make mistakes once."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
Ethan felt warmth move through him.
Pride, perhaps.
The kind he hadn't felt enough to recognize instantly.
Pride granted by somebody who rationed approval carefully.
Its scarcity made it heavy.
"There is a pathway," David said.
He redirected them.
"It's not simple."
David listed it.
Assessment.
Testing.
Documentation.
Possibly remedial coursework depending on evaluation.
"The gap is a hurdle, Ethan. Not a wall."
David looked directly at him.
"People navigate it."
He paused.
"The question isn't whether a path exists. It does."
Then:
"What do you want at the end of it?"
"I want to finish."
The answer left Ethan before he'd consciously decided to give it.
It came from somewhere that had apparently reached the decision before the rest of him caught up.
"I want to finish the degree."
He continued.
"I want the credential, but more than that, I want the thing that was interrupted."
Ethan's voice became firmer.
"I want to pick it back up."
David nodded.
"Okay."
He closed the pad.
"That's clear enough to work with."
David glanced at Marcus, then back.
"I'm setting a meeting with the admissions coordinator at Maricopa. She owes me a conversation."
Ethan noticed the wording.
Exactly the way Marcus had spoken about Hannigan.
"She's good at finding solutions when she knows somebody is worth finding a solution for."
David paused.
"I'm going to tell her you're worth it."
He nodded toward Marcus.
"Marcus is going to tell her you're worth it."
Then he pointed at Ethan.
"After that, the work is yours."