Boyd would listen better than anyone else on this planet.
When Chloe first him, she had snuck out of her bunk with her makeshift radio and ran to the docks. She'd work all night on it, trying to get just the right frequency so she could talk to her people, way out there in space.
Then the guard found her.
If Milla found her, she'd tell her she should try in the morning. Sasha would say she should get to bed. Oleander would scoff and rant that she needed her sleep and that he'd kick her out next time she did this (He never did) and how she'd better get to bed or else he'd remove her brain again and that she's 12 now and should stop believing in all that alien crap.
But no. Not Boyd. When she told him she was just trying to contact her family, he listened. When she said she wasn't sure if they really were her family, maybe some entirely different race of aliens, he didn't scold her or scoff or tell her to try again in the morning, he just sat down beside her on the squeaky old docks and hung on to every word. So she told him everything.
She told him about how her dad was an astronomer and how he found her on the doorstep of his observatory/home after a comet streaked by. She told him about how she'd been trying to contact her family, her real family, for years, and how she thought her psychic powers were obligatory for her species. And she told him about how she was sure Bobby only listened to her because he wanted to make fun of her behind her back.
And what did he say?
"Stop trying."
She clenched her fists. She told him every-friggen'-thing she had gathered over the years and. and this stupid earthling had the gall to insult her, and she was so going to dissect him when she found her real family, and—
"There's not much oddities around here that can't be explained by psychics. Try places that have crop circles or strange lights. Just a suggestion."
She stopped clenching her fists and threw her arms around him, almost knocking him over. No one ever suggested anything that could help her. No one ever really listened. No one ever believed. But Boyd had some left over conspiracy theorist from when he was at the asylum. Maybe it was always part of him. She didn't care. She was just happy to have someone who would look at the stars with her.
Whoo, on a roll when it comes to writing here. And instantly after I type this, I'll hit the giant rock that is writer's block.
Ah, irony. You are a cruel mistress indeed.