He'd shaken hands with a lot of people in the few days since everything had ended.
The medic who'd checked him over, patching him up and declaring him fine, at least physically. Alex had put out his hand on instinct, the whole day still feeling like a nightmare, like it couldn't be real.
Colonel Kerby, before they'd parted ways, two of the last people to leave the scene of the battle.
The governor, as he'd declared Alex's pardon official, insulting Brian in the same breath. Implied things, insinuated things, that made Alex's breath hitch in his chest.
Brian's father, before Brian's funeral.
Brian's aunt, after the same, both of them trying not to cry as she thanked him for coming.
As if anything could have kept him being there, from laying his friend to rest.
His hands are steady on the casket as they carry it to the grave, him and Brian's father and four people Alex doesn't know, and steady as he salutes it when it's down.
They start to shake at his sides as the casket is lowered into the ground on ropes, slowly and steadily.
He squeezes them into fists until they stop shaking, bloodied but still.