"Sometimes."
"Did he get scared?"
"Sometimes."
"But Dad was big."
Naomi smiled sadly.
Marcus had been six feet two, broad-shouldered, the kind of man strangers assumed could not be frightened.
"Being big doesn't stop people from making unfair assumptions. Sometimes it makes the assumptions different."
Elijah thought about that.
"I wish he was here."
"Me too."
They sat quietly.
Grief and trauma did not compete. They layered.
Outside the family, the incident continued growing.
By the end of the second week, edited clips had accumulated millions of views. Television panels argued about crew authority, racism, corporate accountability, and whether social media made due process impossible.
Naomi refused nearly every interview request.
She did one recorded statement for Skyward's website.
She did not show Elijah.
She did not replay the video.
She stood against a plain background and spoke for four minutes.
"The point of this case is not that an employee mistreated the COO's child. The point is that our systems failed passengers who had already told us about a pattern. My son had access to me. Other people did not. That difference should trouble us more than the viral reveal."
She described the outside review.
She described her recusal.
She promised publication of aggregate findings, including failures by management.
Then she ended with a sentence that became more widely quoted than anything from the confrontation.
"Dignity should not require a powerful witness."
The Department of Transportation's aviation consumer protection office contacted Skyward and requested records regarding complaint handling and nondiscrimination procedures.
The Federal Aviation Administration separately reviewed whether crew conduct and internal training met applicable safety and certificate requirements.
The FBI received a referral because of the allegations of racially motivated misconduct, but federal investigators did not announce charges or promise an outcome. A civil rights review was opened and coordinated with local authorities.
Naomi appreciated the caution.
Real accountability was rarely as fast as social media wanted.
Cook County prosecutors evaluated the physical-contact evidence because the flight landed in Chicago and airport police had taken the initial report. Jurisdictional questions took time. The conduct occurred in the air, the airline was based elsewhere, and federal aviation law overlapped with state assault statutes.
The result was less dramatic than cable news headlines suggested.
Prosecutors prepared a misdemeanor battery case involving a minor and reviewed additional theories with federal authorities. They did not invent a special hate-crime charge merely because the incident was racist. The evidence had to fit actual statutes.
Naomi preferred that.
A strong case did not need imaginary law.
Rebecca hired an attorney through her union rights and declined further internal interviews after an initial statement.
Her statement characterized the event as a safety intervention.
She said Elijah attempted to move into a restricted premium cabin, ignored directions, and pulled away when she tried to redirect him.
The passenger videos contradicted several details.
She also wrote that she did not remember using the phrase "you people" in a racial sense.
That defense might have been stronger if the video did not include the surrounding sentences.
Still, the outside investigators treated her account seriously.
They reviewed every angle.
They measured timing.
They compared the seatbelt sign status, cart location, passenger movement, and crew communications.
Their conclusion was careful.
Elijah had not presented an immediate safety threat. He had made a reasonable request, provided verifiable information, and remained verbally compliant. Rebecca escalated the interaction, used unnecessary physical force, and made comments reasonably understood as race-based and class-based derogation.
Her past record showed a sustained pattern of similar allegations that had not been investigated adequately.
Dennis Morrison's case was separate.