He smiles weakly at the joke despite not actually hearing it; it's the beat and tone he recognizes and his response is rote. His real focus is reading her expression, every nuance of it, in her reaction to what he's just told her. Alain had the Touch, and even Roland could manage it in a pinch, but Bert's had to rely on his crummy old observational skills all these years. In his head he'd had a dozen ways to tell her what had happened, some of them starting at the very beginning (Mejis) and others just with the arrival of zombi Alain, and he hadn't figured in any of those scenarios he'd just lay it out plain for her like that. The seconds following had been agonizing. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting from Sharon, and even now, he's not sure how he feels about her response.

It's a complex, heady few seconds of thought and emotion before he feels the switch flip, but when it does, his face is just about impassive. He sits back, unconsciously mimicking her posture, holding his cider.

"So: what's your plan?"