Crooks scares Lennie about George

Towards the end of part 4, Crooks scares Lennie by questioning him, "'S'pose George don't come back no more. S'pose he took a powder and just ain't coming back'"(71). Lennie had never thought about life without George before this, and even though Lennie does know that he wouldn't last long on this ranch without George, he tries to act like he would towards Crooks so Crooks would stop. Lennie doesn't know about his mental disability, and he was confused when Crooks says "'Sometimes ]George[ talks, and you don't know what the hell he's talkin' about'"(70). Lennie admitted to not understanding what George says half the time but Crooks just continues to bully Lennie because Crooks picked up on George's disability and wanted to see how far he could push Lennie's buttons. I noticed more and more as part 4 started to wrap up that Crooks purposefully toyed with Lennie's emotions by proposing the idea that George was not going to come back.

How do you think the story would play out if George actually didn't come back?