[ When he takes the basket she lets him, and then she lets him talk, wondering if he says the same thing to everyone who manages a trace of kindness toward him—or do people typically get this far? ]

The picture I have of you in my mind is based on the tall, stubborn, arse of a man beside me, so please don't worry. [ That, she says genuinely with a look. She doesn't pity him the same way she doesn't pity Jamie. ] Expressing that a situation is well and truly fucked is the only thought I have in mind. How you've decided to present yourself and carry on with your life is your choice. Should you begin doing whatever those things were here, I'll form a different opinion.

[ What has she got to judge so far? His character may be questionable, but here, in Abraxas? He can be anything he wants. Perhaps she should be a harsher judge of character, but she's met too many of all sorts through her life; the woman she thought was a close friend tried to murder her daughter. The person she thought loathed her and wouldn't have minded seeing her gone at one point, protected her and got her through Jamie's extended convalescence. People can be, on the whole, surprising. ]

No one knows you here. Is this how you want to feel all the time, or how you've conditioned your mind to guard yourself?