Tivan had his head in his hands, sitting in his leather chair facing his black desk. He sighed as I approached him.

"What's wrong now, my love?" I said, coming over to him and placing my hands on both of his shoulders.

Taneleer's brown orbs began searching my blue. He sighed again. "My Mallory, this is no life for you, not here with me."

I gasped, incredulous. "But...why? Why would you say such a thing?"

The Collector stood and towered over me. "The collection is damaged. We must still rebuild, and be married if you will still have me. I am a hard man to love, Mallory. But as much as I love you I cannot watch you die in old age."

"You asked me to marry you. I thought it would be the right thing to do. We love each other." I snapped heatedly.

Taneleer took a deep breath. "I desire to marry you, yes. Your life is nothing, my Mallory. We will not have much time together before..."

"Before what?" I pressed.

Tivan sighed deeply. "Before you die and leave me. I am 5 billion years old and still I fall in love. Matani must be feeling very betrayed indeed."

"You couldn't help that!" I protested. "You didn't know what would happen if you took me in. You couldn't plan on falling in love, Taneleer. Neither of us did, it just...happened."

He turned away from me, sighing dramatically. "I need to be alone, please. I need to be alone with this."

"No, you don't! I'm here for you!" I shouted.

Tivan whirled and faced me, grabbing my arm and twisting it furiously. His nostrils flared and his breathing was erratic. "I said I need to be alone with this."

He pushed me away as he loosened his grip on my arm. I fell to the ground in tears and began running upstairs to my room.

I left The Collector there in the midst of the crushed glass and debris of half of his broken down museum.

He heard my racking sobs from the upstairs bedroom as his heart broke again as it had when his wife and child died.