"Do you trust me?" his low voice was unsure. She could feel his hand holding hers, gripping it (not tight enough to cause her any discomfort, but enough for her to know he was there, to feel he was there, right there with her, always).
Echo looked up at him. A man she had not seen before she'd entered the white, blank room she found herself in looked down at her with dark eyes that seemed to smoulder and captivate her in their gaze.
She pondered his question. Not even knowing his name, she wanted to say yes. Every fibre of her being trusted the man before her completely.
She frowned a little, but not because she felt that her undeniable, complete trust in a total stranger was out of the ordinary (she didn't think it was unusual. She couldn't think it was unusual. She just felt; she didn't think about the reasoning behind it) but because she was confused; not understanding how he could ask a question when the answer was so absolute.
Echo looked at Boyd, staring up at him in a sort of daze. Not blinking and without further hesitation, she answered him.
"With my life"
--------------------
Echo.
No. Jenny.
She stands before him, determination blazing in her eyes, battered and bruised and still fighting; unable to give up.
He's loosing blood fast. Back against a tree in the middle of nowhere; exhaustion seeping through every muscle in his body.
"Do you trust me?" she repeats, a little firmer, looking him in the eye. For a moment, Boyd thinks she's mocking him. Like, under the heat of her blazing gaze, she's somehow remembered all he has helped to put her through; how he's betrayed her trust time and time again without her ever being able to remember, to learn from it, to loathe him as much as he loathes himself for what he's doing to her, what secrets he keeps. He tried to walk away from it all (once, and only once, not long after he had started) but he couldn't. Once you were in on a secret like the Dollhouse, the only way out was in a plastic bag or a pine box.
He often wondered what would happen to Echo without him. She wouldn't remember him; programmed to trust another with her life, without question or hesitation. In a way, she was the main reason he stayed. Boyd felt that he could protect her, whereas maybe his successor might not be as able as he was?
He tries to banish the thoughts swirling in his head now, those of what could happen to Echo without him. Instead he focuses on the girl standing in her body before him. Jenny.
All he can see is Echo.
Her words were tumbling from out of his mouth. He knew this only because he could hear his voice saying them and he thinks that he has never been more honest than when he utters those three words.
"With my life"