Abe gripped an elbow-level branch and slowly twisted it between his hands. Keeping himself under control was hard. Very hard.

Letting go, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes before realising that Heathrow was still talking.

"Oh.. um, pardon, Heathrow, I didn't catch that", he turned around and faced the crocodile hunter, his webbed fingers flying over his head.

The bushman was quiet for a moment or so, but then he shook his head.

"Never mind", he said, a little smile on his lips, "it wasn't important anyway."

Abe nodded and smiled apologetically. "I'm not usually like this", he explained, "it's got to do with Kadë being wounded." The amphibian closed his eyes and shook his head. "I've been like this every time she did something as tiny as scrape her knees ever since she was a kid. Imagine how it's become now that she's a field agent and my.. sweetheart on top of that."

"I can imagine.." Heathrow made a compassionate face. "I just said that there was a strange feeling by the river."

"Mhm?"

"When the croc came out. Even though it was big, I've never lost my head like that before. I know they make waves when they swim, and I know that they're faster than they look. Still I didn't get away from the shore, and I even let Miss McTrevor fall in."

Abe shook his head violently.

"Don't blame yourself for that, Heathrow", he said solemnly, "Gloria's probably feeling as bad for it as you are right now."

The bushman grimaced.

"But still, I was with you not to let you make those kinds of elementary mistakes."

"Now that you say it.." Abe thoughtfully raised his hand in the direction of the river. "It is something strange about it." He frowned and shook his head. "I can't put my finger at it, though." He paused. "Maybe later and closer up, but now, I'm kind of.. distracted."

He couldn't help it. Thinking about it, feeling his eyes seek the camp over and over to check on her, though he'd left Gloria and Hellboy alone. Kadë was everything to him, and knowing that she'd been badly hurt and was now unconscious - and not being by her side - it was as unnatural and painful to him as a pin in his hip. Stinging and gnawing.

Abe sighed, covered his face in his hand and closed his eyes.

Then, there was a warm hand on his shoulder, and Heathrow the bushman was close to him, a little smile on his face.

"She'll be fine. You said it yourself, didn't you? The girl is strong, she'll manage." He let out a little laughter. "Actually, I didn't think the two of them would make it back alive. But they did. And if they managed that, one would think they'd manage to recover as well."

The amphibian lowered his hand and smiled wearily at Heathrow.

"You're right. Of course they will." He sighed. "I'm just being overprotective." With a little flash, Abe remembered all things that had happened to Kadë before they got together, and in his mind, he added "And I've got all rights to be." But instead of saying it out loud, he gazed back towards the camp. "I wonder how Gloria's doing. I really hope that fracture was as tiny as it seemed."

Heathrow looked curiously at Abe's webbed hands. "Can you really 'read' things by just touching them?"

"Mmhm", the amphibian smiled at him. "But normally, I do it with persons or objects. That's why I can't get a clear picture of Gloria's fracture. Her head is a part of her as a person, but I have to think of it like an object, you understand?"

"I think so", he still looked curious. "You do it.. all the time?"

"Mmno", Abe shook his head and raised his hand to watch it. "Well, I sense things almost all the time. And always when I touch things. But when I concentrate, I get more out of the reading, of course."

"You mean.."

"More details, little things that aren't majorly important, but still makes a difference."

The bushman looked like he was starting to understand.

"So, when you 'read' objects, you see..

"What's happened to it. Which people has touched it and I can recreate entire scenarios that the object has been involved in, and show them to other people by touch."

"And with people?"
"I see the stories of their lives, and often their relatives. I tracked Gloria's family back to Morgan le Fay by a reading." He directed his palm towards Heathrow. "For example." Abe opened up his senses and let information flow inside him like a warm current through his arm, running through his veins and concentrating in his forehead, at the frontal lobe that was unique for him.

"You have aborigines on your mother's side of your family", he struggled to put words to the impressions that came along with the current. "When you were six years old, you stepped on a four inch nail and got blood poisoned, and you decided to become a crocodile hunter at the age of ten, when your little sister.. oh.." Abe lowered his hand, and slowly finished the sentence in a faint voice. "..when your little sister got her right leg bitten off by an alligator."

But Heathrow wasn't mad about the intrusion in his private life, he smiled.

"That's all right. She's got a husband and two great kids now, and it doesn't bother her at all." He frowned. "But what has the nail I stepped on got to do with it all?"

Abe chuckled.

"When I read someone or something, everything the person's been through flow into me, so to say. It's hard to put into words, and I can only pick out things that catch my attention. The nail triggered strong emotions in you when it happened - pain mainly - and the emotion of the memory drew my attention." He nodded to the side. "It's actually very hard to look for something specific when I read someone."

It felt good, talking about something else. Abe was just about to bring something else about telepathy up, when he herd steps coming from the camp.

"'Ey, Blue." Hellboy's voice was low, the kind of low like when you're in a room and someone's sleeping. "Kadë's woken up. Thought you might want to see her."

Abe opened his mouth, and then he understood what Hellboy had just said.

"She's.. awake?"

"Yeah, fishhead, and asking for you. Just keep it down, Gloria's asleep."

"Of.. of course. Heathrow, please excuse me."