General POV
Casey quietly wandered the eerily silent halls of the Palace, the dimly lit rays of the moonlight revealing her way back to her room. Her mind distracted her briefly, as she was thinking of so many things at once, though she seemed to know just where she was going without having to pay much atention to what went on, as she remembered every pathway of the palace, making it easy for her to reach her room again. Each step she took echoed through the long and empty hallway just as it had done in the past, yet it did not distact her from thinking on what had happened.
Her mind was still thinking about Ciara and what she told the therapist about the past, her mind filled with so many other questions. It was of her childhood memory, yes, and it even involved Erol just as she expected, as he had offered to bring her to a more appropriate setting than in the streets. Casey figured it was the start of their close relationship, since Ciara had nowhere else to go and and he was willing to give her a place to stay, ultimately giving her a second chance at life. However, Casey still wondered why Erol would do something like that in the first place. It could not be because he had feelings for her; he was much too young to know and understand the concept of love or relationships. Did he feel sorry for her? Possibly, but Erol was not the type to feel sorry about a lot of things. That being said, what was it? What could it have been that may have caused him to invite her into his life, his world, without thinking it through?
It could have been Jacob, she thought briefly. Since Erol wouldn't have even known about Ciara if it wasn't for him, but it doesn't mean that Jacob convinced Erol to take her in...
A sigh escaped her thin lips as she approached the door to her bedroom, punching in some numbers and allowing it to slide open. She ran a hand through her teal colored hair, her violet eyes hazy with fatigue, as she entered the room in a rather groggy manner. It was not much, but it was something that she was proud to call her own. She had a regular queen sized bed, the blanket and assortments of pillows varying in different browns, yellows, and oranges. Next to her bed was a table, where a lamp stood and left off for the time being. It was turned on for when she is busy reading a good book before going to bed, but tonight she would have to hold off on that. Sitting along the wall farthest from her - she chose against having a window, since she felt it was much too depressing to look over a dying city - was a desk filled with papers, different files from different people that she had worked with, mainly the guards, and a computer where even more files from the past were kept. It was a dark grey shade and had four cubbies leveled about six inches from the desk top. In them were files of papers, since she ran out of room to store her things. Besides the bathroom that was connected right next door, closest to her desk area, and her closet filled with her closes, boots, etc.; it was just a regular looking room.
When the door closed behind her, she could not helped but yawn and stretch a bit before dropping her arms to her sides, looking toward her desk almost immediately upon entering the room. She wanted to figure it all out tonight before heading to bed for the night, and taking notes of what she remembered was something she would do first. She wanted to find the answers she needed to hear in order to fully understand everything and make sense of the situation. The plan that was to take place was certainly a plan she desired, even if she had not thought of it from the beginning. Granted, it was going to take some time in order to get everything out of Ciara, all while supplying the information the fugitive wanted to know, but it would all be worth it in the end once all the pieces of the puzzle were put into place. If Casey was able to cooperate like she was now, then Casey would hopefully figure out, and possibly prove, the true reason behind Ciara and Erol's shattered and wounded past. Unfortunately, there were a few things that Ciara had no clue about. One of those things was the fact that Casey had to provide information, information she really did not know too much about. Asking Erol would be, undoubtedly, something she had to do. That would solve the part about his opinions about the first day they met, but what about the new character Jacob? She knew nothing about Jacob since she was hear, and never once did she hear his name. Nevertheless, if she was able to track him down, she would be able to figure out Erol's reason behind taking Ciara into his home if the Commander chose against giving her the answers she wanted.
A small, weary smirk appeared on the therapist's face as she approached her desk, which held her computer that allowed her to look up any of the files of the guards of the Krimzon Guard. Maybe she would actually get somewhere after so long of running into dead ends.
Before she could approach her desk, though, she stopped in her tracks, her elf-like ears catching wind of a sound she did not expect to hear within the confines of her room. It was unfamiliar to her, and rather close, which was what caused her to pause in her step in that instant. From what she could tell, it sounded an awful lot like...snoring? Blinking once out of confusion, she slowly turned her head toward her bed, catching sight of a mysterious form sitting on the edge of her bed. Her heart beat picked up as she slowly approached the figure, raising a hand toward it in order to get a feel of what it could have been. Once she was close enough to touch it, she placed a hand on a curved part of it, feeling warmth at its touch. Relief filled her body as she realized it was the shoulder of human being. After another moment, though, she blinked and stared at the person. Who was the guy, and why was he in her room? Now glaring out of annoyance, she slowly moved in front of the person, keeping her hand on his shoulder, before dropping to one knee.
"Alright, buddy," she spoke up. "I have no idea how you got into my room, nor do I want to know. If you want to talk, wait until morning to speak to me." Shaking his shoulder a bit, she caught a glimpse of his face from the dim lights of room, which were left at a faint dim whenever she was not there and were left that way until morning when she turned them on herself. The second she got a good look at his face, violet eyes widened with shock as recognition overwhelmed her. "E-Erol?" She spoke, her voice matching her expression. She placed her free hand on his other shoulder and shook him a bit more, hoping to wake him up from his sleep. "Erol, wake up!"
After shaking him a few more times, he stirred a bit in response. Casey stopped shaking him after realizing his amber orbs slowly fluttered open before gazing hazily back at her worried violet ones. It took him a moment to realize exactly who she was, but when he did, his eyes widened rather slightly as if he was trying to wake himself up.
"C-Casey..." His voice was filled with fatigue, making it clear to Casey that he been here waiting for her long enough to actually fall asleep.
The therapist placed a hand on his cheek in an almost motherly fashion and asked, "Erol, what the Hell are you doing here? It's the middle of the night."
He closed his eyes as if he were about to fall asleep again.
"I noticed, but...I didn't expect you to get back so late," he responded. "I've been waiting here for...awhile."
Casey shook her head and responded, "It looks like you've been waiting for a couple of hours since you left with Rachel." She paused for thought. "Why have you been waiting for me, anyway?"
He remained silent for a long moment before sighing, running a hand through his flame colored hair, and muttering, "I wanted to talk to you...about Ciara."
Casey's eyes widened slightly as she removed her hand from his cheek, surprised to hear that he had waited all that time just to converse with her about Ciara. Was he really willing to fight off sleep in order to talk about an old friend, a fugitive of the entire city, a woman he had broken so long ago? It was clear in his tired filled eyes that he had failed the first attempt at making amends, but it was clear he was not going to leave until he got what he wanted: atonement for hurting Ciara. If it were any other reason, Casey would have just pushed him out of the room and bade him good night before heading to bed herself despite the work she had to do. However, he was talking about Ciara, someone Erol seldom spoke about until she arrived that very morning. Now that he's here, she thought curiously, I'll be able to get enough information out of him to satisfy Ciara tomorrow. Hopefully, it would be enough to satisfy her for at least a day or so until she had more questions to ask. However, knowing Ciara and her stubbornness, it would be very difficult to tell what she was interested in hearing about. Nevertheless, Casey was sure getting at least some information out of the commander would be enough to keep the fugitive occupied for at least a day.
Violet eyes stared into amber eyes, which now appeared more awake than before, with slight disbelief, before finding her voice and asking, "What is it...that you want to know about her?"
He looked toward the desk for a moment before asking, "Remember when you brought up what I said to her nine years ago...about how I told her...that what happened in the past meant nothing me or something like that?" Casey blinked once as she recalled the words she said to the Commander, making him remember the horrible words he said to Ciara before she took off. Instead of answer with words, she mumbled a simply "Mmhm" while moving to sit next to him on her bed. He stared at the ground in what appeared to be shame, as if he could not look her in the eye, before continuing, "Well, I went to see her, like I had said I would, to try and make amends." She nodded once, recalling the moment he left his room to speak to her. "Well...she...she pointed out the same fact, but the way she said it..." He paused for a moment, remembering the past and bringing a pained expression on his features. "Her voice...it was filled with...with so much pain...so much anguish, that it hurt. A lot more than I thought it would."
"Now you understand how much your words hurt her," Casey told him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I tried to explain it to you in the beginning, but you were just too stubborn to listen to me. Now, you had to learn the hard way how much it hurt her."
"I know, I know..." He muttered, placing his face into his hands before sighing shakily. "I'm sorry, alright?"
"Don't apologize to me, Commander." She stated. "It's Ciara you need to apologize to for all of this."
He shook his head at the therapist's words.
"She'll never forgive me," he groaned with defeat; a characteristic foreign to even the Commander himself. "After what I said to her, I'm surprised she hasn't killed me yet."
"Just because she won't forgive you now doesn't mean she won't in the coming future," Casey explained. "Things change over time, Erol. Everyone knows that."
"I know, especially people," he pointed out. "Still, I'm surprised by how much everything has changed since Ciara and I were kids." He paused as his mind began to wander. "It feels like...it was only yesterday that I first met her on the streets of Haven City. Out of nowhere, in fact."
Casey blinked once, knowing she was getting somewhere with what Erol had to say about their first meeting, leaning closer to him. "Go on..."
He glanced at her, his eyes still filled with fatigue, yet looked forward at a wall and continued nonetheless.
"The first time I heard of Ciara was from my best friend many years ago, when I was about ten years old. He met her on the streets just the other day, or so he said. He wouldn't stop talking about her and how she made him see the error of his ways...something crazy like that."
"Tell me about Jacob," Casey requested almost quickly, earning a confused glance from Erol who did not realize that Casey had already heard of this best friend of his from Ciara. "Ciara brought up the same guy when I spoke to her today, and I would like to know a little about him."
Erol chuckled, clearly thinking of his friend once again, as he looked back at the wall.
"He wasn't the brightest kid around, but he certainly wasn't the stupidest either," he started to explain. "He lived with his parents, of course, but they were the kind that tried to control everything about his life. They told him he had to live a certain way, and that he would fail in life if he strove to far from the path." His head fell a bit. "He tried to be independent, trying to do things by himself, but his parents always scolded him for trying. After several years of dealing with them, he ran away and joined a bunch of kids living in the streets. Eventually, he started to rely on them to do his work, which they did not question. They needed a leader, and he just so happened to fill that spot. A year later, I ran into him on the streets." He chuckled a bit. "He gained a...few pounds over the years, but he was the same Jacob that I remembered. When we reunited, we met up nearly every single day." He paused a moment as he looked back on the conversations he had with the boy. "He always talked about how he made the best decision in the world. He never wanted to go back to his parents and never wanted to be like them. Little did he realize, he was treating his friends and comrades the same way, bossing them around and telling them to live the way he waned them to. And then," A smile graced his lips, "Ciara came into the picture."
"Ciara explained this situation to me already, where she fought him and his friends," Casey spoke up, clearly listening to every word he said to her, "but...I wanna hear your interpretation of it, from Jacob's words."
He did not respond to her, like he was off in his own little world for a brief second, as he continued, "He spotted her carrying around a bag food that she stole. She was also eating...something...an apple, I think it was. He thought she would be an easy target." Casey's eyes furrowed a bit, to which Erol noticed that. "I said he wasn't the brightest kid, not the stupidest." To that, she shrugged and allowed him to continue. "Anyway, he wanted her to hand over the bag, since he hadn't eaten that much in the morning and was starving. Naturally, she refused to hand it over, making some...comments...about his weight, which pissed him off. He approached her and tried to take the bag from her himself, but she fought back, knocked him to the ground and knocked him out." He paused as he tried to think of the rest of Jacob's story. "He didn't remember much after that, only the brief cries of pain coming from the boys that were being defeated by the mysterious girl. Afterwards, when he came to, he still threatened to kill her for beating up "his boys." That was before he found her kneeling above him as a brown pipe shoved in the ground right next to his head." He closed his eyes. "She went on to explain how she saw potential in him, and that living in the streets was something she knew he did not want, but he stayed there because of his past. She went on to say that he shouldn't waste his life on the streets and to just let everything that happened go. Before left him there, he was able to introduce himself to her, and he hoped to meet her again someday."
Casey slowly sat back a bit on her bed, taking in all of the information given to her by the Commander, while folded his hands and stared at a wall. It was just as Ciara had told her, only it was Erol's version from what he heard from Jacob. Still, both stories were very similar to one another, so it confirmed that Ciara was not lying or making anything up. However, it technically was not what she wanted to hear, though it would be something worth telling Ciara. Instead, she wanted to hear about the first time Ciara and Erol met and how the Commander had interpreted it in comparison to the way Ciara did. It may not have been where she would get the most information, but it was certainly a start. Plus, she needed to get some more out of him in order to keep her side of the deal for the morning. If not, she would have to start from square one, something she could not stand doing. Therefore, she was not going to give up just yet, not when she was actually getting somewhere.
Glancing back at the Commander, she stared at his back for a long moment before sighing and sitting forward again.
"From what I can tell," she spoke slowly, "Ciara's story is very similar to what you've told me. Only hers was in more...detail."
He chuckled at her words.
"I'm not surprised." He stated with a smile. "Ciara always did have better memory than I did. Besides," His smile suddenly fell, "it's been a long time since he told me that story."
She leaned forward in her seat and looked at him.
"Then why don't I just ask him myself?" She suggested. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I asked him about that day myself."
At those words, he shook his head.
"You can't," he spoke, his voice dark and almost harsh, though she could tell he did not mean it that way.
Blinking, Casey eyed him for a moment.
"Why not?" She questioned curiously. "It's not as if he'll-"
"He's dead."
Silence took over as Casey's eye widened slightly and she gasped at his words. The way he said those two little words was much lower than Casey could ever imagine. Dead? That can't be, she thought. But how? How could that be? How could he be dead? What could have happened for Jacob to befall such a gruesome fate as death? As she thought those questions, one important thought sprung to her mind: Did Ciara even know about his demise? Judging from her obliviousness and tone of voice, she most likely had no idea that he was deceased. Unfortunately, that did not end there. Casey was worried about how she was going to get a different view of what was going on. As far as she knew, Jacob had known both Erol and Ciara all too well, ever since they were children. She was not surprised, as he was the one who inadvertently brought the two together in the first place. However, did he expect the two to become more than friends? If so, he must have greatly supported them from the very beginning, since Erol was his best friend and Ciara had changed his life. Those were just a few questions that may be left unanswered permanently, and that worried her even further than before.
Violet eyes stared at Erol for another moment before looking away. She did not want to bring up any bad memories about him, but she had to know what had happened to him. Ciara had to know what happened to him.
"If you can," she finally spoke in a low tone, "would you mind telling me...what had happened to him?" He looked at her and she looked at him; it was simultaneous, and they both knew it. "Ciara deserves to know what happened to him."
He shrugged before looking back at the wall in front of him as he muttered, "You're right. She does need to know what happened to her best friend, too."
"So...they were close," Casey stated, earning a small nod from the Commander.
"Those two were closer to one another as he and I were," he explained. "Even before they met again, I knew there was some connection between the two. He would go on for hours about her, how he wanted to meet her again on different terms and whatnot. In a way, it was because of him that I actually met Ciara for the first time."
"Tell me about that," Casey pressed, sitting forward on the bed once more. "Before you start explaining about what happened to Jacob, I'd...like to hear about how you two met."
He glanced at her for a moment, before continuing.
"Hey," called a much younger Erol to a younger girl wearing a hood to shield her face from view. She stopped abruptly at the sound of his voice, but did not dare to turn around and face him.
Although he had never seen her before, he had heard his best friend, Jacob, talk about that very same girl non-stop for what felt like years. By now, the flaming haired boy had a pretty good image in his mind at what he was looking at; the girl Jacob spoke of two months. He was still surprised to know he actually saw her in the distance, let alone in the streets. In fact, Erol did not expect to ever meet the girl who had changed his best friend's life, but only hear his friend talk about her for the next couple of years. Now that he saw her, he was unsure of what to do, what to say. Yes, he did call out to her, but it was a completely unconscious action that he pulled. Judging from the way she stood, she did not seem to trust him all that much.
He felt himself smirk slightly. She probably thinks I'm one of Jacob's "boys," he thought to himself. That was not exactly the way he wanted to be depicted, and it did not take him long to say, "I'm not going to hurt you, but I wanted to get the chance to meet you."
At those words, he noticed her begin to turn her head toward him, her azure eyes locking onto his amber orbs for a moment before they began examining him. He did not seem to mind, as she was trying to make sure he was not some sort of threat to her.
"What brings you out into the streets of Haven?" She spoke, sounding very mature for her young age. "You look to have better things to do than meet a street girl like me."
Erol chuckled at her words.
"No, not really." He stated honestly. "I was just strolling around the city when I spotted you from afar, and I recognized you as the girl who beat up my friend two months ago."
He noticed her raise an eyebrow at his words, clearly recognizing who he was referring to, as she turned to face him a bit more.
"You mean..." She started, "you know...Jacob?"
He chuckled at her surprised and curious tone.
"That I do," he spoke. "In fact, he's my best friend. Known each other for a couple years, until he disappeared and reappeared on the streets." His face lowered a bit. "Poor guy didn't know what he was looking for. Not until now, though."
"Until...now?" The girl questioned.
Erol looked back at her and said, "Now, whenever I see him, all he talks about is changing his life into something much better than before, but has no clue as to what to do." He noticed her smile a bit. "I asked him why he changed so suddenly, and he told me about all about you." He paused a moment. "If I am correct, he talked about a 'girl who single-handedly took down his boys without even breaking a sweat.'" He chuckled at the thought. "I couldn't help but laugh at him, but he said he wasn't kidding. Eventually, before he left, he said if I tried to look for you I should keep an eye out for either a black hood, green bangs, or blue eyes." He paused before smiling. "I must have found you, since I am looking at all three."
She shook her head as she turned to face him completely, becoming much more comfortable with his presence.
"It seems you have." Then, she raised her hands to the hood that shielded her face from view and pushed it off, revealing shoulder length blond hair and green bangs. Her azure eyes remained the most prominent out of the three minor descriptions of her from Jacob. Although she was young, to Erol, she actually appeared...cute. "It surprised me," she went on, "that he hasn't forgotten what I had said to him."
He stared at her for a moment before saying, "I think it's hard to forget the one person who changed his life." She started laughing at that comment, a laugh that unconsciously made him smile even more. What was with this girl? Not only did she seem cute despite her calm exterior, but her laugh just drew him in. In a way, he would say she had a sort of charismatic aura about her. He could only wonder what her name was. To which, he suddenly asked, "What's your name? Jacob regrets not asking for your name, but could remember what you looked like if he saw you."
He watched her look up at the sky for a moment before looking back at him.
"Ciara," she simply stated. "My name is Ciara." He replayed her name in his mind for a moment, embedding it so it would never be forgotten. Ciara...suited her, for some reason. "What about you, friend of Jacob?" She went on. "What's your name supposed to be?"
He blinked at the odd title she had temporarily given to him. Friend of Jacob, he wondered. Never been called that before. After a moment, he crossed his arms over his chest and responded, "Call me Erol."
Ciara blinked once, as if she were trying to remember his name as well, before a faint smile appeared on her face.
"Unusual name," she spoke up after a few moments, earning a frown from Erol, "but I like it. Makes you different...kind of like your hair."
He rolled his eyes, knowing she was teasing him about his hair in a friendly manner, before muttering aloud, "How did I know you were going to make a comment about my hair?"
Ciara laughed a bit, making Erol smile a bit even more, as she answered, "Just a hunch, I guess..."/i
"After that, we just continued to talk," Erol continued to explain, looking back on that day as if it was a dream. "There was so much that we talked about, I can't even remember most of it. Eventually, it started to get dark, and she pointed that out." He paused a moment as his eyes narrowed in thought. "Before she left, something inside me told me not to let her go. Something in me didn't want her to stay in the streets. So...I offered her a chance to live with me and my family...and...well, I'm sure you know that much."
Casey looked up at the ceiling of her room, nodding once in response, before stating, "And it was because of your desicion to have her live with you that she reunited with Jacob." Erol nodded once, muttering a small "Yeah." before staring at a wall. Slowly looking toward the ground, she sighed uncomfortably before saying, "Tell me what happened to Jacob...if you can, anyway."
She felt him tense up the moment she said those words. When she looked at him again, she realized that he had shut his amber eyes, as if he were trying to find the right words to say in order to explain what had happened to his friend. Then, he opened them again and continued staring at a wall.
"It was seven years ago, one year before Ciara returned to Haven," he started. "Jacob was sent on a mission to the Wasteland with Rachel, before she became Lieutenant, and several other Krimzon Guards. They were ordered take out a small Metal Head nest that had sprouted. It needed to be destroyed before they started to overpopulate. For at least an hour, we were in contact with them as they took them out one by one. It was going to turn out relatively easy for them." He paused a moment. "Then, the connection suddenly went dead just as Jacob was letting us know the mission was complete. It was like that for a good half an hour, while we frantically tried to find the connection. Then, the line immediately came back on, and the next thing I know, I'm listening to a hysterical Rachel requesting an immediate evacuation from the Wasteland. When we asked what had happened, she told us they were ambushed by some surviving Metal Heads and the communication was knocked out. Several of the guards were torn apart piece by piece, while Jacob and Rachel we left standing to fight them off. But then, before they were able to get out on time..."
Erol trailed off as his head lowered, remembering that day as if it were yesterday. Casey quietly watched him, still surprised by the emotions the Commander was actually showing despite the exterior he put off toward everyone else.
On the outside, he was viewed as an arrogant, sadistic, and at times evil person. He enjoyed watching other people falling into despair and misery, and hated losing in...well, anything. From what Casey had heard, he did not have a lot of friends who shared those views. However, as he spoke about Jacob the way he did, the therapist realized the close relationship he had. It made it seem like all of the things she heard were complete lies, hoaxes in an attempt to bring him down. Then again, the people who believed that only saw what was on the outside. On the inside, to put it bluntly, he was fucked up, really, really fucked up. He lost one of his best friends to the Metal Heads, he broke the heart of his female friend...twice, and he had to deal with seeing her for however long the Baron wished to keep her, thinking she would be able to forgive him after everything that had happened. Well, what supposedly happened anyway, since Erol denied what happened back then. Still, to know he had to deal with all of that added with the fact that he had duties as a Commander all while finding a way to deal with the Metal Heads...
She was getting a headache just thinking about it.
"What...happened...?" She pressed reluctantly. His expression made him appear as if he were about to cry, but she knew Erol too well. He would never, ever, cry in front of anyone, no matter who it was.
"Before they were able to get out," the Commander continued slowly, "one of the Metal Heads got to Jacob and dragged him back, and the rest started attacking him from all sides..." He paused as he remembered Rachel's words that day. "The last thing Rachel heard from him...was the sound of his screaming..."
Casey's chest tightened at his words, descriptive (and unwanted) images appearing before her of the possibilities that could have ended Jacob's life.
"I'm...I'm so sorry..." She muttered, staring down toward the ground. "I...I didn't mean to bring up something so...personal..."
"Don't worry about it," he responded, glancing at her. "It would be...better...if you told Ciara anyway..."
The therapist looked at him and questioned, "Why is that?"
"She's starting to trust you, Casey," he told her. "She's starting to tell you something already. It may not be much, but it's better than what I got." He closed his eyes. "For six months, the only thing she would do was make witty comments and poke fun at me and Jacob. She respected us and treated us like friends, but she never went into anything personal. Six months later, though, all of that changed in an instant." He paused a moment and opened his eyes again, looking down at the floor this time. "I remember Jacob running up me, franticall saying that Ciara went missing, that she just vanished into thin air." Erol chuckled, recalling just how hysterical Jacob was the day Ciara just left without saying a word. "Worried about her safety, I chased after her. I searched everywhere for her, every corner, every crack, every single place where she could have possibly been to. Jacob helped, of course, but eventually, I was the one who found her. She was at the docks, just sitting there on the edge staring at her reflection in the water like a statue." His eyes narrowed a bit at the memory. "She had this...pained expression on her face, as if something she saw sparked an old memory. When I asked her what was wrong...she told me everything. About her mother, her father and sister, everything. By the end, she was in tears, clinging to me for dear life."
"By the Precursors..." Casey muttered to herself, shocked to hear how stubborn Ciara really was in comparison today.
Erol looked at her.
"Six months," he stated. "Just for her to even bring up her past to me took her six months. For you, it took you...hours, and you barely even know her." He paused. "It may not seem like it now, but she's warming up to you faster than she did with me and Jake."
The therapist shrugged and said, "I do have a way with words. Besides," She smirked, "in a way, she and I are closer than you think." Erol blinked at her words, but before he could ask, Casey got to her feet. "It's late, and I need to rest." She looked at Erol. "And you need to get the Hell out of my room."
The Commander chuckled as he got to his feet.
"You're right," he spoke as he approached the door. Before he left, though, he stopped and turned his head toward her. "What you're doing for Ciara...for me..." He looked her in the eye. "Thanks."
Casey blinked for a moment before smirking.
"The Commander is actually thanking me for something?" She asked in mock surprise. "I'm flattered! I guess I was right when I assumed Ciara was a big part of your life."
He turned back to the door while shaking his head.
"To be honest..." He started, "she means a lot more to me than you think."
"Believe me, Commander..." She spoke softly as he exited the room. "I know exactly how you feel..."
