Questions

Relena looked from Heero's closed eyes to where Sally was just finishing closing up the wound in the back of Heero's thigh, and felt herself shiver numbly. She'd tried to keep Heero's focus on her while Sally worked, but it hadn't been easy. To say Heero was a man of few words, seemed a major understatement. Relena did get an answer to her first question, even if the answer left her feeling chilled.

"When did you move in?"

"I didn't..."

He hadn't moved into the the apartment. It had taken a moment for that to sink in with Relena, and it had sparked so many other questions, but it wasn't too long before the pain seemed to take its toll on Heero and his eyes had drifted shut, his tense body finally going lax.

Movement caught Relena's attention, and she looked up from Heero's face to see Sally motioning her towards the door of the exam room. Pushing back her chair, Relena quickly got up and walked over to her friend. Sally's arms folded beneath her breasts as she looked down at Relena.

"Alright," Sally said, keeping her voice low as she glanced back into the room, "I've removed the shrapnel, and stitched up his wounds. Now what the hell is going on?"

Relena drew a breath, grateful her friend had waited until now to demand some answers. She just wished she had any to offer. Looking back towards the table, Relena considered Heero. What answers he had given had been one or two words, not inviting further conversation.

She realized he was in pain, and not just from the explosion he'd survived or the work Sally was doing to stitch him up. The pain she saw in his face ran deeper than that, and was layered in uncertainty. She couldn't stop looking into those stunning blue eyes, wondering who this man really was.

"Earth to Relena..." Sally called, her left hand swiping across Relena's field of vision a little sharply.

Relena felt her cheeks heat, as she realized she'd been staring at a nearly naked man while Sally was waiting for some answer from her. Turning to look at her friend, Relena slowly shook her head. "I honestly don't know..." she admitted, pulling both hands down her face, "I thought he was my new tenant."

Sally stared at Relena, "You don't know for sure?"

"I took your advice," Relena said, looking up at her friend, "I signed with a firm to take care of the rental." She shook her head slightly, feeling numb to everything and on the verge of tears at the same time. "I started finding letters addressed to him in my mailbox, and today there was a package for him..."

"A bomb," Sally said bluntly, "and rather than waiting for the authorities and medical professionals, like any sane person would have," she gave Relena quite the look at that, "you brought a complete stranger here for some free medical attention."

Relena bit her lip to keep it from trembling, "Sally, I'm so sorry," she managed to say though she couldn't keep the wobble from her voice. Her friends words served to remind her of just how close she'd come to death. "I didn't know what else to do," she brought fingers to her cheeks that felt freezing to her face.

"I wish I knew what was happening, but you heard him..." Relena trailed off, eyes returning to Heero, specifically what of his face she could see over his left shoulder.

"I think I've had more productive conversations with some of the animals I've treated," Sally said with a huff, and Relena found herself being turned to face her friend. The doctor's expression was one of deep concern as she looked down at Relena. "I'm not going to pretend to be happy about what's happening, but you know I'm not going to turn away now."

Sally's eyes glanced back into the exam room, for a moment then, "But I do want some honest answers out of him. If I'm going to help, I want to know who exactly is after him."

"What do we do in the meantime?" Relena asked, attention darting back to Heero for a brief moment.

The doctor patted Relena's left shoulder, once more drawing her eyes back. "Well, he can't stay here," Sally said flatly. "Whoever these people are, if the hospital wouldn't be safe, chances are they're going to be smart enough to look for possible alternatives." Her expression grew thoughtful. "Your home is close enough to my clinic, and you keep the books here. It wouldn't be a stretch to think they'd come knocking here pretty quick."

Relena just stared at her friend, feeling dumbfounded, "How can you be so practical about all this?" she asked, having to clear her throat against the sob her body wanted to release.

Sally snorted softly. "Attribute it to all the spy thrillers I love to read," she said with a wink. "I may have a place we can bring him, but I'll need to make a call first." The doctor took a step away from Relena then, reaching into a storage room and returned quickly with a pair of blue scrubs.

"Stay with him, while I make the call," Sally told her, passing the clothes into Relena's hands. "When he comes around, help him into these, but don't let him move around too much. The freezing won't have worn off yet and I don't need him to tear his stitches."

Relena reached out a hand to stop Sally as she turned to head for her office. "Thank you Sally," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Sally offered Relena a smile. "Don't thank me yet, you haven't seen my bill," she winked again and walked towards her office.

Standing there for a moment, gripping the scrubs to her chest, Relena looked back inside the exam room. She felt too stunned to move, but a half groan, half cough brought Relena back to herself and she saw Heero shifting on the table, trying to get his arms and legs beneath him. "Heero," Relena said his name urgently as she came into his line of sight. "Try not to move so fast," she cautioned.

"Need to get moving..." he muttered, sounding like he was mostly speaking to himself, and he hissed softly as he managed to get himself seated on the edge of the table.

"You need to take it easy," she said, adding a touch of firmness to her voice, "or you'll tear your stitches." It was knowledge of Sally's temper if that eventuality came to pass that put the firmness in Relena's voice.

Heero's eyes briefly met hers from beneath heavy lids, before he seemed to look down at himself for the first time. He started a little, before twisting with a slight groan to look back at his shredded clothes still tangled with the blanket on the table. Relena felt her cheeks heat as his eyes widened a little as he looked back at her face.

He looked on edge, ready to bolt at any moment. But he was studying her, perhaps weighing whether he could continue to trust her. Relena self consciously tucked a bit of blond hair behind her left ear, "Here," she said, holding out the scrubs to him, "they're better than nothing..."

Heero's eyes flickered down his body again, before returning to Relena's face. She wanted to look away as he reached for the material she held out to him, but something in those dark eyes held her fast. "You don't even know me..." he said, his voice sounding gruff to Relena's ears.

"You saved my life," Relena breathed, feeling her eyes begin to prick with the need to just let out the emotions she'd managed to locked away.

"We're even," was Heero's flat, almost dismissive reply, and it felt to Relena like a slap in the face. She stared at this stranger as he tried to get his left foot into the proper leg of the scrub pants. He was clearly moving stiffly, and his face twisted in pain, but it wasn't until Relena heard him hiss that she snapped back to herself.

She was a little surprised to find herself taking the pants from him. "Let me help," she said, her own voice sounding hollow to her ears. Getting his feet through both pant legs, Relena passed the material of the waist band to him.

Heero got off the table with a grunt, landing with most of his weight on his left leg as he drew the pants over his hips, before pulling the drawstring tightly around his narrow waist. He seemed to draw a steadying breath before he took up the shirt and worked it over his upper body.

"Alright," Sally said as she appeared around the corner and stepped back inside the room. "We need to head out now. Word of the explosion is spreading, and traffic is backing up out there because of it."

"Where are we going?" Relena asked, and saw Heero visibly stiffen in front of her as his head turned towards Sally, his expression growing cautious.

"I'll fill you in once we're on the road," Sally assured, glancing at her wristwatch before looking rather critically at Heero. "Can you manage?" she asked bluntly. "It's not like we have any wheelchairs around here."

Heero stiffened further at the doctor's words. "I'm fine," he returned, voice cold. He tried to stand a little straighter, but Relena could still clearly read the pain he was in around the set of his eyes.

Sally gave him and Relena a look that called his words bullshit, but she left it at that. The doctor motioned for them to come out of the room, before she disappeared down the hall back towards the rear exits they'd come in. Relena looked to Heero, who had turned towards the door but hadn't made to try and take a step yet, and wondered how well he could actually move.

As he finally took a hesitant step forward, Relena held back a sigh of relief that his right leg held him. She could see how much pain moving caused, and without the thoughts processing in her brain, Relena found herself ducking beneath his left arm again. Cobalt eyes flashed to her face in surprise, but he didn't pull away. Together they made their slow way towards the exits where Sally waited, holding the door for them.

Sally's car was parked right outside the door, and Relena quickly helped Heero into the back seat before climbing in with him on the passenger's side. She wasn't sure why she wanted to sit in the back with him. Relena thought it might have been something in his eyes when he'd last looked at her. He was clearly vulnerable, lost, and needing to trust, when she felt sure such things didn't come naturally to him.

Heero rested stiffly beside her in the car, his head tipped back slightly against the headrest. He grunted softly as Sally took the car down the slight curb to the back alley that would take them away from the clinic. Relena looked from Heero's mostly closed eyes to Sally's in the rearview mirror as she studied the road ahead. The silence in the car felt heavy to Relena, and she saw Sally's attention briefly flicker to her before the doctor's hand reached for the radio controls.

"...still little known about the explosion that rocked the heart of the historic district earlier today. Police and emergency services have cordoned off all access within a four block radius. We're still awaiting a briefing from the police chief..."

Relena did her best to let the words simply flow over her rather than sink in, but as Sally took them onto the main roads, which were definitely clogged with traffic, she couldn't help thinking about what had happened that day. 'You were in an explosion...' she thought for the first time, her mind still feeling numb as it processed those words.

She had struck the package with her foot. How close had she come to unknowingly setting the thing off right there? Relena had held the bloody thing in her arms; she'd carried it down the stairs like it was nothing. Relena distantly felt the numbness beginning to crumble around her, as the reality of how close she'd come to death settled onto her shoulders.

She couldn't see the cordoned off streets from where they were trying to merge with traffic onto a main road. But Relena could see the people on the sidewalks, some of them heading towards the barricade, no doubt hoping to see some of the action, to witness what should never have happened at all.

Relena realized her shoulders were shaking, as tears finally fell from her eyes in streams, her breaths coming in near silent sobs. She knew she needed to get a hold of herself, but now that the release had begun, Relena wasn't sure how to bring it back under control. Distantly she saw Sally glance at her in the rearview, noted the concern in her friend's eyes, but that only made her breaths hitch further.

"Hey," it was Heero's voice that pierced the roar of blood and emotions flooding Relena's ears. Somehow she managed to look at him, and those intense cobalt eyes held her fast. He looked unsure, still lost, but determined. She wondered briefly if he was trying somehow to comfort her. Relena didn't know how long she stared into those beautiful eyes, but slowly her breathing evened out, coming back under her control.

"Alright," Sally's voice shattered the relative silence of the car, and broke the eye contact Relena was still maintaining with Heero. "I think it's about time you answered some questions." Sally's tone held an authoritative note Relena had never heard in it before.

She felt Heero shift beside her and watched his wary eyes regard Sally, as the doctor navigated traffic while making quick glances into the back seat. "Exactly who is after you?" Sally asked, though Relena would have almost called it an order.

"They call themselves OZ," Heero ground out, wincing as the car hit a pothole.

"OZ?" Relena repeated, twisting towards his side of the car to better look at Heero's face.

Heero tipped his chin down slightly, a subtle nod, "The Order of the Zodiac."

"Never heard of them," Sally was quick to say, as she waited her chance to turn at the crowded lights.

"That's how they want it," Heero huffed, shifting as though trying to find a more comfortable position.

"Why do they want you?" the doctor asked.

Relena looked back to Heero, and saw a shift in his expression. His eyes darted from Sally's reflection, to briefly touching Relena, to looking at neither of them. "I'm their experiment..." he said voice low, weighed with bitterness.

"Experiment," Sally said the word flatly. Not disbelievingly, Relena thought, but clearly inviting something more than just that vague statement.

Heero swallowed, his expression grim, and Relena found herself unable to look away from him. His eyes flickered to her face for a instant, and Relena saw a torrent of emotions in those cobalt eyes. Perspiration stood out on his temples, and his jaw muscles were tight as his throat worked to swallow again. "They wanted a weapon, so they created me..."

Relena felt the weight of those words hang in the air of the car as Sally continued to navigate the city traffic. The doctor looked back sharply through the rearview mirror as she came to a stoplight. "What do you mean created?" Sally asked then, both her voice and expression maintaining that authoritative tone.

Heero shrugged his left shoulder slightly, his face twisting into a grimace. "I don't know where I came from," he said in a voice lacking any of the emotion Relena would have expected from that admission. "I was trained, and experimented on," his eyes stared straight ahead as he spoke, and Relena felt a cold chill creep down her spine.

"Why?" Sally demanded then, "for what purpose?"

Heero's lips compressed into a grim line. "Do you tell the animals why you're doing what needs to be done?"

…

Relena stared out the passenger's side window from the front seat of Sally's car. They'd been driving for several hours now and despite how traffic had looked when they left the clinic, Sally had managed to get them out of the city in a little over two hours. They'd stopped briefly on the outskirts of the city to get gas, and that was when Sally had insisted Relena come up front with her.

The doctor had been adamant that Heero lay down as best he could on the back seat, to take unnecessary pressure off his fresh stitches. Relena had thought at first Heero was going to protest the request, but the moment Sally made it an order rather than a suggestion, he complied.

Trees lined the road they drove down. What had been a scattered cluster here and there near the edge of a field had quickly turned into a thick forest. The sun's light as it slowly set stretched through the trees, casting long shadows across the road and making the light strobe slightly. It might have been a truly idyllic ride through the country, were it not for the man stretched out on the back seat of Sally's car.

Relena glanced over her left shoulder into the back of the car. Heero was laying there with his head pillowed on his left arm, eyes closed and appearing to be asleep, but Relena somehow doubted he truly was. She felt herself shiver at what little he'd revealed, and wondered how he could ever truly relax and let himself rest.

"Is it much further?" Relena asked softly, tearing her eyes away from Heero to glance at her friend.

Sally's eyes remained on the winding country road, "About twenty minutes," she said, speaking to be heard over the sound of the engine but not much louder. Relena noticed Sally's eyes flickered to the rearview mirror more than once on their drive, her lips compressing slightly each time she did.

Her friend hadn't said much about where they were going; the conversation had been mostly about getting answers out of Heero. But Sally had mentioned the name of the man they were driving out to meet. Relena cast a quick glance Sally's way before asking, "you said his name's Wufei?" It was an unusual name, but that wasn't what was piquing Relena's curiosity.

She'd known Sally for a long time now, and had never heard mention of this man before. Relena couldn't help but feel curious about a man Sally would know out here in the boonies, one whom she'd feel comfortable enough to bring two strangers to. Especially when one of those strangers was Heero.

"Yes," Sally said, looking at Relena through the corner of her eyes, it was a knowing look. "Just ask what's on your mind," the doctor said bluntly.

Feeling her cheeks heat, realizing that her attempts at subtle were utterly wasted, Relena looked away from her friend as she asked. "Are you and he..." she trailed off almost immediately, knowing it was absolutely none of her business.

Sally chuckled softly, "I've known him for years," she began and Relena glanced over to see her friend's lips turn up in a warm smile. "He makes an excellent roommate when I need some time out of the city." Sally's reply might have been somewhat vague, but her tone was anything but.

Relena cleared her throat, looking back out the front of the car, "I'm sorry," she apologized softly, "that was none of my business."

"Don't worry about it," Sally said, easily brushing the matter aside, her voice sounding fond to Relena's ears. Looking back to her friend, Sally offered her a brief smile before her eyes glanced once more into the rearview mirror. "We've got more pressing issues right now than my love life," she said with a firm nod.

Twisting to her left again, Relena looked more fully at Heero. Laying as he was, in the shadows of the back seat, Relena couldn't very well make out his face. Even when the sun briefly penetrated the car, Heero's unruly bangs kept his face protected in shadow. Her fingers itched to try and tame that wild brown hair hiding his eyes from clear view.

Relena felt herself shiver. Those eyes had captivated her from the first moment she'd looked into them. She'd wondered about the pain she'd glimpsed there, and now she knew a little of what had caused it.

"I'm their experiment..."

It wasn't just how Heero had looked as he said those words, but the tone of his voice as well. Relena had been surprised that Heero so willingly answered Sally's question, as he'd been so reluctant to respond to her while Sally had stitched him up. She suspected it might have had something to do with the command in Sally's voice that Heero had responded to.

She shivered again, just thinking of how Heero had spoken of himself and the people who were after him. Relena had glimpsed the price he'd paid, that first day she'd met him coming up from the apartment. That haunted look of pain and confusion was directly tied, Relena felt, to the fact that Heero saw himself as a commodity rather than a person.

Relena still didn't fully understand what was going on, but she'd seen enough of the, pain in Heero's eyes to know she couldn't turn away. Blinking, Relena forced herself to stop staring at Heero and turned back towards the front of the car just as Sally was slowing down to turn into a rutted driveway. It led to a cozy looking cottage set back into the forest, so it appeared cradled by the trees rather than standing apart from them.

Sally brought the car to a stop beside a nondescript black SUV and turned off the engine. Relena saw the front door of the cottage open and a handsome looking Chinese man stepped onto the threshold, his arms quickly folding across his chest as he regarded the car. Relena glanced cautiously to Sally, only to see her friend smiling and waving at the grim looking Wufei.

"He doesn't look very happy..." Relena found herself saying softly, before she could think better of it.

"Oh, don't worry about him," Sally told her easily as she opened the driver's side door. "His face always looks that way," she said fondly.

"Heero?" Relena said their passenger's name softly as she turned to look back at him, only to find him already sitting up. His cobalt eyes stared straight ahead at Wufei, they were more guarded now than they had been just a few hours before. She could tell he was more tense now, his body perhaps considering fight or flight again.

"Let's get you inside," Sally said, glancing at Heero through the rearview mirror one last time before getting out of the car.

Relena opened her own door and quickly exited, before pulling open the back passenger side door for Heero. She wanted to be there to help him if he required it, and she suspected he would. Slowly, and with obvious stiffness, Heero got his feet onto the ground and pulled himself out of the car, with a hand on the door Relena held firm.

He breathed sharply through his nose as he straightened up before Relena, and she could see him him wince, though he was doing his best to hide it. Without thinking Relena found herself slipping his left arm across her shoulders again. Heero's eyes met hers, and they regarded her carefully. There was none of the openness she'd briefly witnessed in the car. Now his face only showed the physical pain he was trying to conceal, but at that time she'd seen the emotional.

She felt herself shiver slightly under the weight of that gaze, but found the corners of her lips tipping up in what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Relena shifted her hold on his wrist, and tried to find a safe spot around Heero's waist to help support him, but it was a little more difficult without the belt loop.

As Heero's weight settled across her shoulders and he turned his head back towards their destination, Relena realized he hadn't stiffened at her touch. He was by no means relaxed, but he was clearly willing to accept her assistance in this. Together they followed Sally towards the front door of the cottage and Wufei who waited there.

Wufei stepped outside of the cottage as Sally came up the few steps to the front porch. He accepted the hand the doctor extended to him, though the vast majority of Wufei's grim attention still seemed focused on Relena, but more likely on Heero whom she was slowly helping up the steps. They took them together, one at a time, Heero unable to keep himself from grunting at the effort moving took.

"Take him down the hall," Wufei said in a smooth voice as they made it to the landing just before the door. "First door on your left," he added, his onyx eyes sweeping past them to look more fully at Sally.

"Thank you," Relena said softly as they stepped inside the cottage. Her attention swept back to Heero's face as they slowly limped along. His eyes were tight with pain, his jaw appearing clenched, and his breaths came as slight grunts, especially when he had to move his right leg.

Eyes flashing about the cottage quickly, Relena saw the hallway. "Just a little bit further," she encouraged, seeing his lips compress into a tight line before he tipped his head in a slight nod.

As they moved deeper into the cottage, Relena couldn't help but note the unique aesthetic of Wufei's home. It was a warm mix of rustic charm, brought out by the stacked log walls and hand hewn boards, and decorated with the delicate lines of oriental art on the shelves and furniture pieces.

Relena felt like breathing a sigh of relief as they made it to the first door down the hallway. The room beyond wasn't large, but then it didn't need to be. There was a dresser off to the left of the door and a double bed across the room beneath a large window. A nightstand and a couple of chairs at the foot of the bed were all crafted out of what Relena thought might have been bamboo.

They made their way over to the bed, and Relena helped—as best she could—Heero ease himself down on the edge. His eyes closed for a moment, and he appeared to take a couple of slower breaths. "Don't have time for this..." he muttered as he pulled his left hand down his sweaty face.

Relena crouched in front of him, "You need to rest," she told him softly, as her fingers went to work untying the laces of his shoes.

"You're in danger," Heero said, his voice tired. Relena looked up into his eyes, and while they appeared unfocused, they'd lost none of their burning intensity.

Slipping his left foot free of the shoe, Relena glanced up at Heero's face before moving onto his right foot. "You'll be safe here," she wanted to reassure him, unable to miss the tense way he was holding himself.

"Might as well offer to steal the stars for him, while you're at it," Wufei's cool voice said from behind Relena. She looked back over her shoulder as the Chinese man and Sally stepped inside the guest room. Wufei's expression was no less grim than when they'd just pulled up. Sally's mirrored his to a lesser degree from where she stood beside him, their arms lightly touching.

Heero shifted, drawing Relena's attention back to him, and she quickly removed his second shoe. He pulled himself a little straighter on the edge of the bed, his eyes looking to Wufei with a weary light. Clearly Heero was unconvinced he could trust this man.

The tension which was building in the room was shattered by Sally's voice as she stepped deeper into the room. "Don't mind him," she said with a sigh, "he's just grumpy I'm not here alone." Sally sent a smile and a wink in Wufei's direction, and Relena thought the other man almost choked at her words.

Heero tensed in front of Relena as Sally came close, entering his personal space. The doctor gently motioned Relena to move aside, as she reached into a pocket producing a penlight. Sally reached for Heero's chin and he tried to lean away, but there was nowhere for him to go that didn't cause him further pain. "How are you feeling?" Sally asked, either not noticing or not caring about the glare he directed her way.

"Need to keep moving," Heero said around a hiss as Sally flashed the light across his eyes.

The doctor made a sound in the back of her throat, and Relena thought she heard a snort come from Wufei behind her. "You're not going anywhere right now," Sally told him bluntly, sweeping the light across his eyes again a little more slowly. "Do you have a headache?" she asked then, slipping the light away while the fingers of her right hand remained on Heero's neck. "Do you feel at all sick?"

Heero eyed Sally with a guarded expression, but he ultimately tipped his chin just a fraction in answer to her questions. That had Relena looking at Heero's face more closely, his complexion was pale, his skin clammy with sweat, and she could see a slight greenish cast to him that she hadn't noticed before.

Sally nodded as though she'd expected nothing less, and the fingers of her hands began quickly searching through Heero's still somewhat dusty hair. Relena saw Heero flinch just a fraction, as Sally's probing digits reached a spot near the back of his head. Sally tipped his head forward and parted the hair to get a better look in the light from the overhead fixture. "Yeah," she said, sounding a little like she was talking to herself, "that's a good sized lump."

She drew Heero's head back up, her fingers remaining for a moment on his carotid arteries, gauging his pulse for a moment. "Good thing is, I don't think it's a serious concussion," Sally announced looking directly into Heero's eyes for a moment before she finally released him. "You were lucid enough in the car," the doctor said with a slight shudder, and Relena found herself wanting to do the same.

"We'll keep an eye on it," Sally said firmly, before standing a little straighter and looking down at her reluctant patient. "Now lie down." Her voice was as authoritative as it had been in the car, and Relena was again surprised when Heero moved to obey.

Relena shook herself into action, and quickly moved to pull back the blankets of the bed, as Heero stood just long enough to stiffly climb onto the mattress. She heard him sigh in frustration as he reluctantly was forced to settle on his stomach. He kept his head turned towards the rest of the room, and perhaps more importantly—Relena felt—the door.

Pulling the blankets up his body, Relena lightly lowered them down over his shoulders, and came to stand near his head. She felt strangely protective of this mysterious man, whom only a day or so before she'd imagined herself falling in love with, while knowing nothing about him. Knowing precious little now, Relena felt her stomach twist at the very thought. Sally's hand coming to rest on her shoulder made Relena jump as she looked up at her friend.

"C'mon," Sally said to her softly, "you've been through a lot today too, you need to rest."

Relena shook her head, her eyes turning back to Heero's face. He lay there, under the covers but clearly not relaxed, his eyes watching her intently. "I'm going to sit with him for a bit," she heard herself say before she'd even realized the idea had formed in her head.

Sally looked at her for a moment, her mouth held as though an order was right on the tip of her tongue. But as the doctor's eyes flickered down to the bed for a brief moment, she finally nodded her head. "There's another spare room across the hall," she said, before turning towards the door and Wufei. Sally reached out a hand towards the grim faced man, and he unfolded his arms to twine fingers with hers before leaving the room, with the door opened just a crack.

Turning back towards the bed, Relena carefully lowered herself to the floor near Heero's head, and found herself immediately locked in his intense gaze. Those eyes bore into her, and there was a light of urgency there. "You shouldn't be here..." he said in a soft but fierce voice.

"You shouldn't be alone..." Relena whispered just as fiercely, and was surprised to find her right hand reaching to rest lightly atop his left.

Heero's eyes briefly left hers to look at their hands on the edge of the mattress, and his expression was guarded and difficult to read. "Alone is safer," he said, as dark eyes returned to Relena's face.

"Is it?" she asked, letting her fingers gently grip his, "Or do you just think that because it's all you've ever known?"