"Hey." Eve's voice was subdued as she approached Alec at the bar. He didn't say anything as he turned to face her, and she looked down at her shoes in embarrassment. "I'm ready to go," she said, and her voice completely lacked confidence. Alec marveled at the complete change in her. At the beginning of the night, Alec had actually considered going back on his "stay with your own kind" resolution and sleeping with this spitfire. Now that he'd hurt her, she was like a whipped dog: hurt and unable to trust him again. He briefly wondered what she was like in bed. Either she was an animal or she was just as sweet as she was any other time. Vanilla. But it didn't matter. He'd blown it.

Eve turned red. "I mean, if you're not ready then..."

Alec laughed, a guttural expulsion of air, and drank the last of his shot with a jerk of his head. "It's fine," he assured her. Eve turned redder and refused to look at him, so Alec cocked his head to bring his face to her level. She had to look at him, then, with her over-expressive eyes. "It's cool," he said again. "Where's your coat?"

"I didn't bring one," she said.

Outside, the air was brisk, and Eve walked quickly to stay warm. Alec kept pace easily enough and looked sidelong at his charge. Her footsteps seemed to take on an angry pace, as if she could feel him analyze her. He laughed again.

"What?" Eve stopped and glared at Alec. She was transitioning from the hurt stage to the angry stage.

"Has anyone ever told you you're...unique?"

"Has anyone ever told you you're a jerk?" she retorted.

"Yes."

Eve began walking again, less angrily and more slowly. "No."

"No what?"

"No, no-one's ever told me I'm unique. Mostly they say 'eccentric.'"

"Hmm."

"For the record, I think 'unique' is clichéd."

"It usually is, coming from me. I just didn't have a better word than that." It was eerie how accurate Eve was. Being able to read people must be the pay off for being so readable.

They walked the rest of the way to her apartment in silence. Alec checked the room and looked out the window to see if anyone was watching. "Everything looks fine," he said. "Page me if anything seems wrong." He could sense her hesitation and unwillingness to trust him. "Anything," he stressed again. "It's important." She met his gaze and seemed to relent.

"I'll page."

"Promise?"

"I promise I'll page," she said obediently, smiling slightly.

Outside Alec found himself looking up at Eve's window, still smiling without realizing it.