It doesn't surprise her as much as it should. She is too distracted. She has stayed with him since her afternoon visit, and during that time she has decided to tell him about her time at the asylum to entice him to tell her about the incident with Mr. Todd. When he speaks, she knows that it will work.
He says that he wants to tell her something, and she asks him what it is. Everything, he says. She tells him that this is a good idea. She says that she was once in a position just like his. She told the doctors everything, and after she told them everything they helped her, and after they helped her she became a doctor. She tells him that if he tells her everything, she will help him, and he will be able to do whatever he likes someday.
Someday, he repeats, and reaches for her fingers. He squeezes them when she does not pull away.
Then he speaks.
(She likes the asylum. It smells like bleach. It sounds like emptiness. It looks like a hospital. It feels like home.
She likes the pajamas they gave her. She likes her room, and she likes it even more because it is her own. She doesn't like the head doctor's son most of the time because he wanders around and whistles and sometimes peers into her room when he thinks she isn't looking. She does like him sometimes, like when he introduced himself and talked to her and noticed her freckles.
But most of all, she likes the doctors. She knows that one day she will be one of them. She tells them, and they shake their heads at her, but she knows they can be wrong. They were wrong about how strong the lock on her door was.)