Maybe Alex couldn't keep her promise here, at least not in the outside of their apartment anyway, but if someone wanted to hurt him while he was sleeping, they were going to need to go through her first. Yes, Alex's empathy was a huge part of her, but there was a selfish reason in it as well. The six months that she'd been here when he hadn't had given her something that she'd needed: perspective. Each time they'd been apart before (other than Turkey, which was her doing) he had left without a word, and she had used that time to be angry or upset at him in alternating terms depending on how her day was going and how much she missed him. But here where the decision was out of her hands, she knew that it might just kill her if something happened to him. It would be why she'd ask him to runaway with her, and it would be why if she needed to, she'd shove him out of the way if Warren tried anything.

Riverview Quarantine may not be under Warren's control (at least not how Richard thought it was) but that protection was something that she was going to extend to him here anyway. God help any monsters who tried to harm him, be they human or not.

Her fingers kept stroking the skin on his cheek, and she frowned at him from the otherside of the pillow, with a long sigh. "You're such a stubborn ass, Richard. I know you have reason to be, but I'd wish you let me actually help you with more than just the damned tapes."