"It may be," Alex spoke softly, and she sighed again, before cuddling closer to him, because yes he may be sick, but right now it felt like he needed to be cuddled. Cuddled and held and just helped to keep everything else away. "But you still deserve more." There was no doubt that she meant it, and she wondered not for the first time and certainly not for the last how the two of them had ended up in Geneva with things finally on the table between them.

She hoped that it had come about the right way, and the best way and that in doing it she hadn't chased him away and needed for him to come back. Of course, that was how he did things sometimes so she couldn't be too angry about it. At least not when things were settled.

"Whatever else, Richard," her voice was a little whisper in the darkness. "I love you, and have loved you for a long time and nothing else is going to change it. If you don't feel secure in anything else, you can feel secure in that." Maybe that could be a kind of armor to help when his suit came off.