He reached out, caressing her cheek with the back of his hand, eyes open just enough to be able to watch her lying there. Not for the first time, he thought about how beautiful she was; as if all that made her who she was seemed to radiate out of her like a shining halo. Unlike him, a man who kept everything shrouded in an armor that he could never truly remove. The shadow of a man who once was.

"I do." The answer is soft but honest. He trusts her, feels secure with her, and for the first time in longer then he can remember, feels as if he's home. "Alex," He said her name quietly. It was the fragment of what he wanted to say. Of the millions of things that he couldn't adequately convey to her. An irony, for a man like him.

She was the only one who could convince him not to go headlong into what he knew was a trap set by Thomas Warren. She was the only person he trusted without question, even if he refused to believe the existence of the supernatural, even in her Black Tape.

The bedsheets rustled as he moved to rest his head against hers. It's all he can do to say it, the words that have been struggling against his thoughts. What he's still not sure he should say because of the time she's missing. "I love you."