[He leaves her on read a little while, not out of any real intention to make her squirm but mostly just because he's trying to think through what he actually thinks about all that. Coming from just about anyone else, he might not have believed the assertion that it wasn't in some way targeted, but — if she'd done it on purpose, she would've expected a bad reaction, wouldn't she have? Knowing what she knows. That doesn't line up with the way she'd actually done it, urgent for a rescue she couldn't have been sure would actually come.]
I'm only surprised. Given what you've seen prior.
[She is, after all, one of the few — one of the only — people aware of that glimpse of his childhood. Of how loaded a concept it is, and why he might be struggling.
But she says she's sorry, and if there's one thing he's learned about Hilda by now, it's that she wouldn't say it twice without meaning it at least once.]
I'm more curious why you ran to me. Was I just the first one you saw?
no subject
I'm only surprised. Given what you've seen prior.
[She is, after all, one of the few — one of the only — people aware of that glimpse of his childhood. Of how loaded a concept it is, and why he might be struggling.
But she says she's sorry, and if there's one thing he's learned about Hilda by now, it's that she wouldn't say it twice without meaning it at least once.]
I'm more curious why you ran to me. Was I just the first one you saw?