Her explanation is sobering, washing the smirk off his face. He can't help but feel responsible for what had happened, even though that was nuts and he knew it. Still. It made him wonder what he could've done differently. And what had happened to Danielle — that girl he'd liked, who thought he was dead. He knew it was wrong to keep twiddling his thumbs over things like that, but he really didn't know what the right thing to do was. How do you explain Hey, remember that time you saw me get shot in the head and die? I got better! Cool, right? Oh, yeah, uh. My girlfriend from another dimension is back so I'm sorry we can't hang out right now — you're cool with that, too, right?
Yyyeah...He wanted to table that one a bit longer, if he could. Of course he could. That doesn't make it right, though.
For the moment, though, he wanted to think about Abby. He couldn't fix what had happened, but he could make the here and now better. He watched her hands, feeling his chest tighten a little more with the talk. How the hell they'd managed to pick up from all the strain and confusion each time something had gone wrong was unbelievable. The Porter zapping her left and right, the shooting, all of their friends popping in and out just as much as her...
It was amazing they were still talking sanely about something normal. Like a birthday. Like normal people.
He desperately wanted to keep that the way of things. Superheroing was fine — it was something he had to do, the way he saw it, but...But he didn't want it to be his life. He wanted both worlds, really. And he wanted to keep her in it (and the more he wanted that, he feared, the more the Porter would magically catch on and ruin it).
Jaime wasn't going to waffle around on this, at least.
"I have an idea," he said at length, tilting his head to better see her face. "And it's not just going okay and not getting you anything, because a, that's against the rules and b, I'd be crazy to just say okay. So I'm going to have to use my own brain powers and come up with a really good present, and you're not going to laugh if it winds up being horribly corny or lame, yeah?" He tilted his hand to lightly dig a knuckle in her shoulder.
"But other than that...Why not just. Give you free rein of decking out my place?" He squinted a little. That sounded lame aloud. "I mean, if you wanted to stay there. Like when I had the house. Except it's just us, because the apartment's smaller, and..."
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Yyyeah...He wanted to table that one a bit longer, if he could. Of course he could. That doesn't make it right, though.
For the moment, though, he wanted to think about Abby. He couldn't fix what had happened, but he could make the here and now better. He watched her hands, feeling his chest tighten a little more with the talk. How the hell they'd managed to pick up from all the strain and confusion each time something had gone wrong was unbelievable. The Porter zapping her left and right, the shooting, all of their friends popping in and out just as much as her...
It was amazing they were still talking sanely about something normal. Like a birthday. Like normal people.
He desperately wanted to keep that the way of things. Superheroing was fine — it was something he had to do, the way he saw it, but...But he didn't want it to be his life. He wanted both worlds, really. And he wanted to keep her in it (and the more he wanted that, he feared, the more the Porter would magically catch on and ruin it).
Jaime wasn't going to waffle around on this, at least.
"I have an idea," he said at length, tilting his head to better see her face. "And it's not just going okay and not getting you anything, because a, that's against the rules and b, I'd be crazy to just say okay. So I'm going to have to use my own brain powers and come up with a really good present, and you're not going to laugh if it winds up being horribly corny or lame, yeah?" He tilted his hand to lightly dig a knuckle in her shoulder.
"But other than that...Why not just. Give you free rein of decking out my place?" He squinted a little. That sounded lame aloud. "I mean, if you wanted to stay there. Like when I had the house. Except it's just us, because the apartment's smaller, and..."