That Carolina was uncomfortable was an understatement, because while she knew that York was not lying, what he had to say didn't match any of her life's experience. What was (apparently) normal for other people had never been so for her, and it was hard, so very very hard, to remove yourself from that. And being stuck here, in this dream, meant she couldn't finish what was started anyway. So close, and yet..

And yet, did it really matter, in the end, that they had cared -- love had been the word he'd used, and Lord knows she wasn't sure she really wanted to look closely at that when she didn't know what she felt -- when almost all her friends were three years dead?

So she didn't answer him, hand still on his arm and not really seeing what York wanted her to see. Not when her shoulders were already bowed by the weight of responsilities she'd taken on because no one else would. And because there was no one else to do so.

She hadn't meant to make this about her, not when he'd just wanted answers about their future.