"I didnae say that," Sean emphatically denies, stepping in close to her, eager for whatever connection he can make until they fix this. "This has been everythin' t'me, ye know it has." And he knows that. It's such a small thing, so simple to overlook, the easy assurance that she gets it, gets him, and will love him to the ends of the Earth anyway, that he only realizes how gaping a hole it left now that it's back. It's a wonder that he's been able to smile at all, these past few weeks. He knows that he should feel guilty as all sin that there was room for him to doubt it at all, but mostly, he's just relieved.

"It was jus' a lot t' take in, is all, an' ye gave me a shock, an' I... I wondered f'r a time if the rest of't would always be enough. An' I was wrong to, I know that now." She wouldn't be fighting him so hard on this if there was even a chance of his losing her. "I jus'... needed ta work that out, apparently."

He'd better still remember it in the morning.