For a moment, Stephen looked utterly lost while Christine was hugging him. When they had parted ways, he hoped to spare her, even when he needed her help. More than once. It was supposed to be a clean break, no strings attached. And now? Now there was a string. While her heart had done a weird flip flop, his felt the tug of that string enough to finally, gradually put his arms around her.
It probably didn't help matters that the cape wrapped around them both, to the point that Christine was entirely covered by it.
"Let's not right now," Stephen curtly said aloud. The cape stopped hugging them both, and drooped down into simply being a cape again. Just like a scolded puppy would.
He cleared his throat and looked down at her, unsure if he should stop hugging first or wait until she wanted to. Since he was putting through this fresh hell, it was probably better to do that comfort thing he had never been great at.
"Uhh...this is going to take a while to explain. When does your shift start?"