"But not always," River said softly. "Sometimes cats just stay dead." She looked up at the sky. "I was taking graduate classes and I was bored. It wasn't stimulating. Physics was the only remotely challenging class. And a man told me I was special. More than the rest. Because it wasn't just...it's not about being smart. Not just...I knew things. People. I'm good at people. At knowing. Seeing what's hidden. Inside. The secrets that dwell in souls and hearts. He said I was special. He wanted to help me. I was thirteen." Thirteen and finding graduate school boring. River was on her own level.
"He would have loved you," she said, reaching a hand up and trailing it along the side of Topher's face. "I'm glad he never knew you." She paused a moment and looked away. "I stabbed him in the throat with a pen. He wouldn't quit. He never quit and it hurt and it needed to stop. So I stopped it." She looked up at him. "We're not innocent, are we? We never could be. Never had a chance." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I want to be better. I want to be someone you can want."
"Of course," she said, "you can look and see. You can. Because...you can because...because...I'm yours. Because you have all of me. Anything you want." And she meant it. And she leaned up and pressed her mouth to his, because she meant it, and because she wanted to give him a piece of her...and because she wanted a piece of him too.