Kitty didn't know what to think he he agreed he'd never have told her. If it meant keeping them away from you, then yes... When was ANYONE ever going to realize she didn't like being coddled? Maybe when she stepped up and stopped letting them, an unpleasantly sarcastic voice inside her suggested.
"Where are you going?" She demanded, knowing he would turn to go before he even moved. Kitty took a few steps forward but stopped short, "Pete?"
"You're just about the last person I ever expected to see again," Her voice sounded miles stronger than she felt. It was her turn to get confessional and she didn't care if she had to speak to his back for him to hear it, "I thought you'd just ditched me because you got sick of me, or you were going home to your wife, or I don't know what. And I hated you for a long time. But then when everything fell apart, I--"
Despite her confident tone, her eyes blazing with anger, at herself and at him and at the whole world for screwing itself up so badly.
"I couldn't hate you when I'd only ever started to stop caring about you." Kitty looked at him, troubled and as young-looking as anyone ever thought of her as being, "I can't hate you. I can't want you to be anything but safe. And here."
There it was, her pure heart showing its true colors despite the beating it had taken in the past week.