Smiling a more genuine smile than she should've been able to, Rae shrugged. "I'll talk to you in a couple of weeks and see if you regret saying that or not," she stuck her tongue out, a little bit of normal Rae showing its way through. "Don't worry about that. It's definitely true."
After a short laugh, she shook her head. "It was a rhetorical question," she pointed out seriously. "I'm trying... to be normal. I'm alive, and you're here... and I'm lucky, so..." she let that thought trail away. "You're doing better at saving me than anyone else ever could, believe me on that one. There's no one else I'd rather have rush to my rescue." Someday, they needed to sit and talk about all these worries and insecurities they had. Rae would love Elliot no matter what. And he was still far more positive than anyone else she knew nowadays. Being with him was when her happy side shone through the most. As far as she was concerned, he was still the man she fell in love with, just braver. And more weathered.
She chuckled again. "I always thought we balanced each other out," she mused. "Even back at the Carnegie days. Just gotten stronger now, I guess, hm?" she said softly.
"Aw, so the tea party with the pink tablecloth is out of the question, then?" A joke, another attempt to be her normal self and show both him and herself that she could be okay. That she would be okay. "Can we eat lunch on the pink tablecloth then? Without the tea?"
She turned back to him and shrugged. "Maybe it doesn't have to, but I think it should," she told him. "As someone who's sort of been there, you know? And someone who knows Marigold a little better than her brother or sisters do." She could tell Leah some of the things Marigold liked and didn't like. "It won't take long, I don't think. Just... long enough to give her the basics about what I know and what she likes. Or... maybe not what she likes..." she trailed off, looking down at her hands.
"Well, I wasn't going to say so, but I wouldn't object to an eighteen day sleep." One side of her mouth turned up to grin softly at him.