The past two days had been an experiment in adjusting to having a tiny roommate. When Leah first claimed her medium-sized office in Building 5, she’d thought it was spacious enough. Now that Marigold was with her, the place seemed tiny and cramped. The few toys and spare clothing she’d bartered for were enough to get her through for a little while, but soon enough Leah knew she’d have to go out into Ossining and scrounge for things. Even without those daunting tasks ahead of her, the past couple days had been busy.
As soon as he said it, Leah realized how it must’ve looked from his point of view. She hadn’t made any attempt to visit him since the night he came back from the raid, and the last conversation they’d had ended in a big argument that had more to do with her insecurities as a parent than anything else. Great way for a girlfriend to show her gratitude to the man who reunited her with the daughter she thought was dead.
Realizing her oversight, Leah had to wonder if their argument had anything to do with this. She nodded and shrugged one shoulder. “Only when she’s sleeping. I kind of like the noise, though.” The laughter, especially. Once Marigold got over her shy phase, she was quick to laugh at everything.
Her gaze followed his to the little blonde lump asleep in the chair. “It still amazes me that she was alive all this time,” she said softly. Leah hadn’t even really thanked him for it, either. Turning her head back to look at him, she added, “The other day, when we were arguing… I didn’t mean to drag you into that. Everyone was telling me to tell her that I’m her mom and I felt like I was being forced into it, so I fought back… and I shouldn’t have done that with you.” She reached up with her free hand to stroke the side of his face. “You brought her back to me and I should’ve been thanking you, instead of yelling at you.” Even if that yelling had occurred over the intranet.
Evan’s expression said it all; he knew what something like this meant. It wasn’t as extreme as a wall collapsing on him, but something had still happened. If Zimmerman hadn’t found him, he might’ve died, and Leah wouldn’t have even known anything had happened until it was too late. That was the part that terrified her the most. Aside from losing him (which would destroy her), learning about the incident too late would make the pain twice as bad. No one had told her about Ben’s death right away. “I wish I could’ve come sooner,” she said, then amended, “That I’d known sooner.” Alghren had said he’d been here at least four hours.
“So the stress of leadership did this to you,” Leah concluded, dropping her gaze when he dropped his. Where had she been during the week Evan had been working nonstop on a plan to get Rory and Alghren back? Adding more to his list of frustrations by abandoning her leadership role, that’s where. Some girlfriend. Maybe that was a mistake on their part, trying to mix leadership roles with a romantic relationship. If one of those failed, inevitably the other one did, too.