Rory was trying to fix things. Not pretend, but actually do it. She was working on herself, on patching up the damage she'd left in the wake of her capture and eventual return. There were a lot of things she should've done and said, but now she just had to come to terms with the fact that she couldn't go back. Her only real option was to apologize and finally, finally, move forward again.
And that wasn't easy. It wasn't easy staying away from the infirmary, it wasn't easy hearing her son cry out almost every night, and it wasn't easy knowing that Finn wasn't accepting her apology. Knowing that her words had been too little, too late as far as he was concerned. But she couldn't change any of it. And so she tried to move past it.
Another thing that wasn't easy.
When the man appeared in front of her, Rory was genuinely surprised and it showed. She had no real mask to hide behind, no curtain of composure. Because, as Brandon had put it, she wasn't helping anyone by lying about her feelings, especially not herself. If she wanted to get over this, she had to be honest about it. Not that honesty had done her much good with Finn. That still felt every bit as devastating as it had that night outside of Finn's place, with him waving a nail gun and her holding herself and trying not to crack.
She didn't reply immediately, not until she heard him say please. That grabbed her attention, surprised her even more than his appearance had. Taking a breath, Rory lowered her fork and gave a nod, pushing out her chair to stand. "Yeah...okay," she said quietly. "Where?"