Surprise registered on Mary's face at the touch. There was something very different about this Johnny. She did her best to mask that just as quickly as it appeared. She didn't want to draw too much attention to that brief touch, or to make him feel self-conscious about it.
It was interesting to her-the way that they both couldn't help those little touches here and there. On her end, it made sense in a lot of ways. But the Johnny of her time had been more hands-off in the beginning. Then again, this whole situation was different from that. All the same, it was still a surprise that he'd let her in as much as he did.
"Well in that case, I'm glad I could be here to help," she said.
She thought that the Johnny of her time must have been forced to slowly realize just how deep this went as the years passed and he didn't age a bit. She couldn't help but wonder when he'd made the decision to drop out of her mom's life. Couldn't help but wonder how much it would have hurt to just leave a friend behind like that and go back to the solitary life. For that, she was glad that he didn't have to go through the revelations alone. Of course, it made her wish that the Johnny who had shared everything else with her would have chosen to share this last secret with her as well. But there was no use in dwelling when her chances of returning to her time, and having everyone in that time unchanged by this extended trip to the past, were looking slimmer and slimmer.