The second the question left Dani’s mouth, she knew Max would choose the hero. During all the time that she’d known him, he’d wanted to do good, to help people. At times it apparently led him into trouble, like gambling to pay his mother’s medical bills, but sometimes it worked. She had seen for herself what a comfort to his mother his presence had been as he stayed by her side every moment they were at the UMCB. The list of things he’d done during that time for Dani herself still held, too, despite all that had happened since. She continued to carry the stun gun, for example, even though it hadn't done any good when she needed it most. And they'd even gotten together today because he wanted to beef up the security of her phone. Maybe Max wasn’t some faultless Jedi -- his choice of allies prohibited that, since Luke Skywalker had probably not hung out with drug-dealing thieves and murderers -- but she knew he tried. And, suddenly, that counted for a lot.
It took a moment for Dani to realize she’d let the conversation lapse, and that now she was simply sitting there, looking at Max with a slight frown. Shaking her head to dispel the last of her thoughts, she turned her gaze away, back up at the screen. She'd heard everything he said, but still had to cast her mind back to pick up the thread of the conversation.
“Jenny Gildenhorn, huh? I'm confident when I say you're in better company now, and she's likely in worse.” Probably no longer among the living, in all honesty, but it was a fact that didn't need to be said aloud. There were far too many people from both their pasts that the same could be said for. After just a moment of hesitation, Dani gave in to impulse and reached to lay her hand atop Max’s, giving his fingers a soft squeeze. She grinned. “So suck it, Jenny Gildenhorn.”
Rather than draw her hand back into her lap right away, she left it there for now. “I don’t mind the reminiscing. Being here actually reminds me of the time my dad brought my sisters and me to see Finding Nemo when we were in grade school. Teresa cried when I told her drains don't lead to the ocean at all, but to the water treatment plant. I suppose that says a lot about me, that even at seven I couldn't just let something like that lie.”
The memory had brought a fond smile to her face, despite not shedding a very favorable light on her, and after a moment, Dani made a small sound of amusement. "See? We're both nostalgic today.”