Evey knew herself well enough to know that the warm coursing through her chest was relief when Preston named himself alone. She would have found a way to be happy for him, if he'd come back here to a lover -- but it would have been difficult. What were they to each other? She never did know. Two castaways, perhaps, clinging to the same wreckage, and sometimes clinging together. Sometimes clinging to each other.
That was rather dramatic. Evey had no need for dramatics. But she kept coming back to the word 'adrift' all the same.
"I believe the collective are here," she hazarded. "I left the island a few days ago, but Peter has run into a fair few, himself." Still, it was good to hear that Beauty and Errol were all right. She hadn't heard anything from Peter about them, yet. Then again, she hadn't been listening too hard for anything Peter was saying - Peter, or the other one. Her eyes grew at turns puzzled and dark. "There's another version of me," she said carefully. "A... younger one." Younger. That was a mild way of putting it. She'd only glanced, but she'd recognized herself in Peter's mind - a version of herself before she'd lost Aidan. Aidan. The name still echoed in empty spot in her chest. The wound wasn't raw anymore, but it still ached, had never really healed.
When he asked her the same question, her eyes went round and surprised. For the first time, the ghost of a smile touched her mouth. "Happy?" she asked, as if it were a novelty. And then, remembering that she'd asked him the same, and hoped that he'd say yes, she paused. The smile dropped into something more serious. She could lie to him. It would be easy enough. But she didn't want to. "I'm pleased that the collective is well," she said, honestly enough. "And this City is healthier than any other place I've ever lived in. I can get by easily here. Even London's streets weren't as easy, and it's nothing compared to the world we just left."
Happy. Happy? She let the form of a smile touch her mouth, and this time she knew she was lying - even if it wasn't with words. "This is easy," she said, waving her hand gently in the air. She hoped it was enough for him.