Her feet moved across his eyeline again and again, and still he didn't look up at her. His gaze had fallen during her silence after her question, Aidan didn't know if he could muster the strength to bring it up again.
He looked firmly at her toes as she spoke again, knowing the truth in what she said. Evey - both of them - deserved much more than what he was presenting right now. She deserved somebody who wouldn't lose his mind and kill an unknown number of people because he was hurt and depressed and drank too much. She deserved somebody who didn't have the history he did.
"I'm not." He said softly, the dam breaking and his sadness pouring out. "I try to be, but I'm not. This should prove that."
Aidan glanced up to look her in the eye, but only made it so far as he shoulder. The gentle fabric of the blouse she was wearing laying so softly upon the shoulder that had obviously known hard work, the skin that was more than just gently kissed by the sun, the tightness of her muscles underneath - due to strength and tension. It was still Evey. If he had found this version of her first, he would love her as fully as he loved the other. He knew the only thing standing in the way of an all-encompassing love was that other. The one that he had truly been parted from. The one who was from the same time and place he was from.
"It's all I've wanted." Aidan's voice was small. "It's all I've tried to do since we got here. To be in the moment with her. To live every precious second in love with her and letting her know. When I found you... I had no idea ... seeing you as you are... as you were ... hurt."
He was far from blaming her for what he'd done. No, he was blaming himself. And any Evey that knew him at all would know that fact very well. Aidan took responsibility for the horrors he was a part of, the whole of it.