He'd told himself again and again that they were two different people, but they still had the same roots. This Evey and the other had grown into vastly contrasting flora, but they'd been the same seedling. He wasn't sure why he needed this Evey to see the truth of that, but he felt the desire to push it upon her until she accepted it.
Yet she wanted him to see that she was a ghost. Hadn't he also referred to her as that in his own head? A phantom? A shell of her former self? She had floated away down his hall to what, he had thought at the time, was to be her death. But here she was again. Helping him live.
His grip on Evey had not broken, or even eased. He clung to her like she was the only thing in the world that could keep him where he was. She was the keystone of Aidan Waite currently.
All ready to argue the point he was trying to make, Aidan's mouth worked around the words he was going to say. Ready to fight and laugh and be a normal man, working toward being human - or as close to it as he would ever come again. She kept talking, there was a pause and he almost spoke into that, but discovered he couldn't - it was too pregnant with anticipation and worry. He felt the hesitation in the tightness of her muscles, just as he felt the softness of her touch on the back of his neck.
She spoke words he had not expected to hear, and somehow they hurt more than anything. It had been a year, and though she had devastated herself with the loss of him, he couldn't truly expect her to discontinue living. Somebody had broken through the barrier she had erected with the name of loss upon it, and she... loved him.
Aidan couldn't bring himself to be mad at her, but he was hurt. Not betrayed, for she had not done anything against him. She had thought him dead, and she had eventually moved on. He supposed that this man was here, now, or she would not be telling him. He reminded himself that he had not lost Evey, for he had her. It just was not this Evey.
Still, he dropped his hands from her and sat back, his chest feeling as if it had been the recipient of a high caliber bullet. He couldn't look at her, had no idea what to say. All of this, she had done, knowing what she was going to tell him. All of this risk she had put herself in, and she didn't even love him. He didn't deserve that much.