The Past, Present and Future

Zora nodded quietly and just took Broen's hand as he spoke and squeezed it lightly, wanting to comfort him but not make a big deal out of it either. It was horrible what had happened to him, Crawford was as bad as she had suspected, and basically, she just felt bad for Broen. Bad that he had had to experience all of that.

"And your mother?" she asked him gently, "You mentioned once that your last name is hers, no?" Zora said unsure of the exact conversation, but he had mentioned changing his name when he worked for her.

"Come, sit down with me on the couch," she said gesturing to the sectional. She felt odd standing up talking about this.

Zora didn't know what to say, and so said nothing for a while just stroking Broen's hand comfortingly. It was terrible what he had been through, and part of her wished that she had never asked, and yet she knew that living as an ostrich was not a good thing either. And so, crossing her leg under her, she moved a tad closer as they talked.

"I wish things had been different for you," Zora told him quietly as she brought his hand to her lips and lightly kissed his knuckles. "And for your mother too. She didn't deserve that," she added quite truthfully. She knew what things could be like.

"My own mother died about a year before I had Jeremiah. My father was horrible to her too, abusive, dismissive, just borderline cruel..." she told Broen with a sad look. "He was a sick man, and I'm afraid the apple did fall far from the tree," she sighed heavily as she stared past Broen at the wall behind him, now thinking about Tomas, and began to see that he was exactly like their father had been.

"It's not pity," Zora said with a shake of her head, at least she didn't see it as such, "Pity is me feeling sorry for you," she said, "I am not feeling sorry for you, I simply wish you had never had to go through that. It is, more like, empathy, knowing how difficult it was and not wanting another to go through it because you know what it feels like," she stated truthfully.

Leaning her head against Broen's, Zora laughed softly and sort of bitterly, "I wouldn't say that. In the end, I was the one who ended up on a cliff, not you, so I'm not too sure about the whole handling this better bit," she admitted.

Squeezing his hand when he took it, Zora looked sideways at Broen extremely surprised to hear him admit to, well, basically thinking about killing himself. Something that struck home in the weirdest way, but which she understood surprisingly... simply because she had been there, except, the thought of leaving Jeremiah motherless as well as hurting Broen and her aunt, had kept her from doing such a thing.

"Dying is not the issue. It never is..," she told him softly, "Not really, it's a moment of pain ... maybe, and then you are gone," she reflected. "It's those left behind," she agreed. "They are the ones hurt the most."

"And I can't do that to others, besides, I do enjoy life..." she said with a soft laugh, "I enjoy making people happy, experiencing new things, eating good food, making love, being in love..." she admitted with a sigh, "Like I said, I don't want to die, not yet anyway... though it does scare me a little that I am immortal, and those around me will eventually die and leave me alone," she told him, admitting for the first to anyone that fear of hers.

"Well, this "option"," Zora said as she lightly bumped against him playfully, "Would greatly appreciate it if you held off on those thoughts, for like, I dunno... a few decades maybe," she joked.

"Joking aside, I kind of do understand," Zora admitted, "And truthfully, I don't think you are more fucked up than most, you are just a bit more honest about what you really think about those things," she said kissing him softly on the cheek.