He sighed and shook his head smiling a little bit "I should have known that stuff wouldn't die so easily."  He looked at her and smiled reassuringly. "Yes and no," he said, "My wife, Clara, and our daughter, Aurora, were killed in the attack on New York.  At the time I was flying a plane cross country for Delta Airlines.  When I heard what happened I hurried back as fast as I could hoping that we were in a rural enough area that the attack, which concentrated mainly on Manhattan."  He looked back out the front window as he got sucked into the story. "When I arrived home...well there was no home...everything was flattened.  I hoped maybe they had heard what was going on and gotten out but forensic research proved otherwise.  I threw myself into the army determined not to let that happen to anyone else.  I trained harder than everyone else pushing myself so hard I lost sight of everything else pushing until I was given a ship. I made friends and the pain began to lessen I let myself build relationships with people again, friends, then I lost the best one I had made.  The only one I trusted as much as I had trusted my family and it put me back to square one."  He took a deep breath, "anyway long story short there has simply been no woman who has piqued my interest that way since Clara..though I know Mia would be a willing candidate..." He left out how she had piqued his interest with her love of machinery and her calmness under fire.  How he had admired her courage and her thirst for knowledge...that would not be appropriate conversation, "It still gets lonely sometimes...but I manage.  What of you? Everyone has a story."