<blockquote><div><cite>Dream Evil wrote:</cite>All at once, just like that, the doubt was gone.  The fear of tomorrow was gone and even the dark clouds that rolled by ceased to carry him away with them.  When the kiss broke off, his first instinct was to look at his feet, which he did for a moment before he looked up and a smile crossed his stubble-marked face.<br/>&amp;quot;Thank you,&amp;quot; he said softly as he clasped her hands in his feeling a seldom felt warmth coming from them.  Seldom, not from her, but the sensation of warmth and care that his mentors and trainers had absconded in the name of strength.<br/><br/>His own hands were thickly callused from years of slinging guns and his heart was equally callused from the result of each and every draw.  Though even he could see how much it had softened.  Maybe one day he would not be a killer anymore; the skies didn't look so dark anymore.  The end would come he was sure of it, the means were an entirely different story.</div></blockquote>