Why was it that her legs wrapped around him made him tingle and not want to put her down at all? Because heâ€™d been lonely, that was all. Because without the chimp he could finally know how lonely he actually was. Because she was a distraction from that.<br/><br/>For the barest instant, hardly noticeable, he fumbled for the right answer. No, he realized, he didnâ€™t want her to die. He hadnâ€™t really wanted her to die in the first place, but had accepted it as necessary.<span style="font-weight: bold">And why not? There was even someone elseâ€™s blood on her clothes, Quen. Yes, but that could have been from anything. It was only a little and only the bottom hem of one pant leg. That was hardly damning, was it? It didnâ€™t have to have anything to do with her at all. </span><br/><br/>Then there was the sudden awareness of how close they were. She was making him stupid. Sheâ€™d been doing it this entire time. Probably on purpose just to make him let her go.<br/><br/>But if he was already acting like a fool, why not keep doing it? And she hadnâ€™t stopped him, hadnâ€™t protested, and in fact had told him to try harder. Even if that hadnâ€™t been exactly what she was referring to.<br/><br/>He pressed a kiss upon her that was both more insistent and tentative than the last, and far less taunting.<br/><br/>â€œI donâ€™t believe youâ€™re a bad person Zilah. But you made your choices. We all make our choices. We have to live or die with the consequences. You knew what they would be. Donâ€™t try to tell me you didnâ€™t know.â€ Quen didnâ€™t look away, but he did set her down properly and start peeling the suit further from the glue and bloody gash, as carefully as he could. â€œâ€¦Tell me everything. Give me what you took; tell me who has everything else and how you got it.â€<br/><br/>If there wasnâ€™t a market, things wouldnâ€™t be stolen. Quen knew that too. While that fact didnâ€™t excuse her, if he could only take away that market then she wouldnâ€™t have a reason to steal what she did. â€œI canâ€™t go back with nothing and you wonâ€™t live much longer with it all still missing.â€ He wasnâ€™t surprised overly much to learn that she had stolen something and had it with her. It had been a safe bet that was exactly what the encryption had been hiding, but he couldnâ€™t open a lock that he couldnâ€™t even find.<br/><br/>â€œI would like to let you go, Zilah.â€ What a hard thing that was for him to admit. He couldnâ€™t stand how near they were to each other anymore and backed away, taking the suit with in his pretence of turning his back to her to find a needle.