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She laughed, but it was a hollow sound, not as full and rich as an innocent young girl might have produced. Caillen was beginning to adjust to this - This cynical, beautiful, damaged creature, with her shadowed eyes and her dark laughter. Talitha was broken, in ways that Caillen would never understand, but always attempt to fix. It was in his nature to try to right the wrongs that had been done, lest one fall from his own hand; the danger of that plagued him always.
It was why he treated her like porcelain, like something unspeakably precious - Because she was, regardless of whether she knew it or not.
Her gaze departed from his, and the words that came forth were words he'd expected. For all his ignorance and bulk, Caillen was not stupid - He knew a secret-keeper when he saw one, and the injured woman in front of him was surely full of horrible things kept only to herself. What a burden the weight of those stories, those memories, must be - His ice blue eyes fixed on her absent stare, ever-patient, ever-waiting. The words could come from her alone, only when she wished for him to hear them.
The story unravelled, and he listened in silence still, face betraying no emotion. But clearly she had been dropped and shattered before; Tali slipped her touch from his arm and removed herself, putting a defensive space between them. For a moment, the remnants of her words hung in the air between them, a barrier, a barricade.
"I understand if you'd like me to go,"
He felt the bitterness of those words. What an intoxicating Fae she was, to be able to spurn him and fool him, to twist him inside in such a short time that even now he felt the need, the desire, to prove to her his worthiness. Only she could fix herself, but at that moment Caillen, wise beyond his years in the way of wounded women, would have given anything to show her that he wanted to assist in that process. A single hand reached for the warmth of her skin, wanting to pull her gently back toward him, if she would allow it.
"Words, Talitha," Came the accented baritone swell, softened by empathy, "I dinnae care for your family. Their lives flow around mine - Only you are the ripple, Lady. I do nae care if you are the spawn of satan and a snake!" It was a mirthful attempt, hindered by the note of frustration in his voice, "You are... You are you. You are nae the ones who hae come before you. Blood is only as thick as ye allow it tae be."
He wanted to pull her back into his warmth. She looked cold, on the inside and the outside. "I do nae want you tae go."
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