The fact that Sadie's hands remained in his, that she smiled rather than pull away, Jeremy took as a good sign. Or at least that he wasn't the problem. But what else was it? She had been ill, had something happened? Worry knotted his gut.

It was complicated? Jeremy's brow furrowed, his mind swimming with possibilities. Just what had happened. But then... everything changed. Or rather it didn't, but Sadie didn't. He blinked, thinking that Sadie would be before him when he opened his eyes again, but instead it was someone else entirely who sat there with her hands held in his now slack ones. What? Who? His brain couldn't process what he was seeing, or rather it could, but not what she meant to tell him.

Then her voice floated to him, her voice, Sadie's voice, was hidden in it. His mind jumped to possibilities, but he tried not to consider them. He'd promised Sadie he'd give her a chance to explain. He let her hands fall and backed up, his hand swept across his jaw as it did when he was thinking. The back of his knees hit a chair and he found himself folding down into it, sitting before her. "I think-" He started in a shaking breathe. "You ought to explain, a bit more." Because he could hear his Sadie in that voice and he owed it to her to know everything before he reacted.