Though her exterior was cool, calm, collected, she'd been standing there, ready and waiting to snipe in with some biting comment when the right moment struck. Despite what she'd said, as her anger started to rise, she was quickly losing the desire and the patience to hear him out. There would be excuses, things hardly worth wasting her time hearing, things that wouldn't help her at all....

But hearing that unsaid implication, that weight in his apology, was like a punch to the gut, and it caused her to pause, her mouth opening and then closing again. Somehow, she could feel the sincerity lurking behind those words, and it was oddly similar to being caught under his honest gaze, the one that seemed to see straight through her when nothing else did. Like back then, it almost compelled her to listen. Maybe to believe him.

.... And she had no idea what to do with it.

For the second time in recent memory, she had been rendered speechless.