"Do you think I've just spent more than thirty-six hours without sleeping just to hang around here and joke? Do you really think that?"
I looked at the crimson corners in his eyes, at the thin, almost invisible rosy branches reaching out to his emerald irises. A dull glow of fatigue glazed in them, turning those two lush forests into frozen leaves. I turned my head away, shame wrapping me in a cocoon of guilt. Ian was in no better condition than I was. We both looked like shabby automatons in need of a new set of mechanical parts.
He'd done a great deal for us in the last forty hours. I still hadn't forgotten how he'd helped to still my screams after the paramedics had taken Buffy away. His arms had enfolded me, surrounded my quivering body with warm promises of peace and serenity. I cou
