"Think nothing of it. I want to see you happy, more than anything else, and I wouldn't mind seeing Jean-Luc happy either. The two of you have become close friends of my own. It's been a long time since I've let anyone become close to me."

It was easier, in Helen's opinion, to keep people at arms' length. It made things more simple to compartmentalize, to box grief away when they inevitably died and she outlived them yet again. In this place, though, she'd not allowed herself to do that either by subconscious choice or by accident and she felt like her life had become a bit richer for it.