"It ain't rocket science," comes out harsher than he means it, because people always ask him that and then don't like his answer, and it's a horrible sort of whiplash to swing from only just being sure of her again to being equally sure he'll lose her. Any second now.

(And isn't that better for her anyway, to keep away from someone like him?)

And yet. His breathing comes heavier, his weight shifting from foot to foot again, and he adds, "I just know, alright. I'm a Recon Marine, I do recon. People talk. Half the shit bricks in Hell's Kitchen have got rap sheets a mile long."