"Regret is more complicated than yes or no," Sam said, staring into his chest as she said it. She couldn't go deeper into what she was. It was too exhausting telling the most basic truths. Thinking about the Great Experiment closed up her throat.

For a moment, anyway.

Then she shook a few curls behind her shoulder and looked up again. "I don't regret being alive. Just some of the things that came with it. But being...what I am...is a package deal. You don't get to pick and choose."

She reached out, running her fingers through his hair. Absently at first. Then slower, with more purpose, as she realized what she was doing.

What was she doing?

"What about you?" she asked. "Do you have room for regret for the choices you made?"