He closes the distance and wraps his arms around her tightly. He's shaking. For all his humour and bravado, scenery-chewing grandiosity and insatiable appetites, he's not as strong as he works so hard to appear.

"I... I've missed you," he whispers, his words slightly slurred. "I've had too many thoughts... I can't chase them off any longer. Not when... staring at the future. And I've stared at it... even though it was taken from us."

He pulls back just far enough to look at her. "They... taunted us... me. Us. Showing me a future I cannot have...."