Whatever she was doing, the combination of touch and tone and attentiveness, it took all Peter could do in order to break eye contact. It was overwhelming and he found himself riding a shudder down his spine while he took a large breath and tried to keep his focus despite her asking him to relax. That was a pretty tall order considering what was going on in his living room that very moment; his body was already starting to transform into jelly at just her voice.

His hands came up to her shoulders, not quite gripping but attempting to separate them to give himself space to think. His weight shifted from good foot to injured, using the pain as a clarity point. "I didn't," he said, head shaking against the hand, "say that I stepped on anything. No, it's okay, nothing happened." She was spot on and that was part of the problem, too. How did she know where his mind had gone and what had happened?