"Very generous of you," he says dryly. She's right about the rest of it. It happened as it was meant to. He settles her in his arms. The position is now second nature and difficult to imagine any other way. Funny how that happens when one least expects it.

"I think there's value in creating security for ourselves where we can. This is one thing we at least know the city respects absolutely." It's also unlikely to be altered in any way after the fact.

"One thing about which it's futile to dwell. A true exercise in borrowing tomorrow's trouble for today." He's morbid at times and prone to bouts of brooding, so he doesn't always take his own advice. He tries.

"My gratitude for this, for you, knows no bounds. It makes the vagaries of this place worth it." Since this is the only way they can have one another, the only place it would ever have been possible.