[he sucks in a sharp breath and then looks away, dragging one hand over his mouth]

Ah...

[so there was a reason, then, for that niggling familiarity. he should have known. hadn't he just come from a place where that sort of thing, alternate lives, was the norm? he hadn't been able to see the scars before, but her height, the hair color... of course there was a reason she had reminded him so much of his son. of course there was.]

... I've just done something awful to her, haven't I?