Lasha was taken aback for a second time.

"What? Christ no, I wasn't thinking of that at all, actually-"

In retrospect, he wondered why he wasn't.

He laughed, suddenly, at the absurdity of it all. He was slightly buzzed and he knew it, but it hardly mattered, here in his own quarters.

"No," he said, sobering, holding up a hand, "truly. I've been thinking about her, about what happened. And I began to wonder- what regrets would bring a man, or a woman- back to this world?"

This last he said softly, as he remembered his mother's cold touch on his fevered brow.