She took a breath, and when his hand fell away from her hair she caught it, squeezing gently. They had had too many painful conversations recently, and she felt drained and a little nuts and she really didn't want to screw up.

"I don't want to wreck this," she said quietly. "It's too important. I just need..." You to be patient with me? To not misunderstand? She couldn't put it in the right words--too much feeling and not enough sleep in the last few day were catching up with her. "A really careful pre-flight?"

Yeah, she had really pushed the limit on that partucular metaphor, but it was what she had to work with right now.