Tears filled Heather's eyes and she quickly wiped them away before they could fall. "Did Ray have to go through that too?"
Alex wasn't sure what the tears were for. Was that something worth getting upset about?
"The program may have changed in the time he was gone but I assume so. I don't understand…why are you crying?"
Heather wrapped her arms around him and he wondered if this was a sympathy hug. No other kind he could think of would fit the context of the situation. It was entirely possible that she thought poison training was bad.
"Because they did a terrible thing to you and it breaks my heart thinking that it might have happened to the man I love too," she said softly. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that, Alex."
"Breaks your heart?" he asked in confusion. He had never heard of that phrase before.
"It means that something makes you very, very sad."
