This was so not the Maria I knew from before, as a hard edged agent of the Agency!
The Maria from before had never showed emotion. What had changed in her since then?
I watched her hand drift out across space to touch my stomach and then lift upwards toward my chest. Her features were twisted in a sort of grim anguish, as if she was feeling the remembered pain of the scars that I was covered in. Then to my sudden startlement I realized that in a small way, even unknown to her it would seem, that she was accessing my memories!
How was she doing that?
She wasn't seeing specific memory, but instead just remembered emotion. Painful emotion.
I swallowed and captured her wondering hand, as my mind lit up at the possibilities of her having such a gift. Was it a gift or had something been Divinely imparted to her?
Did she have this ability with everyone or just me?
Her eyes rose to mine and I said, "Maria the pain was felt once, but now it's over and done with so don't dredge it back up."
She glanced back down her eyes still silently crying.
Her free hand came up and touched one of my bullet hole scars, "This one had to hit your liver!" She said incredulously.
"Went straight through it actually. It was very painful and hard to recover from."
"Impossible to recover from!" She exclaimed searching my eyes deeply, even as unbelievably I felt her thoughts begin to probe into mine.
"Maria I am not immortal. I can die. I've been blessed not too time and time again, but I am as fully human as anyone else alive today is. My body's cellular structure has been kept from corruption unlike the rest of humanity, much the same as your life has been extended and your aging process halted."
Maria was shaking her head, "Why? I have lived and suffered so little in comparison to you and I'm tired of it! I have to fight with not pulling the trigger on myself or stepping into the path of the bullet all the time! How have you suffered all this and kept your sanity? I feel half crazy with the need to just have peace, because I don't want to experience any more pain! I'm tired of pain! I'm tired of seeing everyone I care for die! I'm tired of being alone! How do you do it Elon?"
She was crying in her hysteria, as sobs shook her body hard. How could I not try to comfort her? My arms came around her and I pulled her head to my chest, even as she shook hard with the force of her emotion.