Thank you comprehensively. This story grew enormously in the telling; pretty much everything here was present in the original conception, but it took me nearly twice as many words to get there.

And, yes, dark. The intention was for us to be able to see, by the end, why Giles would have to walk away from this woman, while at the same time allowing us to understand exactly where she was coming from. Your response, and that of others, encourages me to believe I accomplished something like that.