( She catches him with that touch to his elbow, and he thinks for one single second that she's going to ask him not to. That she's going to try to convince him to go easy, like she did once outside of a shack at night. Maybe he should've known better; she's never done it since. Never again asked him to stop. Never acted like she expected anything from him other than what he is. What he gets instead is a be careful, and he spends a moment lingering in that look. Drinking it down like a man that's been trawling the desert for too long.
And then, abruptly, he breaks away and is gone.
What's left behind when Karen finally rounds the corner is Frank breathing hard, standing over the fallen bodies of two men who lay suspiciously still, and the sobbing figure of a woman huddled in the corner. She looks more than shaken, she looks absolutely compromised, shooting looks at Frank like she isn't sure whether she ought to be appreciative of him or terrified of him. Like she doesn't know whether to be thankful or to run.
His eyes flicker from Karen, to the woman, then back again. He doesn't have to say what he's thinking for her to pick up on it, probably — that it might be best for her to step in here instead of the guy who just violently dropped two people in front of her. He's got the bodies to get rid of anyway. )
no subject
And then, abruptly, he breaks away and is gone.
What's left behind when Karen finally rounds the corner is Frank breathing hard, standing over the fallen bodies of two men who lay suspiciously still, and the sobbing figure of a woman huddled in the corner. She looks more than shaken, she looks absolutely compromised, shooting looks at Frank like she isn't sure whether she ought to be appreciative of him or terrified of him. Like she doesn't know whether to be thankful or to run.
His eyes flicker from Karen, to the woman, then back again. He doesn't have to say what he's thinking for her to pick up on it, probably — that it might be best for her to step in here instead of the guy who just violently dropped two people in front of her. He's got the bodies to get rid of anyway. )