Silas must have felt her tense at his touch but he didn't pull away; he held her hand fast and didn't let go. "How do you know Moses?" he asked.

"I thought you wanted me to tell you about Savannah?" she replied, clearing her throat.

"How about both?" he suggested, taking a sip of his drink then setting it down on the ledge in front of him as he looked out over the city below them.

"Moses's daughter was very ill for a very long time. When they would come to the hospital, I would always do my best to take care of them all, she was a special little girl." Faye's voice was quiet.

"Was, I take it she has passed?" He looked down at Faye's bowed head.

"Yes, almost two years ago now." Faye felt a tear sneak out onto her cheek and Silas reached up and wiped it away.

"You feel things very deeply, don't you?"

Faye was the type to shrug so she did. "A hazard that comes with the job," she explained.

"No, the hazard is becoming jaded and insensitive. Sometimes it is easy to forget that the people that we are expected to help have feelings. It is easier, after a time, to treat them as if they are their injury or illness."

Faye looked up at his handsome profile. "Is that the way you feel?"

"No, not particularly, but when someone like the man I helped you with yesterday comes in for help, I have a hard time remembering he is human, especially when his actions have harmed others, and especially when he is being disrespectful and nasty to those who are trying to help him." He looked out over the city, watching the sun as it started it's decent. Faye wondered what or who he was thinking of right at that moment.

"I try to remember that it's not necessarily him talking but the substance he is high on, and I try to remember that something in his life must have gone dreadfully wrong for him to feel the need to escape reality in that way. He is missing out on some of the best parts of life." She looked down at the street below, watching the families as they hurried to find a place to stand or sit and watch the fireworks.

"Like first dates?" Silas asked with a smile.

"I don't think that first dates are the best parts of life, more like the awkward parts." Faye laughed nervously.

"A first kiss perhaps, or a first love, or making love for the first time, those are the best parts, and you can't deny those, can you?" She could feel his gaze on the top of her head as the air between them grew heavy, and her free hand shook a little when she picked up her cup to take a sip of tea while she shrugged once more in response. "Still," he continued, "we all have problems. You can't tell me that your life has been all sunny skies and happy moments. I have not had a particularly easy life, but I still choose to live life despite it and not bury myself in a bottle." He turned his attention back towards the city below, allowing Faye to breathe once again.

Who knew that Dr. Silas DeGraff could be so intense? Cold was not a word she would choose to describe him now, and part of her wondered what made him present himself as cold to the world. "Is not losing yourself behind a cold and austere manner so that you appear unapproachable a similar escape?" She couldn't help asking the question as she had the thought.

He turned to look at her, stunned, his cup halfway to his lips. He tilted his head as he lowered his cup. "Is not telling yourself you're unworthy or less than every person you meet also not a similar escape. You don't have to succeed if you always expect to fail."

This time Faye looked at him with wide eyes. "Is that how you see me?"

He shook his head with a smile she didn't understand. "No, but that's how I believe you see yourself."

"How do you see yourself?" she questioned.

"First tell me that I'm wrong about how you see yourself," he demanded.

Faye grew silent as she gave his words some thought. "I see myself as a successful nurse and friend." She couldn't finish the rest of her thought it was too personal. How could she tell him that she was a failure as a sister and as a woman who inspired love in the opposite sex?

"But?" he asked. "I hear a but in there."

"I just lack...I don't know, it's not self-confidence or that I'm less worthy exactly, it's..." She fumbled for the words. "You walk into a room and people take notice, Chloe walks into a room and people notice, I walk into a room and no one notices." She kept her eyes trained on the street below, afraid to look at him for fear that she would see pity in his eyes.

"I notice you, your friends notice you, but for the record, I'm sure there are plenty of people in the world who have never noticed me." He squeezed her hand.

"Everyone notices you, especially women." She shook her head in denial at his words.

"So you keep saying, but what's so special about me? Nothing really." He shook his head with an amused smile hovering on his lips.

"You're handsome, successful, foreign, mysterious, obviously wealthy, and there is even a rumor going around that you're royalty," she insisted.

He gave a shout of laughter that lifted Faye's heart.

"I'd marry myself if half of that was true. I can't say as to whether I'm handsome or not because I never thought about it, but what I am is middle-aged, currently without a job, not the least bit mysterious, divorced with two semi-adult children who think they know more than I do, and I am not royalty."

Faye couldn't suppress a smile. "We'll you tried you're hardest to sell yourself short, didn't you?"

"We're always hardest on ourselves."

Faye nodded in agreement then turned away and this time he let go of her hand. "We should eat before it gets dark," she suggested as she walked toward her bag.

He turned his back on the city below as he watched her unpack everything. She had brought cold fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, fresh bread, and cucumber and tomato salad.

"It looks delicious," he complimented as he joined her at the table.

"Thank you," she said with a shy smile as they started to serve themselves. "I noticed that there were two things you didn't deny in my summary of who you are, you didn't deny that you're foreign and you didn't deny that you're wealthy. Where are you from?" she asked.

"I'm Dutch, " Faye nodded and they ate in silence for a minute. "You're not going to ask what my net worth is?" he asked as his even teeth bit into a piece of chicken, his eyebrow raised.

Faye's eyes narrowed at his teasing, at least that's what she thought he was doing. "You're not one of those people who are bitter about being rich, are you? You sound as if you are,"

"No, for the record I appreciate being wealthy, but there is a certain amount of responsibility that comes with it since it is inherited and most of it belongs to a family trust."

"You have to safeguard it for your children," she nodded. That she got, she thought about how she had been doing that very thing with the house all these years.

"Yes, and my children's children's children." He moved onto the potato salad, and they ate in a companionable silence that was no longer awkward.

Faye thought back on their very serious conversations and wondered if he was able to draw most people out like he had been able to draw her out. Perhaps it was a gift that came naturally to him. It would make him a good doctor. She frowned, she once again thought of Chloe and wondered if she knew that Silas had asked her out on a date.

"What are you worrying over now?" Silas asked as he leaned back in his chair, watching her.

"I was wondering if you told Chloe that you asked me out," she said softly.

"No, was I supposed to do so?" his face became stony again.

"Well, you two are kind of dating, aren't you?" she asked.

"Are we?" It wasn't really an answer. "If I was dating Chloe, why on earth would I ask you out?" He sounded only curious, but Faye had the feeling that she had angered him

Faye shrugged and pushed her plate away, no longer hungry. "Perhaps it is to befriend Chloe's friends."

Silas didn't respond, and after a few moments of silence, Faye dared to look at him. He was staring hard at her.

"I can see that this is going to take plenty of patience," he said softly, almost to himself.

It was a remark that confused Faye, what was going to take patience. His establishing a friendship with her. Had she angered him that much with her question?

He stood abruptly. "Come and tell me about your city while we wait for the fireworks." He waited for her to join him and they walked over to the edge of the roof together, and Faye was disappointed when he didn't take her hand.

She spent the next hour telling him all about the city and the different buildings and squares as they moved around the roof, and it was no time before the fireworks had begun. It was a fabulous show and they enjoyed watching and commenting on the vibrant bursts of light.

When it was over he helped her clean up, they said goodbye to Moses, and then they walked home through the busy streets. They reached the house after an unusually quiet walk, Silas thanked her for the experience and went to his apartment without another word about their evening.

Faye did her best to hide her disappointment at the tame ending to a night that had had many ups and downs. She wasn't sure what the date had accomplished, except to prove that she and Silas had nothing in common and never would. Perhaps he would now let go of the idea of their being friends, and she could do her best over get over her schoolgirl crush.