"I love the stars more than anything else in the world when I look up at them at night now. They used to be just stars, but now, " Robie looked at Gabrielle with eyes that spoke wordlessly what his lips were unable to express. How much more what he saw awed him than he ever previously would have believed that it would have been possible.

She nodded back to him that she understood and to continue as she nuzzled next to his arm and looked back up into the endless night. She felt warm and safe against his arm. His voice calmed her like nothing else could have at the moment. The tears that had streaked her cheeks earlier that night had dried and she could feel their salty trails cooler than the rest of her skin.

Comforted that he didn't need to express something that he didn't know how, Robie continued, " The stars are like a great equalizer for all people. Like nothing else the stars are the same for everyone. No one has been to the stars, and no one alive today will ever visit the stars. We can compare who visited the moon and who has how many probes on mars, and even sent a chunk of metal outside the solar system, but the stars... all people are still equal beneath them. Each one just as unkown as all the others, each one beyond any conceivable distance, and when I look at them now I feel that this one thing and in this one way, I am the same as everyone else. There is no one better than me who has been to the stars, no one worse to me that hasn't been to them though I have. And in a world where there are increasingly more things and goals that make some people better or worse than others, I feel so free that this one thing makes me the same as every single person on earth. "

Gabby smiled as she listened to him. It was a really nice thought, so nice that she couldn't help but think of all the people she was mad at right now, mom, Frank, David. They didn't seem so bad right now, she even felt better about all of them, she felt a little happier. Other people made her feel happy and every time they did she felt a little love for them, right now it was Robie. There was no need to worry about other people right now, that would spoil what she had right now.