His gaze is still averted, trying to recover from his too-honest slip, so Gideon misses the sympathy in her eyes as she looks at him. But even when he does look up, briefly, he can tell Valérie's trying to weigh her words in response. And it's a damn sight more than he'd ever expect from someone like her... A natural born enemy.
'Is that the reason you two didn't work? The expectations and...'
"... The moral compass." The Rutherford supplies, tone deceptively light. They might as well be discussing the cabin temperature. "She has one, I suppose in her eyes I don't."
Of course, that wasn't exactly how Amélie had put it, but the nuance had mattered little, considering the outcome had been the same: So long as he remained bound to his family – even if only out of brotherly love – their realities could not be made compatible. And the scar tissue around his heart still prickles and pulls whenever he thinks about it—just as it does when Valérie Dautremer claims to understand.
Do you?... The surgeon wonders silently, nursing on the bitterness that rises up his throat but moves no further past his tongue. What have you had to sacrifice for family?... When have you had to give up the one you love?...
He's almost grateful for the excuse to discuss Yves instead. "Who's that again, his date?"
He'd been too preoccupied with his own. Though the idea that Yves' date might have a bigger bone to pick with him than Yves himself isn't exactly reassuring. Unfortunately, it doesn't generate a shortlist when it comes to people that dislike him, either. "Is that your way of warning me to get a head start on the duty-free alcohol?" Gideon asks, lifting an arm into the air as his eyes drop to the rueful smile on her lips. 'You're harmless enough' she replies, and just like that their expressions flip... Valérie loses her smile to a sudden frown, while surprised amusement now tugs at the surgeon's mouth.
"Am I?... Is that a compliment or an insult, Mme Dautremer?"
It always came back to one's morality and ethics with people who were on the other side of the curtain. This woman was clearly one of them, with her judgement of the man sat next to her. What they would never understand was the sheer amount of ethics you had to possess to make the decisions they did each day. That, along with what they'd had to sacrifice for it.
No one lived they lives they did unscathed.
Val's mind wandered back to the first time she'd lost someone dear to her. A friend, a confidant, a woman she would never forget. She dared not think her name lest it lead to unbound emotions. The plane cabin was much too small for that; later. Instead, Val forced herself to answer Gideon's other queries with not quite a smile but enough grace not to offend.
"My sister-in-law, Elaina Halévy. It's less you that she dislikes and more...everyone." She smiled as she thought of the woman. Difficult on the inside and out yet undeniably charming and loyal. Val couldn't ask for a better relative and friend. "That's my way of reassuring you to stop worrying and chiding you on not taking the opportunity sooner." Leading by example, Val finished her glass, accepting another from the hostess and passing Gideon one as well.
The frown went as quickly as it came. "That depends, do you view harmlessness as a weakness or a strength? Most of my friends would argue against being harmless. Too must risk involved." While Val was more of a pacifist than most of her group, she was absolutely of the same mind. It was safer to be more...proactive than not. What people often forgot was danger didn't necessarily equate to violence. Sharp minds could achieve just as much as brute force in most cases. "Don't forget, I said harmless enough. I didn't absolve you from the trait altogether."
