Steph bites her lip, and holds on to him, shaking a little and stifling a sniffle. It's overwhelming and terrifying, and it's left her completely wrong-footed, unable to understand how he can still think she deserves this unconditional love. Guilt, that she is so shadowed; fear that he hasn't seen the worst; incomprehension of how anyone, anyone at all, could feel that way about her.

She tries to shield this, to block off the bond, but she's unpracticed.