"We've all had to do things" came Charlotte's sudden voice from the doorway, the young woman stepping into the room from where she had been lurking in the darkness listening to the heated conversation. Raised voices and the distant rumbling of thunder had kept her from sleep, then upon venturing down she had hear new voices and silently had made her way down the stairs before stopping to listen.
Her gaze was fixed on Quinn but her expression was not one of anger or fear. She understood the desire to keep the things you regretted clutched close and hidden from those who knew you, and after everything that had happened since the world went to hell it never seemed to surprise her what she'd seen other people do, sometimes what she had done. Her expression was more one of thorough appraisal, as her eyes bore into his face like she was trying to see into his very depths. After a few moments she stated flatly "Quinn saved me, Jake too. I owe them both as much as each other, together we've all found this place. He hasn't given us a reason to kick him out, and I think every one of us could benefit from at least one good night's sleep before we decide who exactly is leaving and who is going with who." At that point she glanced around at the rest of them, particularly the two new faces that were awkwardly listening to what was being said wondering who they were.
It wasn't that Charlotte didn't feel for whatever exactly it was that Alyssa had been through at his hands, in fact quite the opposite. If she was face to face with anyone who had done... whatever it was that he had done to her, well suffice to say there wouldn't have been much talking. But the young woman hadn't done that, and Charlotte didn't think she would. Either Alyssa would do something or she wouldn't, but Charlotte figured that was her own business to deal with. The time she had spent alone had definitely dulled her sense of compassion, and more so her own actions too had shown her that people were capable of anything and without the boundaries of society you had to do what you had to do to stay alive. As she saw it Quinn was out of the Blood Army, he'd done the hard thing and left instead of staying with that band of demented sadists, and he'd paid a high price for it. She accepted him for what he was now, despite what he had been. More than that though she suddenly felt a sense of attachment to him, and to a lesser extent Jake too. She'd only suddenly realised it when it looked for a moment that he was about to walk out of the door, and a strong desire to leave with him had overtaken her.
As she stood silent again her gaze went back to him before again returning to staring off distantly as she listened and thought, realising that despite the number of relative strangers around her for the first time in a long time she felt safe.
