"I see."

Her pale blue eyes never left Antoine's face as she let the words hang in the air between them for a moment. The gentle smile remained on her lips as she studied the frank, uncomplicated lines of his mouth, and the undeviating honesty in his gaze. For one brief, split-second in time, a thrill of fear had shot through her chest when he said those words, that he was a cryobed technician, like Sylas. 

But that swift terror had passed, and it was simply Antoine before her, and he was absolutely nothing like Sylas at all - not even a little. He was an honest man, and true. Pauline even wondered for a moment whether a man with such an open manner, was actually capable of a bold-faced lie - or if he ever did try? A soft breath of a laugh escaped her as she realized Antoine would have one whopper of a "tell," rubbing behind his ear absently, mimicking the magnificent Mowzer at his toilette whether he knew it or not.

But no matter. Pauline was amazed to discover she really did not mind his revelation, or his knowledge.

[i]'So this is what it's like then? For people to know and just... Not really mind? No judgments, no pity or cloying sympathetic looks? No questioning my judgment for deciding to keep my little Eva?'[/i] A protective hand wrapped lovingly over her still flat belly at the mere thought of her growing baby, and she smiled. For the life of her, Pauline could not decide if all her worries to this moment about how the Copernicans might see her, or treat her, had been just-so-much overblown nonsense; or if Antoine was simply a very singular type of man. 

She decided she could get used to this, nonetheless.

"So you have... A knack for languages, yes?" Pauline asked, artlessly changing the subject. "I've heard of a lot of people having a second language - sometimes even a third. But honestly, you're the very first person I've ever met whose 'second language' was a Native American dialect!" She laughed incredulously, nodding her head though to let Antoine know that she was, of course, duly impressed by this accomplishment.

"How many languages do you speak then, and which ones if I can be so nosy? And how in the world did you come to know them?" Still kneeling beside the Bengal cat, she softly and slowly scratched behind one of his ears with two fingers, mimicking - though she did not realize it - the same soothing motion that Antoine himself had used only moments before.