[h2]Alexander[/h2]

Alexander didn't say anything further. What on earth could he say? That he could sympathize? That he knew what Astrid was going through? That he did almost the exact same thing the first time he heard the sound of a bird larger than a pigeon outside? Such things wouldn't help right now. No, he reasoned with himself, he had nothing that could be said about that. So, when she walked past shivering in the rain, he almost absentmindedly shed his jacket and placed it around her shoulders. 

"I'd like it back, when you think of it," he said to her, "No rush." And with that he was walking back inside. All of today's events had him in various degrees of unsettlement; he needed to spend a little time holding onto his knife.