If he said it, he meant it. And the first time he approached her for advice, Ziio suspected that he would be invested in it. She had, with Haytham, not wanted a short-lived and fleeting romance, though they both eventually realised that's what it would be. If Gordon hadn't come around, Ziio would have condemned herself to loneliness, which wasn't as bad as death, but perhaps a little less joyful than living life, as it were.

So like her son, having a relationship with anyone and actually defining it as such solidified a part of herself that had otherwise been either dormant or missing. And she imagined that it was quite the same for him. Surreal, of course, and at the same time, it gave to him a feeling that without it he would no longer be whole.

Her features softened and she kept her eyes on him, as prying as they were, for he'd opened the proverbial door for her and she simply had to walk through it. "When can Gordon and I expect grandchildren?"