"Shawn..."

"Yeah, I'm here," he replied immediately as she spoke.

"Don't you despise me? Not even a little?" Gale asked.

"How could I despise you, Galey?"

"But I despise myself."

Shawn sighed, reaching out to embrace her, but she resisted, pressing against his chest, unwilling to be intimate with him.

"Shawn... I feel dirty. Even after showering, even after I've changed and I'm technically all clean from head to toe, I still feel an invisible dirt," Gale said.

Her eyes moistened slightly