I returned the hug quickly, thinking over the question. How things had been at home?

Christ, how would I tell her what had happened at home? What I'd had to do to Susan? What had happened to me? What I'd become? What had happened in the year and a half I'd been gone?

... No. No way was I dumping that on her. So I kept the smile firmly in place and I called on that skill at lying that I'd been forced to cultivate, ignoring the knot of guilt in my stomach.

"It's been a while, but, well, y'know me. I kick ass, I take names, I keep on keepin' on."