Oddly enough, it was her mentioning her teddy bear by name that broke Lex's tension finally and he laughed in relief. "Well, I don't want to disappoint Kolya, now do I?" So he opened the book and started from the beginning.

An hour or so later, Lex was half way through the book, sitting against the head board of Ilona's bed with the little girl curled up half in his lap, half asleep but hanging on to wakefulness enough to keep the stories coming. And Lex didn't mind at all as he kept reading, trying to make then exciting by pitching his voice at key spots.

He was enjoying this, far more then he ever thought he would.