[Not that he's an expert, but he is very good at detecting doubt, and even better at spotting outright lies. He wonders if Elena knows how unusual it is to ask a question like that--to ask, essentially, 'do you want to change yourself'--and hear back a resounding 'no'.]

I think the only way anyone can ever do any real good is when they finally see things like you do now. It's hard not to worry about the past, it's hard to believe that the things you knew just don't exist anymore even if you can still touch them.

...Did you know that humans--and vampires, and some aliens I suppose--are the only creatures who are able to 'remember' the future? We're the only ones capable of sitting down and visualizing something that hasn't happened, and then making it become real? But of course since we can't make it fit exactly the way we 'remember' it going in our imagination, we lose patience, we become afraid, we go back to reaching for things that are already behind us. It's a waste, and yet...

[He has a tendency to talk, to ramble, when he's in the middle of an ear-splitting deaf spell. He trails off only when it passes and he can hear muffled sounds through the tinnitus. He offers her a small, sheepish shrug.]

Why are you his only family?