Unlike the mind-meld, when the connection between them breaks, Jim feels no need to wrench himself away and fight to regain his composure. His hands stay up for a long moment, as if still holding hers, before awareness begins to settle in and he slowly lowers them. The afterimages still paint themselves across his inner eye, and his head spins from the dizzying weight of it, making him reach out a hand to steady himself against the back of the couch just in case.

He still doesn't know what he was expecting, but it wasn't quite that. "Wow."