“Everyone has their weaknesses. Some people smoke. I collect stuffed penguins. If you won't tell, I won't.”

“I locked the door, for what good it would do me, and went to bed. The Browning Hi-Power was in its second home, a modified holster strapped to the headboard of my bed. The crucifix was cool metal around my neck. I was as safe as I was going to be and almost too tired to care.I took one more thing to bed with me, a stuffed toy penguin named Sigmund. I don't sleep with him often, just every once in a while after someone tries to kill me. Everyone has their weaknesses. Some people smoke. I collect stuffed penguins. If you won't tell, I won't.”

“All I really wanted to do was cuddle back under the blankets, maybe with a certain stuffed toy penguin I knew. Yeah, hiding sounded good.”

“Since you won't give me your names I'll call you Thing One and Thing Two.”

“You don't smoke do you?""No, why?""They're afraid of fire.""Great, we're going to be eaten alive because neither of us smokes." I almost laughed. He sounded so thoroughly disgusted…”

“That was the problem with loving people: it made you weak. It made you need them. It made the thought of not having them the worst thing in the world.”

“I smiled at him, as Doyle squeezed my hand and I squeezed back. "Some people are addicted to falling in love, Doctor. Some people love that rush of new emotions, and when that first rush of new love is spent, they move on to the next, thinking the love wasn't real. What I felt in her, and potentially in you, is the love of years. Love that knows that that first rush of freshness isn't the real thing. It's the tip of the iceberg.”