The quiet sadness insinuating itself subtly, so that I barely knew what was happening. Until the wrecking of the car.

I'm very glad indeed to hear the story worked for you, and in precisely that way, because it was exactly what I was hoping to do. :-)

Thank you very much for your lovely feedback! As for more fic, I tend to be a glacially slow writer, but it looks like I'll have to write at least one more story in this particular AU universe anyway (because I promised a friend *g*) - though that will be a really weird one. ;-) And we'll see what happens after that!