She jumps at the contact. It's unexpected, but... it's nice. He might think she's ignoring it when she speaks, but she really is grateful for it.

"Don't make promises you can't keep." It's a saying everyone in her world knows, one she suspects everyone in every world knows. Her hands move away from her face just enough to keep her words from getting blocked by them. "Your research may fail. My world may not want me back. Something terrible could happen and I could be killed before there's any possibility of another try to open a portal. There is no guarantee that it will work even if we do get the portal open. It may go too far back or too far forward. The possibilities for failure are endless." And she has already spent hours going through them all in her head.

"I know you mean well, that you're trying, but I..." She lowers her hands and looks over at him. "I don't have any hope."