He says that he’s no good with the words – afraid to open his mouth sometimes for fear that the wrong thing will come out.

Well, this may be true, the no good with the words part. The actual words sometimes fail John McBain – fail to come out just the right way when he needs them to. But in John’s defense, using his own words to Evangeline:

“People can say a lot without talking.”

Evangeline unexpectedly comes back from an extended business trip to San Francisco, making a bee-line to John’s apartment. She walks in to find John with a barefoot Natalie sitting on his bed. Evangeline is heartbroken, realizing that their casual relationship is no longer enough for her. Later she leaves that message on John’s answering machine – ‘no strings’ isn’t good enough anymore. So what is John’s well thought out reaction? A call to have Evangeline meet him so that he can tell her this ‘important’ thing, which turns out to be a man who is uncomfortable in a country club setting, anxiously and nervously waiting for Evangeline at the country club. When she gets there, he ties a string around her wrist and shows her the string tied around his – ‘strings attached’.

John McBain speaks.

Or from the beginning…

“How did things go with R.J. last night?”

“We split up.”

“Well, I guess that’s what happens when you have someone followed…”

“Yeah, I guess…”

“You alright?”

“I guess I just thought that he and I had a shot…”

John gently brushes her hair aside so that he can look into her eyes.

A silent and very potent pause ensues before John responds again.

“I’m sorry,” he states.

I don’t know about any of you, but I heard it loud and clear – the ‘I’m sorry’ that meant just the opposite.

Johnny Mac speaks yet again.

How about this – after Evangeline left him…

“The way I figured it, you know, if I never left the station, then I could protect myself, you know, from what I was feeling. Just, you know, you concentrate on the job, John, and then you…you protect yourself. You concentrate on the next victim, the next case, and then you don't have to…I don’t have to…I don’t have to deal with me. Then you come along, and…you come into my life and I…Man, did I screw up. I thought too much with this [his head] and…and not a lot with this [his heart]. And now I don't know what to do. I look at you and I see all the ways I let you down staring right back at me, and I don't know how to change that.”

“You saved my life, John.”

“No,” he tells her. “No, you saved mine. You saved me.”

Or later that night…

“You’re beautiful,” he says, gazing at her. “I didn’t say that enough, did I? Or at all. Did I ever say that to you?”

I’ve heard a great deal of what John McBain has had to say, in “a million wordless ways”, as Nora once said. I’ve heard him speak whenever he’s looked at Evangeline, whenever his eyes and his affect brightened as soon as she came near. I heard John speak when he insisted on accompanying Evangeline to her aunt’s funeral, subjecting himself to a relentless and repeated barrage of questions and thinly-veiled insults from her family – all for the sake of being by her side during a painful time in her life. And who didn’t hear him speak when, for Evangeline’s birthday last year, his present to her was his mother’s pearl necklace – whenever he admired those pearls around her neck, telling her how good she made them look?

And then there are the times when the words are right on the money…

“I’m proud to be with you. I’m happy to be with you - especially tonight.”

“I like it when I’m around Evangeline. I miss her when she’s not there…”

“I haven't had a party like that since... since I was as about as old as I was in that picture. You say you want to know me, and I'd tell you if I knew. Last few years I been...pretty lost in my work... ever since...ever since Caitlin. But that's starting to change. I never thought it would happen. But when I looked at you tonight across that table... I realized if I was ever going to say those words again to anyone... I'd say them to you. Because I... I think I'm falling...”

“You make me think. You make me face something that I avoided for a long time. You make me feel...You make me feel things I never thought I'd feel again.”

"Is everything okay?" Evangeline asks.

"Everything is definitely okay,” John tells her. “As long as I'm with you."

Yes, words are nice. In fact, words can be beautiful. Words can make us laugh. Words can make us cry. And just the right words, spoken by just the right person, at just the right time in our lives can make us feel as if we’re soaring.

But sometimes words aren’t enough. Sometimes mere words don’t paint the entire picture. Sometimes they can’t. Sometimes listening with just our ears isn’t enough – doesn’t do a thing justice, doesn’t tell us the whole story.

Sometimes we have to listen with our hearts, too.

People really can say a lot without talking.