What was wearing on Cal was that the fixation seemed to be upon Echo, and he didn't see him as a liability. Echo was his friend, someone he trusted even before he'd had his chip removed. That the ARC Trooper didn't have to worry about something pushing him to suddenly turn on them without warning was a shared relief.

His gaze had fallen towards the mess-strewn floor with a sigh that kept him from frowning completely. By now he was at least a little more used to Tony's gestures of affection, the hair ruffle and the temple peck coaxing the mildest of smiles from him.

"...no, you're right. We don't know what to expect with every new person that gets brought in. I don't think we can prepare for that without starting to get paranoid at every single newcomer. That's going to get pretty exhausting, pretty fast."