Of course it still wasn't good enough. No amount of pressing his knuckle into his eye helped Tony think of how he could have been any clearer, either. A drink also wouldn't help. It wouldn't.

"I'm not trying to do this," he finally said with resignation. "I'm not, but every time you're here, it's like I can't help myself, I say something or I do something and I can't even account for it, I don't even know where it comes from, that's the worst part--I've been alone for months, telling myself I'm doing the work, I'm fixing it, and I still don't even know what it is, this broken part of me that keeps hurting people. It's not just you. Everyone else, though, they can see it. They keep their distance. I don't know why they're not telling you."