"Careful," he said and tried to smile, "talk like that and you'll damage my hard earned reputation."

His reputation, of course, as something of a heartless man. He'd been told he was that. But he wasn't. Far from it.

"Funny," he said, "sometimes all you've got is time, but you don't want it. And you know for a guy that's done pretty much nothing but waiting, I can be pretty impatient. I just..." he shook his head. He didn't do vulnerable well, and he certainly didn't do talking about it.

So he changed the subject.

"We'll go out," he said decisively. "You get dressed and we'll go out."