You think... that's a good thing? Making someone like him angry, just because it gets him talking?
[His voice is quiet and curt, laced with pain and anger and fear and plenty of other things he's pretty sure can't be named. There's a certain logic to her words, yes, and to a point, he understands what she means, what she's trying to say. But he remembers. He remembers walls painted red, and spinning blades, and the sound of someone choking on their own fluids. He remembers Hawkeye's wheezing breath, the precision of the knife wounds, how meticulous they'd been, almost scientific-
"I've wrapped up your present prettily-"
"I prefer to do it by hand-"
-no no no no no-]
Why- [His voice cracks, pitched with emotion, and he clings to his anger to regain momentum.] Why would you ever want that? To put yourself in danger just to get answers? You said yourself that it's stupid, but do you even realize how stupid? What he did- that's not playing the victim! That's a warning, just like he said! So what if he didn't kill Hawkeye? As if that changes anything!? As if that makes what he did better!?
[He falters again, breathless, drained, and inwardly cursing himself, because he knows this is too much- way, way too much. But he can't stop, not now. Not with that fear filling his thoughts, the memory of Teddy, of Hawkeye, the mental image of her strung up and bleeding like that-
action, sept 25th; oh lord you unleashed a flood
[His voice is quiet and curt, laced with pain and anger and fear and plenty of other things he's pretty sure can't be named. There's a certain logic to her words, yes, and to a point, he understands what she means, what she's trying to say. But he remembers. He remembers walls painted red, and spinning blades, and the sound of someone choking on their own fluids. He remembers Hawkeye's wheezing breath, the precision of the knife wounds, how meticulous they'd been, almost scientific-
"I've wrapped up your present prettily-"
"I prefer to do it by hand-"
-no no no no no-]
Why- [His voice cracks, pitched with emotion, and he clings to his anger to regain momentum.] Why would you ever want that? To put yourself in danger just to get answers? You said yourself that it's stupid, but do you even realize how stupid? What he did- that's not playing the victim! That's a warning, just like he said! So what if he didn't kill Hawkeye? As if that changes anything!? As if that makes what he did better!?
[He falters again, breathless, drained, and inwardly cursing himself, because he knows this is too much- way, way too much. But he can't stop, not now. Not with that fear filling his thoughts, the memory of Teddy, of Hawkeye, the mental image of her strung up and bleeding like that-
-no no no no no no no-]