We had a pretty good talk after he woke up. [Claude smiles slightly.] It started out...bleak, that's for sure, but it improved from there.

[He reaches over to lightly pat Orbeez, which is really just displacement activity.] The thing is...when the Indeedees were passing out secrets, I got one from Sylvain that meant a lot to me. It said 'you made my future something worth looking forward to'. And then, a couple days later, before I'd even talked to him about it...he went home. And when he came back, all that hope was dashed to a million pieces. I couldn't stand that - not just seeing him so miserable, but thinking I'd done something as meaningful as giving him hope and then it being stolen from him. So...I did my best to put it back. [He gives a half-shrug, a slight smile.] I don't think I necessarily eased all his fears, or totally smoothed the road, but...things were better by the time we finished talking. He was able to smile again, and mean it. Even if it's only a first step, that's not a bad day's work for how low he started.

[He squeezes Grant's hand.] But I'm worried about you right now. For one thing, and before anything else...that's not exactly the look of a man whose talk with Sylvain went as okay as mine did.