[To think that that was her immediate reaction.... He feels a lift in his spirits and warm flush in his heart.

How he had wished he could have had her there with him for all of those ordeals, with her incarceration fresh on his mind... It was the worst timing conceivable.]

You know what, Iris? I...

[He can't help but squeeze her hand back as he speaks.]

...I wished that too, from time to time. I'm lucky enough that I had one certain ally with me throughout that entire ordeal.