He reached out and squeezed Dale's shoulder, careful to be extremely gently so that it was barely a feather light touch in the end. "That sucks, Dale. It really sucks. No progress on the research then?" He hated to see Dale so unhappy, and unable to do anything about it. And he couldn't even be angry at Patrick, because neither man wanted a relationship.
"I'll talk to Ronan and plan something for the middle of the month," he said, warming to the idea. He'd even invite some people from the Apollo Center that he'd been getting to know. "Yes, there are a lot of spells but it makes everything safe so I can't complain. You can still come to visit, just fire-call first so I can let you through."
He nodded, making a mental note that Thursday was reserved for Dale. "Deal, steak it is. And something chocolate. You can never have enough chocolate. I'm glad you like your job, it's great to see you so excited about it. Any interesting stories to tell?"