Jamie listened carefully as always, his blue eyes focused on Iris, noting every minute nuances of her facial expression while she spoke but when she finished speaking, he was still not wiser than before.
All he had gained was the lingering sensation that he'd somehow trampled over her feelings. Which, of course, wasn't something novel to him, but normally he tried - tried - to be more considerate around people outside of his work.
"I would never tell you I could help or make things better if I wasn't absolutely certain I could. That's a big part of the problem, isn't it?" he said after a small pause. "People need to stop making half-assed promises, stop saying things just to make others feel better and put their minds and energy into actually making things better. You wouldn't need to hope, wouldn't need to believe. You would know that you can get anything you want."
National Security smiled wryly. "Of course, that's the dry theory which is why I say 'I'll look into it' or 'I'll see what I can do' quite a lot."