For a second, he picked up on a bit of tension coming from Regan, and he chewed on his lip and tried to focus on giving him the positivity instead of absorbing the discomfort. "There are some aspects of science that I can claim are my forte." Psychological ones, anyway. "But those sciences don't do much good when it comes to remaking the comforts of life," he chuckled softly and shrugged a shoulder. "Everyone has their use, though, I guess."
With a nod, Toby looked at Regan with a shrug. "I figured as much, but you have to remember that conversations go both ways. So you're not the only one who hasn't sought the other out. But you and Kori both went through the same trauma. I think, maybe, you could help one another to heal." He gave Regan what he hoped was a comforting smile. "You don't immediately have to jump right into talking about mourning, Regan. You can talk about other things. Catch up on what you've been up to since you got back, or what she's been up to around here, you know? There are hundreds of thousands of things you could talk about." He nodded his head and clapped his hand on Regan's shoulder. "It'll be okay. One way or another."
Saving his sanity? "Maybe a little bit. Or," he paused a moment for thought, then said, "saving my girls' sanity, at least. Girls need a womanly influence, you know?" He didn't explain where their female influences went again.
"How often did you run into vandals?" he asked. "New York City must have been ripe with them," he thought aloud. All of the gang wars and competitions and the like. "California had graffiti and vandalism, but I'm almost positive that it wasn't quite as bad as the vandalism over here." Rock bottom? Toby shook his head no. "Rock bottom would be the safehouses in the city," he pointed out with a little smile. "I don't think it's possible for us to fall to that point. Evan is night and day from the government people who run those, and everyone here cares about everyone else."
Rae's cousin... Toby thought for a second, trying to recall a name and then said, "April. Right?" He nodded his head. "I think we could convince her. She seems agreeable about most things. And I think I saw lie detecting appear once or twice in my files. But I also saw mental resistance, so we might have to be careful of that, too." He shrugged. "It could still work. And don't mention it. This is my home too. It's the very least I can do."
Toby may have been more surprised than Regan that he went along with the joke. But surprise definitely didn't mean that he didn't appreciate it. "We're all prone to the same things, though. Can you really blame someone else for wanting to do whatever they want, when we all just want the same thing?" he asked. He smiled a little. "The things we want are just different from theirs."