[So much easier said than done, but he feels... good about this. It's different than before. Different than JJ, that turned into nothing. Different than Lila, who was something but got spread out too thin. This is something real, something to talk about. Something to defend, if he needs to, but hopefully it won't ever come to that.
He falls silent for a little while and then, more as a show of intention rather than a promise, he speaks up.]