Jerome arched a brow at Oliver's initial reaction, not really sure what this little 'Oh, yeah?' was about since it felt a little bit off, but he couldn't point his finger on it. Until Oliver's gaze wandered towards the fence that was.
A shot of shame hit his guts the moment he realized what Oliver was probably thinking about, realizing how his sentence obviously could have been understood in the context of the events he had set in motion days ago, which really didn't feel like it dated back almost a week already. The memory was rather unpleasant, and he still wasn't able to get over the fact what he had put Oliver through at this day, endangering his safety just because he hadn't been able to pull himself together even in the slightest.
He sighed while his gaze followed the trail of the fence, which probably was exactly as unpassable as the invisible barrier in Zenith. He hadn't even bothered to ask anybody about that, since this seemed like a given, they obviously wouldn't risk anybody to climb that fence and be out of here, otherwise people would have already done it.
"I'm over this nonsense.", he said soberly and with a little reprimand lingering in his voice, directed at himself, grabbing his coffee again.
"I meant something useful inside this area. Checking on Lucy, preparing food, cleaning something. It just... doesn't feel right to enjoy myself when my kids are currently probably devastated." He remained stern, but calm, as his voice got quieter and his finger went for his ring in an automated attempt to comfort himself. Another instant of opening up more than he was used to, and it felt... good, in a way. Even though the actual topic wasn't.