He brushed it off as a joke, pantomimed falling over, but she'd been around the Batfam and him enough now to be able to tell when there was more bravado to the humor than truth, when it was someone desperately covering pain. She knew how that went, knew better than to push at it, especially now. She didn't have to be terribly sensitive to know that he was losing not just a path to him, but a home he'd once had, right along with losing the rest of his life, whether or not his heart still beat.
There was a part of her that couldn't help but see the parallels with what she was doing now to Fury recruiting her out of the Marines; there was a part of her that hated herself for it. He had very few other places he could go, after all, making this nearly extortion. "You know I have other people who can take that shot?" she returned. "What I don't have," she continued, "is someone with your skills I can trust with my back." Not that SHIELD agents weren't good at what they did, or that she didn't have a solid grip on her people, but everyone agreed: Dick Grayson was uncorruptable. And that was precious and rare in her field.