That might have been Nick's version of reassurance, but the look on Tony's face suggested Nick had just stated, 'You can't'. That was a rare thing, something Tony wasn't used to and made his lips part, for once, wordlessly. That was a far cry from 'You have to do it all, and you have to do it better', and Tony was finding he hated it a lot more. At least the pressure was a familiar beast. What did he have without it? Nick would rather go through the trouble of conditioning a bunch of children to become secret agents than trust Tony.
"Right," he agreed at long last, bowing his head for a beat to watch his hand smooth down the front of his wrinkled shirt. Nick was right, rarely wasn't; Tony was almost as good at getting into trouble as the old man was, and he kept Tony around to make sure that shit didn't spread far enough to fuck up his day. And this wasn't supposed to be about him, but it was about time Tony figured that out. It definitely wasn't about Nick. "This isn't your shit," Tony cautioned when he could bring himself to look up again, spreading his hand over the display of Missing Person files and sending them into a lazy scroll. They were Tony's problem now, and Nick was welcome to go toe to toe with him if he dared. If he still felt completely certain that he was doing the right thing after Tony walked out to leave him with the parade of lost faces slowly rolling to a stop.