He knew she'd be upset with him, he supposed in many ways what he'd done just now was a crueller response than most things he could have done in the situation. But he'd had to. She deserved one memory where it was good, and right and how it should have been. And god help him he wanted to do it again. It had been everything he could have imagined it would be too.
"Yes" he replied to her pronouncement that he was a bastard. He wasn't going to hide away from the truth. "Sometimes I probably can be."
There was no probably about it though.
His mouth set in a thin line as she refused to fight for what could never be. It was all he could do, let her heart break now so he didn't break it further later. Let everything fall apart now so that he didn't destroy what was left of her later. He wasn't going to be begged at either. It was unbecoming of her, and she really truly was better than that.
But then came the part he hadn't been expecting.
"You don't have to do that, god Alex you should be around people that know you. People that can see you, you need contact with those around you or you'll lose your mind. And I won't have that happen on my account. Mitchell's doing better, a lot better and I can still come and check on him even without being there. I'll go. You stay where you are. Because its not you, its not anything you have done. I promise you that. I just know how this will end. How it always ends. That's the thing you see Alex. I'm a coward. You got it right when you first got here. So many times, so many chances and every time, every single one, he has destroyed any happiness I've managed to build."