She wasn't all right. He knew it by looking at how she'd folded in on herself. It wasn't just her posture or the way she kept her eyes down; it seemed her very skin was duller. James frowned and stared past her to the door. Steve Rogers would know what to do. He had answers that James couldn't hope to grasp.
His head started throbbing anew, as memories threatened to come to the surface. He couldn't afford this, he really couldn't --
Pressing his metal hand against the backs of his eyelids, he tried to stop the memories from coming. With them came disorientation... he always felt so lost...
But fortune was with him. After a few seconds, the memories receded back to whatever place they'd been hiding. With a near silent breath of relief, he dropped his hand again. To say that he wasn't worried about being alone with Ariel would be a lie. He knew he wasn't all right. He knew he could forget himself, and it terrified him. Just... right now, she didn't have anyone else.
He wished he knew what he could do for her. He wished he knew what she wanted. He wished he were any good at tending the hurt and helpless. It wasn't a skill set that HYDRA saw fit to program into him.