[The first thing that comes to mind when she says that--his immediate, instinctive response--is I don't believe you. And as soon as it crosses through his mind, he knows she's right, and so are all the other people who've told him the same thing; not only are they right, he's also gone far past the point when he should've taken the advice.
It's not the first time this has happened and it won't be the last, but it's still always a kind of sickening shock when he recognizes how warped his thinking has gotten. He knows how to fix it, and knows it can be fixed, but it's such an incredibly unpleasant indicator of how far out hand things have gotten.
But because he can recognize it and what it means, instead of I don't believe you, what he says is--]
I know.
[And, logically, he does. He's just going to have to trust only that side of himself, not the emotional side, for a little while.
He offers her a weak attempt at a smile, just for a moment, trying to show her that he did hear what she said and isn't brushing it off, but he just can't act on it immediately. Not without some rest and time to mentally prepare, anyway.]
I'll talk to you later.
[Maybe about this, maybe not, but it's not totally off the table. He just needs a little more time.]
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It's not the first time this has happened and it won't be the last, but it's still always a kind of sickening shock when he recognizes how warped his thinking has gotten. He knows how to fix it, and knows it can be fixed, but it's such an incredibly unpleasant indicator of how far out hand things have gotten.
But because he can recognize it and what it means, instead of I don't believe you, what he says is--]
I know.
[And, logically, he does. He's just going to have to trust only that side of himself, not the emotional side, for a little while.
He offers her a weak attempt at a smile, just for a moment, trying to show her that he did hear what she said and isn't brushing it off, but he just can't act on it immediately. Not without some rest and time to mentally prepare, anyway.]
I'll talk to you later.
[Maybe about this, maybe not, but it's not totally off the table. He just needs a little more time.]