[He winces a bit at that. Making things worse for her... the last thing he wanted to do. After everything that's happened, everything that's going to happen to give her grief... just trying to deal with it could be making things worse?]

...even if she never finds out? [His voice softens and he looks back up.] In the past, I've always been able to hide it well enough to keep people from noticing when I was upset. I could hide it so well, even I didn't realize I was upset. And that was all right... for awhile...

[He trails off, frowning back down at the table.]

...I'm not trying to make things worse for myself, really. I just don't know what else to do.