[He deserves exactly how much that little noise hurts.

That's what you would have done to your own flesh and blood. That, forever.

His own voice is quiet around the lump in his throat,]

Don't know what I thought. It was--halfway to say that I wouldn't let anyone do something to him against his will. Hyperbole. How far I'd go--you know?

But I think I half-meant it. [There is a strange mix of emotion to those words--fear and shame and puzzlement and dismay. He doesn't know why.]