"Oh, I don't know. You keep up on medical journals and I just read over your shoulder. But I do recall that sometimes it's better to talk about it than hold it in." Repressing memories like that had gotten Bruce in trouble before. "I just thought I'd offer," he said as gently as possible.

Tony was terrible at comfort.

"We sort of all have this problem where we don't like to talk about what those problems actually are," he said. "Normally, it's cool, whatever, but being in a relationship like this with a little kid that can see into our darkest thoughts probably means we've really got to be on the same page here."