[ It doesn't exactly seem like it's working, but... he's also not getting any worse. And he hasn't hit himself again, good Lord. Harold is going to see that in his nightmares.

He isn't thinking of this as a test himself but he still isn't surprised that Carver passes. The ability to focus through trauma is a crucial survival skill in the kinds of scenarios he's been in. But he still doesn't feel quite right leaving to retrieve Bear, thinks they're not quite there yet. Harold abandons calculation and follows his own instincts instead. ]

The first time I was held hostage, I didn't know how to adjust when I got back, [ he offers. By someone who later became an ally, but that's another story. ] I shuttled myself from safehouse to safehouse and if I stepped a foot outside of that, it was like I couldn't breathe. I couldn't function. I knew it was all too likely that it would happen again -- and it did, later.

That's where Bear came from. Mr. Reese found him and pressed him on me. I thought he was being ridiculous, [ Harold admits, ] but... it did help. To know I had protection that didn't depend on a person.

[ It let him maintain his pride and his privacy, which were some of the only things Harold insisted on keeping in the wake of the ferry bombing. ]