Promise me. [ it's very quiet - the feel of the blood on his hand drags a shaky breath out of him before he can stop it and his full meaning is clear without saying it. promise me and be telling the truth. he knows enough about anatomy to realize that graves wouldn't be likely to die either way, but he still feels like his heart is wrapped tight in piano wire that's pulling more and more taut slowly.

he isn't going to move unless graves tells him to, keeping his touch (and the pressure) where he'd been instructed. tell me about your day drags a tinny, shaky laugh out of him and he tips his head forward, refusing to look away from what graves is doing. ] I went to the bakery to see Queenie and Jacob. I stayed there for a while because he was telling me about some new ideas he had. [ talking is helping, but only minutely. he closes his eyes very briefly. ] I brought you a couple things back when I came home. They're in the kitchen. They both said hi.

[ it's so stupid to talk like this, to ramble about everyday things like it's all normal. but he knows graves is trying to keep him from panicking by giving him something to focus on, and he appreciates it. ]