The bitter words escape Gene's mouth before he can stop them. "So glad to disappoint," he says, and there's anger in his voice, and sadness, and pain - but all of that anger is directed at himself, all of that sadness mourning for what he'd lost here because of it, and all of that pain a reminder of what he had to live with, the lives that would be spared and the things that would not be broken but for him.

"I can't change it. I can't change any of it. I wish I could. But the rings wouldn't..." He trails off, his mouth dry despite the tea.