[ the immediate internal reaction - and external, to some degree - is irritation, offense, rage, fury ... all the things that come up when someone, mostly david these days, manages to get under his skin and aim directly for the nerves. under the circumstances, he manages to rein it in long enough to give himself a chance to think.

what he doesn't think about is why he's hesitating. why he's trying to get david to explain this when it's clear what the problem is. he'll think about it later, and it won't go well for him, but for now the whole concept is easy to set aside in favor of dealing with david directly. ]

Says the guy comin' down here to do it. [ not exactly true, but - he works the lid off the jar one-handed, the other hand on david's thigh to prevent any abrupt kicks to the face. ] Figured you'd burn more when you couldn't help yourself out. Guess I was wrong.