Leonard had tried to anticipate a lot of various reactions, most landed somewhere on the realm of hurt or angry. But none of the imagined scenarios hit him in the gut the way that look on Mick's face is doing right now. He feels sick knowing he caused it in the first place; it doesn't matter that he'd started this from a place of trying to solve something for both of them, he's hurting him. He's hurting him and he wants to go back to ten minutes ago before he started this conversation and stop himself from causing this broken, raw look on his partner's face.

"I-" the whole thing has Leonard's world tilting, making him stumble in ways he rarely ever does. "I was jus- I'm trying to....help." that last word comes out almost in a whisper. It doesn't feel like helping when Mick is staring at him like that.