He can sympathize completely. More than she knows, even. If they could share their experiences directly... He looks down at his hands, once again tempted beyond reason to just tell her. Lay out the whole ridiculous story minus what he knows about the family's future. He takes a deep breath.

"It's hard. Harder than anything else I've done." He twists his hands in his lap. "Ultimately I had to leave to find myself. What I should do." And then he'd shattered even that, though apparently he finds his way through that as well. "But you will figure it out. If I can, you absolutely can too."

He reaches out to take one of her hands and squeeze it gently. Staring up at her with his bright gray eyes.