[He narrows his eyes at her underneath his lenses – only visible for his slightly knit brow. Annoyingly, it only takes those two words to get his guard up. Two words, and a hell of a lot of implication behind them.

Just give him this one moment of self-determination in his life, just one thing he can say he'd decided for himself. He's had enough of choices being made for him.]

Yeah. It was. [Adam's reply is short, blunt.

Out of habit, he nearly puts his cigarette out beneath his foot, but a glance downwards at the clean white floors makes him pause. Grimacing, he digs around in his coat and– good, he still has that empty bottle of painkillers. It'll do.

He pops the cap open, flicks the stub in, and replaces it. While going through the motions, he adds:] I'm not gonna pretend it wouldn't have been miserable if I'd stuck around, but I didn't have to leave.

[Sticking around wouldn't have gotten the bad taste out of his mouth, though.]