[Phil is quiet a moment before replying his voice soft.]
Perhaps. But he had the tesseract. You didn't see what it did when he first came through. [At least, Phil is mostly certain Clint didn't see what had happened. There is the barest hint of tightly controlled fear in that sentence. Seeing the Project PEGASUS base completely destroyed with no fiery explosion, no obvious cause was terrifying. Hill had been very lucky. Even if the bases destruction wasn't intentional... that much power could have given Loki anything. Could have destroyed anything. Completely.
So why didn't he? Suddenly there is a plethora of uncomfortable and quite frankly terrifying thoughts about what Loki didn't do, what he could have done. There is not enough information about Loki's motivations.
Phil pushes those thoughts away to be looked over later.]
I'm sorry.
[There really isn't much more he can say to that. Phil knows how hard Clint fought to rise above what he had done before joining SHIELD, and how he had made sure that Clint would never be used that way by SHIELD.
Clint's reassurance that Phil didn't make a mistake is warming but untrue.]
I shouldn't have looked away. That is what allowed him to get behind me.
[In Phil's voice it is a plain and simple recitation of fact. Something he'd accepted as his own error.
Even if it was only the briefest of glances away, he should have known better.]
[Action] Rollarcoaster of feels
Perhaps. But he had the tesseract. You didn't see what it did when he first came through. [At least, Phil is mostly certain Clint didn't see what had happened. There is the barest hint of tightly controlled fear in that sentence. Seeing the Project PEGASUS base completely destroyed with no fiery explosion, no obvious cause was terrifying. Hill had been very lucky. Even if the bases destruction wasn't intentional... that much power could have given Loki anything. Could have destroyed anything. Completely.
So why didn't he? Suddenly there is a plethora of uncomfortable and quite frankly terrifying thoughts about what Loki didn't do, what he could have done. There is not enough information about Loki's motivations.
Phil pushes those thoughts away to be looked over later.]
I'm sorry.
[There really isn't much more he can say to that. Phil knows how hard Clint fought to rise above what he had done before joining SHIELD, and how he had made sure that Clint would never be used that way by SHIELD.
Clint's reassurance that Phil didn't make a mistake is warming but untrue.]
I shouldn't have looked away. That is what allowed him to get behind me.
[In Phil's voice it is a plain and simple recitation of fact. Something he'd accepted as his own error.
Even if it was only the briefest of glances away, he should have known better.]