[ Alex doesn't flinch away from Michael's touch, but he doesn't really meet his eye. Shame. Embarrassment. All that- ]

...You're, like...the first...immortal, I guess, to give a damn about me as a real person. That's...a big thing, after everything, and...

[ Thinking back to that desperate moment, in which nothing really made sense... He remembers: ]

I couldn't just think you'd throw any of that away. I knew something had to be up.