Neal's lips tighten into a line so thin there's a rim of white around his mouth. It takes him a few seconds to disengage from the fury, to try and peel his own current anger apart from Malcolm's concerns.

"None of your friends or Will's friends would let that happen in any long-term way. If she, as his warden, feels the need to isolate him for a few days based on the incident, she is his warden, and from what I can tell people are matched for good reasons. Even if we can't always tell what they are."

He kisses Malcolm's forehead. "But no one, least of all me, is going to let the two of you be permanently separated because you're fucking upset that your boyfriend felt pushed to kill someone in preemptive self-defense."