[...he'd accept the gesture. Pluck one up, put it to his lips, light up. Take a drag. And set the lighter back down, listening.]

.....

[Again, Baji wasn't smart. He'd be the first to tell you that.

But when it came to his friends; the people he loved; he might as well have been a bonafide Nobel Prize-winning genius.

So he'd say the fucking logical thing that Mikey didn't seem to be processing.]

...if you were a dumbass, and killed yourself right after, then you fucking felt something, Mikey.

[He wasn't gonna question how Mikey killed a guy that then had the energy and gumption to run up and hold him aloft off the side of a roof--sometimes, people took a minute to die. But...]

You didn't even let him die first before you put the hit on yourself. So don't tell me it doesn't weigh.

...maybe it isn't weighin' right, you gotta get your pressure gauge back in tact... but it's not gone. Even if you've done a lot of bad shit... even if you're having trouble feelin'...

You don't wanna be. Who'd wanna feel like you do, all the time? ...must be like torture, Mikey.

[Another slow breath of smoke out.]