"I promise." Was there much weight to that promise when at this very moment he could not help but envision his parents and how he'd kill them? How he'd try to inflict even a fraction of the suffering they had caused him and his brother? That their research was apparently still causing others now?

Probably not. But he looked at the words Sam had written and it made him smile. Made him happy that Sam had touched him again, of his own volition. He looked at him and they were so close now. How could he keep from asking Sam to hold him? "Thanks for meeting me."