"No, it would seem that it didn't." He replied, quiet but steady, "It wasn't as if it was guaranteed to work as it is." He replied, though it was with the cadence of trying to convince himself of it more than Charles. He knew he'd done the work correctly, it was only the alteration of the dates and the slapdash way of replacing them that was what might not work, and it hadn't.

He was mostly trying to remind himself that it wasn't an unexpected outcome. But that was harder to do than he hoped it would be. He was careful in stepping back out of the circle again, drawing Charles with him, "Back to the office, then, and back to the drawing board, so the saying goes."

It was only when he took a deep breath to steady himself again, trying to stave off the welling of emotion that was threatening to overwhelm him that he realized the tightness in his chest was gone, or seemed to be considerably looser, which was what had him pausing and then rolling up his sleeve, brow creasing at the lack of bruising that he'd been starting to finally get used to, "Well, it did do something, it seems."