He lets out a sound that's more sigh than laugh, but it's a little bit of a laugh. "Yeah. I figured. I just - I'm not the usual kind of case, is all."

He stares at the wall over the bed, eyes flicking over the note he'd written without really reading it.

"I thought I was just - here to be punished, after what happened. Case closed. I know it's stupid. Other people have been demoted and graduated. I'm not actually special. But I wasn't - I'm not really sorry for wanting to do what I did. And everything everyone told me - I never expected to be able to leave. So I don't know why I can now. I don't know what changed, except for things I don't like, and maybe them's the breaks, but I'd like to think that most people are happier after they graduate."

He is happy, in a lot of ways. But he's still afraid of losing it, and still afraid of what he has lost.