[ Ben looks over at her then, raising his eyebrows, fake-offended. He knows she will probably be able to tell the difference, because she has actually seen him angry before. This is just a performance, a joke capitalizing on the humor of her saying at least she's still alive... to a guy who had been dead for a decade and a half. Ben adds: ]

Wow, okay, just brag about it why don't you? Harsh. Some of us didn't live past our teens, you know.

[ And he thinks Julie will get it. He can't joke like this with people who haven't been through awful things. But if she's so close to Klaus she must be okay with how he uses humor to cope, and Ben is similar, if less vocal about it most of the time.

That humor fades, though, when she begins to recite the people she'd lost, and... it's a long list. When she talks about people losing their will to go on, Ben says: ]

For what it's worth... I barely know you, but I can't picture you ever getting like that. You seem... strong.

[ And sometimes, when humor isn't enough to get through, all Ben has to fall back on is trying his hardest to feel useful, like he's accomplishing something, taking some action. He thinks that might be the key to helping Julie equalize after that nightmare swarm had terrorized her.

So, briskly, he says: ]

Come on, I've got a few places I wanna search to see if I can find you a backup inhaler for you. I won't know if it's the right kind unless you're there, though.