"Then they weren't people you needed in your life, Dolemeck. They weren't going to be any good for you if they'd stayed around. The people here are different, different from anyone I've ever met. You can trust the friends you've made here. And you can trust me in. Because I don't think fate is silly. I don't think anything you've said is silly."

He kissed Dolemeck on the forehead, almost reverently. "It must have been fate. I don't believe that SHIELD took an interest in me when they did, that I was where they could find me in the first place, that my healing factor kept me from dying of radiation sickness, all for nothing. All those things had to be leading somewhere, to something or someone, and who's to say it wasn't to you?"