Hartley took the headphones off and closed his eyes, quickly putting one of the earpieces in. He needed to focus to make sure it did its thing and was on the right setting, biting down on his lower lip, because of course he hurt. He repeated the process on the other side, finally cursing under his breath and covering his ears with his hands while he lowered his head. It was just never much fun, but the worst of it all was really the bad memories it brought up.

"I can hear you now."