It would just be another repetition of what he's thought so many times. If only he'd listened. If only he'd communicated with the base to stay any attacks. If only they'd arrived in Jedha with a little more time. Over and over. He can wish as much as he wants but there's no undoing what's happened. If that were possible, he'd go further back than that. Instead, he'd looked at the future and tried to find a little bit more hope, to make Jyn understand that at least one person had believed her. More than one, actually.

"You threw all my instincts off," he admits, smiling a little ruefully. "I'd never formed any really close attachments. I'd never just trusted people, except maybe Kaytoo." And that's a little pathetic in and of itself. He'd had allies, contacts, backup, superior officers, but not friends. Jyn should have been a means to an objective. Their flight to Jedha had done nothing to inspire friendliness and yet, when it came down to the moment, he'd never really thought of leaving her behind.

"My whole life, my job was taking intel, figuring out how good it was, and moving on to the next source. The next mission." As soon as they'd made it off Jedha without the message, he should have scrubbed the rest of the plan and gone back to Yavin IV. "That's how I was supposed to see you, I think. But I never could. Even when you didn't trust me, even when you wanted to hurt me."

Slowly, he reaches over and gently tucks a wisp of hair behind Jyn's ear. "I've got the rest of my life for you to prove me wrong, at least."