One step back is better than a poke in the eye. He can appreciate the breathing room a lot more than the sarcasm, which earns her a narrow-eyed stare. Starting off with low blows? "Yeah? If it's so damn easy, you can tell the scientists off next time and get the hose before the chair."

He folds his arms, partly because he's feeling a little petulant at this stage and partly because it's less threatening somehow than just standing on the defensive. It makes him look a little more approachable, supposedly. He already feels weird, he feels tired which doesn't make any sense, he just woke up from some drug-induced sleep, he has no idea what time it is, and he's a lot more anxious about all of this than he wants to be. He can feel his heart speeding up a little as she slips into Russian, not exactly something he'd wanted to hear, bad things tended to follow when people started speaking Russian around him.

"Da," he shoots back warily. "Stiv kak cel' vygljadel real'nym takzhe. What's that supposed to prove?"