"Getting a little lonely maybe?" Von Ulrich asked.
"No sir."
"Don't miss having people around. Your wife, your son?"
Barton wanted to laugh.
"Well, I'll be back to see you, Barton. I may be gone a year this time."
"Happy New Year," Barton said.
But it didn't seem like a year when Von Ulrich came back in his sleek little space-hopping clinic. It didn't seem like much of anything.
"You don't find the absence of women irritating, Barton?"
"I can take them or leave them, sir."
"Not here. There simply aren't any at all."