IC-Erin:
"..." Erin watched as Knower had his little temper tantrum, an eyebrow raised, and not a moment after the child had stopped talking, he'd moved. He'd grabbed James and the kid both, pulling them apart from each other, and stepping between them. Not a moment after that did he push Knower back slightly, the simple gesture evidencing the privacy he wanted; almost immediately, everybody went back to work.
"Now, Vincent, it's time we got something straight," Erin growled, shifting down to his more normal human form again. "First off, we don't blame you for anything, really; firing upon James before, that could have been easily prevented, but you've apologized times enough for that over the last two months. We say you shouldn't be here exactly what you just did." As Vincent looked at him for a moment, slightly confused, he gestured back to James.
"Believe it or not, you just exhibited signs of more than just Autism. Depression, the suicidal tendencies that could easily be read out of your evident self-loathing...but you know all this already. We don't have a place for people like that in SHIELD; it's more a liability than an asset, as I'm sure you understand. After that, any other problems you may have are being compounded by your young age. You aren't experiencing life the way you should, at all, and this is doing nothing but exacerbating previous mental disorders. But you know what? There's more.
"I've read before that your mind is your best friend. It keeps you entertained when there's no TV to watch, no book to read; but when it's left alone, it starts to turn on itself. Go cannibal. However, you can control this, if you just work at it...Look at how far you've come already. You've managed to last two months here, despite your previous mistakes, you're a part of a relatively high-up team in the organization, and you've helped, to some extent, subert and prevent disaster more than once. Why are you hating on yourself? Why are you letting our criticisms get to you?" He looked Vincent intently in the eye, now, and where Vincent might think he was the only one whose soul was so open through his eyes, he'd be wrong.
"We criticize you because we want you to get better, and look, you have. We aren't always the nicest about it, I'll admit that, but the people who trained us weren't always the nicest about it either. We treat you the way we were treated, and if you expect us to change that, don't hold your breath. That's not how it works for us. But you know what? You've done well, and you're going to do better. You've learned from your mistakes, and if you fall, you just have to pull yourself up again. So I'm going to say this right now: Stop hating on yourself. It does you no good. Rather, get up off your ***, pick yourself up by the bootstraps, go out, find a problem with the world, and fix it. That, or give up now and go home." Erin shrugged.
"There's your ultimatum. Either prove to us, once and for all that you get to stay here, or admit that you're not ready for it; don't stay in-between the two positions like you have. And if I ever see anybody here flare up like that again - be it you, James, or anybody else, know that I will personally remove them from active service. Do you understand me?"