[It's not that Sam thinks he's in control of Tony - lord knows nobody is capable of controlling Tony Stark in his world, and he doesn't think it's feasible in any other, either. He'd been viewing the whole thing in the lens of Steve being the team leader, the one responsible for everyone else, and he belatedly realizes that might have been an incorrect assumption.]

I made a few deductions, watching you hover over him like that. [Hadn't eavesdropped - he'd been too busy conducting his own conversations - but it had been impossible to miss.] Don't know anything about his history, and I'm not gonna ask him about it. Which is what makes the whole thing real sticky, to be honest; I understand completely that you don't wanna violate his trust. But at the same time, I don't want to force him to talk about it. A lot of the time, and I'm just gonna make a wild guess and say this is one of them, substance abuse presents with other psychological issues. I'm not his therapist, I'm not treating him, so it's not a conversation I'm gonna have with him.

-and, honestly? This is one of the times when I absolutely would break that trust. [But Sam knows he looks at it as a trained therapist would, rather than as a friend.] No background required, just a moment of 'hey, Tony has problems with booze'. I'm sure you know that you never really recover completely from something like that, and- hell, it's not anything I'm holding against you, it's not even my guilt. It's cause I don't want him to be tempted. No matter how strong you are, no matter how recovered you think you are, whatever problems you have are just- waiting in the shadows. If I thought one of my friends needed that help, then you'd damn well better believe I'd do it and apologize to them later.