Ned struggles to keep clawing at the collar his shirt, but the only burst of strength he has quickly fades as Jon wrangles his hands back into submission. He exhales his defeat with a drawn-out breath, groaning a bit at the bubbling heat in his skin starting to form from where he'd scratched at his skin. He mumbles incoherent words and sounds, none of them having any particular meaning - especially not piecemeal and scattered they way they are now. What manages to come out eventually, however, is:

"I am proud of you for the man you've become, Jon. You've made me proud from the moment I took you home to Winterfell."