[ He's just finished his first bite as the loss of a child drops into the conversation, unexpected and terrible. There's no time to clear the dent of a frown from his brow before Jim fixes him with that rueful smile. It's not a pain he really knows, but it is one he's watched his own parents wade through and never quite come out the other side of. One he's experienced from a different angle and vehemently avoided ever since.
Jim turns it into an opportunity to talk gentle shit about himself. Stephen lets him. Cold comfort's barely better than none, but it's not nothing. ]
I know that. You're lucky I stole the limelight. [ There hadn't really been room for them both to fall apart, and oh boy did Stephen take the I'm The Asshole prize and run with it. But they were together for long enough before things took a dive. He has an idea of who he is - or at least who that version of him was.
The brief wry turn into camaraderie doesn't last, expression overtaken again by the crease of his brow, the tug of a frown. ] —I'm sorry, Jim. Your daughter.
[ And then the divorce. Pain in the ass or no, to go from having a family to just - not. Fairness has so very little to do with most things in life, and in this it really shows. ]
cw: child/sibling loss refs
Jim turns it into an opportunity to talk gentle shit about himself. Stephen lets him. Cold comfort's barely better than none, but it's not nothing. ]
I know that. You're lucky I stole the limelight. [ There hadn't really been room for them both to fall apart, and oh boy did Stephen take the I'm The Asshole prize and run with it. But they were together for long enough before things took a dive. He has an idea of who he is - or at least who that version of him was.
The brief wry turn into camaraderie doesn't last, expression overtaken again by the crease of his brow, the tug of a frown. ] —I'm sorry, Jim. Your daughter.
[ And then the divorce. Pain in the ass or no, to go from having a family to just - not. Fairness has so very little to do with most things in life, and in this it really shows. ]