Re: [New Year’s Eve: Hannah & Jeremiah]
She listened. Face turned up to his, cornflower gaze open, cornflower gaze curious. She couldn't imagine it, wondering and wondering, because she'd never, ever wondered. Marcus, when he'd spit the hateful words at her about what she was, had given no warning. There'd been no signs or tells, and she wondered how that had been for Jeremiah, the doubts and doubts. "I'm sorry," was the first thing she said, because it sounded hard. She thought it was probably hard for him, for his dad, for his fake dad and his real dad, and even for his mom and the secret she'd kept for years and years. But, mostly, she thought about how hard it was for him, and she thought about how hard it was to find out you weren't who you believed yourself to be. "That was brave. Doing the testing, talking, facing it. I'm not sure I would've done it," she said, and she wasn't sure at all. Even if she'd found hints and traces, she didn't think she would've gone looking. Going looking, that was brave. "Do you consider yourself as having two fathers now, or do you not like the one you thought was your dad forever?" she asked curiously, with her standard bluntness and without softening the question. Hannah wasn't really sure how much biology mattered, and that probably went a lot, lot deeper than this conversation. "Were you angry at your mom?"
She listened as he talked about his father, his real father, and she didn't sense the disparities he did. She hadn't seen him as anything but this gallant, attentive, quiet man. Someone who lived alone with his pets, and who liked dancing and quiet conversation. He was someone suffering from regrets and a broken heart, and she thought of him as some tragic hero. She knew he'd said he was different before, but when she saw him she saw this, this man, and this man wasn't very different from the tall man he spoke of, the one with the sharp cheekbones. "Why did you change your name?"
She nodded about Jamie being the dancer. "He's only a few years younger. It's not very much. My sister, Mars, she's the baby of the family. Where are your siblings now? Did you see them over the holidays too?" she asked, lost in the conversation and leaning easily into the hand that gripped her elbow.