He laughed, the sound muffled against her hair. "I should have told Fred to bring some Filibuster's," he joked. "We could send them off in style." He laughed again, though it was a choked sort of sound, almost a half sob.
Taking a deep breath to calm his emotions, he ran a hand over her back, trying to offer what little comfort he was capable of. "They need me to be their dad right now," he said. The unspoken part of that being, 'not a grieving husband'.