"Like she ever tells you no, anyway." Jamie laughed, an actual heartfelt (if somewhat quiet) laugh, for the first time in days. "I'll hold you to that defence, though. I've been on the receiving end of her lecture on sugar and cavities before."
Spearing another bite of cake off the slice, he shook his head. "It's not even that. It's knowing that something could be. You spent my whole life training and teaching us to be prepared, to be able to survive whatever disaster was just around the corner...but we never saw what was around the corner. Even the occasional threats made to the family by whichever lunatic thought anonymous threats could sway you to their way of thinking, were never really a threat. I've never lost anyone, never been afraid I would..."
He ate the cake he'd gathered on his fork and turned to look back out over mountains still gilded with early morning light. "Forget predict. I couldn't do anything to protect them. It's been my one job since the day we brought Al home from St. Mungo's and I failed miserably when it counted the most." It was the only thing his dad had ever said he trusted Jamie with, getting his siblings to safety in a crisis (even if it had been this younger version who didn't even really know much about Jamie, yet). So, he'd let all of his family down in one fell swoop.