"Alright," Warren sighed the sigh of a British man who intended to end something before it worsened. Fairly common sigh, ask Brian. "Story time." He teased with a rye smile and twinkle in his eye. "Remember right after Ren was born?" Of course she did, but he continued. "I was a young and energetic, just-out-of-the-academy police officer," a chap he felt a million miles away from at the moment. "But after the first time I held her, I started to doubt my path. Maybe being a cop was too dangerous? I was the department's first out mutant uniformed cop after all, so I thought perhaps I'd be a business man." Like his dad, except not. "Do you remember Cameron Hodge? He was this twit I grew up with - boarding school, college... follower mostly. But I thought he was a friend, so when he came to me with his plan to a start I business I listened. A good idea, I thought. Ol' Cameron was convinced the problem with mutants was PR. So, he laid out the plans for a pro-mutant public relations group called X-factor, with yours truly as the face of. In hindsight, he certainly knew how to play to my vanity." Angel smiled, but also winced a bit at the memory. "So I wrote him a check, along with a senator, and a few other city big wigs. Anyway, long story, slightly shorter - Dawson and I were partnered and patrolling together when this rash of muggings spiked in Central Park. Not too unusual, but we sat on it. After a while he noticed a pattern, bumped it upstairs, turns out they were gang initiations. The detectives tracked the gang, it's headquarters, the building Cameron had used my money to buy. X-factor was really a front for his anti-mutant upstart The Right." He cringed a bit, but continued. "What we found... haunts me, Eva. " He squeezed her knee harder, and used it to steady himself. "Why didn't I question it? Or you know, investigate, follow up... do anything?" He'd written a blank check to a madman based on a friendly relationship and pie in the sky dreams of being the face of a pro-mutant movement. "It got swept under the rug because of all the important people that would have been embarrassed. And you know, because the district attorney believed it was more likely I was an idiot rather than an mutant-hater." He chuckled, although it was the self-deprecating sort. "I don't talk about it because I spent years running from it. Like a boulder rolling after me, just when I thought I was out of it's shadow it sped up. It's why I stayed with the force - made detective so quickly, gave Charles whatever he wanted." Money mostly. "But that's the secret, Eva. We all fuck up. It's what you do with it. I know I helped people I wouldn't have helped if I'd quit being a cop. Just like we fucked this up." Ren, Ronan, Dawson - it was cluster fuck. "But what are we going to do - punish ourselves? Sure. But we aren't going to wallow in it."
He kissed his wife's forehead, broad, self-assured-smile plastered on his face. "Ren's going to make it through this, stronger than she was before. We're going to make it through this stronger than we were before. Ronan's going to get some help, Dawson's going to get a vacation. Honestly, this is a win." He laughed again, this time more earnestly. "When Ren's up we should go to Disney World."