9:30 AM - Isaac and Bishop
“This isn’t my first time holding a baby,” Isaac said with a shrug, giving Bishop a glance out of the corner of his eye before fixing his gaze back on Lincoln. It felt like a cop out though. It didn’t seem right to not mention Rose or Callie or the life that he’d had. What he was learning, the longer he was with Demi, was that being with her didn’t mean his past was to be forgotten. And his previous marriage and kids didn’t have to cheapen what he felt for her.
After a pause, Isaac looked away from Lincoln over to Bishop once more and added, “I had a daughter. So I’ve done my fair share of baby holding, actually.”
As much as Bishop had been hoping, despite their previous animosities, that that would be Isaac’s answer. Somehow he just knew that the only logical answer was that Callahan had had kids before, a family, one he no doubt lost because of the hell Austin had fallen into. “I’m sorry for your loss,” Bishop knew there wasn’t much else he could say, and while he was curious just how old Isaac’s daughter might have been, that wasn’t a question he felt comfortable asking the other man. “Reckon it feels like losing a part of you when you lose a child,” he couldn’t even imagine what it would feel like to lose Lincoln or Jackson -- he hoped, maybe selfishly, that he might never know what he felt like.
His gaze drifted back to where he had last seen Hazel with Jackson. “This world has taken a lot of people that should still be here.” Although if fate hadn’t worked out the way it had he wouldn’t have what he has right now, so Bishop reckoned he couldn’t be too cross at fate for the losses he had felt so far either.
While it had been getting easier to think about and talk about Callie and Rose, it was still painful. Added to the fact that Isaac was talking to probably one of the last people in Austin that he normally would choose to converse with made it all the more uncomfortable. He supposed it was nice that Bishop was trying to show a little sympathy, but it mostly just made him edgy and wanting to shut this whole thing down.
Not even in the mood to give a sassy remark about how Bishop would know about people leaving the world before their time -- he was still a Hellhound after all, even if the ice was thawing over the city -- Isaac just held the child back out for Bishop to take. “Yeah. Protecting the people we love is more important than ever. Anyway. I think they’re about to serve the food so we should go sit down.”
They were sitting at the same table, so it wasn’t like Isaac could escape him, but hopefully he’d sent the message that talking about his former family and whatever tragedy that might be was a topic of conversation that ended right now. Maybe one day they’d be in a place where they could bond over the duties of fatherhood, but it wasn’t quite that time yet. Baby steps.
Wordlessly Bishop took Lincoln back from Isaac and settled the little boy in his arms. In terms of how the conversation could have gone, Bishop was impressed with the sheer fact that it hadn’t been a complete and utter train wreck. Truth be told he didn’t ever expected the commissioner to become a close personal friend of his, but the fact that they had managed a civil -- if a tad on the grim -- conversation was good enough for him. He was two for two in conversations with people who have been very vocal about their dislike of his club, Bishop was going to call that a win.