Re: quicklog, hotel: graham & jake
I sent you home. To people who'd look after you, who loved you. You're alive, Jake. Means you were safe there. [Graham inhaled deep, deep, like if there was just enough breath in his lungs maybe he'd find the right words to say. He hadn't wanted to leave his son, but he really did believe he'd protected him. He'd done the best he could. The boy was alive, he wasn't dead like his mother; made a difference. Broken and living was still living, still more than a body buried way down deep.] I know I wasn't there. I know. But it wasn't because I didn't want to be. You got to know it wasn't that. I didn't want to leave you. Hardest damn thing I ever did, but I did it for you. [All those missed years haunted him, true as anything. He lamented what he'd lost, the things he should've been there for but wasn't. Nobody would call him a good father, he knew he wasn't one, but his choices had been well intentioned-- just real misguided.
But the baby, he'd always known that wasn't going to go over well. He knew, deep down, and that was why he'd put it off so long. Graham held out hope that rifts could be mended but this, this, it might sever all ties and he couldn't bear to think of it. Jake stared, and he stared back, throat tight and his head pounding something fierce.] Yeah. [He forced the words out.] A girl. [He swallowed, hard.] Wasn't intentional. Didn't plan it, Jake. I-- the hotel, it messes with your head. [His fingers found the side of his head to demonstrate.] There was a party. I thought... don't matter now. But it happened. Didn't mean for it to, but it did.
[Desperate, he looked down at the boy. His eyes were pleading, and his expression was tired.] Listen, I know I did wrong by you. I messed up real bad, and I'm sorry. I'll be sorry all my life. But things now, they're different. Constantos is dead. His daughter ain't here. It's safe. [He exhaled.] I'm still your father. You're still my son. I love you.