Re: TWD: graham + clem
That made him laugh. He did a whole lot of fussing over things that couldn't be changed, and it was a hard road to stopping. Maybe he could get there someday. Never thought he'd let go of Lore, after all, and he had, even if it felt like a part of himself being ripped away a second time. But everything she said, it made sense, and Graham nodded when she said it'd be best to tell Shane once they were out. "Yeah," he agreed. "Was what I thought, too. Didn't want him knowing while he was still here."
How Jake had ended up spoiled, he wasn't sure. His parents had doted on the boy, he knew, but he also knew his folks weren't a damn thing like the Murphys; was a difference between loving a child and spoiling them rotten. Maybe all that anger had something to do with it, too much and no way to handle it right. He'd known his son better as a kid than as an adult. But even now, he couldn't regret sending the boy back home. He regretting having to, but there was too good a chance that Jake would've ended up dead if he'd stayed with his father and he couldn't have lived with himself if that'd happened. "He might listen to you more than me." It surprised him, that Clem was willing to have him and Shane where she lived; it showed, too. "You'd let us stay with you?" From what he remembered of Jack, he seemed like a decent fellow. Graham got the feeling he didn't like him much, but if he'd listened to half of what Jake said, well, that wasn't surprising. Not like he minded; he was too old to care. "Aged down, huh? Don't sound like much fun."
He was quiet for a long stretch. "Think maybe people can love too much, sometimes." But he smiled a little when she squeezed his fingers again, and he brushed them against hers before she let go. "Got to say goodbye proper, at least," he said. "And I figure she went someplace better." He had to believe that, had to believe that she hadn't just disappeared and stopped existing completely.