“I’m not sympathetic,” Eden wanted that clear right off, “I know that Shannon deserves whatever the bloody hell happens to him now, that he brought it down upon himself.” But that didn’t mean there wasn’t still a part of her that didn’t want him to turn himself around, to be the better man that she’d seen glimpses of, that she had believed in all along. Cal had managed to pull himself together, to become this amazing new man that was worshipping Juniper and he’d been so much worse off then Shannon had, so….maybe it wasn’t impossible? “I just….I wish him the best, I wish him well, just…away from me.” There was no place for Eden in his life, she’d moved on past that when he’d shut her out in the beginning. She was finally, really healing now – she had Ian and the little ‘shifter fetus’ to focus on and they were both so much more worthy of her attention. “Cal would never pick Shannon over you and the baby, ever. I don’t think you’ve anything to worry about, period.” It was obvious that nothing was more important to him right now than his son and the mother of his child, but it was good to hear Juniper admit that she was perfectly aware of where she stood in her man’s life. “I’m sorry,” Eden slipped her arms around Ian for a moment, flashing him an apologetic smile, “I know this wasn’t quite what you anticipated for tonight and you’ve been wonderful.” Surely all this talk of Shannon wasn’t something he’d planned for. “Let’s get some food, yes. I didn’t eat before putting this thing on for fear it wouldn’t fit,” she laughed softly, taking his hand in hers. “Jun?” she glanced back to the were, “Coming, lovey?” Callum would just have to track them down – now that food had been mentioned, there was no deterring her.
“I didn’t mean it like that, hell,” Cal sighed heavily, glancing back to the group he’d left for a moment. “You and Eden….that never totally goes away, yeah? She’s always going to care about you, Shan, she’s just moved on. Because she had to. Whatever she saw in you, it’s still there, you’re just fucking tucking it aside because it’s easy. Eden’s not stupid and she’s not a fucking magician, she didn’t put something in you to make you a fucking good guy or pretend that you were when the two of you were together. You can be a decent bloke, if you want….but you can also be the biggest fucking prick I’ve ever met. It’s all up to you.” It was as simple as that – none of them could make Shannon be anything he didn’t want to be for himself. “Personally, I want my kid to know that version of you that I lived with before Vallis got his fucking hands on you,” Cal shrugged lightly, “but that’s just me.” Maybe he wouldn’t have a say in it, maybe that wasn’t possible…again, it was up to his brother. “Right,” that seemed to shake him out of whatever serious mood he’d been in, glancing over to see Jun’s little nod towards the food, “I should probably go back then.” He hadn’t intended to walk away for the duration of the night, he’d just wanted to check in on his brother and make sure that everything was ok, to diffuse any bombs before they went off. “Yeah, later. You can ring me up if you need anything..." He flashed his brother a slight smile, clasping his shoulder firmly for a moment before he took his leave, heading back across the room to slip his arm around Jun.