(no subject)

It's such a damn relief to be coming back here with them instead of alone, and it's not the alone part that's bothered him so much as the lack of them. It hardly makes sense when he thinks about it that way, but shit, it's the way he feels: it's not about him. It's about all of them. As soon as they're through and into the living room, he sets that shit in his hands right down and reaches for Beth Junior: she's heavy in that backpack, sure, but he really wants to hold her.

"Hey, little princess." He almost can't stop looking at her: he wants both Beths in his line of sight. "Your mom says you guys have something to show me. This bounty hunter's all yours."

Junior gives him a big wide-eyed stare that morphs into a smile and then into a big laugh: he kisses her right on the belly, right through that tiny t-shirt of hers.

He flashes a huge smile of his own at Beth. "And yours. All yours, and damn, Beth, am I glad to see you. I love the hell out of both of you, ma'am."

Time's kind of funny: it has a way of making things seem so interminable when they're happening, but in retrospect -- when those things that inched along are all over -- it's like they didn't take any time at all. Hell, it's only been maybe a week. That's nothing.