He wants her to have everything he can give her, paltry as it is. To have this hope, even knowing how it turns out - it has to help, doesn't it? When she's going through the worst that the cancer can throw at her, she'll know that William's still on the horizon. Everything that happens to her, she survives. Not unchanged, but she survives...and sometimes, she's happy.
There's more he can say about William than Emily, at least. And he does, in a low, soothing voice, wrapped up with her in this sad little embrace. "You told me you named him after my father, but I think we both knew better than to believe that. He was a good baby - big eyes. Observant, just like you. Your mother was over the moon when you told her."
What else? All the things he's imagined but never done, all the things he missed. Abduction and death kept him from her, and then his own desire to lead their enemies' attention away from their vulnerable little family. He can't share that; he's never shaken his regrets about the time he missed, or the shame of having abandoned her for what amounted to no reason whatsoever. If he'd stayed, if he'd stayed and fought - maybe it would have been worse, he knows that. But sometimes, when he's been awake too long, he thinks he could have kept them safe.
"It was...a strange situation," he admits, his eyes on her hands. She strokes the picture like he might feel her caress. "I don't think we ever figured out what we were going to tell him. Why his mother's friend Mulder hung around so much."
no subject
There's more he can say about William than Emily, at least. And he does, in a low, soothing voice, wrapped up with her in this sad little embrace. "You told me you named him after my father, but I think we both knew better than to believe that. He was a good baby - big eyes. Observant, just like you. Your mother was over the moon when you told her."
What else? All the things he's imagined but never done, all the things he missed. Abduction and death kept him from her, and then his own desire to lead their enemies' attention away from their vulnerable little family. He can't share that; he's never shaken his regrets about the time he missed, or the shame of having abandoned her for what amounted to no reason whatsoever. If he'd stayed, if he'd stayed and fought - maybe it would have been worse, he knows that. But sometimes, when he's been awake too long, he thinks he could have kept them safe.
"It was...a strange situation," he admits, his eyes on her hands. She strokes the picture like he might feel her caress. "I don't think we ever figured out what we were going to tell him. Why his mother's friend Mulder hung around so much."