There's a big difference between gone and absent. Dan didn't learn that until Bunny went back and changed the timeline Dan grew up in to save Dan's family. Dan still goes through the same cycle each morning; he wakes up, he wonders whether his brothers and sisters are awake yet, and then he remembers in painful harshness that he isn't home anymore and every other person he loved died in pain. Only now there's an additional step, remembering that they aren't dead at all, only dead to him, locked in a timeline he can never get to.
Absent, not gone.
Having just counseled Cammie through the horrors of learning that things weren't well back home, that Cammie's loved ones weren't safe and sound in her absence but starting to die as casualties in a war that would not yield, he can't say that Elle's people back home are in one piece. He can't guarantee her that. But to recognize that the pain at this moment is hers, not theirs, puts it into her control. Managing sadness over the suffering someone else is going through is harder than managing the grief of not having them near, in Dan's experience.
The grief is still there, no matter what. But it's easier.
He rubs her back and pulls her in close. "I've got you."
no subject
There's a big difference between gone and absent. Dan didn't learn that until Bunny went back and changed the timeline Dan grew up in to save Dan's family. Dan still goes through the same cycle each morning; he wakes up, he wonders whether his brothers and sisters are awake yet, and then he remembers in painful harshness that he isn't home anymore and every other person he loved died in pain. Only now there's an additional step, remembering that they aren't dead at all, only dead to him, locked in a timeline he can never get to.
Absent, not gone.
Having just counseled Cammie through the horrors of learning that things weren't well back home, that Cammie's loved ones weren't safe and sound in her absence but starting to die as casualties in a war that would not yield, he can't say that Elle's people back home are in one piece. He can't guarantee her that. But to recognize that the pain at this moment is hers, not theirs, puts it into her control. Managing sadness over the suffering someone else is going through is harder than managing the grief of not having them near, in Dan's experience.
The grief is still there, no matter what. But it's easier.
He rubs her back and pulls her in close. "I've got you."