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[greyate]

"This is Jean. I can't answer right now. Leave a message and I'll get back to you."

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[greyate]

I don't want you to.

[ Not like he did. ]

[welcomeprofessor]

Sweetheart, never.

[greyate]

[ She doesn't respond. Not through text. She gets up and leaves the library, following the signature of his mind to find him. She's slow to approach when she does but, softly, ]

I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner.

[ A pause. ]

It never did seem like a good time to... go into all that.

[ Along with the other things they discussed. ]

[welcomeprofessor]

[ Truth told, 90% of this conversation shouldn't have been had over text, but the distance allowed the truth to surface, so he can't much fault her or even himself for allowing it. If it worked, it worked.

He shakes his head softly and waves her closer. ] Come here.

[greyate]

[ She walks over, ducking her head slightly, something she's always done out of habit and continues to do even now. Ever since her father brought her to the school, it's as if her shyness doubled down. ]

[welcomeprofessor]

[ The body language doesn't go unnoticed. Right now, he sees that same shy, wary girl he'd met almost a decade ago, no trace of the monster she seems so determined to illustrate. Wordlessly, he reaches forward to grasp her arm gently and pull her into a hug.

Somehow, he's certain, he isn't the only one who needs it.

He takes a moment to just let the gesture be, moving only to smooth down her hair in idle repetition, before he says anything. ]

I love you. Nothing changes that.

[greyate]

[ She doesn't hesitate to fall into the embrace, her arms wrapping around his shoulders and her cheek going to one shoulder, facing away from him but her arms tighten at the words. The tears well in her eyes and the walls she had kept up for so many months come down around her.

She embraces him again in her mind, Charles no longer in his chair and all the love she feels for him coming through the bond they've shared for many years now. Maybe not her father through blood but father in all the ways that mattered.

I love you, too. ]