The Family [Finished]

[accalia]

"Huh. I knew he'd taken an interest in you, but i hadn't expected that. Where does the old blowhard live these days?" Bear seems only mildly surprised but doesn't press for more details, other than the whole "where do i drive" one.

[yamikuronue]

Vic sketches out the directions for him. "I ran into some issues, and... it didn't seem safe at home."

[accalia]

Bear nods "Family trouble. that can get pretty nasty."

Okay did bear mean Capital Family, or regular family? it sounded like Capital Family, but last time Vic assumed.....

[yamikuronue]

"You have family troubles?" asks Vic, trying to sound innocent.

[accalia]

"Not since I moved out here." Bear admits "It's amazing what a couple thousand miles will do for defusing family troubles."

[yamikuronue]

Dammit, that could go either way. "I guess." he says, looking out the window. "Course, you can sometimes find family anywhere."

[accalia]

Bear nods "Family is what you make it. If you count Tony there you've made a good choice. He's a good person to have your back."

[yamikuronue]

Definitely lowercase F, then. Vic nods. "I kind of figured that. But... I'm not really a good choice for him."

[accalia]

"Why do you say that?"

[yamikuronue]

Vic stares out the car window for a long moment. "He got hurt," he says, softly. "Because of me."

[accalia]

"How?" Bear asks softly 'Did you hurt him, or did he hurt himself?"

[yamikuronue]

"Someone was trying to hurt me. They got him instead. It wasn't his fight-- it wasn't anything to do with him. He shouldn't even have been there except... he wanted to fix it for me."

[accalia]

"So he did something he wanted to and it got him hurt and you're blaming yourself for it? Did you know it would hurt him before it happened? could you have stopped him even if you knew?"

[yamikuronue]

"I tried to stop him. I knew he'd get hurt. I didn't know how, but in this kind of thing, people always get hurt."

[accalia]

"I see." Bear says slowly 'So you didn't know that he would be hurt, but you thought he might. And could you have stopped him?"