Opposites Attract

Once a Father, Always A Father

Jeff watched the way his family had gravitated to Selene, the way they crowded around her, offering her silent support in one of her darkest hours. He could see now what John had meant when he had said that they all adored her.

His middle son was front and center for once, his arms wrapped around her waist as she took comfort in his embrace, leaning back against his chest. Behind them stood his two eldest, each with a hand resting protectively on her shoulders, and his two youngest flanked her, one on each side, both holding a hand.

She was holding it together, just as she had been every day since the morning of Rufus's passing, throwing herself into organising the perfect funeral. Looking at her now, her chin raised determinedly, her eyes clear and dry, focused on the spot in front of her where the curtains were closing around her father's coffin, you'd think that she was fine, but Jeff knew different.

He hadn't known her long, but since his return to earth he'd found himself noticing things that he'd taken for granted before. He picked up subtle clues as to a person's mood by their body language, the way their eyes moved, the set of their shoulders.

He noticed the stiff way she held herself, the way her fingers tightened around Gordon and Alan's, the way her head tipped to the side to rest her cheek against Scott's hand on her shoulder. Throughout it all she hadn't said a word, had kept a tight lid on her emotions, and he knew it was just a matter of time before she cracked. She was coping for now by avoiding talking about anything negative, likely avoiding thinking too, but that couldn't last forever.

Selene's brother and mother stood beside the Tracy bundle, Adam's arm around Celia's shoulders, the previously outspoken woman now a shell of herself, her face buried in her handkerchief.

Jeff had a sudden and very unwelcome memory of a similar ceremony, remembering the pain he had felt when he had buried both his father and his beloved wife. On the heels of that came the realisation that his sons and mother had likely been through the same with him, though without a body to bury.

They knew, perhaps better than anyone, that life could change in an instant, one moment you were alive and the next your life could be snuffed out, either from illness, injury or in Rufus's case, a sudden and fatal heart attack in his sleep. The thought that someone so loud and lively could go happily to bed and not wake up the next morning was hard to get your head around.

Jeff knew that had been given a second chance at life, he had come back from the dead. It just made him all the more determined to continue their mission to give as much help to those in need as possible, if they could prevent just one family from feeling the same pain as his daughter-in-law did now, then it was worth it.

It had been a lovely ceremony, which Sally had stepped in to help organise and Jeff had insisted on covering the cost of, refusing to listen to any arguments to the contrary. He had the money, they were now family and if he could have done more he would have in a heartbeat.

He patted his mother's shoulder as she discreetly wiped her eyes. Penelope, Parker, Brians and Kayo were still seated in the pews of the little church, apparently the same one that Celia and Rufus had married in thirty-two years before.

Other members of the Tempest family were squashed into the remaining seats, a sea of people that had come to honour the passing of someone that had been important to them all.

Selene had responded politely to various relations and family friends as they had trickled into the church, but her hugs lacked their usual warmth, she held herself stiffly apart from them and broke contact as soon as she could.

Troy had attempted to talk to her, but she'd stuck to generic answers and had escaped the conversation as soon as possible. Even Gordon had put aside his hostility towards the daring submarine Captain to talk to him and answer his questions regarding Selene and her father.