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.
Rufus's wake had been a less somber affair than Jeff had expected, the family sharing laughter and stories about the things he had done or said over the years, but Selene didn't seem to have any desire to join in. She sat quietly in a corner, John beside her, and kept to herself.
She had accepted the food that Virgil brought over for her but after picking up various morsels and discarding them still untasted, she had pushed the plate aside.
She'd smiled at Gordon when he'd brought her a bottle of her favourite cider, but after one sip she'd left it untouched.
Jeff had invited Adam and Celia to join them for a visit but they had politely declined, Celia wanting to stay somewhere where she was surrounded by her memories and reminders of her husband. Selene had wanted to be with John and even though he had offered to stay with her at her parents house, she had refused.
She'd been silent on the flight home which was so unlike her that each and every one of them was worried, but none more so than John and Scott.
In the two days after the funeral Selene had withdrawn even more, often taking off by herself for a walk around the island, something she never normally did. She was forever bugging them to go with her, to keep her company, to chat to her, to spend time with her. But not this time. She would wander off in the middle of the night, or early in the morning, leaving John asleep, unable to settle for any length of time. The simple act of moving was soothing for her, it gave her a focus, took her mind off the thoughts and memories that she was only just keeping at bay.
***
It was ridiculously early when Jeff entered the lounge, still finding it hard to train his body and mind into a regular sleep routine, yet John and Scott were already there, talking quietly over cups of coffee. They had spare cups and the coffee pot on the table in front of them and Scott poured Jeff one, sliding it over as their dad took a seat.
"Thanks," he took a grateful sip. "Everyone else in bed I take it?"
"Selene's been up for an hour or so, she's not been sleeping much, she didn't say where she was going."
"Don't you think that one of you should go and find her?"
Scott shook his head. "We've tried, Dad, there's no point at the moment, she doesn't want to talk, she wants to be left alone."
Jeff drained half his coffee, needing the caffeine, hoping it would make him feel a little more human. "What she wants and what she needs are two different things. How many times have you heard her say that?"
"Too many to count," John admitted.
"Sometimes you have to make someone do something they don't want to for their own good."
"How do we do that? We can't force her to open up if she doesn't want to. She's just lost her father, we don't want to make her feel worse, we know what that's like," Scott explained.
"You boys are too soft with her."
"Now wait a minute, that's not fair," Scott protested. "No matter what we tell her it doesn't change the fact that, yes we went through losing our father, but we got you back. She won't have that luxury."
"I didn't mean it negatively, don't get riled up," Jeff soothed. "I meant that you two are too close to her, naturally you don't want to hurt her, I understand that. But it also means that you won't push her like she needs."
Both of his sons stared back at him, waiting for him to finish making his point. Jeff drained his mug and replaced it on the tray before he continued.
"I might not have known her long, but I know that she's a very emotionally driven person, her shutting down like this is not going to do her any good in the long term. The longer it continues the longer it will take her to start healing."
"Then how do we help her?" John wanted to know.
"You don't have to do anything," Jeff hauled his tired self to his feet. "I do."
"You?" John hadn't meant for it to come out with such a tone of disbelief but he couldn't take it back now.
"Yes, me."
Scott and John exchanged glances.
"I might not have had a daughter, but I'm still a father, and that's what she needs right now," Jeff insisted. "Don't worry, she'll be fine, I'll make sure of it."
***
Selene didn't have her comm on her, but it wasn't hard to find her, the whole house being wired with CC-TV and alarms on most of the outside doors, as well as many of the doors that led to different areas of the island, a security measure he had insisted on.
He checked the household log and found that she had let herself into the Cliff House guest accommodation just over an hour before.
Jeff took the quicker route of going through Two's hanger rather than the long way around the Villa. He found her sitting out in the patio deck, her legs dangling down beneath the railing. She was gazing out past Two's runway to the sea where the sun was just beginning to colour the horizon, although with it facing west, it was usually chosen for its glorious view of the sunset. Jeff cleared his throat loudly, announcing his presence.
Selene jumped out of her skin, having been so lost in her own thoughts she hadn't heard his footsteps coming up behind her. Her gifts, which usually allowed her to feel the presence of another, apparently failing her miserably.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, I just saw you up here and wondered if I could join you?"
Selene shrugged, turning back to her view. "It's your island, I can hardly so no, can I?"
"Would you say no?"
"Probably," she answered honestly. "I'm not very good company right now."
Jeff didn't give her a chance to actually say no. He dragged over a chair and sat down near her, careful not to crowd her and he waited.
The sea below was tinged orange with the rising sun and once again Jeff was awestruck by the sheer beauty and wonder of a sight that he had never thought he'd ever see again. Unfortunately he seemed like the only one appreciating the spectacle, Selene was staring blankly, not a hint of expression or enjoyment on her usually expressive face.
"Are you alright? Do you want to talk?"
"I'm fine."
"I don't believe you."
Selene didn't even turn to look at him.
"That's up to you, I don't care what you believe."
"Selene, you're not fine."
"Yes, I am."
"Fine, you might be, but do you know who isn't? My boys, my mother. Your fiancé and your best friend, they aren't OK."
"Of course they are, why wouldn't they be?"
"Because they love you, and they are worried about you. You might be grieving, but they are grieving for you. Especially John, you're shutting him out, which for him is a big thing. You forced him to open up and now you're acting like you don't care about him."
She finally turned to look at him.
"Of course I care about him, I love him, he's the only thing that I do give a shit about right now."
One of Jeff's eyebrows rose in surprise. That was something he'd never thought he'd hear her say. That just wasn't Selene. The first thing he'd learnt about her was that she cared about everything and everyone, perhaps too much most days. She was always trying to fix things and help people, she was their emotional support witch.
She had taken on a very active role in his recovery, making him nourishing, health support food every day, researching the kind of supplements his body needed and how best to build up his strength slowly over time so as not to do more harm than good. She had accompanied him on short walks, exploring a different part of the island every day, insisting that it was for her benefit more than his because she'd not had much of a chance to see all her new home had to offer, but he knew it was because she worried about him. She had done everything she could to let him keep control over his life while gently pushing him to get better, and now he had to do the same for her.
It was Selene that always seemed to sense when he needed a break, when he was feeling overwhelmed or crowded and made sure that he got the peace he needed. Or when the opposite was true and he needed more support and company, she was the one that was always there. She really did seem to have a sixth sense when it came to the needs of others.
He'd watched how she was with his boys, how she always checked on them after a rescue, instinctively knowing exactly what they needed and when. So for her to actually admit that she didn't care, that was big and it was wrong.
"What do you mean, you care about everything? You feel for everyone."
Selene shrugged vaguely, turning back to the sea view. "That's exactly the problem, I don't."
"Pardon?"
"I don't feel anything right now." Selene repeated, her tone one of quiet acceptance. Scooting back from the edge she dragged her legs out from under the railing, getting to her feet.
"I don't feel anything or anyone and quite honestly I like it, it's better this way. I don't want to feel, I don't want to think."
"Selene," Jeff sighed. "I know that you think that's the best way to be, but you can't continue this way."
"Says who?" Her arms crossed defensively.
"Me, and I'm talking from experience. I thought the same way as you, that running away and ignoring the pain was the right way to handle my grief. But it wasn't. You have to let it out, you have to face it."
"That's the problem, I'm not feeling grief, I'm not feeling anything and I don't know why! I should be feeling something, shouldn't I? I should be going out of my mind with grief, I should be a sobbing mess. But I'm not, I'm numb! I walk around this house and I don't feel anything! No comforting presences, no sense of home, no love. Nothing."
Jeff let her ramble, let her pace the patio. She needed to let everything out, no matter how much she might think she couldn't.
"I don't feel right, I don't feel like me! I should feel something! But I don't. I feel empty, like I'm blocked. All the things I've relied on my whole life, my senses, my gifts, my dad, they've all abandoned me!"
"Your dad didn't abandon you," Jeff started, but she cut him off.
"No, he didn't, he died. If he had left me I would have the right to be angry about it. But he didn't, my dad died. My dad, he died, while I was asleep down the hall. My dad had died and I didn't know. How could I not have known. Jeff? How could I have not felt it? What if he came to me and I was asleep and I didn't see him?" Selene's voice had risen steadily with each passing word, taking on a hysterical tone.
"What if he needed me and I wasn't there? What if he was right there, wanting to say goodbye to me and I robbed him of that chance? I wasted that chance to talk to my father for the last time and I can't undo that! What's the good of having these stupid gifts if they don't help me when I need them?"
Jeff didn't know what to say and for a second he wondered if he hadn't been a tad over confident when he had promised his sons that he would help their girl. He didn't know anything of the things she was ranting about, powers, gifts, they were all alien to him. He dealt in facts, he dealt in things that he could see, touch, hear, smell, things that were concrete and real.
He took a deep breath, summoning up that core of inner strength that had kept him going through eight years of survival in deep space. He might not know anything about her world, but she was in his and he wouldn't let her down.
"Selene, you can't blame yourself for this."
"Then who can I blame? He didn't deserve to die."
"No one deserves to die, but when it's their time-"
"No!" she exploded. "Don't you dare pull that fucking shit on me, don't you dare. I know that line, I parrot that line every fucking time someone comes to me when they've lost someone. I feed them that bullshit and I tell them it's going to get better, that it'll be alright. But it won' t, it won't be alright, nothing will ever be right again!"
"It will, I promise you, it will get better. It won't be right but it will be easier," Jeff promised her.
"I'll tell you what's not right!" Selene rounded on him. "What's not right is the fact that my dad is dead. He was happy that night, so happy. And he was a good person, he lived a good life, a safe life, he never did anything dangerous, he never took stupid risks."
Finally she was feeling something, even if it was anger.
"Not like us, we put our lives on the line every day to save people that take stupid risks and we save them!" she raged.
Selene let out a scream of pure rage, the noise rattling the windows of the Cliff House. But it wasn't enough. She'd done the one thing she hadn't wanted to do. She'd let herself think. Before she had been numb, now she was angry. So angry that she didn't know how to cope.
Her eyes darted here and there, desperately searching for something, anything... an ashtray on the patio table was the first thing to hand and was soon flying over the balcony to smash onto the runway below. A chair followed, not sailing as far or as high but impressive in its trajectory nonetheless.
She grabbed for the large umbrella, still folded in its stand but Jeff stopped her, not because he cared about any of the things she was destroying, she could smash up the entire house if she wanted, but he knew it wouldn't do any good. It might make her feel better, but it would be temporary and then she'd feel worse, faced with the physical evidence of her loss.
He caught hold of her arm, using it to tug her closer.
"No!" she screamed. "Let me go! Don't touch me."
"Selene-"
"No! No!"
Jeff did the only thing he could think of. He wrapped his arms around her. She went wild, her arms flailing as she tried to break his hold, her hands balled into fists that rained down on his chest and shoulders.
"Why did he have to die? Why do we have to save other people when no one could save him? Why is he gone?"
Jeff tightened his arms, pulling her against his chest and squeezing her hard. Her hands slapped at his shoulders, his back but he didn't let up, keeping the pressure on her.
"Why did this happen? I don't want to feel this, I don't want this to hurt so much."
"I know, and I'm sorry."
She sagged in his arms, all the fight leaving her in a rush as she burst into tears.
He held her as she cried, her face buried in his chest, her tears soaking through his shirt but he didn't let go.
She sobbed as if her heart was breaking, which he guessed it was. Her whole body was shaking as the emotions she had been suppressing broke free. The barrier that had held her gifts grief bound crumbled along with her tightly held control, stealing her breath, leaving her gasping for air as the sudden rush of emotions washed over her. The sudden pain of her loss overwhelming her to the point where she was struggling to breath, struggling to cope, her heart pounding in her chest.
Now that her senses were awake she could feel the rest of the family, feel their pain at her distress and distance, the love they had for her, along with the worry and hopelessness. They wanted to help her, but didn't know how. They felt guilt that they couldn't help her, guilt that they had their father back and that hurt them all the more. The knowledge that she had done that to them, that they were suffering because of her just made things worse.
She turned her head, leaning against his shoulder, sucking in a few trembling breaths, trying to calm herself and get a grip on both her empathic powers and herself.
Jeff himself was emitting a deep calming energy, compassionate and soft but with the same strong, capable feeling she got from Scott. She concentrated, focusing on Jeff, pushing aside the others as much as she could. Good, this was good, this was easier.
Her arms wrapped slowly, tentatively around him, accepting the comfort he offered, feeling the solid strength that still resided in his too thin body. She got a sense then of how he might have been before his ordeal, of how much he had suffered and was still suffering. Immediately guilt assaulted her.
"Oh, oh gods, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so so sorry," she stuttered. "I'm sorry, you don't need my shit on top of your own. I shouldn't be here, I should be on my own. I'm sorry!"
Jeff frowned, loosening his arms so he could tuck a finger under her chin and lift her head, gently forcing her to look at him.
"Where else should you be?"
"I should be at home, I don't belong here right now, I shouldn't be dragging you all down with me."
Jeff snorted. "Don't talk nonsense. You are home, any idiot can see you belong right here. If we'd lost someone I know you'd never go anywhere because you'd want to be there for them. So give us the chance to do the same."
"But none of you need this right now."
"No, we need you. My boys need you to be their Selene again."
"What if I can't be me again?"
He let her go when she pushed away, taking a neatly folded handkerchief out of his pocket and offering it to her.
She took it, looking surprised to find that she did indeed need it. She took a few more shuddering breaths as she scrubbed at her eyes, mopping up the evidence of her breakdown.
Jeff pulled up another chair beside his own and lowered his weary body into his seat, already feeling the bruises forming where her fists had made contact with his flesh but he refused to let his discomfort show. He gestured to the spare chair, pleased when she sank down into it.
"It's going to take time for you to start to feel like yourself again, but it will happen. And we'll be here for you for as long as it takes. You aren't going anywhere and neither are we."
"I thought it was hard when I lost my grandparents, I thought I'd never get over it, I still don't think I have, not completely. But this is different, they were older, already so poorly, I had time to get used to the idea that they wouldn't be around much longer. Dad was fine. He was completely fine, there with us just a few hours before, he wasn't even the slightest bit sick."
Jeff sighed, feeling so weary at that moment, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. He knew that his boys were almost all grown up and probably didn't even need him anymore, they'd been on their own for eight years and had coped just fine, more than coped, they had flourished, yet he still felt the need to jump in and fix things for them. He supposed, as a parent that urge never went away no matter how old your children were.
"When I lost my wife and father in the same accident, I thought I'd never see a light at the end of the tunnel. I was drowning in the darkness of loss and grief and I couldn't see a way out of it."
"What did you do? How did you deal with it?"
"I tried to carry on as normal, but it didn't work, so I left. I felt like I had to. Every time I looked at my boys I saw a part of Lucy staring back at me. Mother seemed to be coping so much better than I was, she was so strong, the strongest woman I know, and threw herself into looking after the boys and me. I guess we gave her a purpose but I felt like I'd lost mine."
Selene had pulled her knees up against her chest and wrapped her arms around them, curling in on herself as much as was possible in a patio chair and was watching him intently, like she was waiting for some pearl of wisdom that he didn't think he could give her.
She looked so young, innocent and lost. She didn't always wear her dark, dramatic eye makeup, in fact she hardly ever did for just hanging around the house, but she always seemed to have an air of confidence and strength to her, reminding him of a female Scott. But now, with a tired look in her eyes, pallid skin, her hair hanging limply and a defeated slump to her shoulders, she looked like a scared little girl.
"I needed to feel like the world made sense again, because the thought that two people so important and precious to me had been stolen from my life in a matter of seconds was too much to think about. I tried to remember a time when I'd felt at peace, when I'd been able to just stop and think, and I remembered an island I'd been purposely marooned on as part of my survival training."
"This island?" she clarified, having been told the story by Scott.
"Yes, this island, but something went wrong and I didnt make it here. I crashed on another and was injured, breaking my leg. Do you know the rest of the story?"
"Scott said that you were found and looked after by Kayo and her dad and it was during that time that you saw a boat sinking, and that was what prompted you to do something to help others."
"That's right, but do you know what that gave me?"
"A headache?"
Jeff chuckled, more than pleased to see that tiny hint of her usual cheeky humour making an appearance, albeit a brief one. "It certainly did that, many times in fact, but I was referring to the fact that it gave me a purpose. It gave me something to focus on and a goal to work towards. That's what you need, and that's what you have here with us, because there will always be someone out there that will need us, that will need you."
"No one needs me, I don't do all that rescuing stuff, I'm not the hero type."
"You do, just in your own way. We have enough of the hero type, as you put it. We have our quota of hotheads, daredevils, risk takers and hard asses , we needed a softer influence on the team, and you've brought that. I've read the mission reports, hell, I've read every mission report from the day after I got jettisoned until the day I was rescued, and I've seen some of the ways you've helped. So don't you tell me I don't need you on my team."
"What if I can't do it?" Her voice was low, barely more than a whisper, but his sensitive hearing picked it up just fine. "What if I can't deal with the pain?" Selene rubbed absently at her chest as if her heart physically hurt her. "What if this has affected me so much that I can't find it in me to help anyone ever again?"
"I can't make up for the loss you've suffered, it will always feel like a hole in your life where a piece is missing. I can't compare to your father, but I am a father and you're marrying my son, and to me that makes you as good as my daughter. When you need a father, I'll be there."
She didn't acknowledge his offer, but he didn't mind that, he knew that she'd heard him and that she had appreciated it.
"I don't think I'm ready to let him go yet," her voice, choked with emotion now, was so unlike the cold, disengaged tone of the past few weeks. Tears leaked from her eyes again, but they were controlled.
"Who says you have to? We don't forget those we've lost, we remember them and we continue to live for them."
Selene nodded, dabbing her eyes with the hankie again, although this time when she looked out of the shimmering water he could see her eyes tracking the movement of the waves, saw the spark of wonder in them as a dolphin popped its head up from the depths. She'd be alright. She wasn't alone.
"Thank you for coming to find me, and for not shouting at me when I started throwing your things, or when I punched you, or snotted on your shirt. Shit I'm such a mess, I'm so sorry, I'm a disaster."
"You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for, besides, we needed new chairs anyway, these have been here since before my extended space trip. Now," Jeff stood up, holding out a hand to her, "are you ready to go back inside and get some breakfast?"
Selene took her time to think about it, but eventually she nodded, taking his offered hand.
***
To say that he wasn't a little relieved to hand her over to John would have meant lying to himself, and Jeff was a big one for honesty.
He saw the relief on the faces of his sons when they got to wrap their arms around her and have her respond, hugging them back tightly and actually being present in the moment rather than just going through the motions.
Honestly, when he'd followed her out onto that balcony he'd had no clue what he was going to do or say, he'd just known that he had to do something. He'd not been there for his boys in the longest time and now they seemed pretty capable of dealing on their own.
Helping Selene had been his chance to actually feel useful, to feel like he still had a purpose and a place within the family. He'd lost count of the times that he'd been about to step in and make a decision or a comment, to offer advice, but one of the others had gotten there first. Everyone deferred to Scott, even when Jeff himself was sitting there. He knew, logically, that it was a force of habit on their part and that he had no right to expect things to be any different. Yet he couldn't help but want the familiarity of the past. He'd once felt like an integral part of the operation, now he felt like a broken cog that was slowly down the whole machine.
Was it selfish of him to have gotten a little enjoyment out of feeling needed? Should he feel so proud of the fact that he was the only one that had been able to get through to her in weeks? That even her best friend and future husband, the two people who knew her best, had struggled, yet he'd been the one to do the seemingly impossible.
"Scott, can you get us some breakfast?" Jeff asked and Scott nodded, pleased to be of some use.
Selene was installed on the couch beside John when Scott returned with a simple meal of toast and fruit and, although she didn't eat as much as she usually would, it was still far more than she had been and was a relief for them to see. They had been worried that she would make herself ill, lack of food on top of little to no rest was a recipe for disaster.
Jeff helped himself to some toast, chatting easily with Scott, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Selene lean closer to John. His son's arm slipped easily around her shoulders and it wasn't long before her eyes started drifting shut.
With Scott's help John managed to settle her more comfortably on the couch, tucking a pillow under her head and covering her over with a blanket.
They quietly left the lounge, leaving her to her rest, weeks of exhaustion finally catching up with her.
It was more than six hours later that Jeff snuck quietly into the lounge, needing some paperwork from his desk. He'd kept everyone out of the lounge for the majority of the day, knowing she needed the peace and he couldn't trust any of his boys not to wake her.
He glanced over to make sure she was still resting peacefully and blinked in shock. He looked again to make sure he was seeing correctly. But no, he hadn't gone mad, there really was a wolf sprawled out next to her on the couch. Her arm was around its middle and, most bizarrely of all, Armstrong was curled up on the beasts rump.
The wolf lifted its head in acknowledgement of his presence, letting out a soft woof of greeting. Jeff moved closer. Instead of the amber eyes one would expect he was confronted with the truth. The instantly recognisable chocolate brown ones of his second son stared back at him.
What had happened to make this a reality? None of the boys had shown any signs, he had assumed that it had skipped them just as it had their mother. Obviously he had been wrong. His mind whirled, trying to imagine how it had happened, what had gone wrong, how unprepared they had been.
"Virgil," he started, but he didn't know where to go from there. He sighed. "We're going to have words later," he promised in a whisper. The wolf whined softly and lowered his head in defeat. Oh yes, he knew he was in trouble.
Selene didn't seem bothered by his son's furry appearance, in fact she was treating him like a giant Teddy bear. Her face was buried in the fur at the back of his neck, her arm holding him tight, taking comfort in his warm presence. That showed him that it had to be a fairly normal occurrence, though he was beginning to wonder just what counted as normal any more where his family was concerned. But it led to the question of what other secrets they might be keeping from him.
Shaking his head Jeff left the room, returning to the kitchen and his assembled family.
"So, just when were you all planning to tell me that my son was a werewolf?"