[It's like a stab to the heart and a punch to the gut simultaneously. John takes a longer while to reply than he probably should. He knows that's not directed at him. Knows Nathan wouldn't even know to direct it at him. But he thinks of Rosie, thinks of how incapable he'd been of taking care of her after Mary as he drank the nights away and hallucinated his wife there. He thinks of the woman on the bus, the text exchanges, the words he'd never told Mary when she was alive in their world. And then she'd been gone. One of the few and only secrets John had ever kept from her and Sherlock because they believed in his loyalty, believed that he was a better man that he really was. And he thinks of his own father, a man who'd been physically present and mentally checked out, too concerned with his own life to care about anything except the standard check-boxes for parenting and a 'socially acceptable' family.
God.]
I'm sorry to hear there. How about you take care of yourself now? Keep warm, Nathan. I'll talk to you later.
cw: mentions of infidelity, mental health issues, alcoholism, child neglect
God.]
I'm sorry to hear there. How about you take care of yourself now? Keep warm, Nathan. I'll talk to you later.