(no subject)
Rollie never gave a lot of thought to becoming a father, even after Karen dropped into his life. Not that he doesn't think of Karen as his kid, but there's always that awareness that she has a family somewhere else. He hasn't had any serious relationships on the island, and frankly not for a lot of years before the island too. Kids just weren't something that was in the cards for him, and he was fine with that.
Technically he isn't a father now, but as he looks at the tiny bundle in his arms he knows that he sort of is in spite of himself. None of them ever saw things shaking out this way. Of all of the things they'd talked about--and given their offbeat family situation, there had been a lot of those--having Josiah's mother disappear shortly after his birth hadn't been one of them.
Missing Ainsley is still an ache that just never entirely goes away, so it's hard to imagine how much worse Shadow is feeling. There's a hole in their family and they haven't figured out yet just what to do to fill it.
But then, that's how things work on the island. The unexpected is the everyday, and family is whoever you chose them to be. And so Rollie went pretty abruptly from Uncle Rollie, backup caretaker and primary Karen wrangler, into something closer to a partnership.
A sudden burst of noise from the jukebox announces the arrival of its latest victim and wakes Josiah up, but he doesn't do much more than blink and flail a little bit, and Rollie just holds him close. He might not have thought a lot about becoming a father, but maybe it's a little more him than he ever thought it would be.
[ ooc: takes place after breakfast, st/lt welcome ]
Technically he isn't a father now, but as he looks at the tiny bundle in his arms he knows that he sort of is in spite of himself. None of them ever saw things shaking out this way. Of all of the things they'd talked about--and given their offbeat family situation, there had been a lot of those--having Josiah's mother disappear shortly after his birth hadn't been one of them.
Missing Ainsley is still an ache that just never entirely goes away, so it's hard to imagine how much worse Shadow is feeling. There's a hole in their family and they haven't figured out yet just what to do to fill it.
But then, that's how things work on the island. The unexpected is the everyday, and family is whoever you chose them to be. And so Rollie went pretty abruptly from Uncle Rollie, backup caretaker and primary Karen wrangler, into something closer to a partnership.
A sudden burst of noise from the jukebox announces the arrival of its latest victim and wakes Josiah up, but he doesn't do much more than blink and flail a little bit, and Rollie just holds him close. He might not have thought a lot about becoming a father, but maybe it's a little more him than he ever thought it would be.
[ ooc: takes place after breakfast, st/lt welcome ]