(Untitled)

[wayward_dad]

[Backdated to January 2, after the blizzard has stopped.]Yesterday hadn't been too bad. Somehow he had managed to not wake up with a damned hangover. However John had escaped that was beyond him but he wasn't planning on complaining. He'd wanted to go out and check in with Sharon for a variety of reasons (to ask about Kara, to smooth over the

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[blessed_by_god]

Sharon heard someone approach outside and looked over toward the door flap just as someone knocked on the wooden frame. "Come in," she called from where she was reading on the bed, expecting it to be either Kara, or someone else from New Atlantis.

[wayward_dad]

John waited until he heard Sharon's invitation, then lifted the yurt's flap and ducked inside. Cheeks red from the cold and slight wind, he turned to fuss with the flap, making sure it was properly shut first.

When he turned around, he gave her a somewhat sheepish smile. "Hey," he greeted, keeping by the doorway.

[blessed_by_god]

John was honestly one of the last people she expected to walk through her door, and just sort of stared at him for a long moment.

"What in the world are you doing out in all that snow?" she asked. She set the book down, standing up with a glance to Hera, who was napping in her bed. "Here, take your boots off..."

[wayward_dad]

He shrugged a little, gloved hands digging deeper into the pockets of the barn coat he'd gotten from the clothes box right when all this winter weather hit. "Came to make sure you and Hera were okay," he said simply.

At her invitation, he pulled his hands out of his coat pockets and tugged the gloves off. After stuffing them in the coat pockets, he leaned down to loosen the laces of his snow-crusted work boots.

[blessed_by_god]

"Oh...yeah, we got back before the worst of the storm had hit," Sharon said, slowly sitting back down on the edge of the bed. It wasn't exactly like she needed to take his boots off for him.

"Thank you," she added, a little belated. "How've you been holding up? I hope your yurt didn't collapse."

[wayward_dad]

After getting out of his boots (by stepping on the heels of each one and pulling his feet out), John set them beside what now passed for the wall near the door. He stayed right where he was, by the door, because he didn't want to make Sharon any more uncomfortable than he likely did the other night.

"I'm glad," he said, gaze resting on the sleeping Hera for a long moment before sliding back to her mother. "That weather's a bear to get caught in." He rubbed absently at the stubble along the line of his jaw. "No, the boys and I got most of the snow and ice off the top. We're good."

[blessed_by_god]

"You can come sit down, if you want," Sharon said, feeling more than a little awkward. She hadn't ever had John in her hut, or yurt, or whatever. In fact, she was pretty sure the only people who'd been in it were Kara and Joe. "I don't know if you just dropped by, or..."

[wayward_dad]

He nodded, one corner of his mouth hitching a little, almost reminiscent of the shy, respectful man he'd been at Sam's age. "Thanks," he murmured, taking care to be quiet as he made his way over to the offered spot. John didn't know if Hera was a light sleeper or not and he didn't want to risk waking her if she was.

Sitting, John left a respectable amount of distance between the two of them. "I came to check on you and to see how you were doin'. Everything okay with Kara?" The last he'd seen of Sharon, she'd been worried about her friend.

[blessed_by_god]

"Not exactly, but..." Sharon sighed, looking down. She wasn't sure what she should tell, and what she should keep to herself. She gripped the fingers of one hand with the other. "It's just that, after Leoben, for this to have happened. I think someone can only take so much, you know?" She looked back over at John, but realized that she still didn't even know all that much about him.

[wayward_dad]

"Yeah, I know," John said after a moment of silence fell between them. He knew all too well how a person could only take so much before something had to goddamned give. "I know."

"You holdin' up okay?"

[blessed_by_god]

"Yeah. I'm just trying to be there for her as much as I can. As for the rest...I'd been kind of hoping the snow would leave with December. Guess it's trying to be different from the last two years," Sharon said with a small smile. She knew she was avoiding talking about the baby, she did but she wasn't sure why.

"What about you and the boys? Sam told me he's engaged now."

[wayward_dad]

"Guess so," he said, returning her small smile. For the briefest of moments, John's gaze dropped to the swell of her stomach, and then he was looking at her again.

"Yeah, he is. Jess is a great girl; keeps him in line and doesn't take any shit. They're gettin' a second chance and there's no damned way I can begrudge them that." At least, not here on this island, where they really could have a go of things and a shot at the normalcy they would have been denied back home. "Dean's...Dean. Think he's to gorged up on pie to cause much trouble right now." John laughed, then shrugged to stretch out his shoulders as he remembered how damned cramped it had been in that games closet where he and Dean had shared the pie during the party.

[blessed_by_god]

Sharon nodded, listening to it and not knowing quite what to think. It was someone else's family, their life, and she hardly knew any of them.

"I asked about you, too," she said, finally looking over.

[wayward_dad]

That hadn't exactly escaped John, though he'd glossed over giving Sharon a run-down on how he'd been. Truth of the matter was that John didn't have a damned clue as to how he was or how he was holdin' up. He was just surviving, like he always had. Months had passed since they'd killed the Yellow-Eyed Demon on that Halloween. In those months, he'd just been surviving. That's all. John had spent too much of his life focused on revenge. Now that he'd had it, he didn't have the slightest clue as to what he was supposed to do.

"I'm livin'," he said wryly. Which was something he hadn't always done prior to the island. "Not takin' it for granted."

[blessed_by_god]

Sharon frowned, eyebrows drawn down. Almost five months pregnant, and all John could tell her was that he was living. What did that even mean?

"Look, maybe you should just come back in four months," she said, suddenly testy, frustrated at the whole frakked up situation.

[wayward_dad]

Taken aback by her sudden tone, John's brows knitted together. He didn't know what the hell he'd done to merit it, but that didn't mean he wasn't currently trying to figure it the hell out.

"And why would I wanna do that?" he asked, refusing to look away from her.