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Sometimes we create our own heartbreaks through our own expectations. That's something that James has known his entire life. When he was young and growing up, before he realized that sometimes people will let you down, even your blood. He has learned to never hold people to a high standard, not easily trusting people. Only keeping a few people outside of his family close to him.
Sometimes you cannot choose your blood, but you can choose your family.
As he stares at his mother, he recognizes the look on her face. Its the look that she had when he was around six years old and was told that his parents were divorcing. The same look that she gave him when he was told that his father wasn't showing up for his first football game in middle school. It was the same look that his mother had given him every year on his birthday, her saying that his father wasn't able to make it to spend it with him. It is also the same look that his mother was giving him now. Before his mother can open her mouth and explain to him about what's going on with their father, he walks out of the room.
Each of his siblings has a different relationship with their father. His older sister Laura doesn't really have one, not good nor bad. He was there when it came to important things for her, even though she never asked, he still sent her things as an apology for not showing up. For birthdays, for holidays, for games. She preferred her mother as the parent figure to go to. For Derek, his younger brother, it was an okay relationship. When he was younger it was great, but as he got older he realized how damaging he was, he kind of swayed towards his Uncle Peter for the father figure in his life once he hit high school. His little sister Cora was only ten. But she had the best relationship with their father. She always called him on the home phone when she got a chance, always writing little notes she would send him. His father was never really there, he would always send her gifts, little notes, always making sure he did things for her. When Cora asked why he was never around, his response was that he was working, and could not come home often. But still the best relationship between them.
James' father figure was his Uncle Dean. His father's younger brother. Dean was the father that James wished he had, the father that he has always wanted. Dean was there for everything when it came to the Hale kids, every sport event, every school play, every single thing. In James' eyes, Dean was his father. Dean may have been younger than his older brother, but he acts much older.
James made his way outside of his house, sitting on the old tire swing that had been here for years, ever since his mother was his age. It was old and tattered from the years of use and abuse from him and his siblings, sometimes his friends as they grew up.
He used to sit here when he was younger, it was his thinking tire. If you couldn't find him in the house, he would be here. Talia makes her way out of the door, closing the screen behind her, keeping her eyes on her oldest son. She knows what he is thinking about. She knows the face. The crinkle of the brows, the eyes hard, the pursed lips. She knows him, like he knows her.
