Family Ties

Made With Love

Harry's POV

I sighed as I climbed out of my car, grabbing my bag from the back seat and slowly making my way up the front steps. I loosened my tie as I approached the front door and pulled out my keys, unlocking it to find the house was just as quiet as I'd expected.

It was late, and I was exhausted. I'd been at work for 18 hours trying to finish up a design for a new client so I could have the weekend off, and I knew Hannah and the kids would be in bed by the time I got home. I made my way into the kitchen, tiredly smiling to myself as I opened the fridge to find my dinner neatly wrapped up with a note.

Made with love, always.

- Wifey xo.

I stuck it in the microwave, pulling my tie off and throwing it onto the counter as I ran my hands over my face. I rubbed the back of my aching neck, shifting it side to side in an effort to release some of the tension in it, when I heard the soft noise of the television coming from the living room.

I grabbed my dinner out of the microwave before it could make too much noise, and headed into the living room to sit in the quiet for a few minutes while I ate. I was a little startled when I walked into the room to find Hannah and the kids curled up on the couch, all three of them fast asleep as the soft light from the TV lit up the side of their faces.

A sigh left my lips and a strange sense of relief came over me as I saw the three of them there, sleeping peacefully and content all cuddled together. I took a minute to just look at them, feeling like in that moment I was reminded of why I was so exhausted, the three simple reasons as to why I worked as hard as I did.

I put my plate down on the coffee table and took a seat in the chair next to the couch, putting my feet up and leaning my head back as I took some time to reflect. It was something I tried to do often, always trying to remind myself how fortunate I was so that I never took things for granted, feeling like the second I forgot just how blessed I was everything might be taken away. No matter how far away I got from the bullshit of my past life, it was always there in the back of my mind reminding me how much I never wanted to go back to it.

I thought about Gucc often, and the decisions he made that changed the course of all of our lives. As angry as I was with him for the way things had turned out, I knew that there was nothing I wouldn't do to protect my wife and kids. Over the past couple of months since I'd seen him and had that conversation, I'd somehow been able to sort through my thoughts about it and come to the realization that he was just a man. He was just a man who made some bad choices and fucked up his life, and I easily could have ended up just like him. In the end I began to feel sorry for him, knowing that he lived every day with the knowledge that his children would never look at him as their father, that he'd lost that forever.

The idea of Hank and Mace even spending more than a night away from us gave me anxiety, and I couldn't imagine the emptiness I would feel if for some reason they disappeared from my life. But in all the ways I seemed to be similar to my father, I knew that there were many ways we differed.

I knew I'd inherited Gucc's street smarts, that gut instinct that seemed to make me born for that life, and my innate and fierce drive to protect those I love even if it meant sacrificing myself. That's what Gucc had done, and in a way I respected him for it, but there was one fundamental difference between us that couldn't be overlooked.

The belief that people are better off without us.

Unlike Gucc, I knew that the safest place for my family was with me, and no matter what happened or what the reasons were that he left, I never would have stayed away. There would never be any point in my life that I believed my kids were better off without me, because I knew that nobody would love and protect them like I would. I knew that there were probably a million guys out there that were more in Hannah's league than I was, but not a single one of them would try as hard or love her as much as me, and that was the difference.