[ Ned returns the hug with equal intensity. He understands that he has been given a reprieve, a pardon where he didn't expect one. Over the last few days he'd gone over it again and again. What he could have done differently. What he would have done, if he had been there, been able to protect Jesse from his horrific fate. It had been too late, then. But now, impossibly, it is not. Ned wraps Jesse in his arms and thinks that he's going to keep him safe. He'll be damned if he loses anyone else. Not when he's been given a second chance out of nowhere. A second chance that he doesn't deserve, but Jesse? Jesse certainly does. ]
[ That apology unexpectedly shakes a little laugh out of Ned, though it's half a sob. Through the tangle of emotions that's taken hold of him, happiness starts to bubble to the top, the giddy understand that it's all fine now, Jesse is fine now, everything and everyone is going to be fine. ]
I should say so. [ He jokes, trying for his best mock-stern tone, though it's hard when his voice is thick with tears] Just d-don't do it again, you hear?
[ And if he continues crying, it is mostly out of happiness, now. He's smiling even as he's wiping fresh tears from his cheeks. He feels Jesse shivering and knows it's mostly from the fear and the trauma but all the same, he shoulders his way out of his coat and offers it to him. ]
no subject
[ That apology unexpectedly shakes a little laugh out of Ned, though it's half a sob. Through the tangle of emotions that's taken hold of him, happiness starts to bubble to the top, the giddy understand that it's all fine now, Jesse is fine now, everything and everyone is going to be fine. ]
I should say so. [ He jokes, trying for his best mock-stern tone, though it's hard when his voice is thick with tears] Just d-don't do it again, you hear?
[ And if he continues crying, it is mostly out of happiness, now. He's smiling even as he's wiping fresh tears from his cheeks. He feels Jesse shivering and knows it's mostly from the fear and the trauma but all the same, he shoulders his way out of his coat and offers it to him. ]