Funny, Paul thinks. It's funny, the things he doesn't anticipate.
"Hey," he says, in a cadence he hasn't used in years, a cadence that, according to his history, he never truly learned in the first place, the voice of a boy who only ever could have existed here, "What did I just say?"
Then, as though it's the most natural thing in the world, Paul jostles John lightly, a companionable shake of his captured shoulders.
"I don't give up on people. I didn't give up on you." His fingers are pressed too hard into John's upper arm. Not enough to hurt, this time. Not by way of nerves and compressed tissue. "I've seen miracles before. I've brought them out of my own two hands, and I've seen you do the same."
"Believe in me. Just once. Let me do something for you that no one else can. Let me - let this - have been worth anything to you. And when you go home, you'll go knowing that the past can be undone, and the wrongs can be righted, and you can see your purpose through to the end." Paul exhales, and it should be smoke, white and hot, from the mouth of the furnace in his heart. "And you'll know Gideon is safe, here. With me. Isn't that what you want?"
no subject
"Hey," he says, in a cadence he hasn't used in years, a cadence that, according to his history, he never truly learned in the first place, the voice of a boy who only ever could have existed here, "What did I just say?"
Then, as though it's the most natural thing in the world, Paul jostles John lightly, a companionable shake of his captured shoulders.
"I don't give up on people. I didn't give up on you." His fingers are pressed too hard into John's upper arm. Not enough to hurt, this time. Not by way of nerves and compressed tissue. "I've seen miracles before. I've brought them out of my own two hands, and I've seen you do the same."
"Believe in me. Just once. Let me do something for you that no one else can. Let me - let this - have been worth anything to you. And when you go home, you'll go knowing that the past can be undone, and the wrongs can be righted, and you can see your purpose through to the end." Paul exhales, and it should be smoke, white and hot, from the mouth of the furnace in his heart. "And you'll know Gideon is safe, here. With me. Isn't that what you want?"