Somehow, something had slipped out, and sympathies started pouring in, drowning the both of them in memories and regrets. He watched Owen retreat into work, watched him distance himself from well-meant counsel, and couldn't blame him. The guilt was hard to endure, even in broad daylight, eating them both from inside out night after night.
He watched Amelia watching Owen, taking notice at last of her husband's preoccupation, and turned away, tired of more pain and unable to help.
The days he found himself next to Owen in the prep room, they kept their silence and solitude, an armour against the turmoil of emotions churning their insides. It was comfortable, suffering their flashbacks together, their old familiarity returning as the days went by because it was so much easier not to talk about what they had lost.
When Owen broke the rules one day, Nathan closed his eyes.
You did all you could sounded in his ears long after he had been left standing alone, but it felt like a blanket wrapped around his freezing self and he scoffed at the notion that he needed what had been offered.
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