Dean adjusted easily, getting more comfortable, far more at ease like this than across the room. "I think every parent wants that." He assured quietly. It wasn't like he could say much, really. Dean wasn't even sure he wanted to have children. It should have been something he had a better grasp on, but he wasn't in a position to have to worry about it, on top of everything else. That was the general gist of it though. He knew Mae was trying to raise her children in a different household than what they had grown up in, which was a step in the right direction.

He grimaced a little when Don Juan admitted that he'd made her cry. "I'm sure you didn't mean to," he didn't think, anyway. "I'm sure the whole conversation was a little emotional for her." Finding her father, getting up the courage to reach out and to try to meet him, it was a lot. "How did it make you feel?" He was still trying to get a read on this, now that his own panic had waned a little. It should have been his focus the entire time, but he wasn't immune to an immediate self-defense either.

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Don Juan buried his face against Hudson's chest so that his expression wouldn't be legible. He didn't know where this conversation was going to go, and not having to guard his facial expression meant one less thing to worry about.

"For all the difference it makes," he mumbled, about not having tried to make her cry. It certainly hadn't been his intention, but wasn't that even worse in a way? The impact was the same, and he'd managed to ruin the interaction without even consciously thinking about it. It certainly didn't bode well for any future interactions he was meant to have with the girl.

As for how he'd felt... what was he supposed to say to that? He'd felt panicked, twitchy, guilty. He'd sent her an apology letter and then he'd tried to immediately put the incident as far from his mind as possible, distracting himself with alcohol and an ill-advised liaison on the roof of his parents' house during a party they were throwing. If Kaatjie had caught him a week earlier in the month he probably would have found himself wandering towards Griffith's lab space; the unavoidable obligation of having a party at his own house had prevented him from disappearing on a days-long binge. Dean didn't want to hear any of that, and Don Juan didn't want to tell him.

"I don't know," he said, hoping Dean would interpret this less like a lie and more like being too tired to talk about it. "She surprised me. I thought she was in Holland."

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MJ made this <3

Dean toyed idly with a curl at the back of Don Juan's neck, wrapping it around his fingers gently over and over. "That's fair." He shrugged slightly. He really didn't have any advice here, nor did he think it would be helpful even if he did. Dean didn't exactly have the best example for a father when it all boiled down. Maybe that was his part of his hesitation to have his own children. Mae's kids were still young, he was working on the uncle angle, but so far they didn't seem to hate him. It wasn't the same though.

"I'm sure it'll work out with what's best for her," even if she stayed with her uncle, it didn't mean that Don Juan had to be completely cut off. He knew that the Dempseys were a family-oriented bunch, he highly doubted Don Juan's mother was about to let this go completely, even if the custody situation didn't go in their favor. "Just maybe keep me in the loop?" It mattered, obviously, even if Don Juan wanted to keep it at arm's length. "And let me know if you need anything." He wasn't sure what exactly he'd be good for, but he'd do anything.

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