[ This conversation (and Ben is counting the silence as a part of it) was inevitable. It was bound to happen, sooner or later. When they have first reunited, everything was hectic. There were questions to be asked and arrangements to be made. They'd had to make sure Klaus was safe and suss out everything about the different versions of themselves and that place Diego had been.
But now the dust is settling, and they are both left with the bare truth of it. They are together again. After so many years. There's a lot that both of them need to say to one another. ]
I missed you, too.
[ It is not as acute, and Ben knows that. He'd been able to see Diego, from time to time. He'd watched him grow up over the years and gotten updates. To Diego, Ben had been gone. Ben shifts position slightly, drawing his knees a little closer. All those years of being dead had been full of 'what if's and 'if only's. He'd wanted to say a thousand different things, to Diego, and the rest of them, and not been able to.
Now, he can. If only his throat didn't feel so tight. ]
I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me.
[ Ben isn't referring to any specific incident; there must have been so many of them, stretching out over fourteen years. When their father was vindictive, when Diego first was out on his own, when he was forced to leave the police academy, when Vanya's book came out with all its casual cruelty, when he was out there getting all those scars he wears so proudly. Other moments, too. Quiet ones like this in the middle of the night, when it all weighed so heavily.
He hadn't meant to, hadn't had a choice, but that doesn't change the fact of his absence in Diego's life. ]
For a long time, I wished I could to tell you- what you used to do, back home... going out every night and saving people? Running into danger all by yourself? It was totally reckless, and crazy- and I'm really proud. You stopped awful things from happening to innocent people, and you didn't do it because you had to, and you didn't ask anybody for thanks. I wanted to tell you- that it was good.
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But now the dust is settling, and they are both left with the bare truth of it. They are together again. After so many years. There's a lot that both of them need to say to one another. ]
I missed you, too.
[ It is not as acute, and Ben knows that. He'd been able to see Diego, from time to time. He'd watched him grow up over the years and gotten updates. To Diego, Ben had been gone. Ben shifts position slightly, drawing his knees a little closer. All those years of being dead had been full of 'what if's and 'if only's. He'd wanted to say a thousand different things, to Diego, and the rest of them, and not been able to.
Now, he can. If only his throat didn't feel so tight. ]
I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me.
[ Ben isn't referring to any specific incident; there must have been so many of them, stretching out over fourteen years. When their father was vindictive, when Diego first was out on his own, when he was forced to leave the police academy, when Vanya's book came out with all its casual cruelty, when he was out there getting all those scars he wears so proudly. Other moments, too. Quiet ones like this in the middle of the night, when it all weighed so heavily.
He hadn't meant to, hadn't had a choice, but that doesn't change the fact of his absence in Diego's life. ]
For a long time, I wished I could to tell you- what you used to do, back home... going out every night and saving people? Running into danger all by yourself? It was totally reckless, and crazy- and I'm really proud. You stopped awful things from happening to innocent people, and you didn't do it because you had to, and you didn't ask anybody for thanks. I wanted to tell you- that it was good.