Redhawk Caldera All the walls would fall around me

This really was the hardest lesson. Bronco wasn’t a medic, so maybe he didn’t need to learn it, but she thought it was valuable enough to at least try. Especially if he was struggling with the guilt.

We can’t punish ourselves for everyone we lose. If we do that, we’re no good to help anyone who’s still here. You’re right, though. We can’t change what happened. It was rough. She’d lost patients before this and she’d lose packmates long after; it got easier to work through, but it didn’t get easier to see the fallout.

There’s always a reason to mourn someone who dies. She understood what he meant, but felt the need to gently push back on it. Just because someone was a stranger didn’t mean their death left no impact. But if you want to be a parent to her, that means what you want and what you feel doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is what she needs.

Bridget smiled, shaking her head. She’ll talk to you when she’s ready. Right now the best thing we can do is show her we aren’t going anywhere. And we can take care of ourselves, and each other, so that we are ready for her when she needs us. Teya too. Bridget silently hoped her friend was able to open up to Bronco in ways she’d never seemed to manage to with her.

So if there’s things like this you need to sort through, I don’t mind. Obviously. I think it will help her, eventually, knowing that you went through the same thing.