She was ready with a retort about there probably being good reason why Henry’s decision was a controversial one, but she restrained herself to nodding as he described the pushback.
Henry asked another question, and she finds Josh.. elsewhere. Unwilling to answer.
Was he, what was he. Afraid?
Julia found her husband’s hand under the table, giving it a gentle poke with her finger. A silent apology for the track she was on, for disrupting dinner, thinking maybe she should stop.
So, it all worked out in the end.
Her head swiveled back to Henry, watching him eat in smug satisfaction. She wasn’t afraid of him, in the same way she wasn’t afraid of that agent wanting to barge into Josh’s hospital room.
“You credit SHIELD with that?” She asked, locking in more now on Henry. “Because I, I have to credit Josh.”
Must not have told her much, she had to scoff. “Have you not seen him? Even now, sorry Josh, he’s afraid to say a word to contradict you.”
Baffling. Could he really not see it?
“Do you- have any idea? The kind of weight you hold, for god’s sake you’re the closest thing he’s had to a father.”
She was going too far, but she can’t stop speaking it as much as she can’t stop seeing the damage. She wants it to stop.
“And he has overcome fear after fear, because to him family is terrifyingly dangerous.” Have you been part of that, Henry?
“…And I don’t think you’d say that so proudly if you heard his nightmares.”
She just.. couldn’t understand, the crease in her brow and shake of her head as she watched him, and then Moira.
Did she believe all this too?
“You took an unrooted.. struggling orphan,
and you sent him to war.” ?
She cleared her throat harshly, feeling a lump form at the thought in her anger, a hand protectively resting against her stomach.
“For the promise of structure.” When I think you know what he needed was family.
“Maybe, he would’ve been embarrassed to end up having to go home. Or, or struggled on like that for a few more years until he found his way. And he is, alright. He will be okay.
But the pieces he has pulled back together to get here, are no thanks—“ She cleared her throat again, set her own fork down to quickly wipe at the angry tears for her husband. “To your course of action.”