I'm sorry. [It comes quickly and sincerely. He feels strange, because he wouldn't normally feel compelled to be affectionate but knowing she's Hope-- any version of Hope-- makes the protective feeling in him take different forms.

He shifts closer, sitting finally so they're more level. Of course he has a hundred questions about how he died, but they're secondary and she's more important.]

We don't have to be strangers-- if you don't want to. I'm not your dad-- not the version of him you know-- and you're not the Hope I know. But we're still connected. [He pauses, this is hard to word.] Still family.