Galen wants to be able to speak to how big an If that might be, but--as he opens his mouth he realizes he has no idea. If she's like him, who had wanted, at the end of the day, to simply be left alone to sink with both hands into his work, the idea that the universe could be a better place, or like her mother, who never stopped fighting. Or like Saw, or nothing like any of them. Herself, built from the pieces of what those who abandoned her left behind.
It pains him to think that he's one of those people, but no matter how little he had wanted to leave her, he is. Now he has the chance to make up for that, so it's that that is the If. If Jyn wants, he'll try. He'll spend the rest of his life trying.
So. "She does," he says, echoes simply, without qualifiers it doesn't need. "Whether with me or not, that is for her to say." He stirs his coffee, which...is a sort of blackly funny irony, that of course, yes, even on the remote little outpost that was Eadu, the Empire could afford the best, and yet, this terrible stuff tastes better than anything he'd had in their employ.
"I'm sure it is." The answer comes quickly, easily; he knows, without a doubt, that if he had taken that shot Jyn would have ended him and while it would have been fitting it isn't what happened at all; this is the reality of the situation, that he cares for a woman so intently that he will turn his back on the life he's known, the man that brought him to the Resistance, first in small gestures (not pulling the trigger) to larger ones like this.
Plotting escape from Yavin, if and when it becomes a necessity.
"I don't know her that well." He isn't even sure they're friends, right now, or at the very least he's unsure what she thinks of him at this point in time. "But she does love you, even though she feels...abandoned."
Galen really can't pretend she hasn't been, even if it's not what he wanted. Even if he would make excuses to spare himself. "Her mother was meant to be with her," he explains regardless, perhaps wanting this stranger to think better of Lyra, rather than himself. "She tried to stop the Imperials taking me."
Sooooo Cassian can probably make a swell guess how that turned out. Meanwhile Galen's heart has twisted up all warm in his ribcage; that she should feel anything, after so long--even if she had hated him it would still be feeling.
That's...Cassian allows his mask to slip enough for Galen to see the little thundercloud of a frown that gathers at his brow, the way his shoulders go up and tense a little. It explains a lot, actually...namely why Jyn acts like an abandoned cat in the rain sometimes.
"I won't leave her again." It's not a protest, just ...fact. There is no air in space, Galen will stay by Jyn's side as long as she'll have him, provided she'll have him at all. He doesn't react much to the tension; if it comes from a place of judgment that's well-deserved; if not, it isn't any of his business to do the judging.
There's a moment of silence, though it lacks awkwardness, only an air of contemplation as Galen ponders the oily surface of his coffee. "If she decides her place is here now, it--would be fitting. It would have made Lyra happy."
Cassian shakes his head at that. "She has no interest in the Resistance and no reason to stay." He wouldn't ask her to, for one thing, it...presumes so much and gives her so little in the end. Stay with the people who wanted me to assassinate your father, yes, he can just imagine the black eye he'd end up with after that conversation.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
It pains him to think that he's one of those people, but no matter how little he had wanted to leave her, he is. Now he has the chance to make up for that, so it's that that is the If. If Jyn wants, he'll try. He'll spend the rest of his life trying.
So. "She does," he says, echoes simply, without qualifiers it doesn't need. "Whether with me or not, that is for her to say." He stirs his coffee, which...is a sort of blackly funny irony, that of course, yes, even on the remote little outpost that was Eadu, the Empire could afford the best, and yet, this terrible stuff tastes better than anything he'd had in their employ.
no subject
Plotting escape from Yavin, if and when it becomes a necessity.
"I don't know her that well." He isn't even sure they're friends, right now, or at the very least he's unsure what she thinks of him at this point in time. "But she does love you, even though she feels...abandoned."
no subject
Sooooo Cassian can probably make a swell guess how that turned out. Meanwhile Galen's heart has twisted up all warm in his ribcage; that she should feel anything, after so long--even if she had hated him it would still be feeling.
no subject
Because she was, wasn't she.
"She deserves family. Especially after all this."
no subject
There's a moment of silence, though it lacks awkwardness, only an air of contemplation as Galen ponders the oily surface of his coffee. "If she decides her place is here now, it--would be fitting. It would have made Lyra happy."
no subject
"So I don't think that's likely."