He sighs again through his teeth with somewhat wry bemusement as he refills his cup.

"Yeah, well, lemme explain something. Me and my old man-- we don't exactly get along. I mean, sure, we do experience stretches of civility between him bein' a jackass to me and me bein' resentful towards him, but for the most part, the only things we ever exchange words on are baseball, war, and sometimes Ma. We don't-- we don't really talk. We just don't. We never did. Not even about firefighting. Okay, yeah, he used to tell the occasional anecdote or whatever, but frankly, it's like we've already said what we had to say and the only thing left to do is bitch at each other, especially now that we actually hafta live together, when before we had Ma or Uncle Teddy as a buffer. It would probably be a helluva lot easier if I was still drinking 'cause then at least we could drink together, but since I ain't, he'll just take every opportunity to call me a sissy for giving it up. But whatever. I'll try, y'know, of course I will, I'm the only one out of all my brothers and sisters who can take him in right now, and I'll do it 'cause, well-- he's my dad."