Tapping the Barrel of a Steel Blue .38

The massive beast took up almost half her den on his own, he couldn't take his eyes away from her as she trembled and fought to remain conscious. He should have been there for her, should have supported her more but he had blamed all his children for what their mother had done. For what she had done to him. He had never really taken into consideration his children's feeling. Not until Basanti. Since her? He understood now, understood everything he had done wrong. He wouldn't blame her if she hated him, wouldn't blame her if she wanted to be with anyone but him in her last moments. But as he watched she would smile, weakly, and whisper a single word he had never heard from her lips since she was a child. A lump would gather in his throat and for a moment he would swallow and choke on that lump, closing his eyes against the sting that was beginning behind his eyes. When he finally opened his eyes again his vision was blurred, barely able to make out anything about her other then the darkness of her fur and the green eyes she had inherited from him. 'I love you." The words hit him like a brick to the head and for a moment his head would snap up and his eyes would widen. His lower jaw unhinged, opening and closing as he gasped like a fish out of water looking for words. He couldn't find them, a torrent of things he always wanted to tell his kids flooding over him. All he could do was slowly lift himself and move, stepping over his daughter to lay behind her and drape his head over her shoulders in an attempt to share some of his warmth with her. She spoke again and again his eyes would snap wide. She was a mother? "You're a mother?"His words were coked, raw. Wetness dripped onto her back and for a moment he would stare at where it fell. Tears? He cleared his throat, trying to chase the rawness away as he closed his eyes and tried to force the tears to go. But that just made them fall faster, wetting her shoulder until her lowered his head to wrap her in a sort of hug. "I'll keep them safe? Find your mother, I will see you in my dreams just as they will see you in theirs..." He was trying to be comforting but even as the words came from his lips he realized that he must sound like a madman. Had her mother ever visited her in her dreams?

Speech!