[Angel shrugged, stomach twisting in the slightest. She didn't want to make the woman uneasy with the concept. She'd heard rumors and whispers from Jack about Athena's own history, but never enough to make any guesses as to what happened. Still, family being a strange, perhaps sore subject wasn't surprising, considering the solitary nature of the woman.]

[It wasn't as if Angel could judge. If asked at the beginning of her journey, she would have shaken the idea off. Family had never been a positive concept for the siren, either. Why associate obviously good people like Athena and Janey with something related to Jack.]

[But by now she'd realized that this little group nestled in the Inn was family by action, whereas Jack bore the title only by blood. It was the sort of thing that she'd gladly attribute to them.]

I don't know about specifics, what role we all might play with one another, but I do know that there is no one else that I trust more. And you all have been taking such good care of both myself and everyone else in this group. If not family, then what are we?