Many people who have met Slade had labeled him a heartless monster, someone devoid of any empathy, who enjoyed inflicting pain onto others. The man himself had never gone out of his way to disabuse people of that notion either, after all he did enjoy his job, but the truth was that he was far from heartless.

Thus he had no qualms about moving to kneel next to Jinny’s seat and placing a hand on her shoulder for comfort. He would not embrace her unless she sought it out first; they had only just met each other after all.

“I will teach you everything that I can” he would promise the small girl “It will not always be easy, and at times it will be painful but I will teach you everything I can”

“It will never be enough to bring them back, but hopefully it will be enough that you will never fear losing anyone else.”

He would allow her space and silence until breakfast had been eaten, or at least as much as young Jinyah would be willing to eat. Afterwards he would silently take everything into the kitchen and place it in the sink to take care of later.

“Schooling we can take care of tomorrow” He would say once he came back “Along with other legal proceedings so that you are considered my ward. For today I’ll give you the option of shopping, as you will be needing some more things of your own or we can begin with some training” He would offer simply, for even though he wasn’t heartless there was a reason so many people were willing to assume such of him.