"I'm not a father, but I can get that. My brothers' kids are always still gonna be kids to me, even if Howie winds up taller than I did."

(The tall gene had skipped Jim, but hey, it could happen.)

"I'm not sure this crowd is the best to teach them how to not die, but maybe they'll at least learn what not to do from the rest of us." Alexander, Rich, Hal himself...there were more of them here who'd died and somehow come back than he would've expected. Mostly doing the kinds of things that they considered "right" and Grif would probably call "stupid."

It was fine if they did it, in Hal's mind, but he didn't want to see any of the kids throw themselves onto the pyre like that.