John would never describe himself as a broken man. He would describe himself as a man that lost a piece of himself when Madison died. But all that had done was to make him focused on what had to be done. The necessary things such as making Clara into a proper woman and keeping her safe and loved. And today though he had felt he had failed. It was not a failure. His baby was moving on and that was a good thing. She needed to get out from under her father's arms and finally grow up into the beautiful woman that he knew her to be.<br/><br/>This was the exact sentiment that she was expressing to him. At least he could take solace in the fact that he had reached such a thought just as she was expressing it. Yet, John knew that even though she was to be his daughter, his Princess, there was to be another man that was to hold her in his arms. A man that was to take her away from the sheltered world that John had forged with his two hands and into one that was scary and realistic with all kinds of dangers that she was going to have to face without John to beat them down with his fists, guns, or hammers. Dukey was to be the man that was to be her defender now, the one that was to be her King while John was to be watching ever vigilant but that was all he was going to be anymore. Since it then be her man's responsibility to keep her safe.<br/><br/>"I love you too, Clara." John felt that there was nothing else to really say on the matter for he was not going to tell her how he felt on the matter of Dukey since he had no desire to hurt her further. All he knew was that a man had certain responsibilities and one of them was to not hurt the ladies in their life. He had already screwed that up once and she had said that she was not going to bring it up either so he was not going to push it even further.