It must have been so frightening to be caught up in all that, to know that you yourself were probably just inches away from charges that could result in many years of prison.

Somehow I do feel sympathy for Jackson. Not forgiveness. Just ... a certain understanding and a certain wishing that he had been able to cope better with his diagnosis and with being gay. I wish he'd turned to anything other than meth addiction.

But then, not everybody makes the same bad choices Jackson made, as your story itself demonstrates.