"Stuck around? I mean...yeah. Mom practically had me on a leash for the first year I was back. Longest she ever stayed planet side in my life. I got into trouble a lot for nicking food. She'd always get me out and remind me that I didn't need to do that anymore."

Jim sighs and mutters the bit about his mother. Being turned from something damn near unwanted to a glass pet that needed constant pampering lest it shatters didn't sit well with Jim. It was smothering. Reeking of too little too late. But...he has to admit she was patient with him. She only lectured him a few times when she'd come break him out. The rest of the time she took him home and made a home cooked meal while telling him everything was okay now.

And that's the part that really dug into Jim. Was it? Was it okay? Was anything okay that shit like that was allowed to happen in the first place anywhere, let alone a Federation colony?

He hates platitudes. Hates how they exist to comfort the speaker and not the one who suffered.

"That next year...on Remembrance day, Grandma Margaret gave me the recipe and a jar of her blueberry preserves as a present. Said I might learn to take comfort in food again if I taught myself how to cook. I never got to be any good, but I learned the basics. It was enough to convince Mom that I was stable enough to not be supervised twenty four-seven. She went back to the fleet and I...pretty much bummed around Iowa and the surrounding states getting in trouble for petty shit until Pike found me on Recruiting Day."