Chapter Text
When Mom shows up again, it’s about six months into his illustrious bartending career. He’s actually happy to see her when she slides into a bar stool.
“Hey Mom!”
“Jim.” She bites her lip, and her voices is a mixture of confused and alarmed. “Where is your shirt? ”
He laughs. “That… is an excellent question. What can I get you? It’s on me!”
She shakes her head, laughing. “You’re wasted, aren’t you?”
“I am not!” Jim mocks appalment, hand over his heart. “You wound me. I’m barely plastered.”
His mother orders a drink through her laughter. Looks like amusement has won out over proper motherly concern. Again.
*.*
When closing time comes, Winona stays after, watching as her son wipes down tables and counts up the drawer.
“So… you’ve been having fun.”
He grins at her, and fuck, that smile is so real it hurts that she can’t remember the last time she made him smile like that. Looks like Risa was a good idea after all.
“So much fun, I can’t even tell you, Mommy.”
“Not family friendly enough for your Mama?” she teases.
But Jim actually looks a little appalled. “Hell no, Mom. I would never che-” He cuts himself off mid sentence, the way he always does before his incurable case of foot-in-mouth disease gets him into trouble.
“Were you going to say ‘cheat?’”
He scoffs. “No, I… I was just—”
“Don’t even try, Jim, I already know.”
His mouth drops open. For the first time in his life, his mother has managed to well and truly shock him.
“Honey? It’s okay. It’s fine. I’ve known for a while.” When his deer in the headlights look doesn’t subside, she changes tactics, “You’ve always been a little gay, kid.”
That does the trick. He’s smiling again, all perfect teeth (and wasn’t that an expensive round of dental work) and relaxed posture.
“I’m not gay, Mom.”
She gives him her best bullshit look, “You have a husband. ”
“Yeah, but I like the other genders too!” He’s full on laughing now.
And this hurts a little bit, because Winona hasn’t heard her baby laugh like this in years. She’s always known she’s a less than perfect mother. But realizations like this one? Really rub it in.
*.*
In the morning he tells her he’s leaving Risa. Just tells her, like he’s not still a kid who should be asking permission for things like interplanetary moves. She frowns at him across his kitchen table as he delivers the news.
Maybe his is a little grown up, she decides. After all, here she is, sitting in her son’s apartment. At his table, eating a breakfast he just cooked for her with groceries he bought on his own. Apparently Jim’s acquired a taste for non-replicated food.
He shrugs. “I figure it’s time, you know? There’s nothing holding me here, and I’ve never been very good at keeping my feet on the ground.”
Winona knows he’s right. She can’t argue that. “So where to?”
“Medical school.”
She takes a deep breath. And another. Then one more. “As your mother, I am very happy to hear that. As your mother, I think you need to elaborate a little more. Last I checked, you decided on Command, not Medical.”
“Well, yeah.” He takes a comically long gulp of his coffee. “But I figured, I might as well. I’ve completed practically every other track the Academy offers. Figured I’d just collect them all. Might be some sort of trophy in it for me.”
Thinking back on it, he’s right. And what the hell, it’ll be hilarious to hear about the admiralty’s reaction to his admittance transcript.
“Where are you going?”
“Earth.”
She nods. “Comm me when you get there. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to want to know what planet you’re on.”
He chuckles. “Sure thing, Mom.”