He takes no offense at this; he's there just to be braced on, he doesn't presume he's needed for anything else. "I work around here," he explains, "sometimes. But I like running here, it's easier to do than where I live in Aspic. Fewer people and buildings to dodge."
As he helps her out of the grass he glances down and notices her "bump". And something in him shifts.
(This not something he will ever confess to, especially not out loud to a person he's just met. But.)
Jim's got a decided soft spot for pregnant ladies. It's probably some result of his father's death being romanticized in his own mind, by his family, by Starfleet. His father, you know, so brave, so altruistic, remaining behind even though it meant he never laid eyes on his new son, never got to see his second child grow up. His mother, you know, so strong, so tenacious, carrying this child during her own service as a Starfleet officer, delivering him in the heat of battle, carrying on without her beloved husband, managing to raise her two sons to be an accomplished scientist and a great military hero.
And maybe there's some echo, too, of his father, of wanting to be that kind of man. And wanting to do the things his father didn't get the chance to do.
Whatever it is that drives it, he interacts with a pregnant lady, he feels an extra sense of be nice and be responsible and don't be a fuck-up. "Do you live around here?" he asks, helpful as can be, "or are you visiting?", and he's already working out how to offer to see her there without coming off like he's some kind of mouthbreathing creep or he's assumed she's entirely helpless.
no subject
As he helps her out of the grass he glances down and notices her "bump". And something in him shifts.
(This not something he will ever confess to, especially not out loud to a person he's just met. But.)
Jim's got a decided soft spot for pregnant ladies. It's probably some result of his father's death being romanticized in his own mind, by his family, by Starfleet. His father, you know, so brave, so altruistic, remaining behind even though it meant he never laid eyes on his new son, never got to see his second child grow up. His mother, you know, so strong, so tenacious, carrying this child during her own service as a Starfleet officer, delivering him in the heat of battle, carrying on without her beloved husband, managing to raise her two sons to be an accomplished scientist and a great military hero.
And maybe there's some echo, too, of his father, of wanting to be that kind of man. And wanting to do the things his father didn't get the chance to do.
Whatever it is that drives it, he interacts with a pregnant lady, he feels an extra sense of be nice and be responsible and don't be a fuck-up. "Do you live around here?" he asks, helpful as can be, "or are you visiting?", and he's already working out how to offer to see her there without coming off like he's some kind of mouthbreathing creep or he's assumed she's entirely helpless.