If you can do it, so can he.

It's still so new, the whole idea of being some kind of role model, someone to look up to. A good example, like his father. He smiles at her, giving her hand a squeeze in return before she pulls away. He's still not sure how this whole golden-boy thing sits on him. He's proud, but it's weird. Still taking some getting used to.

"I remember how my mom used to worry over me." He laughs. "Scratch that--she still does it, even now. I always have messages from her. Maybe it does come with the territory, I don't know. As far as where we are..."

He hesitates a moment. He hasn't shared a lot of what he's learned from McCoy about his trip home. But he's slightly buzzed, she seems all right, and she further seems like she can wrap her head around it.

"It's gotta be a parallel universe or something. I know someone who left and came back. Not of his own volition, either time. He says when he was back, it was like he'd never left. And like I'd never left, either. I can't think of any other explanation than another universe."