This whole situation brought to Jim's mind an old saying Earth saying. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me (unless their orders for execution from a governor obsessed with eugenics) Jim could still remember the first time he had been told the saying. He had been eight years old.
Ever since marrying Frank, Winona had started taking jobs from Star Fleet that took her off world. It became worse the older Jim got. When Jim turned eight that was the turning point. His mother spent more time off world then on it. Nobody that lived in the farmhouse liked it when Winona left. When Winona was here Frank was bearable to live with. When she was gone their step father was anything but bearable to live with. Whenever he returned to the farmhouse drunk Sam was the punching bag he took most of frustrations out on.
Until Jim had became eight. That was when Jim had really started looking like his father. Something both Winona and Frank couldn't stand for different reasons. Winona couldn't bare to be around him because Jim started looking just like her beloved dead husband had been when George had been that age. Frank couldn't stand Jim because he was the reason why the brilliant spitfire of a woman that was his wife couldn't be at home for more than two weeks. One night he came home drunk when Sam was still out with his friends from school. Unable to find Jim's older brother Frank ended up beating Jim instead. It took a few weeks for the bruises to heal while the words Jim had been told that night would haunt him (despite Sam's best efforts) until a realization he would have when he was boarding a ship that was going to take him to live with his mother's sister on a colony a week after Sam ran away and Jim drove his dead father's red Corvette off a cliff to prevent Frank from selling it.
Sam had came home a few hours later to the room they shared to find Jim staring at the wall with a black eye and split lip. Sam had asked him what was going on in his clever head since this wasn't how Jim normally reacted to a beating. Jim told him what Frank had told him earlier when he was hurting him. That it was his fault that their mom no longer stayed at home- on Earth- because he looked just like his martyr of a father. A sad look passed over his older brother's face before Sam climbed into the bottom bunk (Jim's bunk).
"Stop glaring at the wall Jimmy. It won't give you answers you're looking for. I will though so look at me in eyes." Jim glanced up at his older brother. Sam gave him a small smile but eyes were sad. "Good. A real man always looks in a person's eyes unless it rude to some alien's culture." His brother had always had a gift of making him smile. It was because he was the only that actually tried to make Jim happy. "It is not your fault that mom isn't here. You have no control over the fact you look like our dad there for you can't be blamed for the fact you do look like him. I'm gonna tell you a secret that you can never ever repeat?" Sam glared at Jim as he waited for Jim to answer.
Jim swallowed the spit that had gather at the back of his throat. "I promise."
"When dad and mom plus unborn you were on the USS Kelvin I was with dad's grandparents. One time I overheard grandma and grandpa arguing over mom. Grandma didn't like mom since the evening our dad brought her over for dinner. Apparently it didn't help that mom never wanted kids. Dad had to beg to convince mom to be knocked up. So mom never wanted us. Dad did though then he died and mom unwillingly got stuck with us. That's why she married Frank Jim. Not because she loved him - no matter what Frank tells you- but because if she married him she wouldn't have to take care of us. So it's not your fault that mom isn't here. Mom just don't love any of us that's why she always in space. Frank just told you that it was your fault because he wanted someone to blame. And he probably wanted to hurt you but you won't let him. After all stick and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."
