He hated to admit but he found commutations with his parents extremely dreadful and boring. No wonder months would pass without a letter being sent, and half the time he didn't even know why he bothered to open the files. Just father going on about the navy, some family history and how he was a disappointment for breaking the tradition. Latest news was a quick blurb of how his aunt embarrassed herself by singing a drunk lullaby to the niece he had never seen and the fact HMS Gorgon was recruiting. The same ship that for the last two hundred years there had always been a Reed aboard. Malcolm is well aware it would never end, likely even his father's dying words would be expressing the heartache his only son brought him. Still he does read the letters and tells the crew when asked that everything is fine. Holding out to the slim hope that one day he'd get that pat on the back.