A little girl, aged five, is sitting alone in her bedroom, wrapping gauze around the leg of a large teddy bear. Her dark hair is a little longer than her shoulders and hangs in wild, untamed curls. She appears to be completely engrossed in what she's doing. In the background, a man and a woman are yelling at one another, but the words are muffled through her bedroom door.

She gets to her feet when she finishes and her expression is one of excitement. The little girl picks up the the bear, gently cradling it as she makes her way to the bedroom door, throwing it open and meaning to show her parents how well she's done patching up its imaginary injuries. The shouting match has become intelligible.

"She's my kid, too, Jocelyn! You can't just take her, you can't have everything!"

"The hell I can't! You call yourself a father, Leonard? You're never here! What's Joanna's favorite snack when she gets up from her nap? What's her favorite television show? How many yards of goddamn gauze does she go through in a day trying to be just like the father she doesn't even know?! Just get out. Just go. Go off to Starfleet, that's just great, because—"

"Well, you sure as hell aren't lifting a finger to put food on the table, Joce, I don't see you paying any fucking bills."

"Oh that's great. That's right, Leonard, because one of us has to raise our daughter. So you go off to the Academy and I'll just stay here being the bad guy who sent away her hero, huh? That's fantastic!"

The little girl closes the door, deflated, and goes back to her bed, where she sits down and starts to rock the teddy bear, whispering to it to soothe it, as if it's the teddy bear who was emotionally effected by hearing her parents fight...again.

---

Joey's father is crouched in front of her, holding her little hands and he looks apologetic.

"Mommy...left," he says in response to the question she's asked him: where is she?

"Is she comin' back soon? She promised we could play dollies," Joey says.

"...no, she's..." he pauses and sighs, tucking her hair behind her ear with one hand. "She's not coming back, JoJo."

---

Joey's older now, but not by much. She's standing between her Aunt Donna and her Uncle Fred and they each have a hand on one of her shoulders.

"I gotta go, now, baby...I'm sorry. I love you so much, and I'll be back as soon as I can, okay? I love you," her father is saying and Joey's eyes are filled with tears but she smiles and nods anyway, giving him a tiny wave because she doesn't trust her voice to tell him she loves him, too, before he goes.

---

She's a young teenager, walking down the hall of a middle school, reading as she goes. She isn't looking where she's going and walks directly into the most popular guy in school. He's tall, handsome, and wearing a letter jacket.

Joey's face is beet red when he looks down at her like she's some particularly annoying bug. "Jesus McCoy, watch where you're fucking going. Nerd." The last bit is muttered as he turns away from her and his friends are laughing.

Joey pushes past them and disappears into the crowd.

---

She's sixteen and it's her birthday today. The long dark hair has gotten longer and more under control; she looks like herself, now that she's older, and she's sitting in front of a wall staring at it like she's waiting for something. It's because she is.

A moment later, the wall lights up with a display of an incoming video call. It's just one more in a long line of birthdays her father has missed and had to call instead. 

With a sigh, she answers the call and her father's face appears on the screen. "Happy birthday, JoJo," he greets.

She gives a small smile that doesn't reach her eyes. "Thanks, Daddy."

"You get anything good?"

"Nope," she says, and finally the smirk on her face matches the look in her eyes. "Everything sucked."

He laughs. "Oh yeah? Maybe I should just return the hover, then?"

Joey laughs, too, rolling her eyes. "I mean, I guess I'll keep it."

"You guess, huh? Oh okay.  ...I miss you, baby," he says and the tone changes a little.

Joey's smile fades and she nods. "I miss you, too. ...when are you coming home?"

He looks down, frowning. "Still next summer."

Her lips press together and she nods. Not the answer she wanted, but the one she was expecting, anyway. 

There's noise on her father's end of the call and it distracts him visibly. When the noises die down, he sighs. "I have to go."

"Yeah, I figured." She sounds resigned.

"I'm sorry. I love you."

"Love you, too, Dad."

The display on the wall fades away and she sighs.

---

"Accepted into Starfleet Academy's School of Medicine, your class of 2264 salutatorian, Joanna McCoy."

She's in her maroon cap and gown when she heads to the podium in the middle of the outdoor stage, overlooking an audience of well over a thousand people including her fellow graduates, other students, parents, and teachers and she sets her index cards down with shaking hands as she looks out into the crowd. Immediately, she spots her aunt and uncle...and the empty seat beside them. Her father didn't make it for her high school graduation. The smile she gives to the group is hollow before she looks down and starts to speak.