Survivor's guilt is nothing new to Jim. He had his first taste of it as soon as he was old enough to understand the sacrifice that George Kirk made on the day of Jim's birth, and he's had it again several times since. After Tarsus IV, after the destruction of Vulcan... and now, this. It's never something that gets easier, no matter how many times it happens.

Jim squeezes Hunter's hand a little, his grip noticeably stronger than it has been over the past week. And hearing that Hunter's fallen for him a bit... the last thing Jim wants to do is accidentally break Hunter's heart along the way. "I don't like lying to them either."