Jack of Harts

Jesse was in command of the two Cowboys I left on Serenity when it came time to return home to Alpha Centauri. But Jesse was not feeling confident in his own abilities at the time. Not that I really realized how bad off he was. He was doing his typical Kansas farmer stoic routine, and I was mostly falling for it. But I was worried enough that I left Dawn DeMarco to help him, and Dawn was way smarter than I was. She did not fall for his stoic act. She saw the hole he was falling into and she dragged him out of it. She brought him to all the best balls and parties on Serenity, and never allowed him to be alone to dwell on the people he had lost. Unless he needed to be alone. She was real good at knowing when to step back and when to grab him by the arm and drag him after her. She pulled him out of his depression and saved him in every way that matters.

Jesse did not handle losing his wingman at Epsilon Reticuli well. He was devastated in fact, and I think he was close to giving up. Maybe he had. It can be hard to tell with him at times. He’s good at hiding his cards. He needed a good mission to perform to keep him going, and he needed a good partner to help him. That is why I transferred Dawn DeMarco to back him up. I knew if anyone could bring him out of his funk it would be her, and I authorized her to use extreme measures to do so. She smiled at me, and started to do exactly that. She even dragged me, and the redoubtable Captain Wyatt, to some of the first formal balls and more informal parties following the Battle of Serenity. Serenity needed to celebrate as much as the rest of us did, and the parties especially were good for public moral. But I’m not really a big party lover, so I was happy when it came time for Wyatt to return home. It gave me the perfect excuse to get away from those dang parties.