Many thanks for reposting your links on the New Year--I almost missed this wonderful vignette in the holiday madness. I love fics that look into Joe's past, and this one is particularly well done, with excellent voices and great attention to detail. There's almost no clues to Joe's earlier years in canon, but you've used nearly everything hinted at in the telecasts and the chronicles and pulled them into a very believable flashback. Sad, wry and hopeful at the same time, I enjoyed it immensely!