"None of what happened to me durin' the war is any of your fault," Johnny said, his shock at the statement obvious. Why in the hell would his father feel guilty about Johnny's wartime experiences? He was born a soldier, and everything that happened to him was just what could be considered normal for a man in such a hazardous position. It was hardly as though Mark had been present and personally responsible for every time Johnny died, was injured, or the one time he was captured.
Which led to the question: was his father doing this, threatening to ground him and prevent him from going to Elmira, because he felt guilty that Johnny had even been sent there in the first place? Was he taking out his own frustrations with the past on the son that remained his strongest tangible link to said past? Johnny frowned at the remnants of his bagel (what, he hadn't eaten in upwards of six hours and a boy got hungry). It wasn't fair. And Elmira wasn't the worst place on Earth for him, not at all. That honor, such as it was, belonged to an entire goddamned state that he rather wished would just vanish off the map entirely. But that was another story.
"The hell are you goin' on about? I ain't just wanderin' the country at random... anymore!" Johnny protested. In fairness, he had done exactly that after the war. But now... "I got a house --three, actually-- and a couple dogs and a boyfriend and a kid, sort of. Why do I need supervision when I've settled down more'n you?" He chose not to touch on the "grounded" topic. No way that was going to happen.