Work Text
Senior Cadet Christopher Pike stood awkwardly at the edge of the funeral home. Tiberius Kirk had been an inspirational mentor but Chris didn’t want to intrude on the family’s time. Chris had first meet Tiberius when he was assigned him as an advisor. He quickly became Chris’ favorite instructor and Chris was sad when he was forced into the Admiralty and removed from the school.The last time Chris saw him was right before he died. Chris had been assigned to the USS Remington for his senior ship assignment. Tiberius was hitching a ride to a starbase when the ship fell under attack. Tiberius bleed out in Chris’ arms as he frantically tried to perform first aide. While Tiberius made it to the medbay, he still died due to age and the extent of the injuries.The ship's therapist would tell Chris he was suffering survivors guilt and that’s why he felt unworthy of being at the funeral but knowing the reason didn't change Chris' feelings on the matter. Right as he decided to leave, a blonde-haired man came over to talk to him.“Hi, names George. I’m,” the man closed his eyes, “Ty’s son. You’re Chris, right? Dad talked about you a lot. You were his favorite. I heard you were there. I’m sorry about that. You doing alright?”Chris figure George was a nice enough guy and spent the rest of the funeral talking with his and his wife.=-=-=-=Chris has fucked up and he is well aware that he’s fucked up. Lieutenant George Kirk and his wife Lieutenant Winona Kirk left him with the simple job of watching their son George and Chris has fucked it up. As of right now he has no clue where the hellion has gone. A giggle from his left has him turning to see the kid hightail it in the opposite direction and Chris is forced to give chase. The boy has him running up a flight of stairs and three laps around the third floor before the kid hops into an elevator. Chris barely manages to squeeze in with him.With George finally apprehended Chris turns to push the button for the second floor only to realize it’s already pushed, in fact all of the buttons are already pushed. Chris leans back against the wall and slides to the floor grimacing as his head bashes against the handrail he just now noticed.George laughed at his misery and Chris grabbed the boy to make sure he couldn’t run when the doors opened on the next floor, and the next floor, and the next floor. Two hours later and Chris is back in his dorm with glitter in his hair, he didn’t even own glitter how did that work, and object misery in his eyes. George Kirk, the bastard, merely laughs at Chris’ troubles when he’s handed back his kid. Before George can even ask Chris is already telling him no.If Chris has his way he will never have to deal with a Kirk ever again.=-=-=-=The Universe was testing him. Chris’ first ship assignment as a grad-student was the USS Kelvin also known as the ship that carried the Kirk’s. At least the devil child was on Earth with his mother’s parents rather than traversing around the ship giving Chris chest palpitations. Chris couldn’t even escape the Kirk’s if he wanted since Lieutenant-Commander, shiny new promotion and everything, George Kirk was Chris’ immediate supervisor. Chris told himself he was above crying but that was before he found out that being under George’s supervision made him free game for his wife.This of course meant that Winona Kirk was jumping out of random places, that only an Engineer of her caliber could probably get in, every time she needed his help with something. There were only so many jump scares a person could handle and Chris ended up in Medbay with anxiety.He met his future best friend and husband Philip Boyce there so he supposed he had to be thankful of the Kirks for driving him to the brink of insanity, or not because that first trip seemed to be the cue for the universe to continually keep Chris somewhat injured. The end of the assignment could not have come soon enough and Chris was glad to be rid of the Kirks.A few weeks later, before the start of Spring semester Chris felt his stomach drop out of his body. George Kirk was dead and Chris decided to write his dissertation on it.=-=-=-=Dissertations needed interviews and while others were willing to talk, including Phil whose voice cracked when explaining the fear of medbay losing gravity, Chris knew this would be the hardest interview yet. Then again, he’d already learned that Kirks don’t make things easy.George was the one who opened the door, the hyperactive little shit Chris knew was gone and in his place, was a four, verging on five, year old with a grudge against the world. Chris knelt down to his level.“Hey George- ““Sam, I’m Sam, George is dead.”Chris felt a lump catch in his throat. He wondered if that was George’s way of coping or if it’s something he heard said and repeated. Chris shook the nasty thought from his head.“Is your mom home?”“No.”Chris was slightly alarmed at that. “No? Well who is home with you?”“Uncle Frank.”Chris wondered if this was Winona’s brother or George’s. From the sound of it George, or Sam, didn’t like them either way.“Do you know where your mom is then?”“Nope.”Chris grimaced at the awkward one-sided conversation. Chris was awkward on a good day and this kid wasn’t helping. “Right, I’m gonna go find her. I’ll see you later kid.”“No, you won’t.”Sam said it with such conviction that Chris nearly believed the kid.Hunting down Winona was harder than Chris thought and he ended up in a bar right outside the shipyards. Winona was three sheets to the wind and Chris had to carry her back to her house and hand her off to her brother. Chris left with a poor opinion of the man and no statement from Winona. Chris figure it was fine, the Kirks deserved their privacy.=-=-=-=Ten years later and Chris was a Commander on the USS Farragut, or rather he was on shore leave on Earth. Him, Phil and Leigh were out drinking when he got a call from an unknown comm frequency. Somehow, someway, Chris should have known it would be the Kirks knocking on his door again, never mind the fact that aside from the occasional meetings where Winona was present Chris hadn’t had contact with the family for years. He should have just known.George Samuel Kirk Jr. had run away from home and James Tiberius Kirk drove a corvette into a quarry. Why Winona called him to handle the situation was beyond him but then he remembers his foolish chivalrous act of leaving his comm number with her for emergencies after taking her home.Chris supposed he should be impressed that the Kirks managed eleven years without an emergency of such severity that Winona would call someone she barely knew for help. Chris had made a promise, though this was not what he intended when he made it, and would help Winona track down her son.Chris should have taken Sam’s flippant comment all those years ago more seriously because after five days of searching he was beginning to understand that that really was the last time he’d ever see the boy.Returning to the farm house empty handed felt too much like giving in but technically that’s exactly what he was doing. Winona had finally made her way to Earth and was in a spectacular yelling match with her brother. The ten-year-old Kelvin Baby was sitting on the front porch with a thousand-yard stare.Chris knew talking to the boy would be another mistake in a long line of mistakes Chris has made concerning the Kirks but the kid looked close to crying and a preemptive strike was needed.Before Chris could speak, James Kirk did. “He left me here.”Ah, the kid was a firm believer of using any and all weapons in your arsenal. Chris could respect that but it meant he was about to have yet another awkward conversation with a Kirk.“You’ll both probably live longer this way.” Chris wondered why the hell he’d say that and came to the conclusion that he was just an idiot when it came to dealing with Kirks. Chris shied away from the look the kid was giving him. One thing was for sure, James Tiberius Kirk had a damn deadly glare.“Sure, Sam’ll die talking to strangers next week and Frank will strangle me as soon as mom leaves. Suppose we wouldn’t have made it out of Riverside had we stayed together.”Chris sighed. “Look, I know Kirks, I know every last one of you a-holes. I also know your brother’s going to be fine, even if he’s an even bigger idiot than me, because Kirks are resourceful as hell and a pain in my ass. Your brother’s going to live just simply to spite me because I think he’ll end up dead, so there.”James gave him a look filled with amusement, apprehension and that glint that spelled Kirk levels of chaos. “So, you think he’s alive because you think he’s dead and he’s going to spite you by being alive? You do know that make no sense, right?”“Look you know Schrödinger’s cat?” James nodded slowly as if humoring a crazy person. “Well your brother is Christopher’s Sam, got it. The little shit’s alive till I find him and I’m never gonna find him because he told me the last time I saw him would be the last time I saw him. There, your brother is alive.”James just stared at him. ‘You’re weird, just make them stop arguing and leave.”Chris sighed before going to do just that. He got a black eye for his troubles and Frank was arrested for assaulting a Starfleet officer. As selfish as it was Chris really hoped this was the last time he’d see the Kirks.Sam was found two or so months later, grungy and thoroughly pissed off but Chris expected nothing less from the kid. Chris didn’t bother to visit him. He’d let the boy have the last word between them.=-=-=-=God, Chris had really hoped that last time would be the end of him and the Kirks coming into contact but no. Of course, the last place Chris would wish even his worst enemy is where he meets James Kirk again. Chris is now the first officer of the Farragut and James Kirk looks like a paper mache skeleton, he’s so thin.The boy’s clothes hang off him in tatters and he had several kids clinging to him. It took a while to find the kids in the forest. They had been running and hiding for months, of course finding them would be nearly impossible. It wasn’t until they found James, beaten, bloody, and covered in concerning body fluids, one of which Chris really didn’t want to think too hard on, in the basement of Kodos’ mansion.The kids came out immediately upon spotting James though they called him JT. The hard look in James’ eyes told Chris bad things would happen if anyone found out his name. Chris was clearly the only one who knew it.Calling Winona got nothing and Chris had the irrational worry that she had been on the planet too, before remembering that she’s stationed on the USS Reliant. That still didn’t explain why she ignored his call. He tried several more times over the day but still no answer.Chris tried plan B. James wasn’t very helpful but Chris did find out that the two boys had been sent there to live with their father’s sister. They went by their aunt and uncle’s last name and Sam was dead. Chris supposed knowing Sam to be alive ruined Christopher’s Sam. Once again Sam’s statement rang true and for the first time Chris was actually genuinely pissed off about it.Chris may have made a silent pact to himself that no more Kirks were dying on his watch, nobody ever said he had good self-preservation skills.Jim ignored him after their heart to heart and Chris let him, up until he finally got ahold of Winona. Apparently, she doesn’t answer unknown comm frequencies until they’ve officially annoyed her. Needless to say, she was horrified at what happened and agreed to discreetly meet James, Jamie baby, on Earth so as to keep people from making a big deal of the Kelvin Baby being on Tarsus IV.Chris was surprised when Jim hugged him before departing with his mother but returned the gesture none the less. He was even more surprised when Winona kissed him, on the mouth.“If that’s what you want for always being there despite the odds I wouldn’t say no but if not just take it as a thank you.”Chris stared at Winona for a moment. She was pretty and fierce and Chris would be lying if he said he didn’t have a crush on her when they were younger. Looking at her now Chris could see how she was frayed at the edges and knew any relationship she had would never amount to George Kirk.“You’re welcome,” Chris replied. Winona nodded and Chris knew he’d made the right call when her eyes brightened just a bit. James, who had been glaring at the scene in front of him, relaxed when he realized Chris wasn’t about to become his new dad.Chris bids them goodbye, for once hoping to meet the Kirks again.=-=-=-=This is not how Chris wanted to meet Winona Kirk again. Chris has his own ship now, the USS Yorktown. They had been sent to fix the mess the USS Reliant couldn’t. Their ship was too heavily damaged to remain in the area but their captain and first officer were still down on the planet.In comes Chris and where Chris is, is where the universe distributes the most chaos. It should come as no surprise then that the USS Reliant's captain is dead and the rest of Chris’ landing party is MIA, or maybe Chris is MIA. The point was Chris was now held hostage with Winona Kirk in what Starfleet jokingly refers to as a Fuck or Die situation. It’s really not a joke on this end.It was without a doubt the most awkward moment Chris has ever experienced in his life. Right as the alien species forces Chris and Winona to get busy, after having forced them undressed, Chris’ girlfriend and first officer barges into the room. Back on the ship nothing is less awkward as Chris’ boyfriend hovers over him making cheating and other woman jokes. Winona takes it in stride and fires back with her own. Winona flirting with all three of them makes him slightly uncomfortable. Being in a polyrelatioship isn’t the most comfortable thing Chris has done and Winona rocking the boat is making him a bit seasick.Luckily, a few days later the world is set to rights again as Winona is returned to her ship. This doesn’t stop her from stealing Chris’ girlfriend but he supposed their polyrelationship wasn’t working to well anyway since it centered around Chris more than a three-way relationship. It still hurts like a bitch but Winona sent him a basket full of candy as an apology. It has a “the other woman” joke on the card. He supposes his life could be worse as he cuddles close to Phil a pile of pillows replacing Leigh’s missing warmth at his back.=-=-=-=When Chris gets a call from one of the shipyard workers saying his cadets have gotten into a fight Chris should have known the boy laying over the table would be James Kirk. He was in Riverside Iowa for fucks sake why he thought he wouldn’t run into a Kirk was beyond him.James, or Jim as he apparently went by, looked like shit and didn’t seem to recognize him. It was at that point that Chris realized he’d never given Jim his last name and that it had been eight years since he last saw the boy. Chris had started greying in the years between due to stress. The lines on his face were also more prominent and the emaciated fourteen-year-old was replaced with a pissed off twenty-two-year-old with a death wish.It was then that Chris remembered the promise he’d made himself after Sam died. No more Kirks on his watch. Damnit.Chris looked across the table at the kid and gave the best improvised speech he’d ever given in his life. It was filled with bullshit and crossed a few lines but at the end of the day, or rather the next morning, James Tiberius Kirk boarded the shuttle bound for Starfleet.Chris didn’t even care when Admiral Barnett told him the Cadet was his new, and only advisee. Okay he cared a little but Jim surely couldn’t be too bad.=-=-=-=Chris sometimes wonders why he tempts fate because Jim tires every button on him at least four times before the first semester ends. It doesn’t help that Jim’s made friends with Leonard McCoy, Gaila, and Gary Mitchell because now all three think he's open season to them as well.Jim settles down his second semester and gets a girlfriend that last two weeks, a personal record for Jim. The relationship ends badly due to something with McCoy and Jim quits the game for a while. Chris isn’t about to get between whatever it is Jim and McCoy are trying to avoid.His third semester, summer since he has no reason to go home, Jim really hits the ground running and his brilliance shines through. Jim wows his professors for the next two years before he pulls another stupid stunt and fucks around with the Kobayashi Maru. Chris could kill the boy.But he doesn’t have time before the destress call comes in and everything goes to shit.Jim, like always, takes him on a rollercoaster of emotion when he sneaks onto the ship. Chris is shocked, then pissed, then proud and scares shitless but he won’t admit either of those last things.Chris knows making Jim first officer was the most biased thing he’s ever done but Chris doesn’t associate with people who can’t keep up with him so he knows Jim can handle it.Jim tires to get emotional and Chris shuts that down because, no. He meant it as a joke but should have known Jim would try to rescue him regardless. Chris is grateful don’t get him wrong but he also wants to beat some since into his son’s head.Chris pauses in his outrage, damnit all if Chris hasn’t officially claimed a Kirk. It’s the last thought he has as McCoy puts him under.=-=-=-=Sending Jim back to the academy was too harsh of a punishment and Chris called them out on it. Jim graduated the Academy fair and square. It wasn’t a lack of knowledge that got him, it was a lack of experience.Chris, grudgingly, admitted he felt at fault for the situation since he was the one who so insistently pushed for Jim to have the Enterprise. The Admirals agreed and allowed Chris to take Jim back under his wing, as if the kid had ever left.Chris felt slightly better now that Jim’s future was no longer ruined like it would have been. It’s one thing to be demoted, it’s another to be sent back to the Academy. The only greater disgrace would be to be dishonorably discharged. Not to mention Jim and McCoy had only recently gotten their shit together and it would have ruined their relationship to be on different ships, or in Jim’s case no ship at all.Jim better be grateful for all the shit Chris puts himself through for him. When Chris finds him, he knows Jim’s about to blow his relationship regardless and feels a vindictive pleasure at cockblocking him.Their bonding moment gets cut short by an emergency meeting.=-=-=-=He should have listened to Jim sooner. Those precious seconds when he stopped him from talking could have made the difference but now he was looking into Spock’s eyes as the Vulcan mind melded with him. Chris felt kind of bad for him because the only memories that seemed to be coming through to him where of the Kirks. Those blond fuckers with a rebellious streak so wide you might as well call their obedience the streak. Tiberius, George, Sam and the two survivors, Winona and Jim. Jim, god he hoped his kid would be okay. Jim was about to be thrown in the deep in again and there was nothing Chris could do.Blue eyes took over his vision. The irony of looking into Jim’s eyes as he died did not escape him. He always knew the Kirks would be the death of him. Chris couldn’t take the heartbreak in Jim’s eyes and tried to reach up for him. Chris hoped Phil would forgive him. Chris hope Jim would make him proud but who was he kidding he was already proud.