Title: Along Comes a Stranger (25/28)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: AU. Jim’s life in Riverside is uncomplicated until two men, both equally mysterious and compelling, arrive in town, bringing with them the promise of change.
Previous Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24

IMPORTANT: Part 24 went up yesterday. Please read it first if you have not before continuing on.

Part Twenty-Five

Jim is anxious. When Lady Q had said “contact” his friends, she actually met “kidnap them, too.” Her reasoning, however, is that it isn’t kidnapping. It’s an offer they won’t want to refuse—to see their missing friend Jim. Without making a scene, of course.

She had asked, “Who do you want retrieved?”

“Bones and Spock” had automatically popped out of his mouth.

Lady Q inquired who Bones was. He told her. She laughed in delight.

“What about my mother?” Kirk needed to know.

“I’m afraid that would not be the best route, James,” Lady Q had said. “But I will see to it that a letter is delivered to her, if you like.”

“I’ll write it,” he insisted.

“Very well,” agreed the old woman. “Choose your words with care, however, young man. Assure her that you are safe and will return—but no more.”

He did that and added in two details: one, that he is glad she left her shotgun behind when she confronted Trelane (Winona will understand that reference) and, two, that he is calling in some help to handle a problem, so would she please tell Spock’s mother that he won’t let anything bad happen to Spock (or Bones either, Mom, though Bones is probably going to find an umbrella of his own so he can beat me with it for good measure. I promise I’ll come home soon. Love, Jimmy.)

Agents of the Q were dispatched to accomplish their respective goals, and Jim was left behind to wait for the arrival of his soon-to-be co-conspirators. Lady Q grew tired of his pacing and exiled him to a courtyard.

Jim is currently settled on a bench, counting a line of ants marching through a crack in the stone patio. Something soft brushes against his ankle.

Meow.

Meow meeeow.

“Where did you come from?” he wonders, bemused, and picks up a terribly cute orange tabby kitten. It licks his palm with a rough tongue and answers his question with a high-pitched meow! Jim strokes the little body with a fingertip. The kitten likes that and arches into his touch.

He sighs and sits back, cradling the kitten to his chest. It picks at his t-shirt.

How much longer? Are they going to hate him for what he agreed to do?

Well, no matter what Bones and Spock think of Jim, Jim is fairly vibrating with the need to see them. He misses the scent of Bones and, crazily enough, the steady presence of Spock at his back. Jim begins to realize just how much he has come to rely on the knowledge that they are close by, are a part of his life even in a small way. And he thinks they with no small amount of surprise. What had happened to his wariness over Spock? It’s simply gone.

Or his despondency over Spock and Bones being together?

Overpowered by the relief that they (at least) have each other, that it is all right if they are not with Jim, because he knows Bones and Spock are solid support for one another. He is almost happy, which strikes Jim as kind of weird. Unexpected.

The kitten struggles in his light grasp, determined to get away. Jim says, “I understand” and lets it go, watching it scamper across the courtyard toward a tall tree.

He buries his hands into his hair and gets up to pace again.

Please don’t fight the Q, he sends out. Please just get here!

Twenty minutes later and Jim is beginning to tire of being in the sunshine. He scratches his fingers along his stubbled cheek. Does Lady Q expect him to grow a beard? Because that’s not going happen.

Bored now that his nerves have given way to impatience, Jim is looking around for the mysterious kitten when he hears a faint meow.

Not behind a potted plant, not tackling flowers like it had been at one point, and not chasing a grasshopper.

The next series of meow’s are louder, like cries for help. And they are above him.

He glances up into the tree and blanches. Said-kitty is tottering along a limb very high above the ground and peering over the limb’s edge, panting with anxiety.

He doesn’t have to think about what he’s going to do because he’s Jim Kirk and, really, that means he has only one choice. Jim pulls off his sneakers and socks, drops them at the base of the tree, and starts climbing.

The kitten stops meowing to watch him in rapt fascination. Except when he reaches the midway point, it turns and goes in the wrong direction.

“No!” he shouts at it. “Stop, kitty, stop!”

The tabby kitten (because it can, being as tiny as it is) wobbles along the small twigs spanning the distance between the tree and the rooftop. Jim curses and climbs faster but once he is almost level with the correct limb, the kitten has made it safely to the tiled roof and is confused at how it got there.

It wanders along the roof’s edge with a plaintive meow? meow?

Jim scrambles along the limb, wincing at the bark digging into his bare feet. He spits a haphazard leaf out of his mouth.

“Stop that!” he tells the kitten as it cranes its head over the edge and looks at the ground. His heart does an unpleasant jig in his chest.

Suddenly there are two sharp cries of “Jim!” and a “Ssshit!” far below him.

The chorus of surprised voices startles Jim enough that he clutches at the limb under his hands in a desperate bid to regain his balance (he had forgotten momentarily about everything but the stranded tabby). Finally in a safe position to peek downwards, Jim looks at the group of people crowded under the tree and quirks his mouth sheepishly.

“Uh, hey!”

“Jim,” repeats a wide-eyed Bones, voice strangled, “God, Jim—what are—you’re—” Once the man’s initial shock has passed, “You idiot, get out of that tree!”

“I can’t,” he yells back.

“Get down here now!” and, wow, Bones is actually kind of shrieking in a panicky way.

The kitten meows, frightened, beyond his reach. Still firmly decided Kirk shakes his head, though as slowly as possible so he does not dislodge himself from his perch. He points at the baby feline. “Roof. Kitten. Me save.”

Bones apparently doesn’t like his sense of humor. Jim glances down again and catches sight of Spock to the side of Bones, turned away and handing his jacket to… Uhura?

Jim resolutely keeps going. Bones cries, “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to get the kitten,” he says, stubborn.

“Great, wonderful! I shoulda known you weren’t a hostage or dead in a ditch—YOU’VE BEEN RESCUIN’ CATS FROM TREES!!!”

Technically the kitten is on the roof but Jim doubts Bones will appreciate the correction. Besides, yelling is obviously cathartic for Dr. Leonard McCoy.

Once Kirk is farther out on the limb, it sways under his weight because, well, he isn’t a ten-ounce fluffball of fur. He’s a grown man. Jim crawls a little ways and is then forced to kneel and shuffle so he can reach the smaller branches for balance. “C’mere, kitty,” he calls. “Kitty, kitty, kitty!”

The distance between the branch and the roof isn’t too wide. Jim only hesitates for a second, locking his legs around the branch, before flinging his upper body across the space and catching the edge of the roof. Someone shrieks below. It might be Uhura, or it might not.

Okay, awkward angle. Hands on roof, twisted torso, legs scraping against the branch. Nope, not gonna last for very long.

The kitten has stopped peering over the edge of the roof to turn its head and meow curiously at him. He wills it to come closer.

Meow? Meow?

“Here, kitty, kitty,” he coaxes in a slightly strained voice.

It wobbles over to his left hand. Drawing in a breath, he braces his weight on his right hand and picks up the kitten.

Now one-handed on the roof. Definitely not good.

“He’s gonna get himself killed! JIM!”

“Shut up!” he shouts, “I’m thinking!” The kitten starts biting one of his fingers.

Jim decides that he doesn’t have a better option than letting go, so he does. He is mindful not to crush the suddenly terrified kitten in his hand as he swings downward, cursing “Shit!” and prays his heart does not pop out of his chest. Legs now in a death grip on the thick limb and crossed at the ankles, Jim hangs upside down with a mouth full of leaves and definitely some small branches poking in all the wrong places. The kitten is limp is in his hand. Kirk lifts it to his upside-down face and tells it, “Hey, everything’s okay, you’re okay.”

He isn’t as young as he used to be. All the blood draining to his head makes him dizzy.

Below someone curses, “Jesus fucking Christ!” A burr soothes, “Ye can open yer eyes, Doctor. He’s still in the tree.”

Scotty?

Jim swivels his head to get a better look and instead gasps at the sight of Spock in his face.

“Uh, hi, Spock.”

“Jim,” replies the lawyer mildly, looking strange standing in a tree while in a crisp white shirt (minus a jacket), dark pants, and polished shoes. “Do you require assistance?”

Jim blinks. Then the kitty in his hand makes a noise to indicate that it has recovered, and he thrusts it at the calm man.

“Here, take Bo Peep. She’s scared.” (That’s how names come to Jim sometimes—out of the blue. She looks like a Bo Peep.)

Spock, somehow perfectly balanced on the tree limb beneath the hanging Kirk, has no choice but to take the kitten. Spock cups the tiny animal in his hands and stares at it for a short moment. The kitten returns the stare, twitches its tail, and says meow!

Jim sighs in relief, arms hanging loosely, as Spock edges back down the tree with the rescued kitty. In the lower branches there is a flash of color, someone else, and Jim hastily pushes a clump of leaves out of his way to look. Spock transfers the kitten into the care of Pavel Chekov, who is clutching the trunk of the tree halfway between Jim’s high limb and the ground. Chekov scoots down the trunk a few feet and then leans over to hand off the kitten to another person—Sulu, sitting on the first big branch of the tree. Directly below Sulu, on the ground, is Bones, staring balefully up into the tree containing four men. Bones reaches up and takes the kitten from Sulu.

“All right, Tarzan,” calls the doctor. “The cat’s safe!”

He thinks ridiculously (despite how much it might prick at Jim’s pride) that Spock is probably Tarzan. Wait. Does that make him Jane?

Kirk’s legs are beginning to cramp painfully. Which means Jim might have a less pleasant descent than Bo Peep. He grimaces and takes several deep breaths in preparation to do the Sit-Up of all sit-ups and pull himself back into an upright position. He begins to swing his arms for momentum.

But at the last second, Spock is back and latched onto him. Jim protests, “Hey!” and almost forgets that his legs need to hang onto the overhead limb or he’ll fall.

“I have you, Jim,” Spock insists. “Put your arms around my neck.”

“That’s not going to work,” he retorts.

“Trust me.”

“We’re going to fall,” he argues but, still, Jim locks his arms around Spock’s neck—which is not easy, being upside down.

Hands support his middle. “Let go.”

Jim relaxes the muscles in his legs. Spock takes his weight (really, Jim is surprised they don’t topple over) and helps Jim eases down to the limb Spock is on. Jim ends up pressed against Spock, his hands gripping the back of the man’s shirt. Spock doesn’t seem to mind; in fact, for a brief second, the man’s arms tighten around Jim.

Jim pulls away, saying, “Spock, you have awesome balance” instead of professing the sentimental I think I love you in his head.

“Thank you,” replies the lawyer gravely.

Spock somehow practically carries Jim down to Chekov’s level, whereupon Pavel says, “I am wery happy to see you, Jim,” and assists Jim in his descent to Sulu. Sulu makes Jim lean against the trunk while Sulu jumps to the ground and stands next to Bones. Then Sulu calls, “Come down.”

Jim hangs from the branch the right way up this time and feels Sulu grab one of his legs and Bones the other. He slides to the ground, supported by the two men.

There is no time to thank anybody after because Bones jumps on him and hugs him hard enough to make his ribs ache. Jim gives in to one need and lets his head sink down onto Leonard’s shoulder. They stay like that long enough for Sulu to help Chekov out of the tree and Spock—as his mother had said, who climbs like a monkey—to descend with ease and retrieve his jacket from Uhura.

When McCoy finally lets Jim go, Jim can’t help but quip, “Wasn’t that fun?”

“I hate you,” Leonard says.

Jim’s grin is dopey. “You might wish you did.”

He sees Scotty standing behind Bones, cradling the kitten. The man blinks at Jim, then down at the kitten, before slowly placing Bo Peep on a patch of grass. Bo Peep toddles away with a happy meow meow!

Close to Scotty is Uhura. Her face is strangely blank. Jim runs a hand down Bones’ arm before stepping around the man to his oldest friend.

“Hey, Uhura,” he says softly.

For a long moment the young woman is silent. Then cryptically, Nyota says, “Now I know.”

Jim promptly replies, “Know what?”

“How many men it takes to get a Jim Kirk out of a tree.”

He turns to the people behind him and makes a point of counting. “Four?”

“Yeah,” Uhura agrees. Then her eyes spark with the first flare of life. “But it only takes one woman to do this!” She punches him in the chest, hard.

“Ow!” Jim protests, rocking back on his heels. “That hurt!” he complains, secretly glad for the reaction.

“You didn’t call me, Jim,” Nyota shouts fiercely.

“This place doesn’t have a telephone!” he retorts. “What was I supposed to do, send you a carrier pigeon?”

Her face crumples without warning, and Jim drags Nyota in (much like Bones did to him), wrapping his arms around her. “I’m sorry,” he says sincerely. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She sniffles into his shoulder after a minute and whispers, “Forgiven.” Nyota pushes him away immediately after and wipes her eyes. Jim knows how much the thought of losing people really breaks her apart.

“The kitten’s climbing the tree again,” interrupts Sulu.

Jim dashes between Scotty and Pavel and gently pries the kitten’s claws from the bark of the tree trunk. “No, Bo Peep,” he admonishes it.

The kitten complains. He carries it over to Spock without a second’s thought and sets it on the man’s shoulder, and coos, “There, this is a much better place to be. See?”

Bo Peep digs claws into Spock’s jacket and looks down. The height must be just right, because the kitten seems content to settle there and meow at everyone.

Spock raises his eyebrow at Jim. Jim smiles.

He finally has the chance to look around and observe everyone circling him. Bones, Spock, Sulu, Chekov, Uhura, and Scotty.

He asks curiously, “How did you all fit into a single car?”

“We didn’t,” replies Sulu. “We made them fetch a limo.”

Jim has a hard time keeping his mouth closed.

Nyota plants her hands on her hips. “What did you expect? A man shows up at the diner saying he’ll take Dr. Leonard McCoy and Mr. Spock to James Kirk and was stupid enough not to whisper it.”

Jim can easily imagine how that went over. Uhura probably tried to punch the man when he said she wasn’t included in the invitation (with more zeal than she punched Jim, no doubt) and Sulu came to investigate and Pavel declared he was going with Uhura and Leonard and Spock, which meant Sulu was going too.

Jim looks at Scotty. The man shrugs and says, “The more, the better.”

“Who’s watching Sasha?” he wants to know.

“Sasha is with Mr. Spock’s parents,” explains Chekov. “When Dr. McCoy said he knew who took you after Hikaru gave him your message, we all wanted to go to find this Trelane. Ms. Amanda offered to watch my sister while we went.”

Jim demands, “Whose idea was it to set my mother on Trelane?”

McCoy folds his arms. “What makes you think we had any say in that?”

Chekov nods furiously while Scotty remarks, “Yer mother, she was scary. I wouldna’ve argued with her for all the gold ‘n silver of a faery.”

Bones fixes hard eyes on Jim. “Was it Trelane?” Jim is asked bluntly.

“Not this time but before? Yeah,” Kirk admits.

“I’ll kill ‘im” is Leonard’s fierce reply.

“No you won’t, Bones. But we will find a way to expose him. That’s part of the reason you’re here.”

Spock says firmly, “We are here to rescue you.”

There is a brief span of seconds where Jim feels warm just looking at Spock (and the kitten curled up on Spock’s shoulder).

“Jim…” Uhura grabs his attention. “We’re—with the Q, aren’t we? The windows of the limo were blacked out but what else could this place be?” She indicates the large structure around them, her sharp eyes saying she misses nothing.

“I’d rather know when we’ll be leavin’,” interjects Scotty, darting looks around the courtyard. “I dinnae like the mugs of those lads at the gate.”

He raises his hand to forestall other questions or comments. “We are on the Q—campus. That’s what they call it, a campus.”

“Like a school?” muses Bones, brows frowning.

“Not from what I have seen. Doesn’t matter, though. While I can’t say I have been held hostage by the Q, I was strongly advised to stay here. I doubt we will be allowed to leave until we have a plan to stop Trelane.” He pauses, then continues, having come to some decisions last night when he couldn’t sleep. “If you want out now, I’ll fight for you. You have my word on that. But I want Trelane out of Riverside, so I’m staying until it is accomplished.”

He cannot read Bones’ expression. Sulu asks, “How bad is Trelane?”

“He likes to watch people suffer. Pavel, he’s the guy who had the cellphone in the diner. He found out about—your past and used it to scare you. And he did it to get at me too.” Jim closes his eyes for a moment. “Trelane ordered me to remove Bob from the running for mayor. I wouldn’t do it, and he’s been making my life hell ever since.”

Nyota gasps, Pavel and Scotty have eyes which are the size of quarters, Spock tenses (which barely disturbs Bo Peep) and Sulu’s face grows grim. Bones demands, “Why you?”

Kirk shrugs. “Maybe I was conveniently available to torture? Because I’m close to Bob? Who the fuck knows, Bones. I don’t.”

“You said you couldn’t go to the police,” Leonard states softly, silently asking Jim for further explanation.

The time for holding back has passed. “One of the deputies handed me over to Trelane and tossed my bike in the gravel pit,” he says flatly. “Does that answer your question?”

Too well, by the look in McCoy’s eyes.

Jim steps back, putting a careful distance him and his friends. “We can talk about this inside. There is also someone you need to meet, if you decide to help. Though to be honest, I would rather not involve any of you in this situation. I’d do this alone, if I could.”

“What is it you require of us?” asks Spock, breaking the silence.

Jim hedges, “You won’t like it.”

“Jim,” Leonard says, “I don’t like anything you’ve said so far.”

“We have to find a way to kill me.” Bones pales. Kirk quickly amends, “I mean kill me without actually killing me—for real.”

Leonard lays a hand over his eyes. “You don’t ask for much, do you, kid?”

“It’s not like I’m keen on dying, Bones!”

“You’d better not be!” snaps McCoy. “And of course I’m in, because if you plan on doing something so damned crazy you’ll need your God-damned doctor!”

Uhura says, “Count me in. And I want first dibs on strangling Kirk—I’ll have to practice, of course.”

Jim knows from experience that if he bolts for safety, Nyota is a faster runner than he is (and has a mean tackle too). Her expression dares him to try.

Chekov offers to help think of ideas, Sulu says he is good with both a blade and a long-range rifle (Jim has to remember to introduce Sulu and Jose if he survives), and Scotty scratches his head thoughtfully, asking if there are tools somewhere about the estate.

Spock says, “Do not forget your footwear, Jim” and glides smoothly toward the door of the inner courtyard with Bo Peep clinging to the curve of his shoulder. The lawyer waits for the rest of them to catch up; Jim does, after hastily stuffing his bare feet into his sneakers and his socks into his jean pocket.

Lady Q had said, before she pitched him out into courtyard, “I do not understand why you are anxious. Wherever you go, your family follows.”

“How can you know that?” he had asked, still uncertain.

“You belong to them, James,” she smiled knowingly, “as intrinsically as they belong to you. It could never be otherwise.”

Maybe there is some truth to her words after all, he thinks as he winds a path into the heart of the building, to Lady Q who waits patiently to meet Jim’s friends, because he is leading and they—all six well-advised but determined people—are right on his heels every step of the way.

Three parts left.

Are you ready?

Next Part

Related Posts:

• Along Comes a Stranger (28/28) – from July 10, 2011
• Along Comes a Stranger (27/28) – from July 9, 2011
• Along Comes a Stranger (26/28) – from July 5, 2011
• Chapter of Doom – from July 4, 2011
• Along Comes a Stranger (24/28) – from June 29, 2011