Title: Many Bells Down (12/12)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: Sequel to Along Comes a Stranger; Riverside ‘verse. Dating Bones and Spock is wonderful, better than Jim imagined. Then Bones’ mother arrives, Spock receives the offer of a lifetime outside of Riverside, and Jim has to make a series of choices that could completely change his – and ultimately Riverside’s – future.
Previous Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

Part Eleven went up yesterday! Please read it first if you have not.

Part Twelve

Kirk slowly places the car keys on the counter between him and Khan. “Hold that thought, Mr. Singh.” He thumbs in the direction of the garage. “Best to take a leak before any field trips.”

Khan nods tacitly, as if he is granting permission for Jim’s bathroom break, and slips his hands into his trouser pockets. “I will wait.”

Jim hisses urgently at Jose as he skirts around the man, “Follow me!”

Jose—thank everything that’s holy, Jim thinks—does not question him and simply follows. As soon as they are out of sight of any windows, Jim pulls Jose aside and puts every ounce of fear into his voice can muster.

“If I go with that guy, Jose, you’ll never see me again, except maybe as a body to identify.”

Jose is taken aback. “Jim…”

“Listen to me,” Jim insists. “I need you to call the police. Hell, call Komack! We can’t be alone with Khan. He’s dangerous!”

Jose puts a hand on his shoulder. “Jim, you need to calm down.”

“I am calm!” Kirk whispers furiously. “As calm as I can be when I’m about to be axe-murdered!”

“Chico—hey! Look me in the eyes! Nobody’s murdering anybody in my garage, okay?” Jose gestures at his office. “I’ll get the cops out here. You just—sit tight, yeah?”

Jim pinches the bridge of his nose. He knows he sounds like a lunatic but he can feel Khan’s eyes on him, even through a thick plaster wall. Shit, he wouldn’t be this freaked out if he hadn’t just gotten hung up with Pike’s warning still ringing in his ears.

Then again, he might have taken that joyride with Khan and never known what was in store for him.

When Jose, expression strange, starts back toward the office, Jim grabs the sleeve of the man’s shirt. “Are you crazy?! Don’t go in there!”

Jose spreads his arms in a show of what else can I do? “Phone’s in the office.”

Jim digs in his back pocket and offers the man his billfold. “Use the payphone across the street or go next door to Tommy’s. Just don’t let Khan know we’re on to him.”

Jose gently folds Jim’s fingers back around the billfold. “Keep your money. I got some spare change.” He hesitates for a moment. “Jim, if you’re that… afraid of Mr. Singh, then why don’t you go? Yeah,” he says more firmly, “I think that’d be best. He ain’t going to mess with an old man like me.”

Jim bites at his lip. Would Khan hurt Jose?

Trelane would have, in a heartbeat.

He says, “We’ll leave together.”

But Jose vetoes that idea. “I’m not leaving the shop wide open. I can’t—you know that.”

Something rattles in the office—the old postmark swivel display. Khan is waiting patiently, as promised. More like a viper in the grass, Jim thinks.

Ants could be crawling over his skin and the feeling wouldn’t be any different than what is riding him hard right now.

“I’ll call Komack, and then I’ll come back,” he decides, unwilling to simply abandon Jose. “Can you stall for time?”

“I guess,” the man says slowly. “I did want to take another look at that engine.”

Jim nods and looks toward the side door of the garage but hesitates. Jose places a hand on his arm, warm against the cold goosebumps along his skin.

Jim does as promised, using the number which he memorized a while back (during the Trelane ordeal) that he knows will get him directly to the town sheriff. Afterwards, he trails back into the garage and shoves a wrench into his overalls, just in case.

Jose, wiping his hands on a rag, greets him. “Khan’s still here.”

Jim knows that. “Komack is coming.”

“Okay,” says the garage owner. Then, “Jim, about that motor. I guess it would make sense he is lying about the noise—if he’s after you, I mean.”

Jim resists the fierce need to hug the life out of Jose. “That’s what I think, too.”

Jose puts his rag aside. “I guess we’ll wait on the law, then.”

Jim hasn’t heard more cheering words in his life.

It isn’t that Sheriff Komack looks unhappy at being called in; the fact is Komack always looks grim. Jim tries not to let the man’s expression distract him from telling his story.

Komack makes notes as Jim talks and asks simple questions of dates and times and places. Only when Jim gets to the part about Frank Rand does the sheriff have something to say.

“You shouldn’t have met him alone.”

“He met me.”

“And what did I tell you to do if that ever happened?”

Jim rakes a hand through his hair. “I know, I know. That’s a fuck-up on my part.”

“Yeah, it is. Do you know what happens when a restraining order is violated by the victim, Jim? It becomes useless. We can’t believe a word you say thereafter about how dangerous the perp is because you willingly allow yourself to be near him.” Komack caps and pockets his pen then closes his notebook. “It looks even worse that you’re trying find the guy.”

“He’s an asshole, Sheriff, but he’s not somebody I want dead. If I saw he was going to get hit by car, I’d probably try to save him. Am I supposed to think differently?”

“No,” replies Komack. “The fact that you don’t is why you’re a better man than Rand. But I hate to tell you this, kid… Frank’s just fine.”

Jim steps back. “What?”

“He walked into the station about an hour before your call came in to file some paperwork. I left him there, talking to one of our people.”

The world takes a dizzying turn. Jim sags onto Jose’s desk. Komack had offered to let Kirk tell his story in private, so they had chosen Jose’s office in the back of the garage. Jim cannot see Khan, nor tell what is happening to Khan, but perhaps that is Komack’s intention.

Jim rubs a hand over his mouth then asks slowly, “How’d he look?”

Komack’s mouth turns down at the corners slightly. “Happy. I heard he landed work as a security guard. Since he will be carrying a weapon, he is required to let us know.”

For Frank, any job would be like stumbling over a pot of gold.

Jim still can hardly grasp the idea: Frank isn’t dead. Frank is happy. What the hell is going on?

“This is better than I thought,” Jim says, attempting to look at the positive side of things. “Frank can confirm what I just told you. I mean, he’s the one who told me.”

“And therein lies the problem,” comes the grim reply.

Jim goes cold. “What do you mean?”

“Your story makes no sense. Why would Frank Rand tell you something like that about the guy who is employing him?”

Jim stares at the sheriff for a long few seconds, uncomprehending. When the magnitude of what Komack just said hits him—not unlike a freight train at full speed—he leaps away from Jose’s desk and jerks open the office door.

“Kirk!” shouts Komack at his back.

But Jim doesn’t listen and slips away from Komack before the man can grab his arm.

“You fucking bastard!” he shouts, barreling into the small waiting area of Jose’s Auto Shop. “You fucking bought him off?!”

Khan is lounging with his legs crossed and his trademark pleasant half-smile. Jim, it seems, is rudely interrupting a friendly chat between Khan and a junior deputy. The deputy’s stupid grin turns anxious the moment he spies Jim coming.

Khan lifts a stalling hand to the deputy. “Please, it’s all right. Mr. Kirk and I are civilized men.” Now he turns to Jim. “Who am I to have ‘bought off’, Mr. Kirk?”

“Rand,” snaps Jim. “You knew that he knew what you had done to me and you—”

Didn’t kill him. You just settled matters with the promise of work and plenty of money.

“Ah, Mr. Frank Rand,” says Khan mildly. He looks to Sheriff Komack, who is now shadowing Jim. “There seems to be a misunderstanding on Mr. Kirk’s part, I fear. May I explain my association with Mr. Rand?”

Komack gives a short nod.

“The man has been in my employ for some weeks. We met in a bar—the same bar which I was telling Deputy Harris here where I had last encountered Mr. Kirk on a matter of business.” He says more seriously, sincerely, “I believe in second chances, gentlemen. Truthfully, had not someone seen fit to give me a second chance to better myself, I might not be the successful man that I am today. I decided to take the risk that Mr. Rand might be worthy of redemption. We discussed possibilities and I chose what I thought would be a suitable profession for him within my corporation.” He gives them a sharp, knowing grin. “But one must always carefully inspect the merchandise for flaws before deciding upon purchase, yes? Thus I allowed him a two-week trial run before he was given the full privileges of Security.”

Khan is the perfect picture of a benevolent benefactor. “I am pleased to say Mr. Rand has proved himself capable–which I had little doubt of, given his many years in law enforcement. I look forward to working with him.”

Jim is stunned. Khan and Frank. Frank and Khan. The two names turn round and round in his head, mocking him. If Frank has been working with Khan the entire time…

“You set me up,” he says thickly. “This whole time—” He can’t finish.

Frank hadn’t been lying to Jim, except about the part where he thought Khan needed to be stopped. Khan was a criminal, no doubt, but then so was Frank Rand. Jim had forgotten that.

The clean-shaven, polished executive sighs. “I must admit I do not understand what is happening. Have I acted against the law?” he inquires politely, looking first to Jose (who is leaning in the doorway between the office and garage and appears uncomfortable) and then back to the sheriff.

Komack informs Khan, “You have been accused of a crime, Mr. Singh. However,” he doesn’t once look at Jim, “there is no reason to detain you further. You will be contacted for an interview at the station as our investigation gets underway.”

Of course they can’t cart him off to jail on the word of Jim Kirk, who seems to have no evidence whatsoever. Jim fights against the urge to demand otherwise, knowing how he behaves now is under as close scrutiny as how Khan behaves.

And Khan seems to be doing a better job at acting innocent.

“I see,” Khan replies shortly. He uncrosses his legs and rises from his chair. To Jose, “My apologies. Had I known I would distress your employee—” He waves his own words away. “Forgive me. It is pointless to talk of regret. I hope this does not affect our arrangement.” To Jim, “I am afraid, given these circumstances, I must rescind my offer of employment, Mr. Kirk.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going cry over it, Khan,” Jim almost snaps at Khan’s pretense of caring.

“I doubt you will,” says the man. “Please assure Mr. Spock the offer has been nullified.” Khan brushes away an imaginary piece of lint on his pants, remarking in an amused tone, “He seemed rather adamant you were not qualified for the work.”

So this is why Spock and Bones never mentioned the “atrocity that was Jim’s idea of a good job” again. They went around him and straight to the source. Jim doesn’t know whether to be pleased or pissed.

Khan, taking the silence of the room as a conclusion to events, inclines his head toward the sheriff and the deputy. “Am I free to go?”

“Yes. Just don’t leave town.” Komack says the words stiffly, as though it goes against his better judgment to let Khan go. Jim remembers then that Sheriff Komack is an associate of Lady Q. Has she spoken with him? How much does the man know about Khan?

Khan smiles. “I could not if I wished to, sir. I have a large financial stake in your Riverside.”

Komack says nothing. Jim is silent too, clenching his fists as Khan takes the time to smooth out the wrinkles in a grotesquely expensive suit jacket then slip it on along with his shades. The man walks to the door but stops, twisting at the waist to say to Jim, “You assume I am your enemy, Kirk, but I ask instead: can we not try to be cordial with one another?”

Komack wants to know, voice sharp, “Why would you ask to be friends with a man who wants to charge you with intent to murder?”

Khan’s eyes are hidden again but Jim hears the satisfaction in his voice. “He is dear to my fiancée. She would be most devastated if he refused to attend our wedding. I offer on her behalf.”

Then Khan is gone.

Time seems strangely slow now, whereas before it had been a pinwheel of motion. Jim barely acknowledges the hands gripping his shoulders. He is shaken gently.

“Jim!”

He finally focuses on his boss’s voice, even more slowly on Jose himself. Jose is practically propping him up. “Jim, are you okay?”

“No,” he answers faintly. He doesn’t care who is watching. He leans into Jose—familiar, caring, trustworthy Jose—and drops his forehead against the man’s shoulder. Jose squeezes the back of his neck.

“Everything’s all right, chico. You need me to call somebody for you? Bones?”

Leonard’s nickname sounds so funny coming from Jose but Jim hasn’t the heart to laugh. He pulls away, realizing that Jose is sort of hugging him and they’ve never hugged before. But his friend doesn’t appear to be put-upon.

Jim apologizes.

Jose shrugs. “No apologies.” He is serious-faced as he observes Jim. “You have to tell me what’s going on.”

Jim swallows and looks around, only to realize that he and Jose are alone. There is a flash of Komack’s uniform through the windows of the office. The man is outside talking to his deputy. Jim shoves away his embarrassment.

“Jim,” prompts his boss.

“Jose, man, I will tell you but at this point? I’m not sure you’d believe me.”

“You’re Jim Kirk,” counters Jose. “My best mechanic, my friend. I’m predisposed to believing you. Just give me a good reason to shit on Khan’s offer.”

Jim cracks a smile. “That’s gross, Jose, but I like it.”

Jose steps back and cracks his neck, grimacing. “In my old neighborhood in Cincinnati, a lot worse would happen.”

If only they could send Khan there.

The deputy opens the door and sticks his head in. “Sheriff wants to know if you’re coming to the station. To give your statement and all.”

Jose answers for Jim. “We’re be right behind you. I gotta close down first.”

“You don’t need to go,” Jim protests.

“Oh, I do,” insists Jose as he goes over to the door and flips the sign to Closed. “‘N on the way there, you’ll tell me everything.”

Jim finds, for once, that he doesn’t want to disagree. Maybe talking to Jose will give him courage to tell Bones and Spock.

But it’s Jose, as they cruise to a stop in the man’s truck at a red light, who gives Jim all the courage he needs when Jim mentions he hasn’t said anything to his boyfriends: “You know they’re going to go loco, right?”

“They are?”

“Yeah. ‘Cause they’re invested in you, not Khan.”

“Oh.” He hadn’t thought of it that way. From his perspective, Khan was their future—to money, prestige, Joanna, and everything Khan could give that Jim could not.

He doesn’t realized he has voiced those thoughts out loud until Jose reaches over and smacks the back of his head.

The man says something like, “I guess certified geniuses can still be dumbasses.”

“I’m not a dumbass!”

“You are,” returns the man mildly. “You left out the most important thing that makes people happy.”

Jim groans and thumps his head against the seat. “Don’t say love.”

Jose flicks on his left turn signal. “Ah, love—it can make or break a man. It’s definitely something Khan can’t provide.” He pulls into a parking spot outside of the Sheriff’s Department. “Get out.”

Jim opens the door and puts one foot on the ground. “I thought you were coming in.”

“I will. First, I gotta get your lawyer.”

Jim blinks. “But Mudd’s a crappy lawyer.” Kirk jumps out of the trunk to avoid another swat to the head.

“I meant your Spock!” Jose mutters something low and undoubtedly uncomplimentary about Jim under his breath.

“Spock works for Khan,” Jim argues.

“You let him decide that.”

The truck revvs and reverses, leaving Jim alone in front of the building. Jim sighs, turns around, and heads to the door. This is one of his least favorite places to be, running a close second to his dislike of hospitals.

Someone is coming out as he is about to go inside. It’s Frank.

Rand’s eyes are almost maliciously amused as he stares at Kirk. “Well, well, look what the cat dragged in.”

Jim is close to punching the man. Very close.

No doubt sensing Jim’s animosity, Frank smirks. He pulls back his jacket and says pointedly, “Careful now. I wouldn’t want to have to shoot you, Kirk.”

Jim says coldly, “I hope it was worth it, Frank.”

“It?”

“Selling your soul to a shitbag like Khan.”

Jim walks away, suddenly determined to see this hell to its end.

…you’re the fucking town hero. If you don’t think you can do it, the fight’s over before it begins.

Frank had told him that while lying through his teeth. Now Jim’s going to make him and Khan Noonien Singh eat those words by proving that he can do it. Jim Kirk can fight Khan—and he will.

Three weeks later…

The Enterprise Diner is quietest after dinner hours. Leonard makes room for Winona on his side of the booth. She unfolds a letter and slides in across the table to Spock.

Jim reads it over the lawyer’s shoulder and snarls only halfway through. “That asshole doesn’t know when to quit!”

“What is it?” McCoy asks.

“Eugenics Corporation has raised its buying offer to half a million.” Spock returns the letter to Winona, who hands it to McCoy.

“Khan can offer me ten million and I won’t take it,” Winona announces stubbornly.

Spock folds his hands. “It is unlikely he will continue to increase his bid, Winona,” the lawyer says gravely. “At some juncture he will sue.”

“What the hell can he sue for?” Leonard scowls at the letter.

“Damages. A corporation’s rights are an individual’s rights. Winona’s refusal to sell out will eventually bring the Riverside project to a standstill, thereby jeopardizing Eugenics’ investments. Many points will be argued; in particular that the value of the medical facility to the community far exceeds the value of the Enterprise.” He adds uneasily, “The situation could become… dangerous.”

Winona looks around her diner. When she returns her gaze to the three men, there is a fire in her eyes. “Let them come,” she says. “They can threaten and riot and try everything on God’s earth to change my mind but they won’t succeed.” She looks hard at her son. “He is messing my family and I’ll see the reaper down on his head for that.”

“Oookay,” says Bones, appearing apprehensive to be sitting next to an angry Winona Kirk.

Sulu rings the kitchen bell and she rises from the booth and glides away.

McCoy leans forward in his seat. “If Khan isn’t scared, he should be. Your mama’d frighten the Devil.”

“Which is why she’s in charge of the rally on Friday. If a speech doesn’t convince people, her shotgun will.”

Leonard crosses himself, and Jim laughs. His slice of banana pie is mostly gone, having been mauled by his greediness, but there is one forkful of custard left. Jim offers it to Spock. Bones has a germs phobia about sharing eating utensils but Spock does not.

Five minutes later, Mayor Robert Wesley scurries into the diner, shutting the door against the downpour of rain outside. He slaps his soaked brown hat against a thigh and looks around. Jim waves him over.

“Am I late?” he asks, clothes dripping.

Jim decides to go easy on him. “Mom’s been so busy I think she forgot.”

The man visibly deflates.

Leonard kicks at Jim under the table. “What Jim means to say is you’re right in time to give her a break from a hard day. She’ll be glad to relax and see a movie.”

“But don’t keep her out too late,” Jim adds, his friendly look turning slightly wolfish.

Bob fumbles with the buttons of his raincoat, blushing. Winona yells through the kitchen window, “Oh, Bob! Hang on just a sec—“ She turns away, saying sharply, “Sulu, what is that? We agreed NO MEATLOAF!”

Wesley clears his throat, as do Jim and Leonard, to ease away a laugh. Then his expression grows more serious and he says, “Sorry to hear about the case, Jim.”

Jim leans back and tries to look like he isn’t still smarting over it. “What can we do? There wasn’t any evidence.”

Leonard says darkly, “Convenient for Khan the hospital never actually lost Jim’s records, isn’t it? A miscommunication, my ass.”

Jim had forgotten that Khan had ordered a bowl of peanuts that night at Cupcake’s bar. He doesn’t remember touching them (definitely knows he wouldn’t have because peanuts make him break out in, of all things, a rash) but Khan insinuated Jim might have add a few once he was too drunk to think straight. A neat explanation for Jim’s allergy attack—and the whole thing makes Jim sick to his stomach.

But Khan plays the game so well, with such finesse, Jim is being painted as the crazy guy with a personal vendetta. Some nights he thinks he cannot win; then he remembers why he needs to win.

The lines are being drawn: those who are with Khan, and who are against him. It’s beginning to break good feelings between people. Jim hasn’t spoken to Gaila in person since the day she offered him a friend’s comfort. He tried to see her at her shop but it’s closed up. Janice won’t look him in the eyes; Mark doesn’t seem to know who to side with; and even Uhura remarked once in passing that her aunt and uncle are too appalled to believe Khan, who saved them from working into their eighties, could do harm.

Some days are total shit.

Leonard snaps his fingers in front of Jim’s face. “What did I say about bad thoughts, Jim?”

He rolls his eyes. “Not to think them. But that’s like telling Bo Peep to give up Spock.”

Spock queries “Did you not mean the reversal?” with a light frown.

Jim smiles. “Of course I did, Spock. It’s not like you are the pet.”

“Precisely.” Spock’s frown deepens as Leonard snickers into his coffee.

Jim likes his sometimes-ignorant boyfriend and his other sometimes-bitchy boyfriend. Stretching out his arms and waving them wildly in the air, he calls out, “YO, UHURA, MORE PIE!”

A dishcloth sails out of nowhere and lands on his head.

Yes, some days are shit but every day he has the support of people who love him.

“GET YOUR OWN PIE!”

Well, of those who at least tolerate him.

When Uhura finally stalks to their booth, ignoring the ringing telephone by the kitchen window (Pavel grabs it on her behalf), and shoves an entire pie under his nose (almost literally, he has to lick cool-whip off of his chin), Jim grins triumphantly. She whips her ponytail over her shoulder and tells him too sweetly, “You’d better eat all of it, Kirk.”

“But I’ll get fat.”

“You are fat.”

“He is a little fat,” Leonard agrees.

Jim is horrified. Spock, who does not come to his rescue by saying he is the sexiest man alive, is calmly cutting into the pie. Kirk crosses his arms (to hide his stomach) in a show of petulance. Uhura sashays away, pleased with herself.

Khan can’t have this. Khan doesn’t have this, which is why they are going to find a way to defeat him.

“Jim!” Pavel says, holding the phone up for him to see. “The caller is asking for you!”

Jim pushes at Spock, which is akin to trying to budge a cow contentedly eating grass. “Who is it?”

Pavel asks, nods with “Da, da.” To Kirk, “It is a Lady of the Q, I think!” He asks into the phone, oblivious to Jim’s hasty climb over the back of the booth, “What is a Lady of the Q? Uh-huh, da—okay.” He hands the telephone to a panting Jim with the curious question, “Is she the old woman who stole your shoe? She says she has bought you a new pair.”

“I said,” comes the small, frilly voice through the phone, “Captain’s boots! James, you must come get your Captain’s boots! I had them pulled straight from the feet of a Captain—dead, mind you.”

Jim sighs. “Why do I need Captain’s boots?”

“Silly James, you cannot steer a Captain’s ship without Captain’s boots.”

He stares at the phone in his hand. “You bought me a ship?”

“No, dear, I am lending you a ship. Though perhaps you will need a fleet of them. Khan has an armada, I imagine. A single ship to fight an armada would not do.”

His head hurts already but he knows by now not to gainsay or—God forbid—hang up on her. “When do you want me to come by?”

“Now, of course!”

The diner’s bell rings imperiously as a dark-suited Q steps inside the establishment with perfect timing.

Lady Q is still talking. “And do bring your friends along. We haven’t had a little soiree in the longest time—no, not the petunias, the lilies are to be the center piece, what would my guests think!—oh, James, James, this is an important question you must answer! What do Captain’s concubines wear?”

-Fini

Sequel here

Related Posts:

• Many Bells Down (11/12) – from November 8, 2011
• Many Bells Down (10/12) – from November 6, 2011
• Many Bells Down (9/12) – from October 30, 2011
• Many Bells Down (8/12) – from October 28, 2011
• Many Bells Down (7/12) – from October 12, 2011

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