Title: Sticks and Stones (18/18)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: Sequel to Many Bells Down; Riverside ‘verse AU. Khan is hell-bent on destroying everything and everyone James Kirk cares about until Jim surrenders the most important person of all—himself.
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Epilogue

The call comes on a Thursday when the emotional recovery from tragedy and hardship is beginning to become superseded by normal routines. Jim had been reading an article in the state newspaper which announced the court ruling that any business or land sale in Riverside was a null-and-void contract because it could not be proven if the original owners sold under duress as a direct result of the buyer’s unlawful actions; as long as the owners paid their taxes, they were allowed to keep the sale money as restitution. Eugenics Corporation itself had been seized by the government and the paper hinted it would be dissolved into manageable divisions in order to protect the medical research and advancements which had already been underway. There was no mention of what happened to the more covert operations, such as the weapons program. Jim was wishing he didn’t know about those operations because then he wouldn’t wonder about whose hands they had fallen into.

When Jim picks up the phone, Komack doesn’t mince words. “Khan escaped,” he says, “during transfer to a pre-trial holding facility.”

Kirk holds the receiver of the phone for a long minute, wordless.

Komack tries to sound confident but his tone falls short of convincing. “He’ll flee the country, go somewhere extradition laws can’t touch him. With his assets frozen, he has limited options.”

But not limited connections, Jim silently supplies, thinking of the multitude of terrorist organizations in the world who would welcome a kindred spirit—and a smart leader—with open arms.

“How long?” he asks, not needing to phrase the entire question.

How long are we safe?

“We can hope forever,” Komack answers grimly.

Khan isn’t a man to abide by forever, Jim thinks.

He thanks the sheriff for the news and hangs up the phone. His eyes track to the open window of his apartment, linger there, staring at the neighborhood beyond. When a cloud passes across the sun, casting a shadow over the day, Jim shudders and quickly closes and latches the window. As an afterthought, he lowers the blinds too. For the rest of the afternoon and, in fact far longer, Jim will be unable to shake the frightening premonition Khan Noonien Singh is simply around a corner, waiting to take his revenge.

After sentencing for their crimes, the two men hired to terrorize Riverside will be killed in a prison yard riot. It would become apparent later that no one—not the inmates or the prison guards—had recognized the assailant. A bloody knife shall be discovered wrapped in discarded laundry linens some days following the incident.

By the end of the year, Frank Rand of Riverside will go missing and never be found. Some people will believe he was ashamed enough to move away; others, like the bartender Cupcake who knew Frank as a regular haunt in his bar, will suspect foul-play. Only his family and the few friends he had left will mourn his loss.

A decade in the future, Jim will pick up his mail one day to find an unlabeled package. Inside it will be a gold watch and a rusted deputy’s badge with the name of Rand carved away. Jim Kirk will know then exactly what that means, that is the beginning of what had never truly ended, and be afraid. But only for a moment.

Alas, that is not this tale.

several weeks after the defeat of Khan Noonien Singh…

The Enterprise Diner’s entrance bell chimes. A man pauses in the doorway, silhouetted by a sunny day, and squints his eyes to adjust to the dimmer lighting of the diner’s interior. At his feet, he carelessly drops a bulging sack which has not been fully zipped across the top; one long sleeve of a blue shirt has pushed its way through the parted zipper and its cuff dangles down to brush against the floor.

At the far corner of the diner, a smile lights Jim Kirk’s face. He waves the man toward his booth and invites him to sit down. Jim is not alone: his company consists of Leonard McCoy and Spock, who are seated beside him and across from him, respectively. Forgetting the bag, the newcomer lumbers slowly in their direction. When he arrives, he greets the three men with tired lines creasing his face.

Jim gives him a look of sympathy. “Long drive?”

“Aye,” Montgomery Scotty agrees with feeling. “Woulda been worse if I’d actually done t’driving. Bus was packed.” His eyes take in Leonard’s cup of coffee and linger on Spock’s small dish of apple pie. “Is there any left?” he asks wistfully.

“Mom can find some pie for you,” Jim promises him. “She will be happy you’re here.”

Mollified that he won’t be left dessert-less, Scotty sighs and scrubs idly at the dust coating the thin hairs along his arm. His head cranes around as he takes in the diner’s surroundings—air-conditioned cool, quiet, seemingly unchanged since his last visit. After a moment of absorbing the diner’s tranquility, he blinks as though his head is finally clearing of weeks of academia, wistful inventions, and more recently a painfully cramped bus ride. “So,” the man wants to know, taking a stab at conversation, “what’d I miss?”

McCoy laughs. “How much time do you have?”

Scotty is uncomprehending. “I dunno…”

Leonard levels an incredulous look at him, leaning forward on his elbows as he says, “Don’t you read the newspapers?”

“During class?” Scotty asks, astonished. Outside of the university, there doesn’t seem to be a world for Montgomery Scotty. His companions, perhaps, realize in this moment it is simply amazing luck the man has found his way back to Riverside at all.

Jim chuckles lightly and uses his spoon to migrate Spock’s dish to the middle of the table, helping himself to a piece of the apple pie. “Don’t worry about it, Scotty. Things are pretty good right now and that’s all that matters.” He salutes to no one in particular, it may appear, when he is really mocking Fate. (Not that Jim would tell anyone that, especially Bones or Spock. They would mock him right back.)

Scotty stares at Jim, opens his mouth to ask what exactly he did miss when a loud bang from the kitchen ruins the quiet atmosphere of the diner. He looks curiously in that direction.

“Sulu’s trying to make meatloaf one-handed,” Leonard explains.

Even Spock grimaces, who has never tasted the meatloaf but claims the smell alone is unappetizing.

“It’s Pavel’s fault,” Jim says. “He hovers over Sulu, and Sulu doesn’t know how to cope with the mother-henning. I think he’s planning to feed the meatloaf to Chekov to incapacitate him for a while.”

“Jim,” McCoy muses wonderingly, “where do you come up with these ideas?”

“But it’s the truth!”

“No, you’re projecting your plots on to other people! Sulu isn’t going to poison his friend.”

“It was Sulu in the kitchen with the meatloaf,” Jim counters. “You’re not very good at CLUE so how would you know?”

“Please,” Spock interrupts with a painstakingly blank expression, “did we not come here to seek peace?”

“You just wanted to satisfy your sweet tooth,” Leonard accuses.

Luckily, before the argument can devolve further, someone exclaims, “Who left this in the middle of my floor?”

Scotty’s face turns a peculiar shade of red. He peeks around the corner of the booth at the woman who just discovered his abandoned traveler’s bag. “Nyota,” he says quickly, “I dinnae mean to leave it there!” The man scrambles to fetch the item blocking the waitress’s path.

Her face clears of annoyance. “Scotty!” she says happily, “you’re back!”

His blush deepens and his shoes scuff the floor as he shuffles back to Jim’s booth toting the obviously unwieldy sack.

Jim whistles and toes the bag with his shoe. “What’s in that?”

“Laundry.”

Spock’s eyebrows fly upward. Leonard ponders, “They don’t have washing machines at college, like newspapers?”

Scotty’s response is a low, embarrassed mumble which is immediately overridden by Uhura’s too-sweet “He can do his laundry at my house.” Her statement, along with her look, dares anyone to contradict her. Leonard shuts up and focuses on drinking his coffee.

Jim, as he has been told on multiple occasions, doesn’t know when not to contradict a woman. He looks between his female friend and his male friend, bemused. “Why would Scotty drag his laundry over two hundred miles just to do it at your place?”

“Jim…” one boyfriend warns.

Uhura’s almond-shaped eyes narrow in warning. “Are you asking about my business, Jim? Because I could swear you’re asking about my business.”

Jim, more confused than ever, doggedly pursues the subject. “What does that even mean?” Haven’t they known each other since, well, forever? Why wouldn’t he be interested in her business?

“Jim.”

Kirk ignores the attempt at intervention by the second boyfriend. He straightens his posture and casually slings an arm along the top of the booth. “If Scotty needs somewhere to do his laundry, he can come over to the farm—”

Scotty, sneaking a glance at the waitress, begins to stammer. A fire may have started to burn in Nyota Uhura’s eyes.

“Oh God,” the first boyfriend mutters to the other one, “it’s like a train wreck. I don’t wanna watch but I can’t look away.”

“Our proximity to this metaphorical train wreck concerns me greatly” is the instant reply. But, upon looking for an escape, the two boyfriends quickly realize they are trapped where they are.

As if Jim’s foot isn’t already halfway to his mouth, he ignorantly shoves it all—foot, ankle and leg—in there too. “—I mean, what makes your place better than mine? It’s not like Scotty’s your boyfriend or living with you or something.”

Jim is saved only by his quick reflexes. When Uhura dives at his head, snarling, Jim launches himself sideways out of his seat with a surprised squawk and lands on his back upon the floor, one leg under the table and the other leg still crooked awkwardly over the booth seat. Leonard magnanimously gives the truant leg a shove so it can join its partner under the table. Nyota, pissed at having her attack thwarted, almost rips a chunk out of the back of the booth. She then grabs the nearest object to hand. It’s Leonard’s unused spoon.

Jim laughs nervously when she brandishes the utensil at him. “What’d I say?”

“Ah, Jim, Jim,” Leonard says with mock-disappointment. “You might want to run.”

Jim transfers his gaze to Spock, but the man is studiously folding a paper napkin and ignoring signs of Jim’s distress. Since it seems Kirk isn’t likely to have any help from either man—and Scotty is slowly inching toward the kitchen where, Jim guesses, he believes he might be safe—Jim does what any smart person would do. He scuttles like a crab behind the diner counter and prepares to fight for his life. Armed with a salt shaker and a flyswatter, he waits in anticipation of Uhura’s next attack.

But none comes.

The kitchen door swings outward as Winona Kirk enters the dining area of her business; she barely spares a glance for her son crouched next to an open shelf of condiments, and retrieves a dish towel.

“Mom,” Jim whispers furiously. “Mom!“

Winona finds a spray bottle of anti-bacterial cleaner and twists its nozzle to the ON position. After he calls her name twice more, growing progressively louder each time, she stops what she is doing (wiping down the countertop), to say, “What, Jim?”

“Can you see Uhura? Point out her direction!” he hisses urgently.

“Nyota,” Winona calls instead, “Jimmy wants to speak to you.”

Horrified, Jim waves the flyswatter with the frantic motion of desist immediately! “Don’t tell her to come over here! Are you crazy?”

Winona finally looks at him, clearly exasperated. “This is not a warzone, Jimmy. Now get off the floor unless you plan to clean it.”

He stands up and puts aside his weapons with a faintly mutinous expression. “See how you like it when she’s killed me,” he tells her.

Except when Jim turns to face the steaming-mad waitress, she is neither steaming-mad nor interested in killing him. In fact, she has taken his spot next to Leonard and somehow coaxed Scotty to sit down again. The four people look like they are having an interesting, pleasant conversation. Scotty emphasizes how much he loves his physics class with excited twitches of his hands.

Jim realizes he has been tricked. Nay, not only tricked but betrayed! Uhura has effectively ousted him from his favorite spot and, worse yet, replaced him.

A rag appears at the edge of his field of vision, along with a bottle of Windex. “Don’t neglect the bottom half of the windows,” his mother reminds him pointedly.

And now Jim has been relegated to window-cleaning duty. Clearly Nyota Uhura is an evil genius.

Jim puts on his saddest face and stares at the back of Leonard’s head, but to no avail. Spock says something to Leonard and in response Leonard’s shoulders shake with laughter. Suddenly Winona’s hand is on his arm.

“Look at how happy they are,” she remarks softly.

Jim’s face lightens as he considers that truth. “I’m glad,” he says, “that they can be happy here.”

“Not just here, baby,” Winona clarifies, “with you. You make the difference; for most people, not just Leonard and Spock, I think you always will.”

He smiles, his heart full, and turns to her. “Can I take you out to dinner?”

“Of course! That would be wonderful.”

Jim kisses her cheek. “I love them, Mom,” he confesses, “but I really, really love you.”

“Oh, Jimmy,” Winona says, her eyes shining, “I love you too.”

-Fini

[go to the fanmix or the Riverside ‘verse masterpost]

Related Posts:

• Sticks and Stones (17/18) – from April 17, 2012
• Emotional Much? – from April 17, 2012
• Sticks and Stones (16/17) – from April 13, 2012
• Sticks and Stones (15/17) – from April 11, 2012
• Sticks and Stones (14/?) – from April 9, 2012