Title: The Good Life (3/4)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Characters: Various
Summary: AU. By popular demand, a series of short one-shot of the Playtime!verse future.
Previous Part: 1 | 2

Part Three

Pike barely manages to park his rental car in a straight line, almost knocks over a man exiting the precinct on his way inside. He doesn’t take three steps past the door before he spots the familiar huddled forms on a row of seats. One of them lifts his head, notices Pike, and remarks “Oh shit.”

“James Tiberius Kirk!” He has the front of the teen’s dirty t-shirt bunched in his fists in an instant. “What in God’s name possessed you to break the law!” It’s more of a shout than a question.

“If you start beating him in the police station, then you won’t be able to bail us out, Mr. Pike.”

Christopher cuts his eyes to a tousled dark-haired head. “Leonard…” he warns. “I can certainly call your father out here.”

The fifteen year-old goes very quiet and contrite. “No, Sir.”

“Mr. Pike?”

He drops Jim back into the seat, the kid immediately returning to huddled-nonexistent-“shit, my father’s pissed” mode.

“Yes, that’s me.”

The policeman motions him to a side room. Pike tells all three adolescents to remain stationary or he’ll let the police put them in jail for the night. Spock blinks at this threat, un-intimidated but apparently interested in Pike’s parenting techniques. (Wait until Pike calls his father.)

Pike asks, with a sigh, “How bad is it?” He feels the need to sit down after the officer is three charges into the list. His face is probably pale; he reads the police report and the accounting of events. “Look, they—they won’t have to stay here? I can take them home?”

“Sir, considering the seriousness of the crimes—”

“They’re just kids, for Christ’s sake!”

“The Nero family wants to press charges.”

Pike’s jaw clenches. “Let me talk to Mr. Nero.”

“Sir…”

Pike stands up, for once in his life, entirely angry and unable to stop the building rage. “Officer,” he bites out, taking off his glasses. The man straightens in surprise (possibly forgetting for the moment that he is the law, and Pike is not). “Those kids out there? Keep an eye on them.” He stops in the doorway. “And if you book them, you’ll be out on your ass so fast, it’ll make your head spin.”

Pike strides down the hall, a “Dad! Hey, Dad!” catching up to him.

He turns on his son, blank-faced. Spock is close to Jim’s right shoulder. “It’ll be fine, Jim,” he says calmly. “Stay here. Jon is on his way.”

Jim grabs his shirt sleeve. “Dad, where are you going?”

He gently pulls Jim’s hand off. The soft answer is “I will take care of everything.”

The boy makes a noise which Pike ignores. Leonard is watching in the background, unsure of what to do.

Pike addresses the most level-headed (and responsible) of the three. “Spock, you’re in charge—watch out for Jim and Leonard. When I return, I don’t want to find any of you behind bars. Understood?”

“Understood, Sir,” Spock replies readily.

Pike leaves; from the corner of his eye, he sees McCoy prevent Jim from following.

Pike’s comm unit beeps just as he is pulling into the long driveway of the Nero estate.

“Jon,” he answers without looking at the ID.

“Chris, are you crazy?”

He stops the car. “Is keeping my son and his friends out of jail crazy? Funny, I would have thought otherwise.” He simply cannot believe how a week’s vacation with the boys has gone straight to Hell.

“Damn it, Christopher. You can’t talk to assholes like the Neros! They’ll eat you for breakfast! Goddamn Romulans—”

“I don’t care. I’ll do what it takes.” Pike pauses, adds, “Don’t tell me that you would act differently, Jon.”

There is heavy silence. “Fine. You’re right; if I weren’t—Jim, NO, you can’t talk to him—babysitting these goons, I’d shoot a damned bullet hole straight through those—”

“Jonathan.” The man threatens murder in the middle of a police station. Why isn’t Pike surprised?

“—money-grubbing commies!“

Chris is momentarily amused. “There haven’t been communists on Earth in over a century, Jon.” A butler answers the front door. Pike ends the call with, “Going now. Don’t let the boys out of your sight.”

He snaps the communicator closed.

“I am Christopher Pike, here to see Mr. Nero.”

The Romulan butler—it’s an entire household of Romulans, living under diplomatic immunity on Earth—sneers at him. Pike adds, “I am also the father of James Kirk.” The butler steps aside to allow him entrance.

“I will inform Master Nero of your presence… Human Pike.”

Damn, if he doesn’t want to punch the bastard already. No wonder Jim assaulted Nero’s son Ayel.

Pike doesn’t have to wait long. The butler leads him into a sparse, stark study. A Romulan, face marked with ceremonial tattoos (some strange delineation of his status in the Romulan Empire) is seated and watching him.

Pike approaches his enemy. There are dark, hawk eyes trained on him. His posture automatically stiffens.

“A drink, Mr. Pike?” Nero offers after he dismisses the house servant.

“No. I don’t consider this an occasion to celebrate.”

The Romulan grins—more of a baring of teeth. “A drink… for your nerves, my friend.”

Pike very consciously ignores the urge to clench his fist. His voice is all steel. “I want you to drop the charges against Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.”

“They damaged my property—among other things.”

What a real bastard. Does he consider his son to be property?

“Your son isn’t innocent, Mr. Nero.”

“That makes no difference to me, Pike. Your insolent brats have no respect for their betters. I consider it my duty to enlighten them.”

And I’ll consider it my duty to smash in your teeth. Pike is seething. Nero knows this and is amused. “You would ruin the boys’ lives just to satisfy your intolerant belligerence for other races. Well, Nero, all the colorful descriptions I’ve heard about your family just don’t you justice. You are despicable.”

Nero laughs. “I am what I am, Human. A warrior from a warrior race. I fight, by any means available.”

Pike thumps his fist on Nero’s desk. “Then consider this war.”

Nero leans back in his chair, watching his prey.

Beep. Beep beep.

Chris removes the comm unit from his belt and flips it open. “Pike here.”

“Mr. Pike,” a deep voice states with calm.

“Hello, Sarek. I am currently with Mr. Nero—I assume you are aware of the situation.”

Nero looks from the comm unit to Pike and back again.

Sarek says, “I received your communication. How does Spock fare?”

Pike briefly glances up at Nero, who is frowning. He emphasizes, “Your son is well at the moment, Ambassador. However, unless Mr. Nero agrees to reconsider his decision to prosecute…”

“Now, Mr. Pike, do not misinterpret—” The Romulan stands and edges around his desk, his shoulders squared back, stance one of battle—despite his words.

Pike smiles inwardly. Nero may feel he has power to reign down terror on little Earthlings, but his influence cannot begin to match the Vulcan Ambassador’s prestige and sway with the Federation on Earth. To “upset” Sarek would go very ill for the Romulan, rather quickly. That’s why Pike arranged for Sarek to call him at an opportune moment—precisely when Nero was sure to be gloating.

Spock’s father is, as expected, good at this kind of game.

Pike turns to the Romulan, who looks as if he has a terrible taste in his mouth. “Yes, Mr. Nero?” is Chris’s polite way of saying you’d better start groveling before Earth tosses you back into space.

“If the cost of my son’s hover bike is repaid in full, perhaps I can be lenient on the… other charges.” He slants his eyes at the communicator in Pike’s hands. “After all, a Romulan youth is apt to be—volatile in the best of situations.”

“Indeed,” agrees Sarek.

Pike has an inkling that due to the supposed shared ancestry between Vulcans and Romulans, Sarek’s one-word remark is very insulting.

Sarek continues with “Then you agree that Ayel—your son, with a record of violent behavior—as my sources indicate—” And Sarek’s sources of information are never wrong, Pike knows. “—shares partial responsibility for the outcome of… this clash between all involved parties.”

“Yes,” grates the Romulan.

“I have recorded your statement as testimony, Mr. Nero. Now, on the matter of reparations—” Pike follows the conversation between the Romulan and Vulcan, ready to aid Sarek if he can. However, Pike’s participation becomes unnecessary; Sarek uses every ounce of his diplomatic training to maneuver Nero into a position no man—or Romulan—would envy.

The call ends with Nero’s promise to Sarek to “keep both our esteemed names off of the news feeds.”

Then they engage in a brief vid call to the police station, one in which Nero casually implies his new-founded benevolence towards Ayel’s muggers (which should be the other way around, since Ayel started the fight by attempting to ram his bike into Leonard). Pike confirms from the Chief of the Narada County Police that the trio will be released immediately into Jonathan’s care. For some reason, the Chief sounds unusually thrilled to be rid of the would-be-thugs in his precinct. The man doesn’t offer an explanation, and Pike doesn’t ask.

The butler barely deigns to lead Pike to the front door. Chris couldn’t care less; he hops into his rental, vacates the Nero premises and gives a loud whoop once he hits traffic and is far, far away from spying Romulan eyes. A quick communication with Jon confirms that the boys are on their way back to the hotel. Jim is agitated and upset, Jonathan explains very carefully. “He thinks you’ve signed away your soul… you didn’t, did you, Christopher?”

Pike never answers that, simply because he has to avoid swerving into another car and getting himself killed. He tells Jon that he needs to concentrate on the road or Jon will be discussing what Pike has or hasn’t done with his corpse instead.

He wants to go back to the hotel and soothe Jimmy’s fears. On the other hand, he wants to take just one moment to breathe. In the end, Pike decides that another twenty minutes or so of absence will do Archer good. He needs a moment to regroup from the initial terror (of the call “Dad, don’t be mad but we’ve been arrested…”) and the subsequent headache thereafter of handling the situation. Next time the boys want to spend a summer “out in the middle of nowhere,” he and Jon will refuse to let Winona rope them into chaperoning duty. (“How can we possibly get into trouble, Mr. Pike?” Lenny had said earnestly. Pike regrets buying into that spiel.) Maybe David McCoy will agree to let the boys run amuck in Georgia next year. Then again, the man had once told Pike that he’d rather spend twenty hours in surgery than half of a day chasing after the Terrible Three.

Of course, there is also Sarek. It is a father’s duty, Pike has drearily decided, to watch after his offspring and said-offspring’s friends.

As Pike pulls into a diner to order dinner for the awaiting group of reeling youngsters and an irritable Archer, he wonders how he might convince Sarek of that little (well-known?) fact.

After today… Sarek could and probably will, no doubt, quote him the slim possibility of succeeding.

“Are you sure, Mister? Two apple pies?”

“On second thought… make that three.” The waitress shrugs and rings up the total.

Pike pays her and settles onto a stool at the counter to wait for his order.

Maybe it’s time to move the party along. Narada County is becoming less and less appealing by the minute. He’s sure that there will be other places for Jim, Leonard, and Spock to traipse about nature.

When the order arrives, Pike juggles the numerous bags; one catches the hook of an old-fashioned postcard stand and sends a few pictures scattering. The waitress untangles the bag and refuses his quick offer of help.

“Get going,” she says with a smile. “Looks like you’ve got a large family to feed!”

“Three voracious teenagers and a grumpy grandpa.”

Chris steps back, revealing an errant postcard, when she taps his shoe. The waitress replaces it on the stand. He opens his mouth, once, startled by the image of forest and mountains. Then Pike realizes that he is still standing like an idiot in the diner and makes a hasty exit. But those bright white words scrawled at the bottom of the postcard linger in his mind’s eye as the car edges out into evening traffic.

Yosemite National Park.

Only two hundred miles west. Pike bets that the boys would love it. And he also bets that he can convince Archer to go on a real, honest-to-God camping trip.

Chris grins, then. Maybe if he mentions the free-range shooting policy.

Just maybe.

Next Part

Related Posts:

• The Good Life (4/4) – from October 21, 2010
• The Good Life (2/4) – from October 19, 2010
• The Good Life (1/4) – from October 18, 2010