Title: Ready, Set, RUN! (1/?)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Characters: Kirk, Spock, McCoy
Summary: Playtime!verse one-shot, set between Playtime and The Good Life. Pike spends a weekend with the boys.
A/N: For swiss_kun, who loves little Lenny McCoy and kindly asked for more.

Being Winona Kirk’s boyfriend has its down-sides.

“Winona, is this girls’ weekend really necessary?” Pike is not pleading, he is asking like a man. A man under grave duress.

She stops packing and faces him, hands on her hips. “I know you didn’t just ask me that question, Chris.”

He mumbles something like please don’t leave me here with them.

Her face softens. “It’ll be fine. You’ll do fine.”

That’s not the point. With a heavy sigh, he tells her, “I know I can handle kids, Winona. It’s what I do for a living; but there are times when… I don’t think you can count Jimmy and his friends as normal kids.” He winces and confesses, “They’re going to take advantage of me.”

She pulls him in with a laugh and kisses his cheek. “Be thankful that you have backup, dear.”

His mouth twists wryly. “Jon isn’t exactly what I’d call helpful backup in these types of situations.”

“You ought to give your friend more credit.”

He thinks about the time that Archer helped Jimmy paint the peacefully napping Pike who had been obliviously trusting of Jon. He’d woke up to the smell of oil paint and a face the color of sunshine. That does not include what they did to the parts of Pike he couldn’t see.

“You’ll come back?” he asks plaintively.

Winona places the last shirt in her bag, zips it up, and says in a teasing voice, “Maybe I will—and maybe I won’t. Depends on how good those margaritas are going to be.”

Pike spends the next twenty minutes trying to prevent Jimmy from hiding in unfortunate places in order to go along on his mother’s trip. At one point, he pulls the boy out of a suitcase (Chris has no idea how Jimmy managed to zip himself in, only saw the suspicious squirming of the bag) and decides to carry him on his hip in a very tight hold.

The boy proceeds to swing his feet and abuse Pike’s leg unhappily. “Mama!” calls Jimmy when she comes out of the kitchen with a smile.

Winona gives the squirming boy a kiss on the top of his head. “Be good for Mr. Pike, Jimmy.”

Jimmy stops struggling and seems to consider that possibility. He rejects it with a fierce “No!”

Pike whimpers on the inside. He is saved from further embarassment by the ringing of the doorbell. He and Winona have been dating for fourteen months and, though she refuses to move in, her and Jimmy’s belongings are making a slow migration from their apartment to his house.

This weekend, Pike will be entertaining children in his home.

Plural. Children.

Cue Winona inviting their first guests inside some minutes later.

“Bones!” Pike manages not to drop Jimmy on his head as the boy tries to launch himself off of Pike.

Leonard McCoy tentatively releases his mother’s hand, peering with narrowed eyes into the corners of Pike’s front hall like he expects evil things to be lurking there, and slowly turns to address his friend. “Heya.”

Jimmy bounces with excitement and sparkling eyes, and Pike is sure that if the boy were a rocket, he’d launch to the moon.

Lenny looks slightly put-out that he has to endure a hug from his blond-headed friend. Pike isn’t at all surprised, though, when the child pats Jimmy’s back like an adult and then shrugs Jimmy off with an ease Pike wants to learn.

Stepping away from his mother and the other adults, Lenny raises his small face as if he catches a scent that he likes. Then, in a murmur which Pike recognizes all too well, Lenny follows his nose into Pike’s kitchen with Jimmy tagging along.

Pike excuses himself hastily, leaving Winona and Mrs. McCoy bemused, and enters the kitchen just in time to rescue the coffee maker’s descent over the side of the counter. Lenny scowls at Pike’s interference.

“Coffee is for grown-ups, Lenny,” Pike tells the boy.

“I’m grown,” insists McCoy. “I’m seven now.”

Pike smiles and reaches out but quickly drops his hand because Lenny’s expression bodes ill for Pike if he were to pat the top of the boy’s head. Instead, he looks at Jimmy who blinks from a kitchen chair, pudding smeared around his innocent face. A handful of minutes into the weekend and the boys are already snitching their favorite treats. Pike wonders if he can persuade the young McCoy to trade in coffee for grape juice.

Probably not.

It is enough to oversee that Jimmy cleans his face into something decent and then herd his charges back through the front hall and into the living room. Winona is alone. Lenny displays an astonishing, gentleman-like quality and greets her with aplomb. “Mornin’, Ms. Kirk. Thank you for lettin’ me stay with Jimmy.”

Winona tells the child that it is no trouble at all, not for such a good friend of her son’s. Pike thinks, Not when you’ll be on a beach far, far away enjoying a cocktail.

The doorbell buzzes again and Jimmy beats Pike to the door, shouting, “Spock! Spock’s here!” The front door is heaved open by soon-to-be six-year old Kirk.

“Hiya, kiddo. Ow!“

Jimmy comes back into the living room with a sulk on his face. “It’s Mr. Klingon,” he announces summarily as he climbs into his mother’s lap. The child is outgrowing his lisp of certain words and, with some surprise, Pike misses the cuteness of it.

Winona tucks her boy in close and smiles at the newcomer. “Hello, Jon.”

“Hey, beautiful.” Jon waggles his eyebrows. “When you’re ready to ditch Chris, you know where to find me.”

“In your grave, perhaps?” quips Pike.

“I’m wounded, friend.”

Pike is about to reply when the doorbell goes off again. He and Archer share an amused look as their own personal pack of dogs—Jimmy and Lenny—run for the door and fight over who is going to open it.

Pike calls, “Quit arguing and let them in!”

He hears Jimmy’s gleeful “Spock!” and Lenny’s more sharp “You’re late.”

Pike smiles to himself as Spock’s young voice carries in clear indignation. “Mother required an additional ten point fifteen minutes to prepare for her journey. It was logical to allow her that time.”

He hopes Lenny has enough sense not to insult Spock’s mother.

Ms. Grayson says, “Good morning, Mr. Pike.” Spock echoes her greeting.

He smiles at them. “It’s a pleasure to see you both again.”

“Indeed,” intones the Vulcan. Then Spock turns his attention to Archer. “I was not aware that you were invited.”

“Spock!” his mother gasps. “That’s rude.”

Spock blinks. “Mr. Archer’s presence is unexpected. I fail to understand how my words may be construed as impolite.”

Pike turns away to laugh into his hand. He catches Winona’s eyes. They smile back at him. Winona then stands and says, “We’d better go, Amanda.”

It isn’t only Jimmy who whines a little. Pike clears his throat and looks sheepish. Hiding his blush is easier if he ducks his head while carrying his girlfriend’s bags out to the car.

Within minutes, everyone is hugging and saying goodbye. Pike squeezes Spock’s small shoulder when the car rides out of sight. “She’ll be back before you know it,” he tells the child.

Spock nods once, silent, and follows McCoy back into the house. Jimmy, who had been momentarily tearful when his mother kissed him and stroked his cheek farewell, is now fully recovered with wide-eyed anticipation. The boy turns first to Lenny and then Spock before jabbing a finger in the direction of the room that the three children will be sharing. “Let’s go to t’ship!” he cries and bolts down the hallway.

McCoy rolls his eyes dramatically and follows, Spock in close attendance. Pike turns to Archer, as they both hear the words “The Captain said we’d go on plenty of missions. He’d better be right, ‘cuz I’m bored outta my mind.”

“I must concur,” comes the answer.

Chris tells his long-time friend, “I hope you came prepared.”

Jon grins with a touch of maniac in his eyes. “Oh yeah.” He pulls a hand from one of his jacket pockets and displays a bottle. “Sedatives—” Then the other hand reveals, “—and energy bars.”

Pike stares at him for a moment too long.

The ominous feeling in the pit of his stomach is very real. “What happens if the kids eat the energy bars and drug us with the sedatives?”

Jonathan Archer opens and closes his mouth, looking thoughtful. “Huh. I suppose that’s possible.”

There is a BOOM! and then a loud, delighted laugh. In unison, they stare at the darkened hallway.

Oh yes, that scenario is entirely possible—and probable.

Archer gives him a forward shove. “You first,” says the man.

“Why me?” mutters Pike, already knowing the answer.

“‘Cause you’re the daddy in this relationship. I’m the uncle. Uncles are more likely to survive.”

“Lucky me.” Then Christopher Pike thinks about the diamond ring carefully hidden in his sock drawer, waiting for the opportune moment, and his heart agrees whole-heartedly.

Yes, being Winona Kirk’s boyfriend has its down-sides, but even those down-sides are something to be cherished.

This is a two-parter. :)

Next Part

Related Posts:

• Ready, Set, RUN! (9/9) – from February 18, 2011
• Ready, Set, RUN! (8/?) – from February 16, 2011
• Ready, Set, RUN! (7/?) – from February 10, 2011
• Ready, Set, RUN! (6/?) – from February 3, 2011
• Ready, Set, RUN! (5/?) – from January 31, 2011