Ready, Set, RUN! (7/?)

Date:

5

Title: Ready, Set, RUN! (7/?)
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.
Previous Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6


Part Seven

Pike glances at his companion in the front passenger seat. Porthos is sprawled on his side and snoring. Pike returns his attention to the road in time to catch sight of a sign announcing that their destination is close. Things will go more smoothly once everyone is out of his car and racing alongside the bay.

There are four passengers squished together in the backseat. Archer’s frown matches McCoy’s, one big and one small, and barely separated by the close press of their sides. Lenny had drawn the line at sitting in Jonathan’s lap (for which Pike suspects Jon is grateful.)

Jimmy is situated on the other side of Lenny and dozing on Spock’s shoulder. The Vulcan is staring out the window.

“Your bony elbow is poking me again, boy,” complains Jonathan.

Lenny squirms, purposefully jabbing the adult a few times in the process.

At Archer’s incensed look, Pike asks for the fifth time, “Why can’t you sit in the front, Jon?”

“I was here first.”

McCoy disagrees. “Nuh-uh, I got in the car first!”

Pike remembers the way that the boy had come running towards Pike’s car at the pit-stop they had pulled into, jumped in back while ignoring Pike’s “Did you wait on your friends, Lenny?” and locked the door.

“That’s because your bladder is half the size of mine, squirt!”

“You’re old. Old people forget their potty trainin’.”

Pike laughs.

Archer’s face reddens. “That’s a lie! I can hold it longer than you!”

Pike interrupts before the challenge is accepted. “No contests—orders from the Admiralty.”

Lenny and Archer sigh like Pike just killed their fun.

The driver remarks in a level voice, “We have less than a day left in the weekend and I don’t want to spend the remainder of it at a hospital because you two refuse to use the bathroom like sane people.”

The tension in his back dissipates as he pulls the car into the familiar public parking lot near the San Francisco Bay. Wondering if he should park closer to the public restrooms, Pike still hasn’t figured out why the kids announced that they had to pee immediately after leaving the house. It had taken several detours before Spock had declared one particular fast-food restaurant to be ‘a suitable establishment to purge bodily fluids.’ It is obvious to Pike that the young Vulcan has never found himself in the middle of nowhere and had make do with worse, like peeing in the woods; God forbid a Vulcan forgo dignity.

This prompts Pike to wonder when he can take Jimmy and his friends on a camping trip.

Don’t invite Archer, he tells himself sternly as he locates a free space and parks the car. Jonathan thinks that a camping trip is code for bring a gun, bring a dog (despite that Porthos only stares at rabbits instead of chasing them), and shoot random things—rather ironic considering that Archer becomes emotional at the sight of a dying animal.

“We’re here!” announces McCoy with a shove at Kirk.

The boy blinks awake, instantly wide-eyed and alert. Pike is always amazed that Jimmy can take ten-minute naps anywhere and everywhere if he decides to. That must be the child’s secret to maintaining such high levels of go-go-go like a wind-up toy. Jim Kirk will, no doubt, carry his habits into adulthood—and drive his family insane. Maybe Pike will be to convince his son to join a track team in later years, or something equally invigorating for people with too much energy.

Then Christopher Pike realizes that he just thought the word son and forgets to switch off the car. It takes Jon prodding at his shoulder to remind him that the boys are already loose in the parking lot and itching to run down to the bay.

“C’mon, Chris, let’s go!” Archer heaves his dog out of the front seat and leashes Porthos, who is still half-asleep.

“Oh. Right.” Pike clears his throat, pulls the key out of the ignition, unhooks his seat belt and vacates his antique convertible.

“Pike.”

“Mmm?” He turns at the question in Archer’s voice.

“You forgot to lock the car.”

“Right. Lock the car.” He does so. Jonathan is eyeing him strangely.

Then Jimmy bounces up to the pair of adults with bright eyes and says, “We’re at the beach!”

Pike smiles and catches that small hand in his. “Not quite, Jimmy. We’re at a very large body of water called a bay.”

“Is it bigger than the ocean?”

“No, dumb-head,” interrupts McCoy. “Oceans are bigger. Ain’t nobody can swim across an ocean!”

Pike doesn’t like the gleam in Jimmy’s eyes. He leads his charges down to the waterside with Archer and Porthos tagging along in the rear of their group.

Jimmy points and shouts, “It’s a boat! Can we go on the boat, Mr. Pike?”

And who would be the first to fall off the boat? Pike isn’t prepared to dive for children today.

“We’re not going in the water.”

Kirk’s bottom lip protrudes but he does not argue.

Pike says as he points out a path, “Your mother likes to walk here sometimes.”

“Mama?” Jimmy looks around.

Remembering the stroll along the bay that he shared with Winona as their second date makes his heart skip a beat or two. He had bought her ice cream, much to her joy and laughter. After that date, Pike thinks he might have convinced Winona that they had a connection worth exploring.

He is saying, “If I remember correctly, there is a little stand that sells—”

“We lost Spock,” Archer states.

Pike stops, noting that McCoy is far ahead of them and Spock, it seems, has disappeared. He accidentally loosens his grip on Kirk’s hand and the boy seizes the opportunity to run away.

“Jimmy!”

“Bones! Bones!” shouts the boy as he hurdles toward his friend.

Lenny turns around to look. “What?”

“Where’s Spock?”

The dark-haired child shrugs. “How should I know?”

“Spock’s gone!”

Pike and Archer catch up to the two children but Jimmy and Lenny ignore Christopher’s frantic “Don’t run! I need to be able to see you at all times.”

McCoy is suggesting that Spock stopped to look at bugs or something. “Vulcans think everything is interesting,” explains the Chief Medical Officer to the Captain.

Kirk nods in agreement. “Let’s go back that way,” he says as he takes Lenny’s hand and tugs the other boy in the opposite direction.

The adults block their path. “Jon, take Jimmy.”

“Why do I get the genius toddler?”

“Take Jimmy, go back to the parking lot and look for Spock.” Kirk dodges as Archer tries to grab him. Pike barks, “James! Go with Mr. Archer. That’s an order.”

Pike says to Leonard McCoy, “I won’t hold your hand if you promise to stay close to me. Can you do that?”

“I don’t need no hand-holdin’,” says the child indignantly. “I’m not a baby.”

“Good. Let’s find Spock.”

Pike allows Lenny to call for his friend because he thinks that the Vulcan is more likely to answer the aggravated shouting of “SPOCK! WHERE ARE YOU!” from a peer.

Then McCoy starts to say “You’d better be dead, Spock, ‘cuz Mr. Pike is really really mad!”

Couples stop to stare; one woman (whose little girl clutches her hand and asks “Mama, Mama, I want to see the dead Spock!”) shoots Pike a look of deep disapproval. He tries to hush the boy. “Don’t get carried away, Leonard. We want Spock to be okay, not dead.”

McCoy halts to consider that. “We do?”

“Yes,” answers Pike firmly.

“I guess if he’s dead then he can’t come to my house like he said he would,” concedes the child.

Spock isn’t hiding behind bushes or trees or studying pigeon poop like Lenny thinks his friend might be; by the time Pike and McCoy have taken the long detour down to the water, Pike stares out at the sunlight glinting off of calm waves and imagines a scene where he has to explain to Amanda and Sarek that Spock drowned in the San Francisco Bay. Ambassador Sarek would be perfectly correct to kill Christopher Pike.

What had he been thinking, to bring three kids who regularly found trouble when there was only Pike and Archer to watch them? The simple fact is that Kirk, Spock, and McCoy require an army of adults to keep them safe.

Oh God, what if Spock’s been kidnapped?

Despite the boy’s super-strength and logical mind, he is still a child. If—

A voice calls, “Mister! Is this one yours?”

He spins around to find two strangers and Spock walking towards them. McCoy takes off running and Pike can’t blame the boy. Christopher settles for long strides instead of running himself. He is already thanking the young man and woman while simultaneously fussing at the Vulcan.

“Thank you! Spock, what were you thinking? I can’t believe you—really, I appreciate this so much,” he says as he shakes the man’s hand. The guy grins and introduces himself as Will Decker and the woman as his wife Ilia.

“It’s no problem, honest. We had stopped for ice cream and—”

It all falls into place. Pike stares down at the calm Vulcan who is enduring Lenny’s onslaught of questions. “Spock,” he interrupts. McCoy glares at Pike for the interruption. “Were you… trying to get some ice cream?” How in the world did Spock know the stand was there?

“Affirmative. I attempted to purchase the seller’s product, but he refused to accept my payment.”

Pike hadn’t considered the possibility that Spock had money with him. Perhaps Amanda had given it to her son. “You brought money?”

“I do not carry currency on my person, Admiral.”

He bends down to Spock’s level. The child lifts his eyebrow.

“You can’t buy ice cream without money, Spock.”

The young man laughs. “I think he was bargaining his parents’ house or something for an ice cream cone!”

“It was so cute,” the wife adds. “He’s such a smart little guy.”

“I was negotiating,” Spock corrects flatly. “This is an acceptable practice for securing a contract of supply and demand. I fail to understand why the seller denied my proposition. My offer was logical and generous.” He blinks.

Pike is crying with laughter (or hysteria) on the inside. “What did you offer?” he asks, knowing that he really shouldn’t inquire.

“Your Earth government has lent my father the use of several properties on this planet. I chose the one which is least suitable for the purposes of his travel. It is—” Spock pauses, his brain clearly running through a list of apt descriptions. “—referred to as a ‘penthouse.'”

Both Pike and Decker make the same noise of disbelief. Then Decker gives a low whistle and admits, “The man’s a fool not to have taken that deal.”

Christopher pinches the bridge of his nose. “Thank you,” he tells the couple again. “Spock, don’t walk off alone. I am responsible for you and you must stay where I can see you. Understand?”

The Vulcan nods once.

The woman reaches out and touches his arm in a sympathetic gesture. “Children are lovely but also difficult to handle on occasion.”

“I know. Trust me, I know.”

Decker slips an arm around his wife’s shoulders and nods to Pike. “Should we be on the lookout for any more wandering kids?” The man doesn’t realize that his words may be less of a joke and more of a reality.

Pike’s smile is rueful. “There is a third but he’s—ah, here he comes now.”

Decker and his wife glance to where Pike has directed his gaze, then make a hasty excuse to retreat. Pike wishes he could run away too.

Kirk cries “Spock!” at the sight of his friend. His heels kick at Archer’s chest like he is spurring on a horse. Perhaps the boy is. Jonathan grunts and trots over to them, Porthos’s stomach swaying back and forth at the brisk pace. Jimmy rides atop the man’s shoulders.

“It was the only way to keep him close,” Jon explains, short of breath. Then Jon looks at Spock, says “I vote we strap all of them together with duck-tape” and winces as Jimmy pulls at his hair. “Easy, kid! My hair’s thin enough as it is.”

Captain Kirk observes his crew with a glow of pleasure and a hint of mischief. Then he turns his attention solely to his First Officer. “Mr. Spock,” the Captain talks in his ‘important’ voice, “report!”

Pike plans to start supervising Kirk’s television habits soon. ‘Report?’ What in the world is he watching?

“There is a habitat approximately zero point four-four-five miles to the northeast, Captain.”

Jimmy bounces on Jon’s shoulders. “What is it?”

“It is a small, public structure which sells appropriate nourishment for the body.”

At the small ‘o’ of Jimmy’s mouth, McCoy inputs, “It’s got ice cream and candy and stuff!”

Captain Kirk wholeheartedly approves. “Yeah!” He uses his fistfuls of hair to steer his vessel. When it doesn’t move, he leans over the top of Jon’s head to frown down at Archer.

“I think your na-vee-gator-al system is broke,” says Lenny.

“It’s tired,” clarifies Archer. “It wants to go home.”

“No!” disagrees the blond-headed boy fiercely. “To the ice cream!”

“Jimmy,” warns Pike. “If you can’t behave respectfully, then Mr. Archer will put you down.”

Jonathan’s look reads why can’t I dump him on the ground right now?

Jimmy ignores that threat. “I wanna go to the water.”

“No.” Pike tells Spock and McCoy to keep track of one another (“Never let your comrade out of your sight when on a mission, boys.”) and to head back to the path. Then he follows the pair of children.

Archer trails behind, deep in complaints about the literal burden on his shoulders. Said-burden uses the height of his perch to pluck at the leaves of the trees overhead and tuck them into Jon’s hair or down the back of Jon’s shirt. Eventually, when Archer drops Porthos’ leash to swing the child off of his shoulders and into the air like he plans to chuck the boy God-knows-where (probably a nearby bush), Pike intervenes and rescues Kirk. He lets the child ride on his own shoulders instead. Jimmy pats the top of Mr. Pike’s head with a happy hum and surprisingly does not fidget the remainder of the way to their destination.

The person handing an ice cream cone to a teenager on a skateboard spies them coming—probably identifies their group as Spock and Spock’s posse respectively. He tries to close up shop in a matter of seconds and fails.

The Vulcan announces “I have returned” and the ice cream man pales.

Archer slips up to the stand (which is little more than a glorified cart) and leans in with a wide grin. He slaps a hand down next to a small register and says, “One tub of strawberry ice cream please.”

“A cup, Sir?”

Jon snorts. “Hell no. Spock, here—” His thumb indicates the patiently waiting Vulcan whose hands are clasped behind his back. “—requires the entire tub.”

Pike clears his throat to say, when the poor fellow looks like he expects to be robbed of his merchandise (as if Pike and Archer are kneecap-breaking lackeys of a miniature Vulcan mob boss), “We’ll pay, of course.”

Then McCoy kicks the side of the cart with “I can’t see the ice cream. How am I supposed to know what flavor I want?”

Spock slides around McCoy before Pike can safely place Jimmy on the ground and stop the Vulcan from tilting the cart. People scream (actually just the cart owner in horror and McCoy in glee), Archer steps out of range of flying waffle cones, and Pike pulls Leonard back from a potential crushing object while trying to prevent a disaster and a legal suit.

The cart hangs at an unnatural angle until Spock realizes that Pike is preventing McCoy from seeing the ice cream. Then he releases the cart; it drops back onto all four wheels with a rattle.

The ice cream man remains open-mouthed as Archer adds for flare, “And that’s just a taste of what can happen, my friend. I suggest you sell us that tub now. Oh, and sprinkles. We want sprinkles.”

Pike is too embarrassed to do much other than pay for the purchase, handing off the one-gallon tub of strawberry ice cream in a large sack to Spock, and tipping generously for collateral damage. He quickly ushers the kids farther along the path, spending the next few minutes glancing over his shoulder certain that policemen are in pursuit. When the group, dog included, spread out on a pair of benches (the adults and dog on one; the boys on the other), Pike runs a hand through his hair and is amazed that most of it is still attached to his head.

Spock, Jimmy, and Lenny look at Mr. Pike expectantly.

“We need spoons,” McCoy points out in a serious voice.

Archer produces a handful of plastic spoons from his pocket, then a second handful of napkins. “Never fear. Archer always comes prepared.”

Pike accepts his spoon with a sigh and watches as the children eat enough dessert to qualify as dinner.

Tomorrow. He can make it to tomorrow. Winona is coming home then. Unfortunately, that is not soon enough for her boyfriend.

Next Part

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About KLMeri

Owner of SpaceTrio. Co-mod of McSpirk Holiday Fest. Fanfiction author of stories about Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

5 Comments

  1. weepingnaiad

    Oh, bb!Spock and his need for ice cream and for helping bb!Bones is adorable. Loved the little moment where Pike realized that Jimmy’s already the son of his heart.

    • writer_klmeri

      I’ve pretty much dubbed this the ‘ice cream story’ because everytime I sit down to write a scene, Spock has plastered the word ICE CREAM all over it. I’m fairly sure it’s not me, but him. I firmly believe Spock believes that strawberry ice cream is essential for his development. It makes me wonder how much Amanda indulges him in it at home. Oh and, McCoy definitely understands how useful Spock can be – it’s almost devious how easily the boy goes “Hey, Spock, demolish this for me…” :)

  2. kcscribbler

    Baby Spock negotiating earnestly for ice cream takes adorable to whole new universes. *smushes him* Also, Will Decker and Illia! :D

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