Title: Playtime (12/?)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Characters: Various
Summary: AU. Fun times ensue at Little Star Academy. Pike begins to realize that while he may be the adult, he’s definitely not the one in charge.
Previous Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

Part Twelve

“I need you to be honest with me, Hikaru. Where did you put Miss Rand’s purse?”

“I don’t know,” Sulu says, staring at the ground.

“Yes, you do.” Pike lowers his voice just a margin. “Hikaru, it’s not nice to take people’s things. You didn’t like it when Pavel took your cookie, remember?”

The boy shakes his head and shrugs at the same time.

Chris sighs and switches his approach. “Hikaru, I order you to tell me where it is. Right now, young man!”

Hikaru knuckles an eye. “I wasn’t tryin’ to make Miss Rand mad! Chrissy said she needed a purse ‘cuz she was a girl ‘n Miss Rand’s got a purty one—”

Pike places his hands on Sulu’s shoulder. “Enough,” he says quietly. “You gave the purse to Christine. That’s all I needed to know. Now, you see Miss Rand over there?” The boy nods. “Go tell her that you’re sorry you took her purse.” He sends Hikaru off in Janice’s direction and heads towards the little blonde girl playing tea with Pavel and Nyota.

“Christine, come here.”

She blinks wide eyes up at him. Pavel and Nyota are watching the unfolding scene with curiosity. Nyota absently picks up an orange play-doh biscuit and puts it on Pavel’s plastic plate. Pike, fortunately, is playing enough attention to tell Pavel to put it down, that nibbling on that biscuit will make him very sick to his stomach.

Pike refocuses on Christine Chapel, who is the perfect picture of innocence. “Christine, Hikaru gave you Miss Rand’s purse. Where is it? Miss Rand needs it back.”

She smiles at him happily and skips off. When she returns, Janice’s purse is clutched in both of her hands. Pike takes it and tells the little girl that she shouldn’t keep other peoples’ belongings unless they give permission first. Christine seems unfazed by his sternness.

Hikaru runs past him as Pike sets Jan’s purse down on the counter. Rand thanks him and snaps it open. When she looks back up, she is holding a large wallet.

“Well, my wallet’s safe. Everything else is gone!” She chucks her wallet back into her purse, places her hands on her hips and gives the entire room a glare.

Pike rubs at his forehead. “What are you missing, Jan?”

“My communicator, a makeup bag… oh, I don’t know,” she says with frustration. “I don’t exactly keep a list of all the things in my purse, Mr. Pike!”

“Okay, calm down. I’ll handle it.” He walks a few steps away from the counter and calls, “Attention!” The general hub-bub of children entertaining themselves dies down. “To the center rug!” Items immediately get dropped as kids scurry to grab a good seat for whatever show is about to commence.

Pike marches over to them and motions for Janice to follow. Rand stands beside him, a mostly empty purse in hand.

“There were items in Miss Rand’s purse that are now missing. I don’t care at this point who took what. I want everyone who has something that doesn’t belong to them to come up to the front and put that item or items beside the purse.” He gives them all a general no-nonsense look. “If Miss Rand’s things are not returned, I will call each of you up to the front and search you. Understand?”

Heads bob.

“Okay. Form a line.”

Jimmy is at the head of the line, as usual. (Captain leads.)

“Jimmy. Let’s go.” Pike points to the purse and the boy trots up front and center to stare at it. He pulls out an object from his jumper pocket and places it gently on the ground. Then runs off.

Pike picks it up. It’s a paperweight of an eagle from his desk. Well, that certainly doesn’t belong to Miss Rand. He slips it into his sweater pocket.

“Spock.”

The Vulcan walks up and eyes his teacher with an eyebrow raised, about-faces and goes back to his spot at the corner of the rug. Pike feels as if he has just been silently reprimanded from even contemplating the idea that a Vulcan would steal.

One by one, he calls the children to the front and a pile of items grow on the floor. Lenny tosses down Jan’s communicator with the simple explanation “Ta call fer policemen.” When it is Pavel’s turn, the boy says a small “Sworry” and runs off only to come back with a fist full of crayons and a fork missing two tongs that he’d stowed away in a box of puppy puzzle pieces. Pike sighs.

Gaila grins at Janice, bright red lipstick and blush on her face, then offers Miss Rand the missing make-up bag with a giggle. (Later, Jan will tell Pike that she never did recover her powder kit.) Scotty is the last one to toddle up to them, never looking up from his shoes. He wipes his nose on the back of his sleeve, removes one cookie from a pants pocket, another cookie from the top of his sock, and a yellow highlighter from inside his shirt.

After the children are reseated, Pike stares at the pile of stolen goods—most of which Rand claims don’t belong to her but obviously belong to either Pike or Little Star (and also what he suspects are two buttons from Jon’s favorite jacket). He wonders if he should implement body searching into the end-of-the-day routine.

At the very least, Chris thinks that he ought to prepare a lecture on “Why stealing makes Mr. Pike and Miss Rand unhappy.” Everybody has vacated the center rug to return to their chosen activities, no doubt to refill their little pockets with goodies. It occurs to him later that there are probably more than a few decent hiding spots on the playground too. Some weekend, he shall enlist Jon to help him scour the grounds (even dig in the sandbox) for things that only small children would consider treasure.

Wednesday afternoon turns into a stressful Wednesday night. The San Francisco air is now cooler in the evening and Pike helps Nyota into her jacket.

“Mama’s not coming?” the girl says pitifully.

“No, sweetheart. Your mother said your big brother would come get you as soon as he could. Until then, you need to stay with me. Is that okay?”

“I guess so.” She is trying not to cry, that much is obvious.

Pike had sent Jan home early and offered to stay with the last child, Nyota, at Little Star. When an hour had passed and no one had come to get Nyota, he’d pulled out his list of emergency contacts. Just then, a call came through from Mrs. Uhura. Nyota’s father had been in an accident and she was at the hospital, waiting on news.

Pike did what any good teacher does. He offered to watch Nyota until arrangements could be made, to take her to a relative if need be or the hospital if Mrs. Uhura preferred that. The woman—who sounded upset even through the phone—said that if he’d just look after Nyota for a while longer, her eldest son was on his way to San Francisco and would pick the little girl up.

Chris gave her his home address, several ways in which to reach him and broke that one rule he’d believed was a line that shouldn’t be crossed. He let Mrs. Uhura speak to her daughter for a moment and prepared to leave Little Star. When Nyota handed his communicator back to him, her eyes were wide and she looked uncertain. When he said, as gently as he could, that she was going to stay with him at his house, the little girl did not make much comment. Mrs. Uhura had told her then. That was good. The last thing he needed was a distraught, terrified child under the impression she was being kidnapped by someone she trusted.

They are currently in his kitchen and Nyota is watching him make hot chocolate. The sun has almost set and Pike wonders if he’ll have to whip up dinner for a six-year-old.

He clears his throat and tries to keep the conversation as soothing as possible. “Do you like marshmallows in your hot chocolate, Nyota?”

She nods, silently shredding a napkin at his kitchen table. Normally the girl isn’t this quiet, but he doesn’t blame her one bit.

Pike sets a mug in front of her. “It’s hot. Give it a minute to cool.”

She nods again.

“Are you cold?”

She’s still wearing her jacket, probably more for security than anything.

She manages a small “No.”

Chris sighs, takes off his glasses and sets them to the side. He blows on his own mug and watches the steam rise.

“My daddy wears glasses.”

Pike smiles softly. “Does he?”

“Mama tries to make him get the eye su-surg—”

“—surgery. Yes, glasses are… unusual these days.”

“Daddy says glasses make him special from everybody else.”

“Your father is a man after my own heart.” When Nyota scrunches up her nose at that statement, he explains, “I like your father’s idea. That’s why I wear my glasses too.”

“But if Daddy wears glasses and you wear glasses, then how can Daddy be specialer than you?”

Pike grins. “Nyota, honey, your daddy’s more special than I am for the simple reason that he has you as his little girl.”

That earns him a tiny but genuine smile. Then she asks, “Is he gonna be okay, Mr. Pike?”

“I’m sure that he will, Nyota. San Francisco has very good doctors. They will look after your father. I know it.”

She reaches out and pulls the mug closer to her, leaning over it. “My marshmallows are all melted.”

Pike brings her the entire bag and lets her choose the “fluffier” ones. They share a sweet silence as they drink their hot chocolate. Eventually Pike distracts Nyota by asking her if she has decided to like Jimmy yet.

“He’s bossy,” she announces haughtily. “And his fingers are really really sticky.”

Pike knows. Every time he pulls Captain Jimmy to the side to wipe his hands, the boy somehow manages to find something gooey, filthy or both within the hour.

“But you agreed to be part of his crew.”

“I serve under Capt’n Jimmy,” she says with pride. “I like Capt’n Jimmy.”

Apparently there’s a difference between the two that adults like Pike cannot understand.

“And I—I’m in charge of talking to people,” Nyota adds. “‘Cause Capt’n Jimmy says I’m good at talking to everybody.”

He uses his mug to hide his smile. “I’m sure Captain Jimmy is right, Nyota. You’d make a fine… communications officer.”

She accepts his praise with dignity and a grin that shows the missing gap between two baby teeth.

The evening lingers, and by the time that Nyota is nodding on his couch while Pike reads a book, his door buzzer goes off rather loudly in the calm silence. Nyota wakes up, blinking her eyes. At the sound of her brother’s voice, she bursts into tears and has the young man’s legs in an instantaneous death grip. Between the two of them, Nyota is calmed down and readied for returning home. Pike stands in the doorway, watching them go; the street light illuminates the small girl clinging to the man’s jacket, legs dangling as she’s carried away. He shivers in the cold air and goes back inside for warmth.

Nyota isn’t at Little Star the next day and the day after that. When Chris comes home, prepared to leave immediately for the hospital, to check up on Nyota and her family, his communicator sounds. It is Mrs. Uhura with tears on her face and a bright-eyed Nyota in her lap crowing, “Mr. Pike! Daddy’s gonna be okay!”

He congratulates them both and, upon hanging up, weeps like a child.

Next Part

Related Posts:

• Playtime (20/20) – from October 13, 2010
• Playtime (19/20) – from October 13, 2010
• Playtime (18/?) – from October 12, 2010
• Playtime (17/?) – from October 11, 2010
• Playtime (16/?) – from October 10, 2010