Title: The Pipes are Calling

Author: bookdragon01

Summary: Two linked scenes from opposite points of view: Jim as a child saying good-bye to his mother when she's re-deployed. Winona seeing Jim leave to command the Enterprise as an adult. (originally written for Blue Skies prompts at LJ).

Genre: Angst/Family

Rating: K+

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, but I love them

Part 1: Understand

Prompt:

Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.

– "Danny Boy" by Frederic Weatherly

.

"Take care of your brother." Mom squeezed Sam's shoulder. She was trying to smile, but her eyes were sad.

They'd been sad since the day she'd gotten the call. Jimmy had seen her eyes close when it had come, face hardening as though taking a blow, before she straightened and answered, "I understand."

He didn't understand. Not really. The people on the news said the Klingons had attacked a colony. They were testing Federation defenses and Starfleet was being deployed to stop them. The people on the news said that the heros in Starfleet would defend us.

Jimmy's father had been a hero, so he did understand what hero meant. It meant you weren't coming home.

"Don't go Mom." He threw his arms around her, holding on with all the strength and determination in his 6-year-old frame.

Her hands stroked his back, soothing. "I have to Jimmy." She kissed his hair.

He normally pulled away from kisses, but this time he clung to her more fiercely. "No."

For a moment his mother hugged him back just as fiercely, and then gently removed his arms and reached out to grip Sam's hand. "I love you both so much. I have to keep you safe. I can't do that down here - not as well as I can up there." She held his shoulder, looking into his eyes. "I know you don't understand now Jimmy, but someday you will."

Part 2: A Prayer for Seasons

Prompt:

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade…

(Sonnet XVIII by William Shakespeare)

.

Winona Kirk waved one last time to Jim, trying to engrave in her memory every line of his face even as the transporter beam disassembled them into a glowing haze. Handsome, strong, and determined, filled with the surety of youth just like his father had been at that age. Just like his father would always be in her memory in the collective memories of every cadet who ever studied his final command.

"...And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade…"

The words came unbidden to her mind - a snippet of sonnet recited at the 25th memorial for those lost on the Kelvin.

Winona closed her eyes against the fading glow of Jim's outline. Please God, let my son live to see the beauty of fall and enjoy winter's peace.

AN: Deployments, esp. in war time, are hard on families. I've never bought the 'too messed up to care for her kids' version of Winona, but I can easily imagine other reasons why she couldn't stay at home with them.

These were written for two separate prompts for the Blues Skies drabblethon at LJ. Now that the challenge is over I can post them here, tied together the way I think they should be.

Please r&r