AN: Hello my readers. Thanks for dropping in to check out the story. This is a response to a prompt on the Star Trek Into Darkness Kink Meme. It's a rather long prompt so I am going to give you the shorthand version according to moi: Frank was thrown into jail when Jim was a kid because of him being abusive to Jim, the media finds out about it after the events of the battle with the Narada spaceship, and fall out occurs. The prompt is basically to write the fallout of the media finding out, the information going public and the crew rallying behind him.

So um please enjoy chapter one!

Chapter 1

Past Hounds

It was two days after they had finally got back to Earth from everything with the Narada. The silence in the living space he and Bones shared was broken, when his comm went off. Figuring it was one of the Admiralty calling for clarification again about yesterday's debriefing, he flipped it open saying, "Kirk here."

"Jim. It's your mother." came the familiar voice filtering through the device.

"Not that I love to talk to you Mom, but what can't wait until you get here on the shuttle in a few hours?" he said rubbing his forehead slightly. Winona had been on a mission of her own in deep space when everything had been going down with Nero. She had just managed to get some time off to come and visit.

"The press found out about Frank." She said softly.

"Well, fuck. Are you sure?" he said, getting out of bed and heading over to the kitchenette area. He was going to need some coffee if he was going to continue this conversation.

"Positive. They don't have a lot of details yet. But I have been getting comms for the last couple hours with increasing frequency all related to you and him."

"How much have they figured out so far?" he asked, taking a long swig of the coffee.

"Only that Frank spent about 10 years in jail and he was imprisoned on charges related to you. They don't know what the charges were yet." she said.

"Great," he said, massaging his forehead slightly, he can start to feel a headache coming on. This was going to be a long day. Maybe he should wake up Bones and ask for some pain-killers just so he could bite this before it fully formed.

"At least they haven't figured out the full details yet. But if you want to keep this from getting out of hand, you are going to have to inform the higher ups of what happened back then. Does anyone in Starfleet even know about what happened?" she asked.

"Bones has suspicions but never pushed for details. Pike of course knows because he's the one I have to get permission from to take time off for the parole hearings. Other than that the only people in Starfleet who definitely would know would be the ones who did my physical when you dragged me to San Francisco right after the car incident. But I'm not even sure if they still work here anymore. As for anyone else knowing, your guess is as good as mine at the moment. You know how much I hate talking about this, so probably no." he says almost snapping at the end.

"I know you hate talking about it. Almost as much as I hate talking about anything from that period before we moved to San Francisco. But if you are going to keep the entire Federation from finding out the entire details of what went down, you are going to have to talk to at least a few people." she snapped back, pushing Jim further. It was for his own safety.

"I am well aware of that, I just don't even know where to start! The PR people will probably want just more information just to use it as a sob story so I don't want to talk to them. The Admirals aren't exactly my best friends, and Chris just had another surgery done yesterday to have some additional repair done on the nerves from the parasite Nero used on him so I can't really consult him yet." he said, running a hand through his hair in exasperation.

"What about that Vulcan you were working with on the Enterprise? You two did just save the Earth together. Maybe he can help? Comm him and see if he'll be able to at least point you in the direction of someone who can figure out this mess," she suggested.

"'m not sure how favorably he views me. We were on okay terms when the Enterprise docked, but that may have had more to do with the fact I was acting captain at the time." he muttered, flopping back down on the couch. While him and Spock had gotten along fairly well on the journey home all things considered. And he had apologized for the bridge incident as he was recalling it, he wasn't exactly sure if the Vulcan had accepted it or not.

"Have you said something to him since your arrival back on Earth that could be construed as offensive to others?" she asked, sarcasm coloring her voice. He may not have a visual, but he could practically see the eyebrow raise he knew she must be doing.

"It's not anything that's happened since we docked. I haven't seen any of the crew other than Bones since we finally made it back to Earth, so it's not like I've had a chance to accidentally offend them. No, this is about what happened in space. In order to get the position, I had to get him to admit he was emotionally compromised. That meant having me to say things about his feelings towards his dead mother that I probably wouldn't have said in a normal situation." He said with no pause. Why was it so exhausting talking to his own mother?

"Jim!" came the sharp tone.

"Look I apologized. And I do regret it but if in the same situation I would do it again. Because he sure wasn't going to back to Earth to try and stop Nero, he was heading for the Laurentian system where most of the rest of the fleet was. And if Nero got to Earth then I don't think even reuniting with the rest of the fleet would end up making an impact in the long run. You didn't see what the sky around Vulcan was like before they destroyed it, Mom. I did." he said the last words as softly as he could.

He had already had this discussion multiple times with the admiralty over the last couple of weeks as they had crawled home after defeating Nero. He was getting rather tired of sounding like a broken record on this subject matter.

"Well, if you did apologize, maybe try him anyway. Vulcans are logical creatures first and foremost, and it isn't exactly logical to hold grudges especially when one apologizes for their actions. So it might be worth at least seeing if he can point you in the right direction." She said after a minute of quiet thinking. It sounds as though she was trying to assure herself rather than her son.

"Maybe." he agreed with some hesitation.

There was a sigh from her end before she said, "Look I'll be there by the afternoon and then will see about getting this sorted out before it gets too out of hand. But really, the sooner you act the better because that gives them less time to track down the full story about what happened with Frank."

He rolled his eyes even if she couldn't see him before replying, "All right, all right I'll at least consider leaving a message for him okay? Have a safe remainder of your trip and I'll see you later today."

"That's all I ask. Take care for now, Jim." She stopped, and continued, "and try not to scare any reporters you see in the meantime okay?" she sounded like a mother telling her five year old kid not to paint on the walls again.

"Yeah, Mom. See you soon." he said trying not to roll his eyes again as he hung up the comm. Honestly, it wasn't like he had a history with the press or anything like she had from when he was a kid. She had been rather notorious for running off any members of the press who had gotten close enough to them to actually be heard after she had started spending more time on Earth when he was a teenager.

He hesitated for a second before picking up the comm and dialing a different number. Not too surprised when it rolls over to a message machine considering the hour he starts talking, "Hi, Spock. It's Kirk. Look, I'm sorry to call this early, but I was wondering if you could help me with something. Someone in the media came across something extremely personal from my childhood, I would rather they had not have found out about. I need to get in touch with someone who handles PR stuff at Star fleet but I don't know where to begin," he sighed, taking in a huff of air before continuing, "So I was hoping you might. Anyway, if you could give me a comm back when you get a chance, I would appreciate it thanks." He hanged up rather quickly and shook his head. This was going to be messy.

Closing the comm he decided it was best to see if he could sleep again for now. Even after drinking coffee, there was nothing to do but sleep. He doubt anything could get very worse in the couple of hours that it would take to find a person to help sort this whole mess out.

End Chapter One

AN So that's a wrap for the first chapter. I know things are a bit confusing right now. And you guys probably have a dozen questions. And I promise that pretty much the vast majority of them will be answered in Chapter 2. And yes this will include how Jim and Winona are actually on good terms in spite of her leaving him with an abuser for a few years. It will all be explained.