Stardate 2242.189: Riverside, Iowa

"Get the hell out of this house! When your mom comes back, she can deal with you!"

The screen door of the small farming house on a cropless plot slammed shut, its cheap plastic bouncing off the frame before bending slightly from the impact.

"Go ahead, go. Run away. You think I give a damn?" an overweight, middle-aged man with a drinking problem stumbled after a sixteen-year-old boy.

"Where are you going?" a small girl with blue eyes and blonde curls came running after the men, confused at this new exchange.

"As far as I can get!" Sam cried.

"Which won't be far enough," their uncle, Frank, taunted. "This is my house, not yours, and not your mothers."

As they got further from the house, Jamie started to panic. She started running to keep up with their fast pace.

"What do you want, Jamie?" Frank yelled, turning his wrath on her.

Sam stopped walking as Frank stopped his pursuit, turning back around to watch his sister. Jamie sputtered for a moment, scared by the looming, angry man, but not enough to back down.

"I just don't want my brother to go."

"Well what you want doesn't matter. You're no one. And I asked you to wash the car. How many damn times do I need to repeat myself?"

Sam, who was previously resolved in his departure, felt the first hint of doubt as Frank caused Jamie to stumble back.

His uncle looked back over at him. "Go," he said, finality in his voice. Frank retreated into the house, confident that Sam would leave, that he would abandon his sister.

Sam took a few angry steps after him, wanting to say something else but the words wouldn't come.

"Please stay," Jamie's voice called from behind him. She had moved to the center of the driveway, blocking his exit.

"I just can't take Uncle Frank anymore. Mom has no idea what he's like when she's not around. Did you hear him talking like he's our dad? That's not even his car you're washing, that's dad's car."

George Samuel Kirk had never been able to adjust to life with his uncle. Unlike Jamie, he could remember their father. Sam knew this wasn't the life Dad would have given them. He hated it when his Mom left Earth, off on some peacekeeping mission. The same type that got Dad killed in the first place.

"You're going to be okay," he told Jamie as she once again tried to match his quick steps. "You always are. You do everything right. Good grades. Obeying every stupid order."

That was the worst, Sam thought. Having to obey that drunk. Kirks weren't made to blindly obey orders. They were made to take leaps, to lead, to question and discover.

"I can't be a Kirk in this house," he concluded, kneeling to look Jamie in the eye. "Show me how to do that and I'll stay."

It was a lot to place on a nine-year-old. Jamie didn't understand yet why their Uncle frank slurred his words so often. She didn't know what that amber and clear liquid did to a man. She didn't care, all she needed was for her brother to stay.

"Don't leave me."

Sam's eyes teared up and his anger once again sparked. "Mom leaves us! Every time she abandons us here with him! I can't do it anymore."

"If you leave you'll be just like her!"

"There is no other way, Jamie." Sam started to walk again.

"Fine!" she screamed, her nose scrunching like it always did when she cried. "Leave! You're right! You can't be a Kirk here because Kirks don't stay!"

He stopped.

"I don't like Uncle Frank!" her shrill voice accenting the word 'like.' "He looks at me funny!"

Sam spun around, surely he misunderstood. "What do mean?" When she didn't respond he walked back to her and asked again.

"Go away!" she pouted in the way only an adolescent girl can.

"Jamie," Sam demanded.

"Just go!"

"Jamie, please, this is important," Sam prompted, trying a gentler approach.

"Why do you even care, you're just going to leave."

"If you tell me, I'll find a way to stay." The words came out before Sam could think about them and mentally he face palmed. Although, a small part of him was relieved he now had an outside reason for him to stay. Truthfully, he didn't want to go, the words had just slipped out of his mouth earlier this afternoon and Frank had backed him into a corner.

"You promise?"

"I promise. Now, what do you mean he looks at you funny?" he asked slowly, already fearing the answer.

"He looks at me like he has ants."

Sam's brow furrowed at her comparison. "What?"

She shrugged, her sobs having been subsided by his promise. "His eyes feel like ants."

"What does an ant feel like, Jamie?"

She reached over to his neck and softly tapped with her nails. "You know, ants."

Sam suddenly engulfed her in his arms, glaring with more rage than he ever felt back at that stupid house. He was going to have to go back in there, he was going to have to swallow his pride and go back. He couldn't leave Jamie, not now. He needed to teach her that Kirks didn't leave, he needed to protect her.

Frank was going to think he didn't have the guts to leave. His uncle had dared him to run, and Sam never stood down from a dare. Maybe he could just take Jamie with him. No, that wouldn't work, he had no idea what would happen to either of them if they left and he wasn't going to expose his baby sister to that. Frank could think what he wanted. He had two more years before Frank could legally kick him out of the house. Right now, Frank couldn't do a damn thing if he decided to stay verses go. His uncle could and with out a doubt would say something, a very loud something, but that was worth it. Sam couldn't risk leaving Jamie alone.

Anyways, there were no such things as no win scenarios, Kirks find answers, they don't run away. He would just have to find out what his father would have done.

The Kirk siblings had waited outside until dark, watching the stars. Perhaps it was in that moment that shifted their destinies once again. They were going to face the world together, and Sam was going to find a way for them to do that. When they had finally gone in, Jamie was already asleep, so Sam carried her into their room. Sam made sure to lock the door behind them, as he would be doing every night for the rest of their time here. If Sam had anything to say about it, Jamie would never have to find out what their uncle's 'ant stare' meant.

The next morning, when Sam had come down for breakfast, his hungover uncle sneered in greeting. "I've always known you were to pussy to leave."

Sam bit his tongue, holding back a remark that would have started a fight like yesterday's. He had a mission now and in order to complete it he had to be smart. Sam waited until his uncle left for work before going and getting Jamie up. He left her a sandwich in the fridge for lunch before grabbing his backpack and making the five-mile trek into town.

A little over an hour later, Sam walked into the public library. What his sister had said last night had hit home, he didn't know what it meant to be a Kirk anymore. He couldn't ask his mom, she never had time to pick up his comms, so he went to the only place he could. If he couldn't talk with his dad anymore, maybe hearing about him will help him know what to do.

Sam typed his father's name into one of the public computers. Thousands of documents including news articles, planetary historical references, Starfleet enlistment forms, honorary tributes, and different types reports appeared on the screen. Sam shifted to get comfortable knowing he was going to be here a while. After narrowing down his search to first person accounts, he found hundreds of stories that had nearly nothing to do with his father except some variation of "I heard his voice come over the comm system. We didn't know what had happened to the Captain. He told us to evacuate . . . he fought them off while the pods drifted out of range."

Refining his search, Sam then searched for Starfleet officiated reports. There was an interview with one of the officers from the bridge, one who knew his father before the incident; that was pretty cool. There was another submitted by the pilot of the shuttle that Jamie was born in. One of the longer entries was a dissertation, an analysis of his father's actions. In the end, it concluded that George Kirk's decision to stay aboard the Kelvin ultimately save hundreds of lives and his sacrifice, bravery, and strategy should continue to inspire Starfleet officers and civilians alike for centuries. The name beneath the dissertation said Lieutenant Christopher Pike.