Well, "Ko-mekh" was supposed to be a one-shot, but reflekshun offered up an idea for continuation, and I decided to run with it. Thank you reflekshun!!!

A/N Now is a good time to stress that I am not a huge TOS fan. *gaspshockhorror* Not that I do not like TOS, but I grew up with TNG, and lived in an environment that generally discouraged a young, impressionable, and easily frightened little girl from seeing the ST movies, so I never had a chance to bond with the TOS universe. (a grave character flaw, yes, yes, I know - I assure you that I am, slowly but surely, remedying this ;) So. . . in this little series of vignettes, everyone is probably OOC and the settings are AU, since my source material is mostly the 2009 movie, supplemented with the "ever reliable" Wikipedia. Please, by all that is Trekkie, be nice to a timid TNG fan, and just try to go with it.

Thank you.

Enjoy!


Summary - Young Jim asks his mother The Question. . . no, no, no, not that question, a real question!


Winona

"So, mom. . . you gonna ask me what we learned in school today?"

Jim Kirk was not a boy who volunteered information.

"I dunno, Jimmy, do you want to talk about what you learned today?"

Winona was not a woman who pulled her punches.

"I had Advanced Math, Terran History, Betazoid Literature, Computer Engineering Shop, and Sex Ed."

Jim Kirk did not beat around the bush. Even at ten, straight up was the name of the game.

"Well, that sounds. . . informative. Jimmy, was there something you wanted to talk about?"

Winona was not a curious woman. Ten years ago she had had enough of adventuring to last a lifetime.

Or two, in this case.

"Yeah, mom, I wanted to ask you a few things about Sex Ed."

Damn.

"Ok, Jimmy, what did they confuse you about? I hope they didn't talk about Klingons, because that stuff shouldn't be taught to people under eighteen, and sometimes not even then - well, unless you are a Klingon, and in that case I guess it's just normal - and please tell me the teacher is not arranging a field trip?"

Winona rambled when she was nervous.

"Nah, nothing like that mom. Just. . . seems to me that you gotta have two to tango, y'know? How about that?"

The expression on his face was far more angry than anyone would have the right to expect for such a casually asked question.

"Yes. In most cases, yes. So. . . what?"

This was not good.

"Well, let's see, mom, you and dad would have had to have got it on about ten years ago last week - that is if I had the normal nine month gestation period, and I just wondered what you had to say about that."

"Awkward" could not begin to describe the moment.

"Jimmy, you aren't asking me where babies come from, are you?"

"NO!"

He was shouting, really angry now. Well, at least that was normal.

"I was. . . I was TRYING to ask you about. . . about. . . father. . . but I guess you don't CARE!"

He was not a boy used to embarrassment. But the flush on his face was not solely from anger.

"You don't want to know anything about it Jimmy. Believe me."

"Stop calling me Jimmy! I hate it!"

His hair was just like his father's. She always noticed that when he was mad. Maybe that was why she made him mad so often.

"He would have called you that. . . if he had lived."

Sometimes the truth was easy.

"Mom, how did dad die?"

Sometimes the truth stank like hell.

"Wait here."

The data disk was right where she had shoved it ten years ago. Right at the back of the case full of her wedding photos.

The case opened easily, and there the disk was.

Damn.

"I'm gonna go to the transport station early, Jimmy."

"So what?"

He looked like his father when he was sullen.

"So. . . go ahead and listen to this while I'm gone. . . Jim. . . but you'll be sorry if you do."

He took the data disk from her almost reverently. How did he do that? Sometimes it was like George was back again.

"I won't listen to it. . ."

And sometimes Winona didn't miss George at all.

". . . until you leave."

And sometimes she missed him like hell.

"Be good, Jim."

"Yeah, right. . ."


There was a LOT of static. There was a LOT of noise. And a LOT of the data was missing.

But some things came through VERY clearly.

"Honey, I'm sorry, but I won't be able to be there."

"George, I need you."

"I need you to push now!"

"It's a boy."

"Tell me about him. . ."

James Tiberius Kirk didn't remember much of the recording after that. Except he did.

Ten minutes later saw him behind the wheel of his stepfather's Corvette.

It had nothing to do with revenge.

Sure it didn't.


Six months later, when she came home, Winona found a note pinned to the kitchen door. The door she used, almost exclusively. The note was real paper, written in her son's unformed and boyish scrawl.

"Winona. I'm not sorry."

Twenty minutes later, after all the screaming, she assumed that her son had meant the car.

She never knew how wrong she was.


Wow. Angst!fic. Sorry about that. Next up is Uhura, and that one should be a bit more lighthearted.

Please review! It makes me happy when I get feedback. :)