A/N: Second part of my series Names In Time (first part had been story of title Frank - if interested, check my profile to look it up!). This story is already finished (so not need to worry about this being left to the wolves) - but because I'm sucker for pageviews and reviews, I'm going to post it in shorter parts, to escalate the tension, add some cliff hangers and things like that.
Overview: I'm told that Frank is sort of a AU, because I didn't make him abusive bastard but a decent guy, Jim's uncle, who takes care of him and Sam, when their mother decides to run into space (making herself rather absent in their lives).
Disclaimer: I own or won nothing, but if you have any additional Spocks Prime, feel free to give me one! *gets nosebleed for only thiking about THAT*
02. Being There
The years afterwards are spent by having their noses stuck in a book or eyes glued to datapads. They will show those jerks who is freak here! Soon, they excelled in every single subject. The teasing, often bordering on bullying, had never been far – Jim with his so-much-like-father looks was perfect reason for his classmates to pick on him even more than they picked on his brother. He often hid the bruises he got from fights with his classmates. But in the end, Frank found out – he yelped in pain, when his uncle laid his hand on his shoulder to take a look on what Jim had been reading. He tried to cover it by making some more sounds but it was already too late for that; Frank had already been pulling his shirt aside with a dark scowl upon his face.
The raw fury in Frank's face when he saw all the bruises made Jim tremble. "That had been done by your classmates, hadn't it?"
Jim could only nod, when Frank lifted him carefully, carrying him to the car, breaking speed limit while driving to hospital. He could see the personnel taking pointed looks at Frank, while they were treating the bruises and abrasions. They didn't say anything but Jim could see the questions in their eyes.
When they were on their way back, Frank turned his head to look at him. "You know, James, that I can't leave this be, don't you?" At his hesitant nod, Frank continued: "I will speak to the headmaster tomorrow about this."
In the end, it showed not to be completely necessary. As soon as Jim entered school the next day, he was whisked away by the secretary and led towards the headmaster's office. They both had been talking about how kids should be kept safe and how no one should ever hurt them, and that they hope he knows he can always talk to them, should he need help… And that was when he had enough. He threw a temper tantrum, in his opinion rather unfitting boy of his age, about the hypocrisy of their statements, since Frank was the one who finally noticed something was off and brought him to hospital to take care of that, as he would never hurt his nephew – unlike his classmates…!
The silence which set in was deafening. The secretary just gaped at him, the headmaster gazing at him thoughtfully. Big things happened afterwards – none of them earning Sam and Jim any more friends. 'At least the bullying ceased,' thought Jim when he was walking home from school, alone each day, keeping to himself when he sat in the school, adding every single bit of information to his memory. One of the things he remembered from books was "knowledge is power". And he will do anything to be as strong as he can.
Sam obviously thought otherwise. He brought it up one day, several months after Frank took Jim to hospital. None of them could remember what exactly had been said afterwards – but there had been lots of shouting, both of them running upstairs to their rooms in the end, leaving Frank alone in the living room.
End it now, whispered something in Jim's head. You are just ruining things for people – they keep saying you are so much like your father; take something of his and show them.
He decided to take his father Corvette, slowly getting out through the window and climbing down the tree which stood nearby. Just don't alert Frank, he would stop you from doing anything…
Once the motor got started, he stamped on the accelerator, pushing the pedal down to the floor. The car flew from it place, motor roaring loudly. Switching the radio on, so he wouldn't hear Frank's calls to the inbuilt phone, he let the wind flew through the car, not caring about the cop who set on following him for breaking the speed limit. Soon, he found himself speeding the car towards the old quarry, the edge of the ravine coming closer by each second.
Flashes of his life appear before his mind's eye. Frank singing him a lullaby. Frank letting him and Sam cuddle to him in his bed, while he reads them a story before bed, even if Sam complained he's too old for that. Frank spending hours in front of his computer terminal, browsing through the extranet, trying to find answers for his nephews. Frank marching to headmaster's office with report from hospital about the bullying, demanding something to happen. Frank, sitting brokenly in their living room, his head hid in his palms after their fight.
And he knew he can't go down with the car. The car was about twenty meters from the ravine when he opened the doors and jumped out. Only the cop's quick assistance saved him that day, because he jumped out too late and would have fall down, as he hung on the edge of ravine. Sometime later, when he's transported to hospital with broken arm and showing signs of shock, he could only say his name and address and then watch, fascinated, how the doctor and nurse are setting his bone back. Frank came for him some time later, his face strained and worried. Later, he learnt that Sam had run away.
The rather uneasy situation between situation between Jim and Frank soon transferred into fragile balance; both of them treading carefully around the other one. The balance had been disturbed abruptly – while Sam had still been incommunicado, by Winona arriving to Riverside.
She crashed into their lives with force of a tropical storm, destroying everything in her wake. It scared him that she was so careless about what her doings may cause. Without knowing what had been going on for the last few years, she just said: "I think you need a chance of scenery for a time. You, Frank, stay here and Jim will go to other planet." Well, he might have misquoted a bit – but that was what she basically said. She just made several calls and then disappeared again, after telling him he's due to leave Earth for Tarsus IV in five days.
It wasn't that he hated aunt Alison, sister of his father. He never even met her or her husband or kids. Well, met – only on the holo screen when his mother called him to introduce himself. From the look of it, aunt Alison wasn't overjoyed by the prospect of having juvenile delinquent at home with her little kids. And he didn't want to leave Earth. He wanted to stay with uncle Frank.
Some days later, when Frank was leading him to transport, carrying his suitcase, he was dragging his feet, trying to make the boarding of the ship as late as possible. Frank just stood there, obviously feeling a bit more than just simply awkwardly, looking down at him. When his luggage was safely in the transport, Jim remained the last few minutes with Frank, clinging to him as if his life depended on it. He was quite aware that young man of his age should know better – and when the last signal for boarding sounded, he tore away and run to the ship, leaving Frank standing there.
The whole journey was – unsurprisingly – rather uneventful. He spent the few days of travel by reading and generally keeping to himself, gazing from the windows into the wastes of space. He was rather pleasantly surprised to get out of the transport to find aunt Alison, her husband Max and their children Annie and Mark waiting for him at the spaceport. One of the best periods of his life started.
He called Frank every few days. The man looked lonely – but obviously perked when Jim started to tell him what had he been up to. Annie and Mark loved their cousin, and aunt Alison and uncle Max treated him just like they would any of their nephews. And most of all, they saw kid who had been wronged, not kid who did wrong. That of course didn't excuse the Corvette incident or anything like that. They also wouldn't blame Frank for anything – they praised him for being so good at being a parent, even when they heard about Sam running away.
Jim felt like a plant which had been kept in the dark for too long. Frank did his best, of course, but it wasn't in his options to give him the special teaching plan as he got here. There had been even Hoshi Sato on the planet – the famous linguist from USS Enterprise, and what more, she took liking in him and started teaching him what she knew.
He had been on Tarsus for about two months, when all the adults started to look worried all the time. Aunt obviously thought he couldn't hear when she told Frank "there are rumours about crop failure". But he did. It didn't come as a complete surprise, when the system of food distribution showed up.
And soon after that come the fateful day, when the current government had been overthrown by man who called himself Governor Kodos. His face appeared in the holovids, his face dark and austere, as he slowly read his manifesto:
"The revolution is successful. But survival depends on drastic measures. Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony. Therefore, I have no alternative but to sentence you to death. Your execution is so ordered, signed Kodos, Governor of Tarsus."
That was when the time of screaming, death and hunger started.
For some time, he had been able to escape with group of children, when family of Aunt Alison had been murdered in front of his eyes. Soon, he became their leader, showing them how to put the theory he read about in book put to use. They were able to escape for several weeks, all of them too weak in the end to run anymore. That was when Kodos' men captured them. He was dragged away from the rest, to the Governor himself.
With him, there were eight other children of various ages. Kodos had them listen to another of his speeches. Something about opposing him, instead of doing what they had been told to. To Jim it didn't make much sense. And part of him thought that even Kodos himself did not really know what he had been talking about, his eyes having strange glow to them.
The Starfleet finally showed up.
He didn't know what exactly was happening afterward, as the next thing he remembered was waking up on medical shuttle on the way to Earth, medics rushing all around, an IV stuck in his hand, droplets dripping slowly. "Don't worry, you're safe now," said one of the nurses, who noticed him awake, "just few more hours and you will be with your family again."
The nurse had obviously no idea what she was talking about, though Jim later, when there had been some people from Starfleet Intel, asking him about things. What has it been like before the massacre? Why was he at Tarsus IV in the first place? Did he see Kodos? Could he describe him? So many questions – and he was just so very tired.
Frank had been by his side ever since the medical shuttle hit the ground, leaving only when the Intel guys forced him. Jim thought it had been rather fitting that it had been Frank in the end who made him live again – that was when his body refused to understand that dying now is no longer an option of escaping the cruel reality.
"I dare you to best your body," he said. And that was obviously the impulse his mind had been waiting for. In matter of few short weeks he's going through rehabilitation to strengthen his muscles, so he can go home with Frank again. Part of his psyche was still affected by the famine, though. If someone didn't tell him to eat, he would simply forget. When Frank got him new PAD, he programmed it that every few hours it would give a soft buzz which would mean it's time to eat.
Mother appeared soon after that, hysterical beyond all reason that her little baby could die. As if she cared, though Jim acidly. It was her fault that the kids at school were teasing them because she never was on Earth when it mattered. It was her fault that Sam was still not found. It was her fault that he had been sent to Tarsus, where he nearly died. And here she was, acting as if nothing really happened.
She said something what sent Frank over the edge. Was it something about him not being the perfect son? Or about Frank not being the best caretaker for her children? He wasn't sure – but there had been lots of shouting again, and accusing fingers. Mother crossed the line when she slapped Frank and told him she will delete him from boys' files as their immediate family, and take her boy with her.
He finally had enough of mother who never had been there. He stood in front of Frank, telling her with calm he never knew he possessed that he won't leave Frank. Part of him panicked, when he saw the look in her eyes. Almost without knowing what he's doing he clung to his uncle, holding tight, afraid to be dragged away from what he started to recognize as safe haven.
"I don't know you," he told her, and something in all of them broke. She just stared back wordlessly, before turning around and leaving, not looking back.