Pike followed the boy inside the shuttle and had to refrain from pulling the kid aside to interrogate him. There were so many questions. Questions he needed so badly answered and questions he was afraid he'd find the answers to.
But one thing was for sure, there was no question this was George Kirk's son. The blonde hair, the blue eyes, the swagger. All screamed George Kirk's boy. And Pike of all people should know.
He wanted to hug the boy, ask him where he's been all these years. Because Christopher had tried. Dear God, how he had tried. He had looked everywhere imaginable. But He couldn't find her. He couldn't find Winona and her son. They just vanished without a trace.
Christopher would have liked to believe that it was because of the pain of the loss that she decided to disappear. At least most of the universe did. And for some, they have been content to let her be, to let her grieve and distance herself from everybody else.
But Pike knew better. It wasn't because she had lost a husband. Winona lost George to Christopher months before she gave birth to the young child in her womb. A child they have named James as what the records and witness reports had said.
No, it was because she didn't want young James near Pike. He wanted to hate her for that, for keeping the boy away. But truthfully, he couldn't blame her. He only wished dearly that he had been given the chance to watch over the kid and have him know him. To watch him grow and be part of his upbringing.
Christopher moved to approach the young man but thought better. He had a shuttle to fly and new and old cadets to be taken back to Starfleet Academy. He can watch over young Jim there, all he wanted. Be the mentor and the guardian to the boy like he always wanted to be. He gave the boy a final glance as he headed for the cockpit instead. And etched into his memories the smile that Jim gave Cadet Uhura as the blue-eyed boy sat on an empty seat across her.
He even had his father's smile.
I know, still short. Will post a slightly longer one soon.