The phone, an old-fashioned, practically historic model that has always worried Pike –cancer still doesn't have a completely foolproof cure- is ringing insistently from its place on the wall. The small screen that interprets the caller's data reads KIRK, WINONA, followed by a stream of numbers that he doesn't bother reading.

He plucks the phone off of the hook and leans against the wall, taking a breath before putting false cheer into his voice.

"Hi, Winona, long time no see." There's a moment of silence.

"Hello? Is this Principal Trudy?" He paused, awkward hurt welling in his throat. It hadn't been that long, had it?

"No, this is Pike. Chris Pike." There was another pause, this one disbelieving.

"Chris! Oh my goodness, Jimmy didn't tell me- but, oh, it's wonderful to hear from you!" She at least sounded genuinely happy, which was a plus. He smiled despite himself.

"So was there something you wanted to talk about, Winona?" She made a bit of ambient, thoughtful noise, and sighed.

"Yes- you wouldn't happen to know where Jimmy is, would you? I've lost track of him again, that boy. But he is a teenager." She sounded tired and frustrated, and he could perfectly imagine the way she would drag her fingers through her hair, the same way Jim did.

"Yeah, he's here, at detention? He didn't tell you?" She laughed a little.

"Heavens, no. He keeps to himself so much I hardly know when he's in the house." There was a problem with that, Chris knew, but it wasn't his business, not unless things were worse than he thought, so he didn't press it.

"Jim told me you got remarried."

Neither of them said anything more for a long moment.

"I'm sorry I haven't stayed in touch, Chris, but it was hard for me, and it was hard for my boys, too. Sam looked up to you so much, and he was so angry when we had to leave. I didn't want him to be disappointed again, and Jimmy...well. You know how he is." Chris wasn't buying her bull-crap pity story, not when he'd heard much of the same type out of Jim's mouth before, and it stung that she thought she could pull it over on him. He'd known her first, much before George had ever come into the picture, and even if he didn't know her in all the ways George had, he still knew her.

"Are you sure it wasn't because I reminded you of life in the service? Because I'm only in the reserve forces now, Winona, we can, we can still be friends…" But even as he said it, he knew that he wasn't being truthful either.

"No, Chris, that's not what you want. You didn't want it then, and you don't want that now." He was gritting his teeth, trying not to be angry, but it was hard. Winona had that same knack for stating hard truths as if they were the easiest facts that Sam had had, when he'd told two-year old Jim that Santa Clause didn't exist.

"So you'll take some other man, but not me?" And man, did his age hit him then. He wouldn't have been so pettily bitter in his younger days, but hurt had a way of festering and making people lash out, and he wasn't immune to that at all.

"Frank is a good man, Chris. He works in a good, safe profession, we don't have to worry about money, he's good to me and Jimmy-"

"And he stays carefully out of your business because he only wants one thing from you." He was surprised at himself, the hardness of his tone. Winona huffed irritably, and he heard her shifting the phone from one ear to the other. There was the steady sound of slow chops, too; Winona was cooking.

"Chris, I wouldn't expect you to understand. You've never lost someone you love in the way that I lost George. Frank is just what I need. You were what I wanted." He forces his the clog in his throat to be swallowed.

"I wanted you too. Still do. Always will. We could have made it work, you know."

"No, Chris. We couldn't." A silence, and then false cheer from Winona. He wanted to yell at her, to make her stop it, but couldn't bear to take her coping mechanisms, however flawed, away from her.

"So, Jim's there in detention? You're watching him, he's being good?" Chris nodded, sighed.

"As good as he gets. Mouthing off, basically. He's accumulated two month's worth of detentions, though. I don't even know why I bother; he's not gonna learn from them." Winona made a small considering noise.

"Well, he's not going to be able to serve them anyways. We're sending to a rehabilitation camp off-planet." He straightened, his grip tightening on the plastic phone.

"What, really? Why?" Winona sighed, wearily.

"Parole officer's orders. I really don't want to send him out. He's so scared of space, you know?" Pike smothered the urge to scoff. He couldn't imagine Kirk being afraid of anything, and if there was something that he should be afraid of, Pike imagined he would push past it and conquer it with his sharp wit and charm. Kirk was, now that he thought of it, almost a modern Caesar.

"Yeah. Well, I gotta go. I don't want to leave the kids alone too long, 'specially not Jim. He's a live wire, that one. Just like George." She chuckled, but there was a curious hard edge to her voice.

"Yup, and Sam is just like me, think first, jump at the absolute last second." He laughed, and found that curious hard edge in his own voice. They were breaching too close to George, and that spot was too sore for them, for different reasons.

"Alright then, Chris, I'll let you go. I wouldn't want those Rugrats to take advantage of you." He hummed a laugh, and she made a soft feminine approximation of the same.

"Okay, Winona. It was nice to talk to you. I mean, really nice. And say hi to Sam for me, okay?" She laughed, and they said a quick goodbye before hanging up.

He ambled back to the library, hands in his pocket and a wistful smile on his face. It was a wonderful thing, to hear from Winona after all these years. He'd only been working at this school for a few months, and he hadn't had Kirk in any classes; there'd been no parental interaction before this point.

They'd had a brief stint together, cooped up in his apartment in San Francisco. It was almost directly George died- Jim was still crawling when she showed up at his doorstep, holding little Sam's hand and crying desperately as she tried to explain herself. He hadn't let her. Instead, he accepted them unconditionally, converting his guest room into a nursery for Jim and Sam and letting her take his bedroom.

They'd stayed together for nearly three years, Chris almost like a father to Sam and Jim as they grew up. Those home holovids were still buried in the back of his desk; Jim, wandering out of his bedroom on Christmas morning in footie pajamas, blinking bleariness from his eyes and quietly demanding to see "Sanna's cwookie pate"; Sam showing Jim how to color Easter eggs, then crunching the shells and devolving into an egg fight; Winona pushing Sam on the swing as he laughed; Sam and Chris on a father-son day at work.

He'd taken a ground post, but Starfleet wanted him to fly again, offered him a Captainship. He'd been stuck. But then Winona had made the choice for him. She'd left, taking her boys with her back to Iowa. All that had been left were a few stray items and a note-

"I'm sorry Chris, but it's time. I have to go back home. Love, Winona."

And that was that. He hadn't been able to contact her or find them for thirteen years. And now Jim Kirk was-

Not. In. The library. None of them were.

"GODDAMMIT, KIRK!"


AN: So you guys are so amazing. Like, BAM. I want to cry happy apple tears when I read your reviews.

Replying to: Contort! My lovely, lovely chinchilla. And I mean that in the most affectionate way, because I myself am a chinchilla ninja. I love the adorable sporkness as well, and Bones fakeness. Is it bad that I love my own story? Nah. Pike will totally lock him in a closet, but in the most parental, time-out way possible. XD Spock will dump the contents of his bag…next chapter? And they will have a "HOLY FUCKING SHIT, THAT'S A LOT OF STUFF" moment. (SPOCK HAS AN OEDIPUS COMPLEX, OHHHHH, MY MIND. Nooooooo. Freud frightens me to my very core. He needs to be beaten by incest produced fetuses. But then again, breaking Spock down would be insanely fun. As would Kirk. And then they can go crawl into a corner and have mental recovery sex. While we watch. With popcorn. 3)

ShadowWolfDagger: That's the whole point, love. :3

Ellieandra: HOLY FUCK. -cries fake award show tears- I am so honored! Unfortunately, I can't come up with a definition off the top of my head….maybe tomorrow. But this is like, amazing. I want give you over-the-internets-hugs.

Kaila: Oh. I just had, like, a weepy grateful writer fangasm. I can't tell you how much your love means to mean.

GothicCheshire: Hehe! My sister started the whole "Get up outta my Kool-Aid!" thing. I will dutifully protect my little unborn fetus. No drugs, I swear. Though I must admit, I think I'm rather like McCoy in the drinking aspect. XD Jk, jk. And DUDE. Bender is seriously the most fucking wackjob, amazing character ever. If I ever met someone like that, I would love for them to beat the shit out of me. XD It sounds so very, very nice. I would love that. 3

Kirai-Ninja: Thanks for reviewing, and as for Kirk in trouble…-twiddles thumbs and whistles innocently-

THANKS FOR YOUR LOVE, SUPPORT, SPREADAGE, FREUDIAN SEX MONGERNESS, AND CERTIFICATES OF SYNONISMS-THAT-DON'T-REALLY-EXIST.