"You know, when I said we had to find some time to meet up, this is not what I had in mind," a familiar voice said from behind Jayme, Spock and Bones before Denyse and Erich's funeral. "Hey, beautiful."
"Hi, Tommy," Jayme smiled as he pulled her into a tight hug.
Doctor Thomas Edward Leighton hadn't changed much since the last time she saw him at an aeroponics conference on Vulcan when they were twenty. Given what they went through, the fact that Tom studied -and got his doctorate focusing on- the process of growing plants without soil was not lost on her at all. Unlike the others from their time on Tarsus IV, they actually made an attempt to keep in touch. Most of the time, it was just a quick message to let the other know that they were still alive. Sometimes it was a longer message to update each other on things like getting their PhDs, joining Starfleet or getting married.
Jayme knew, but never felt the need to mention, that Tom and Spock also talked to each other on an irregular basis. Spock has referred to Tom as 'a good empirical research scientist. Steady, reputable, occasionally brilliant,' which, as anyone acquainted with Spock would attest to, was one hell of a compliment. Especially when you consider that Spock was talking about his wife's first boyfriend.
Living in a place where people didn't show their emotions, and where most of the people her age were betrothed, Jayme didn't have a whole lot of chances to do anything that most Human kids would consider normal on Vulcan. And, as close as she was to Spock back then, there was always a part of her that -at the time- knew he wasn't actually hers. So, when she was forced to move, she tried to look at the good side of it. Yes, her mother died but that was just a chance to spend time with her Uncle Jim. Yes, she had to leave what she thought of as home -and Spock- but that was a chance to make other friends and see other places. As a matter of fact, the colony was peaceful and fun until the crops started to die.
Tom was one of the first to notice that something was wrong; his mother was an agricultural engineer and both Leightons spent all their time fussing over the colony's plants and crops. When he caught the anomaly, he didn't know what he should do. Jayme thought that taking it to some of the adults would be best, so that's what they did. Uncle Jim, Doctor Leighton, Hoshi and Mister and Misses Riley listened to Tom's discovery before taking it to Governor Kodos. That's where the whole story became the tragedy in the history books.
Jayme let out the breath that she'd been holding since she found out that almost all the kids she managed to save on Tarsus were being killed. She knew Kevin was safe in San Francisco, Barnett made sure of that, so Tommy was the only one left to worry about. Jayme leaned back to check him over, just in case. When he gave her a knowing look, she chuckled, "Sorry, habit. You look great."
"Me? I'm not the one that Starfleet put on all the recruitment holos. Though, as good as yours are, tall and pouty has you beat," Tom chuckled and looked over at her husband. "Good to see you, Spock."
"Likewise, Tom," Spock said with the barest of smiles. He will never, ever, admit it but Spock was just as worried as she was. Her memories of Tarsus may fade a little over time but Spock's memories are as sharp as always and some of the things that he remembered made Jayme glad that she didn't have his brain capacity.
"And you must be Doctor Leonard McCoy," her friend said. "Doctor Tom Leighton."
"Nice to meet you," Bones said with a raised eyebrow.
"She talks about you… when I can actually get her on comms, that is," Tom chuckled.
"Hey, I'm a busy woman," she smiled.
"No kidding. Between the psycho who killed your dad and being the XO on the fleet's flagship, I was a little surprised when you sent me that message that you'd be here," Tom said.
"We were already on leave on Aldebaran Three. It's only a day away at max impulse," Jayme shrugged. "It's not like I would've let that stop me anyway."
"Don't I know it," her friend sighed. "Can you believe it? Denyse and Erich, I mean. They were finally happy, you know. And now… It's just wrong."
"It's him," she said quietly, looking up into his eyes. Though the right one was real and the left was cybernetic, the heartbreak was clear in both. "A friend in the fleet got me the footage. It was him, Tom. He killed the others. Everyone except you, me and Kevin."
"But why?" Tom asked. "It's been almost thirteen years. What could have possibly happened that he just shows up and starts killing the people who could ID him? Nobody's supposed to know who we are and most of us thought he was dead anyway."
"I don't know, yet," Jayme said.
Tom smiled, "But you will find out. You always do."
'I'm such an idiot,' Jayme thought to herself.
'No, you are not. This course of action, while unpleasant, is beneficial to our mission,' Spock thought back. She made the mistake of being by herself for a split second, just a second, and one of Kodos' men approached her. The man made a simple threat to Spock and Bones' lives and Jayme went willingly.
'That's if I don't end up dead before you guys catch up to us,' she thought before looking over at the guy sitting next to her in the shuttle. "What does he want with me?"
"I don't know and I didn't ask. My job is to take you to him, that's it," the man said.
"You know what he did, don't you? You know who he really is, right?"
"Also, not my job to know."
"Of course not. That would imply that you have a brain of your own," Jayme scoffed.
"You're lucky he doesn't want you to be harmed in any way," he told her with a glare.
"You're lucky I don't know where we're going or you'd be dead already," she retorted.
"I still have men on your friends," the man said with a small smile. "All it takes is one word."
"Their funeral," Jayme shrugged.
People often mistake the science and medical officers as being passive or weak, while that was true in some cases, that was not the case with Spock and Bones. Sure, they didn't like to fight -Spock because he was Vulcan and Bones because he's a doctor- but give them a reason and they could -separately- do a fuckton of damage. Tom survived Tarsus IV just like she did and she knew for a fact that he kept his survival skills sharp. It didn't hurt that Harrison had their backs too. Jayme may not know a lot about him but the way the Section 31 agent moved alluded to concealed strength and some serious combat skills. If this idiot really wanted to send his men after her husband, their brother and their friends, he could go for it.
'They have already been disabled,' Spock thought to her. Apparently, she was right about Harrison. From Spock's mind, she could see that their new friend captured the four men shadowing them and turned them over to the Federation Security Agency.
'I really like the new guy,' she thought.
'Of course you do. He is your type,' her husband pointed out. Bones said the same thing during one of his rants about going on this mission.
Apparently, everyone in the Federation knew that Jayme was attracted to tall men with dark hair and distinctive voices who excel at what they do. Spock, Mitchell and Tom, who she had romantic relationships with, plus Sybok, Bones, Sulu and Harrison, all fit into that category. Though, as Amanda pointed out, who Jayme found herself attracted to was most likely her subconscious finding similarities to her t'hy'la, even before they realized that that's what they were. It also explained why Spock's ex-girlfriend was a Human and similar to Jayme in both appearance and intelligence.
'Yes, he is my type and, in another life, I might even have considered asking him out. But, alas, we are in this life and he is not you.'
Jayme wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting when she was led into a large house on the outskirts of the main colony on the planet Benecia, less than a day from Tammeron, but the eleven or twelve-year-old girl with familiar bluish-hazel eyes and long blonde curls dancing around the front yard in the crisp weather wasn't it.
"Hello," the girl said with a bright smile as Jayme and Kodos' men walked towards the house.
"Hello," Jayme replied.
"Daddy said we were going to have a visitor but I thought he was kidding," the girl chuckled. Daddy? Jayme glanced at one of the men who brought her here, the look on his face was enough to answer her unasked question. Kodos was this girl's father.
"Nope, I suppose he wasn't. I'm Jim," Jayme introduced herself even as a sickening feeling twisted in her gut. The fact that Kodos actually procreated made her want to puke. If Jayme's guess on the girl's age was right, she was born sometime in the year after the massacre which only made it worse.
"I'm Lenore," the girl smiled.
"It is very nice to meet you, Lenore," Jayme told the girl, swallowing down her emotions. She had to keep reminding herself that the girl was not her father. Any problem she had with Kodos, and there were a lot of those, she couldn't and wouldn't take out on this child.
"We should get inside," the main idiot told her.
"Gotta go," Jayme smiled.
"See ya later," Lenore said with a smile before she danced off, the layers of her dress fluttering as she did.
Jayme held her smile until the small group went inside the house and away from the girl, "I'm gonna be sick."
"That would be most unfortunate," a voice said that stopped her dead in her tracks. She knew where she was going and who she was there to see but the reality of it slammed into her at the sound of his voice. "Hello, Jayme."
"Kodos."
AN: In my head, reboot Kodos is Christoph Waltz from Inglorious Basterds and Horrible Bosses 2 (with Chris Pine). His character in IB was this clever and courteous SS officer, who was also a sadistic murder that they called "The Jew Hunter." If they ever get into Tarsus in the Kelvin Timeline, he would be perfect. I have no idea who would be young Lenore.
