"I'm still getting used to the idea that you're not going to die," Jim told the baby in his arms. He wasn't sure how long he'd been awake, or how long he'd slept. The only light in the room was a solitary candle flickering at his bedside, illuminating the homey setting in a warm glow.
The infant stared back at him, raising her chubby little arms to poke at his cheeks and nose and mouth. The smile that came to his lips was slow. His mind felt murky and lethargic, like waking up from being drugged, and his entire body ached so badly he was almost unable to move. "I keep thinking," he continued speaking to the baby, the words staggering on his sluggish tongue, "and I hate myself for it… but I can't stop thinking, how come you get to live?"
He swallowed hard, aware of how bad that sounded and wanting to amend it even though the baby didn't understand a word he was saying. "Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you get to live, but why you? Huh? What about my other kids?" Unbidden, tears had begun to well up in his eyes, and he blinked harshly to force them away. "What about Mara and Joss and Ki'one?" There was no anger in him, no resentment, not towards her, but still he spat the furious words while she stared at him, eyes forgiving and golden.
Jim took in a shuddering breath, closing his eyes to rein in his emotions. "How come you're the only baby I get to save?" He pulled her closer, pressing their foreheads together, convincing himself she was alive and breathing and safe. She giggled and touched his face, and a small smile peeked through his heavy haze of despair. "I think Ruhn gave me something," he muttered conspiratorially. "These mood swings are weird as fuck."
Just then the door to the little house opened, and in stepped the green-skinned Frooliin woman from earlier. Jim grinned from his spot on the grass mat and achingly raised one arm to wave at her. "Hey! Chenla, right? I feel drugged. Am I drugged?"
Chenla smiled in return as she stepped around the room's sparse furniture to kneel beside the captain and his small charge. With that instinctive motherly nature Jim had pegged from the moment he saw her, the Frooliin woman reached out and brushed the hair back from his forehead with one six-fingered hand. He watched her somewhat warily, his jovial mood having dissipated as suddenly as his misery. Her sympathetic smile irritated him a bit, and wow, he needed to calm the fuck down. "The herbs used to heal your wounds will cause your emotions to be in turmoil for several hours more."
The young man groaned in exasperation, and tried to sit up. 'Tried' being the operative word. As it turned out, his back muscles not only ached; they seemed to be completely uninspired to move. "And why the hell can't I move? This isn't fun. I am not having fun. At all."
Hard as she tried to hide her amusement, Chenla found the captain's childish indignation worthy of a laugh, to which he answered with an accusatory glare. "This is not a joke, shark lady. Why did I say that. That was really mean, and you don't even know what a shark is. Jesus…"
"The herbs also cause minor, temporary delirium." Chenla answered, not particularly offended by his remarks. "Like your emotions, it will resolve itself in a matter of hours. As for your inability to move, I'd say it's a sympathetic reaction to all the strain you've put yourself through the past couple of days."
"I don't like not being able to move." Jim insisted, distressed confusion on his face. "It's weird and I want a refund on my existence now, please."
"And yet your wit continues to serve you," Chenla teased gently. She had a leather pouch slung over her shoulder, which she now removed. She stood to walk towards the other end of the room, where a variety of foreign-looking supplies were stored. "I assume you are thirsty, Captain. You've been unconscious for nearly twelve hours."
Jim hummed an affirmative, distracted by the baby in his arms who had decided her caretaker wasn't giving her enough attention. He didn't even notice when Chenla returned with a small wooden bowl and sat next to him again. Slowly, she helped him sit up and lean against the wall of the stone building, not commenting on his pained groans when his muscles protested the movement.
When he was settled with the baby in his lap, Chenla began to fill the bowl with water from the pouch. "You got any kids?" Jim asked, his voice only somewhat breathless from his brief ordeal.
She grinned proudly, raising the bowl to the young man's lips so he could drink. "I have a boy, somewhat older than your little one. He is a riin-kor, a yellow-skinned." The woman bowed her head somewhat shyly, "my mate and I are proud to call him son."
Jim drank the contents of the bowl in slow, even gulps, feeling it soothe his aching throat. When it was lowered from his lips, he nodded in gratitude. "I bet you're a good mom," he smiled goofily, forgetting again that his inhibitions needed to be kept under tight control at the moment. "You seem like a good mom. He's gonna be real grateful for that one day, and if he's not, you should kick his ass."
For some reason her smile was sad now. Jim scowled, chafing under the searching gaze. Seeing his irritation, she looked away, settling herself more comfortably on the ground. "Are you grateful for your mother?"
"Did the best she could," Jim answered without thinking. His eyes were stinging again. There was no way he wasn't drugged. "I just kind of wish she never bothered."
Chenla wanted to press, that much was obvious. She wanted to pick him apart and glue him back together and do the whole sharing-and-caring thing this entire race was so obsessed with.
Luckily, she didn't say another word about it. Instead they sat and talked for hours, about the planet's climate and Chenla's family and Jim's family. Jim's crew, actually, but Chenla took the liberty of reading between the lines. It was warm and nice and as time went on Jim felt his fragile emotional walls building again, stabilizing even as his thought process cleared.
Eventually the door opened again, letting in Ruhn and Frunize, as well as a pleasant gust of warm air. Seeing Frunize sent a small trill of anxiety through him, sprouting from the memory of being tied down, of being helpless. He squashed down the emotion as quickly as it came and grinned, because no matter what he felt towards the kid's mother, he truly was glad to see Ruhn.
The orange-skinned woman stopped several feet away while Ruhn approached, obviously sensing Jim's discomfort. She smiled in a way she hoped was non-threatening, not showing any of her sharp teeth. "The yijuuf, our leader, wishes to speak with you and your little one."
"Sure thing," he shifted, then went still as agony laced up and down his spine. "I might need some help up, though," he went on in a strained voice.
Frunize stepped forward to take the baby from his arms, but on impulse he jerked back, staring with wide eyes at the six-fingered hands outstretched for his charge. Silence was a poignant presence in the room as Frunize lowered her arms and stepped away, his ice-blue gaze following her with a predatory malice that, upon closer examination, was nothing more that fierce protectiveness. "Jim," Ruhn murmured, not flinching when the young man's head snapped around to fix the boy in that penetrating gaze. "I'll take your baby. Please trust me."
Your baby, he'd said. Jim repeated it in his mind over and over, unspeakably grateful that Ruhn had known exactly what he needed to hear. The child was his responsibility, and she would be returned to him, no harm done. He handed her off with some degree of shaking in his arms, then the two women helped him to his feet. A small flinch was his only reaction when Frunize touched him, and she didn't comment on it.
When finally he was steady on his feet, Ruhn handed him the infant again, who he cradled to his bare chest like he hadn't last had her just moments before. Frunize kept him straight with a hand on his bicep as she led him out the door of the stone house, into the large circle around which the other houses were located. A huge, unlit fire pit was located at the center, around which four children chased one another and laughed in high, clear voices.
Seeing the stranger emerge from their healer's house, all four children looked up and stared with huge golden eyes. Two were violet-skinned, one was yellow, and one was green, like Ruhn and Chenla. The violet girl was the one who approached them, stopping in front of Jim and staring at him with unabashed curiosity. She looked at Frunize then, and spoke in her best serious-adult voice. "The yijuuf is expecting him. I will be his escort."
Jim grinned in response, finding that he quite liked the serious little girl. Frunize let go of his arm and the girl grasped his hand in her own, leading him to the north end of the circle. Jim glanced back, seeing Ruhn looking mildly concerned and Chenla laughing. Apparently this was common behavior from the girl.
"My name is Krell," the girl told him as she dragged him along to the largest of the buildings, sitting at the apex of the broad circle, towering over the others with its cloud-obscured spires. "The yijuuf is my sister, meaning I will lead after her," Krell went on determinedly as they reached the great stone door. She stomped on the ground and the doors slid open with a terrible grinding screech. The girl did a strange sort of salute, then stood stock-still, like she was guarding the doors. "Enter now."
"Thank you," he said gratefully, as though he would never have been able to find the building on his own. She lifted her chin proudly and he smiled before stepping into the cavernous room. The doors grinded shut behind him, leaving him standing alone in the middle of the cathedral-like room.
It was perfectly round, candles burning in various colors placed intermittently around the edge. The bright flames licked at the smooth stone walls, reaching up and casting light over the high, vaulted ceiling, making carved scriptures stand out in stark relief. Other than the candles, the room was empty, save for the woman who stood in the center, smiling widely at him. For being the tribe's leader, she seemed very unremarkable, just a young woman, no older than eighteen, with skin that was red like the baby's.
She smiled, and in that moment Jim felt terrible for ever thinking she looked ordinary, because that smile completely transformed her. From a vaguely pretty young Frooliin, that smiled changed her into a powerful, glowing goddess, a benevolent leader, a graceful and celebrated queen. Her entire face was lit from within, glowing like a sun this planet hadn't seen in far too long.
The woman stepped forward, her loose pants swaying around her legs. Like the other women besides Chenla, her body was incredibly androgynous, slim and lithe with no breasts or other indicators of her gender, only her somewhat slimmer shoulders. "Jim Kirk, captain of the USS Enterprise," she spoke softly, her long black hair catching candlelight. "I am Zlinzee, the yijuuf of this tribe. I am glad you have awakened."
The woman sank to the ground and Jim followed suit, scooting forward at the wave of her hand. They sat several feet apart and she simply stared, unblinking, her legs crossed underneath her in a way that was strangely childlike. She tilted her head to the side, making her hair fall in a cascade down her shoulder. Jim's gaze followed it down her bare chest, to where her ribs stood out clearly between lines of small pores. The other Frooliins he'd seen had looked the same- he deeply hoped the emaciated appearance was simply part of their physiology.
For several moments more she studied him candidly. It spoke wonders of the affect these people were having on him that he didn't feel at all uncomfortable under her scrutiny, at least not until she looked at the baby. "May I see the infant?" She asked with something akin to nervousness in her voice. "Please forgive my uncertainty; I have had little experience with babies since Krell was very young."
Carefully he held the baby out and was rewarded with Zlinzee's ground-moving smile. She took her in her long arms, carefully cradling her head with one hand as she observed the infant. Their skin was the same shade of deep crimson red; briefly, Jim wondered if the skin color was genetic. It didn't seem likely, since none of Frunize's children shared her orange skin. In fact, none of the Frooliin he knew to be related had the same skin color.
"Your little one is strong," the yijuuf said with a smile. "I assume Chenla has told you of my decision?"
Immediately, Jim tensed. "What decision?"
Sensing how the ominous ring of her words did not bode well with the young captain, Zlinzee gave him a reassuring smile. "Do not fear, Captain," she said. "I merely meant my decision to name the child Jamie, after her intrepid father."
Blood rose to Jim's cheeks, and he felt somewhat dizzy with shock and embarrassment. "Um, no, I'm not her father-"
The woman tilted her head, a softer smile playing on her lips. "Are you not?" There was a teasing note in her voice, and it was familiar, subtle but there all the same- it reminded him of Spock. "Men often claim the right to fatherhood simply for impregnating a woman. You risked your life to keep this child safe. You are more her father than most could hope for."
His throat felt weird and tight, so his emotions probably weren't as stable as he'd thought they were. Dammit, Ruhn. "Okay," he choked, then tried again. "Okay. Jamie."
Yo, short chapter. Sorry about that! I'll make it up to you guys next time.
Reviewers were Doodle0505, Rolodexthoughts, tarooso, and one Guest reviewer. Thank you guys so much!
Please please please review because it gives me butterflies in my tummy. Also you get a free tribble in the mail. Just send me pictures of your hometown after a month.